It turned out that Wednesday would be jam packed with American football.
First up was an e-mail from Julien Urgenti, my French connection. He was announcing that he had finished translating an article that I wrote for him for his new French language American football coaching blog. If you are interested in the basics of the 3-5-3 defense in French go to:
This was followed up by a long American football oriented telephone conversation via the best invention ever for people living overseas for extended periods of time, Skype. I spoke with Luke "Z-man" Zetazate who is the player-coach of a new team in Poland, the Sopot Sabercats, about installing the 3-5-3 defense with his first year club. He also shared some good offensive thoughts with me that I will implement here as well.
Next up on the agenda was a meeting with Tiger defensive back Luke Brüllmann on the sunny Mühlplatz on the patio of a delightful little restaurant called Fluss. We spent about 45 minutes going over all sorts of DB related ideas and techniques.
What a GREAT American football morning it turned out to be.
I mentioned that it was another sunny, Spring day today. How nice was the weather?
NO JACKET!!!
Farmer's Market
Stands were set up all along Bälliz, Thun's main shopping street. It was time to re-stock our supplies.
That gingerbread with the Bern bear, the symbol of our host canton, was a possibility.
The World's Most Famous Argentine Doctor
No thanks, my T-shirt budget for the next two years was exhausted yesterday.
Swiss National Team Banner?
Since this was hanging amid all sorts of other fussball (soccer) banners, that is my best guess as to its meaning.
Supplies Purchased
Merlot from Ticino, gingerbread and orange marmalade.
Life is good if you simply take care of the basics.
Thun Castle bathed in sunlight
Part of Thun's old City Wall
A good place to finish reading a book
This is a part of the Aare River that has been re-worked into an area for swimming and other fun water activities when the water gets a tad warmer. Should be fun spot in just a few weeks I suspect.
It was now 5:00 p.m. and time for our 90 minute U-16 team practice.
Improvise
We need better arm extention and lock out. Hand placement is an issue too.
As mentioned in a previous post, these indoor facilities that we are still using each come with access to all sorts of athletic equipment for us to use.
Blocking dummies are not a part of their inventory.
In order to introduce a six-point drill to begin to teach these youngsters how to deliver a blow, we used these two high jump pits that are back-to-back and mounted on a wheeled cart as our newest teaching tool.
At first we had the pits firmly against a wall. Later, for fun, we had them in the middle of the room to see how far and fast each three player group could launch the cart with the two pits.
They seemed to enjoy the competition. They are fun loving kids afterall.
By the way, standing in the picture above in blue is Stephan Pulver. Stephan is our Center on the Senior team, the U-19 Head Coach and has been filling in with the U-16 team as their normal Head Coach has work conflicts right now.
Stephan is a great guy and is all about football and what is best for kids. He is a very valuable asset for the Tigers indeed!!!
U-16's First Play
The U-16 team does not play games until the Fall. They will play 9-man football without the two tackles on offense.
We are about to run "31 Iso."
I wonder if he could play Guard?
He was hanging out outside of the gym tonight, seemed interested in American football and, when asked, said he was only 14 years old.
Big weekend coming up for the Senior team, our three day/five practice overnight camp. This is critical for us as it is our first set of outdoor practices with the Seniors and our season opener at home against the Basel Meanmachine is just two weekends away.
Hopefully we can improve our Seniors this weekend as much as our Juniors improved at their camp two weeks ago.
Thun and the Aare River at night
Reading is FUNdamental
This is the book that I just finished on the Aare riverside today. A spy thriller set in Hamburg, Germany, it deals with possible Muslim terrorists.
It was a good read and I think that this author has a chance of one day becoming good in this spy thriller genre if he keeps at it.
That is just my opinion of course.
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