“Choose a job you love, and you will never have to work a day in your life.” Confucius

Monday.. What do most people think when it is Monday? For most people, Monday's  are a downer because it means the weekend is over and its time to go back to work.  So far in Sweden I have never had a case of the "Monday's" I wake up every morning excited for the new day's tasks and adventures.  I am enjoying what I am doing so much! This past Monday I experimented; I tried some new ideas on my school kids and it went extremely well and the girls seemed to really enjoy the session. 

  In my coaching course in Florida they empathized that exercises should be simple and game like.  I'm trying to use the progression and other things I learned in the course to create my practice sessions. My session was on speed of play with a focus on communication and movement off the ball. For this session, I set up a 40 by 40 grid and that's the space we worked with the whole time.

  Communication can make the game so much easier.  Girls (myself included) can talk all day off the field but once they are on the field its silent.  We trained the simple commands of "turn" and "man on." I expanded my vocabulary and learned that "turn" in Swedish is "vän" and "man on" is "akta rygg".

The session went from playing with no pressure, to adding a little pressure and then to two verse two.  They got a point if the were able to successfully get the ball from one side the other.  The  next step was having the girls combine with their teammate before playing it to the outside.  Throughout these exercises, I talked about movement off the ball and the importance of changing your speed when you are checking for the ball.  They all really grasped and absorbed everything I was saying; the intensity was high and the soccer was beautiful.  I almost wish I could have recorded the girls; they really put on a clinic.  I was going to end with a game going to goal but I lost track of time. We did not have enough time to play...  Time management is one thing I need to work on. I get so excited sometimes; I tend to lose track of time.

 I ran this same session on my next school and made sure I had enough time to play.  I think the game is the best teacher and I wanted to see if my exercises would transfer in a game like situation.  I found that the movement off the ball was much better but the communication still needs work. 

I could feel myself develop as a coach during this session. When I evaluated the players, I noticed I still need to get the girls out of the habit of admiring their pass and to communicate on the field. I got really good feedback on the session;  now I'm going back to the books to create something that will help them reach the next level as a player and also to help myself reach the next level as a coach.

"What we choose to fight is so tiny! What fights within us is so great!"

Last Friday the weather was crazy; it snowed all day.. We had practice and when we got to the field it was covered in snow! You could not see any green.. We still practiced! I had so much fun and I was not even that cold.  Snow balls were thrown and a snow man was built! We started out with some technical training, did some ladders and then played the rest of the practice.

 I felt like I was playing in the sand and it reminded me of beach soccer.  I love playing soccer on the beach!! When I would go to the beach with my family I would always juggle in the sand and jump in every pick up game I could.  It was great and I have met so many people.   In Florida, when I went to the beach with my friends, I always brought a ball and we always played.

 It is a different type of game in the sand and it was the same in the snow on Friday. When you would pass the ball it would get stuck or not go very far.  Juggling comes in handy and the snow almost makes it easier to do some crazy little tricks, flicks and adds a whole new creative element to the game.  I had a blast playing in the snow! Everyone was sliding everywhere, there were some fancy goals scored and a ton of laughter in the process. 


After the practice I took a deep breath and was just so happy I could take a deep breath. When I was in high school; every October I would start to go down hill when the weather started to get cold.  Halloween would always be a turning point for me.. It was like clockwork; my lungs would get the worst of me from October to March every year.  I did not do well in the cold. I was always fighting; it was a constant battle. I would have to take treatments at the half times of games and their were countless emergency room visits. When it was winter in Massachusetts; just walking to my car or up the stairs was like running a marathon. It was like their was an elephant sitting on my chest at all times.



 I went to school in Florida because I did really well in the warm weather and my lungs have healed. Now I can play in the cold with not one problem. I feel so healthy and strong!  I think I was on a natural high during this past Friday's practice.. I went from hoping I would be strong enough to make it through a practice or game to being able to play 100% without even flinching! It was cold out and I could breath!!!

"Dancing queen, Feel the beat from the tambourine,You can dance,You can jive, Having the time of your life, See that girl, Watch that scene, Dig in the dancing queen" Abba

I come from a family full of DJ's; there is always music playing in my house.  My whole family loves music and are always the first ones to start dancing at any party.  When I was younger I danced for nine years; I quit when I was 13 because I became extremely committed to soccer.  I think coming from a family full of DJ's and my dancing career was a big reason why I excelled in soccer.  In dance I learned how to use both sides of my body and have full control. I also gained some rhythm and foot work.  I brought all of this to the field.

  On one of my first club teams my my coach would bring out his speakers and play music.  It was these African drums and he make up a whole dribbling and juggling routine to the beat. He mixed my two favorite things; soccer and music. I feel in love with this!! One year at soccerplus we did "soccer aerobics" as well.  They had the techno music blasting and we were getting so many touches on the ball.  At Florida Southern we did "Soccercise" which was my coach's version of the dance.  I have learned so many different "dances" on the ball from all my coaches.  I have combined everything that I have learned to create my own routine to teach my players. 

Tuesday I brought speakers to the youth training.  The play list I made consisted of some Swedish music, techno, today's hits and some classics.  The girls saw the speakers and asked me "Ska vi dansar?" (Are we going to dance?) I said, "Ja, Vi ska dansa! (We are going to dance) They looked a little confused but I gave them each a ball, blasted the music and the great dance began.  It was an
extremely technical session and much of what I did with them they have never done before, but they seemed to love it! (I still think I was having more fun then them though) I was very impressed with their willingness to try the new things I was throwing at them and I think they really gained alot from this session.  The next step is to transfer this particular rhythm to the field! 

To me soccer is a dance; it is a beautiful dance! Games are full of improvisation and many different rhythms. There are passing rhythms, shooting rhythms, dribbling rhythms, etc.  If you can get a team on the same rhythm it will be a creative and fun performance to watch.

Here is a fun video I found of the "great dance" Enjoy!

There is a saying: yesterday is history, tomorrow is a mystery, but today is a gift. That is why it is called the "present." -Oogway

 This past Saturday we had our last training match before the premier. It was a home game verse Hudik.  The game was at stromvallen; the beautiful stadium in Gavle.

I woke up Saturday morning, look out my window and saw that it was snowing... The snow gods must have known we had a game again! Luckily it cleared up for the game and it was not to bad out.  April weather in Sweden has been crazy.  One minute it is gorgeous outside and the next minute there could be hail and snow. 

I had a good feeling about this game and I was excited to play at home.  In the first five minutes of the game I thought Hudik came out fast but we came out faster and harder.  The possession we had in the game was unbelievable! We were finding each other and making each other look good.  Defensively, we were working together all over the field.  We were playing with a very high pressure and moving together as one.  Hudik had very few chances. 

The first half ended 3-0. In the second half we scored early and the goals kept on coming.  You could tell Hudik was beaten and they just gave up.  The game ended 8-0.  It was a great win! Everyone all over the field was involved in every goal and it was just an overall great performance for IFK!!

After the game, our team went to the University in town to watch the Hockey game.  Brynas is the professional hockey team in Gavle and they are in the final series right now! The last time they won the championship was in 1992.  It is very exciting and the whole city of Gavle is behind them! It was so much fun watching the game with my team.  The food they had for us was incredible as well! The way to my heart is definitely through food! Brynas won the game! It was a good day for
sports in Gavle!

As I was sitting there eating this amazing food and watching the hockey game with my team I could not help but stop for a second and just take in the moment. I did not know what to do with myself.  The girls on my team are awesome! I'm just having so much fun. This was just another one of those great days.  I started to think back and flashback on different events in my past and I am just so happy with where I am in my life right now!

"Life is filled with peril, but somehow, with all the danger and prospects of failure, we have to maintain a reckless optimism. So lets dream the impossible dreams, a 'never-ending ascension' even when there is little evidence supporting it"

  Saturday we had an way game verse Edsbyn.   Edsbyn is a few hours north of Gavle.  It was sunny in Gavle but when we got to the field it was snowing.. We had a good warm up, everyone was focused and ready to play.  Right when the whistle blew we brought the intensity.  Sandra (our forward) started us off and scored a great goal with in the first five minutes.  The goals kept coming and every player was involved in every goal.  We won 8-0 but the goals we scored were quality finishes.  Everyone all  was composed and played well all over the field! It was a good result and a good performance. 


Some of the youth players I coach were called up to the game.  They did very well and I was proud that they stepped out of their comfort zones and played at a higher level.  It is great for their development as players.

 I see a lot of potential with the girls on the youth team.  They have the opportunity to train with my team as well.  Not many of them come to my team's trainings though.. Technically, they are very good but the biggest area they need to improve on is the psychological part of their game.

 I think the reason some of the youth players do not want to train with us is because they are afraid to look foolish and afraid to fail. Some of the girls are now starting to come to my team's training and I am proud of them.

 When I was younger, and even now I always wanted to play with older or better players because it was a challenge and I knew I would become a better player by doing so. Ive never learned anything from success; everything I have learned on the field and in life has been taught through failure. If you fall down you just have to get back up.
 
So my main message and goal to all of them  is to have the courage to try new things and  fail. I want them to get rid of their fear of failure. I want them to go out and express themselves; not care about what anyone thinks; just play with a sense of reckless abandonment. 

Here is a quote I found from Anson Dorrance awhile back.. I want to make a team out of the youth; no one is greater than the team but I also want to create "rebels" within the team.  I want each player to rebel in their own way.

"We all admire the individual who acts as a hero, fighting the other team on her own.  Team games are an attempt to suppress individuality, and yet the classically great soccer player is kind of a rebel against structure and cooperation.  In variable, the type who stands out is not the cooperative team player that athletics purports to admire. Its the Michelle Akers gimme-the-ball-and-Ill-get-it-done.  This shatters the classical concept of the team. Yet in order for an individual to demonstrate this type of rebellion, it must be done within the context of total team cooperation. Its a wonderful aspect of our sport, yet very bizarre!"

Glad Påsk Happy Easter!!!!

Thursday morning I ventured back to Stockholm to spend Easter with one of my best friends Therese.  When I first arrived Therese, Helena, Linda, Patrick and I met for lunch at Wagamammas.  It is a Thai place and I have been to this same restaurant when I lived out in Boston. It brought back good memories.  The food was great and it was an amazing start with an amazing group of people.

Next Therese and I went to her apartment.  She lives about a ten minute train ride from the city.  It is such a nice place and the view from her balcony is awesome! It looks out onto two beautiful soccer fields. We also had the honor of having the great Puff (her dog) with us the whole time.  I have met him once before and I have heard so much about Puff when I was in Florida.  It was so great spending good quality time with him.  He is quite a character and just as great as I imagined. 

 
It has been an eventful Easter. Therese and I went to Spin class.  I loved it. It was a great workout and it was funny taking the class in Swedish.  We went to ICA (the grocery store) Therese's ICA was huge!! It was sweet because they were selling waffles outside and they had free samples all over the place.  I love Sweden! That night we made a lamb roast, with salad, potatoes and an amazing sauce!!! Therese is an incredible cook! In Florida she made some of the greatest meals. The food was delicious! We had dinner with two of her friends and then the next day had a Swedish traditional Sill lunch.  I met more of her friends at this lunch and we ate so much sill. Sill is raw herring in different sauces.  The herring is best with potatoes and hard bread.  The fish looks kind of strange but I actually really like it! It was a lovely lunch and a great night with Therese and her friends. They were all so nice and it was so cool to meet people that she grew up with! I met one of Therese's friends Louise   during my sophomore year in Florida; it was four years ago but when I saw her it felt like I had seen her just yesterday. It was so nice to see her again. It is so cool to see her now in Sweden.  You really never know where you will end up in the world. 

 

 

Saturday was a relaxing day which involved movies, a trip to IKEA and Chilis, tons of food and a trip downtown to say happy birthday to Patrik and catch up with Givi.

Overall, It was a great Easter weekend; One of the best I have had and I could not ask a better way to spend it over here. Thank you for everything Therese!!

To top off this amazing weekend.  Sweden is now welcoming Leah Blayney into their country today!!  Leah is going to be playing for Eskilstuna. When I was home we trained quite a bit together.  I love training with her; Leah is just as intense as I am. She is an incredible player; one of the best I have played with.  I know she will tear it up over here! Välkommen till Sverige!! Welcome to Sweden!!

Leah and I met a few years back playing for Soccerplus and clicked right away.  We both got sent out to play in Boston for the Boston Aztecs and I was invited to live with Leah and Karise's host family.  It was by far one of the most amazing summers I have ever had!!! We had a host mom (Cheryl) and we were constantly picking on her two kids Marisa and Maddie. Plus they had an amazing dog; Brady. Leah, Karise and I lived in the basement and called it the pig pen. I cant describe how much fun the summer was.  The soccer was awesome but the family we created out there is something special.  I love them all! Im excited for our new adventures to come!! Leah put a video together for me as a gift before leaving for Finland.  This video is just a small peak of all activities we created and all the trouble we may have caused out in Boston.

Now I am thinking back on Easter last year.. I usually don't go home for Easter because of soccer but last year I went home because it would be my last chance to before I left for Finland.  Martina my old roommate and best friend came to my house for Easter to celebrate as well.  She tried to surprise me but my mom spilled the beans.  She is not very good at keeping secrets like that.  Its pretty funny! The day before Easter my family threw a going away party; my whole town, the pig pen crew, old friends, teammates all came and it was one of the best nights I have ever had. When Easter day came my whole family was pretty tired to say the least.. My mom looked up some Swedish traditions for Martina and found that the Swedish tradition consists of a folktale where witches fly around to this blue mountain to meet the devil.  Swedish children dress up as witches with scarves around their heads, and their faces painted; they make Easter cards and go around to different houses in exchange for candy. Families will then have a bon fires at night to get rid of the witches and their evil spirits.  You can also find feathers on trees as a sign of Easter.  I have seen it everywhere here and it is really cool. The typical swedish easter food is Salmon, Patatoes and eggs.  My mom, being very creative, made a blue mountain decorated it with peeps and then in a vase we put feathers on sticks. I made some salmon and she had scarves at the dinner table. We wore them around our heads to represent the witches.  It was an unforgettable Easter.  It was so much fun learning how other cultures celebrate the holidays!

 

Wherever you are in the world and however you celebrate your Easter day, I hope everyone has an incredible day.  Happy Easter!

"If you laugh, you think, and you cry, that's a full day. That's a heck of a day. You do that seven days a week, you're going to have something special." Jim Valvano

This past Saturday was definitely an adventure! we had a game verse Gamla Uppsala.  A few of our players were missing due to school, injuries, and work so Friday night we only had nine players.  Helena and Linda were going to come watch.  I called them and told her that it would be ok if they did not want to come to this game because we were short on numbers.  Helena told me to ask Linda to play.  Shortly after, I got a few texts from my teammates asking if my friends could play.  I called Linda and she said she would play but she did not have any cleats.  I found her cleats and we were good to go.  We now had eleven players with Linda for the game.

I woke up Saturday morning and there was snow on the ground.  It was absolutely freezing; literally 0 degrees with wind.  We left for the field and got a little lost.  Helena and Linda got there before us.  While they were waiting, they were watching Gamla Uppsala's coaches shovel the field;  they decided to help.  When we pulled up I was trying not to break into hysterics when I found them both shoveling the field. They are the best!

We then tried to get into the locker room but the keys did not work so Linda, Helena, my team and I hopped in the cars again and went to another facility to get ready.  I was so happy Helena got to be in the locker room with us as well. After the pre game talk we ventured back to the fields. 

Linda told me she did not know how good she was going to do because she hasn't played in awhile, but I knew she was going to do great! She always does! My coach played her at right mid. The weather was intense; it was really cold and very windy, but the snow was all off the field (thanks to Linda and Helena) and the sun did come out. 

Throughout the game I thought we had the most possession; especially in the back. We created some good opportunities. In the start of the second half we went down early 1-0. Shortly after,  Mikis, our outside back made a good run forward and played me a ball, I then played a through ball to our left mid Fanny and she sent a great cross to Linda, who finished off a beautiful header!!! It was a fantastic goal!  She celebrated and I jumped into her arms.

 At the moment I had flashback from my college career.  Freshman year, Linda and I were roommates on an away trip.  In our room we were flying from bed to bed like superman; taking pictures and just having a great time.  The next day in the game Linda sent me this beautiful cross and I scored off of a diving header.  Right after I scored my coach took Linda and I out.  As he was coming up to congratulate me on my goal  Linda came running over to me and said "Jackie, Jackie its because of what we did in bed last night.." Without thinking anything of it I said back "Yes, Your right!" My coach looked at us turned around and said he did not want to know. We both got it then and just started to crack up. Later on, I told her what I thought after she scored and she thought the same thing!

 Linda is an incredible player. Its always amazing being on the same field as her.  She is very smart, easy to play with and we work so well together.  Some of my best memories on and off the field are with her.  It is so cool to me that we got to play in Sweden together!! I felt like we started where we left off; like we have never stopped playing together.

The game ended 1-1.  It was so cold but I almost did not want it to end. The game went by fast; I was having so much fun. My team went through a lot of adversity throughout this whole experience but I thought we dealt with it really well!

 Helena, Linda and I seem to always go on some crazy adventures and I'm glad we experienced this one together.  Martina's friends, Lara and Cecilia came to watch us play out in the cold as well.  I was so happy they came and it was so nice to see them all! It meant so much and it was great having them all there!

After the game Helena, Linda and I ventured to Stockholm.  We were all exhausted and passed out on the train.  We met up with my American friends Tessa and Katie.  They are both playing in Sweden as well; they are playing for Mallbacken.  I met Tessa in Finland last year.  She played on the other team in town; KF10 and we became friends.  Katie and I worked together at soccerplus camps for a few years. Now they are roommates in Sweden playing for the same team and they are going to meet me and my friends in Stockholm.  My worlds are colliding and I love it!!!!  It was an unbelievable night. 

 

Sunday we slept in, had good old American food at TGIF's, went jewelry shopping and then went to this museum. The museum had exhibits of different talented photographers.  I liked Steve Schapiro's work! He had a neat background and has documented pictures of Martin Luther King Jr, Muhammad Ali, and the movie The God father (my family favorite) The main exhibit was of pictures that depicted the story of the Kony soldiers.  It was intense...  I thought it was horrible when I read about it but when you actually see it, it gives you a whole different perspective on how bad the situation really is.

Sunday night I headed back to Gavle.  On the train back I was just thinking about everything that happened over the weekend and tried not to smile at random;  I felt like so much happened. Besides all the events, I got some important news from back home...My friends Christina Crooks and Jay Prock are now engaged!! I played with Crooks at Florida Southern.  She was the captain of the team and hands down was one of the best leaders I have ever had. What she has, you cant teach.  It was an honor sharing the midfield with her.  She was not only an amazing soccer player but an amazing person as well! She means so much to me and I am beyond happy for both her and Jay!Congratulations!!! I love you guys!

 I always try and make everyday my "best" day but there are some days that always tend to stick out in my head.  They are the ones that are above and beyond the rest. I cant even describe in words how great the day was on Saturday and how awesome the night was. The whole weekend was unforgettable! More adventures to come!