Friday was our last day, and we were all feeling happy but sad at the same time as we had gotten to know our Scottish team mates so well - the level 5 and 6 football lads. Jamie, Chloe, Patsy and myself spent the morning in the gym while the lads trained with the SFA again. We had an early lunch of soup and toasties as the lads had finished early. After our lunch the lads from our course played the level 5 Scottish students in a friendly. This was followed up with another game where our lads beat the level 6 Scottish soccer students which was a great achievement, seen as they bet us the week before. Todd, one of our coaches gave a little speech at the end and we all said our goodbyes before heading back to our apartments for the night. A few of us done some last minute shopping before getting an early night ahead of our long day Saturday. The experience was unbelievable and I am so so glad that I got the opportunity to take part in it.
-Lauren-
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On Thursday we visited Rangers football club. We had a small tour of the training centre and we watched the under 17's do their circuit training. We were then allowed to try out some of the circuit training. We all enjoyed that but we were disappointed that we could not watch the senior Rangers team train. We then watched the under 15's train outside on the Astro turf which was also enjoyable. They were practising their shooting skills. After the visit to Rangers we then went back to Broadwood and Chloe, Patsy, Jamie and myself went to the gym while the other lads trained with the SFA coaches. Later when we got home we made our dinner and chilled out for the night in our apartments. I learned how to use most of the machines in the gym and overall I really enjoyed it.
Today we visited Partick Thistle football club. Their training ground was based beside Hampden Park, which is the Scottish national football stadium. It was a very cold day but we watched the different ways the team warmed up. First speed bands and foam rolling to stretch out the muscles and get them going, then they moved on to jogging and kicking out legs and stretching muscles. The final part of their warm up consisted of sprinting, this allowed the body to perform to full capacity for training. After launch we took part in coaching sessions as coaches were doing their UEFA B license test and asked us to fill in as players for the drills. The group and I received a lot of information off the coaches and I would definitely be bringing back some of the pointers outlined to us when I return back to my club, to teach to younger players and help them improve.
Today we were in Broadwood all day, we met the coaches doing their UEFA B badges. They asked us to join in because they needed players to demonstrate the drills because they were getting graded on their coaching. Some of these players were professional football players including Celtic FC player Kris Commons. They focused on playing off the striker and midfield support. We did this in the morning and also in the evening as there were around 15-20 coaches being graded.
Monday morning like every morning, we all met down in the reception area at 9:15am and waited for Stuart our bus driver to bring us to Broadwood Stadium for our morning session. Once we reached Broadwood, little did we know we would be taking part in a Zumba workout session to begin our day. I learned a lot from this Zumba class because I hadn't a clue what it was and I wasn't very comfortable when I found out it was a dancing workout, but once everyone got the hang of things we all started to enjoy it. After Zumba we went out onto the pitch to take part in a 7 vs 7 match with some of the colleges sports students. After lunch we went out onto the main pitch to take part in a dribbling and shooting session with the colleges first year team and then played a 11 vs 11 match. Then we met Stuart and were brought back to the lofts.
On Saturday we went to Celtic Park to watch Celtic vs Inverness FC. It was a very good game as Celtic won 3-0 and as Celtic fans we loved to see us keeping a clean sheet but scoring a few goals. A few of us were in the standing area of Celtic Park with all of the ultra fans, where we were singing and chanting for the full 90 minutes. After the game we walked back into Glasgow through the Rangers FC part of the city which felt a little uncomfortable at times as we had a police escort and also because the protestant bonfires were being held at night. When we got back to the city we went for a small walk around to get a look at the layout of the city. Once we got back to Glasgow Lofts we watched the fireworks out the windows for a while before we settled down for the night.
On Sunday we had a day off from all the training so we didn't do anything but relaxed for the day. Our first week was tough but enjoyable, full of training in the early mornings cold weather, on top of the travelling around that we did. It took it's toll on all of us as we didn't have the energy to move or do anything interesting for the day. On Thursday we got a bus to Celtic Park where we got a tour of the stadium and then received several different presentations. The first presentation was about the Celtic team itself and how it operates. Then we got a presentation on the match tactics for Saturday night, which everyone found very interesting. Finally we got a presentation from Jim McGuinness about motivation and the basic psychology of sport. Each speaker was very interesting and we learned a lot from them. That evening everyone went shopping and enjoyed the rest of not having any training that day.
On Friday we went to Celtic Park and bought our tickets for the match Saturday evening. We then went to Broadwood Stadium where we took part in a cardiovascular training/circuits session with the Scottish lads. This consisted of sprinting, jogging and one touch passing. This took about 45 minutes and then afterwards we played a match. There was 1 Irish team and 2 Scottish teams. We won both games, of course, and went home winners. In the evening, everyone went back to their apartments and had dinner and had an early night as everyone wants to be well rested for the Celtic match tomorrow night. On Wednesday we got our induction in the gym where we were showed all of the different types of gym equipment. We were also introduced to how they worked and what they were used for. We were then given time to use the gym equipment which is when the lads started showing off! We then did a fat burning extreme class, which nearly killed us, followed by a training session outside on the pitch. As a cool down we played football tennis with Johnny on the astroturf pitch. In the evening we all relaxed in our apartments because we were so tired from that days events.
On the second day we observed Motherwell FC, who are a professional football club. We took notes on their warm up, stretches, mobility stretches, running and technical practise which proved to be very interesting. We then travelled back to Broadwood Stadium where we participated in 2 different coaching sections - soccer and rugby. For the soccer session we practised our dribbling and for the rugby session we practised passing. That evening we went for a walk around Glasgow city centre as none of us have been to Glasgow before.
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