While punching on my green apple in the morning, I was getting excited about the game upcoming in the evening at 6:00 pm. It was a game that James and I were going to get to play for Blackburn Rovers against a local side in our age group. It would be our first game representing Blackburn Rovers and not only that, there was to be a DVD of the game. I've always wanted to watch myself play because then can I see what my flaws are. As we finished off our breakfast, we were to go to gym for a morning training session. Despite the game later on, that doesn't mean I wasn't going to try my hardest in training.
We got ourselves warmed up by doing some cardio work. While doing my warm up, I noticed that the Academy's gym didn't really have that many weight machines but quite a few for cardio work. We were supposed alternate between the machines, so rather than doing cycling, running or steps, it was the rowing machine that I started with for six minutes and then the stair maker for six minutes. I was glad to have tried the stair maker (it's a bit like walking in the wrong direction of an escalator) since it was large bulky machine which would never be in the gym back in Hong Kong. After the cardiovascular fitness, we did some work on our backs, followed by our chest and then finished off with a bit of biceps and triceps exercises. Obviously, I was quite tired by the end but not as much anywhere compared to my forearms from gripping onto weights and bars.
Soon after, we went out into the pouring rain and miserable cold weather outside. The need of moving around to gain heat and the tiredness from the gym made it an even more horrible feeling. When the coach came, we therefore jogged around about three pitches to warm ourselves for the shooting game. The game involved two goals facing each other about 20-30 metres apart. There's one player on each goal and, in turns, a player would shoot at the goal they're facing at behind a certain white line and try to score while the other player tries to save it, using their hands if they wish. I started brightly by putting a few shots in but had one incredibly embarrassing moment. When I saved a shot by James, the ball went over the white line. I therefore took the ball back towards my goal. My touch was too strong and unfortunately the ball went over the goal line and had let in an own goal. Soon later my shots were going bad and were going off target above the goal as I couldn't keep my hard shots low enough. James put some accurate balls in a got the lead. Gradually each of us scored kept scoring a few until James had 9 shots in with only one left to win. I tried to concentrate and told myself that I will win and won't let any balls go in whatever it takes. As I gave myself some confidence, I was able to score a few more goals by blasting it into the goal. One shot from James was going to the right side of the goal but I dove and saved the ball. My body didn't stop moving as I kept sliding due to the muddy surface. It was quite tempting to dive some more after that. When it was my turn to shoot, I tried to blast it again and scored. Now it was 9-9, but it was actually James who scored the next goal. Since he started first though, I still had one shot left to keep the game alive. I know it's only just a fun game, but I needed to win this because as I said earlier, I wanted to put everything in any training. I focused, didn't get pressured and tried for a hard shot rather than a safe placing shot. The gamble went my way as the ball smashed into the net in the top left corner from my point of view. The game was on again and it was now my turn to win the game as James's shot was blocked. I tried for another similar shot and it hit the left post at the bottom. Luck was on my side as the ball rebounded off James and into the net. It was only a small game, but with belief I won.
The rain hit us harder and caused the fun training to end earlier. After my slide, I needed a shower to clean the mud off and then later go to the lounge to have a nice breakfast to give my energy for later on. Another gym session followed soon after lunch. Even though we still had about 20 minutes to spare before working out, I decided to go to the gym earlier and do some stretching on the foam rollers before weightlifting. My coach was happy to see me getting prepared as I lay there in agony pressing some stiff spots the right side of my quadriceps. This gym session was going to be short and easy since the game was only about four hours away. We warmed up with the cycling machine and then did some jumping.
There were four platforms each with different heights to jump on. The goal was to jump with two feet on each one. Simple instructions but not particularly easy. James did fine on all platforms, but I never was a good jumper. I could do the first one, (it would be very embarrassing if I couldn't), and the second one, but the third one halted me. It wasn't only the fact that I couldn't jump the height, if you didn't land properly you could have easily fell and hurt yourself (as well as making yourself look very funny). We did some more jumping again after this, but this time you would jump forward on to the smallest platform, then land on the floor, then spring off to the second smallest platform, then land on the floor, then jump on to the third smallest platform (or should I say second tallest platform), and then you get the pattern. When doing this, I was able to complete the third one after about one or two tries. The fourth one was quite hard for me but I was gradually getting there as my confidence increased. One time, I jumped and sort of put both of my feet on the fourth platform but didn't quite balance on it and landed back down. It was the closest I got, but I hurt my knee a little in the process. The hurting soon ended but mentally I didn't have the confidence to jump back onto the platform. Following that, we did some skill work by trying to head the ball on to the tallest platform and, with good direction and speed, bounce onto the rest of the platforms. After many tries, I was able to do it. Our next challenge was volleying it but that was too hard.
Following the platforms, we did some balancing work by throwing and heading a ball while standing on one leg on some squashy thing. It was quite hard for me as I kept falling off after each pass or header and maybe that's something I should work on in Hong Kong. Next up was some training for the abdominals one of my strengths. The training was a simple one where you had a five kilo medicine ball which you would have to rotate sideways with or do a sit up. I completed the tasks with ease. The abs workout was to be the end of training before the game. The coach told us to meet the academy at 4:30 pm for the game, but mentioned that the game could possibly be cancelled due to heavy rain. I didn't feel too worried about this since I thought, "This is England, they must used to this rain." I was to be wrong later on.
James and I went back to the hotel before the game and I got ready by doing some stretching. When I looked out the window, I considered myself extremely lucky as a beam of sunshine pierced through our window into the room. The clouds vanished and the blue sky was back. It was beautiful weather for some football especially since the temperature wasn't too high nor too low. I put on some high paced music to get myself pumped up for the game. I walked to the academy happy and excited and felt a desperate sensation of scoring a goal so that I can show it to people back in Hong Kong since it was to be all recorded. When we arrived back at the academy, bad news struck us as we were told that the game was postponed due to bad weather. I had a slight hope that we might still be here when the game is played but it wasn't to be as it was going to be played next week. I will be in school studying hard by then. I couldn't understand why it would be cancelled in such beautiful weather but it was because was the pitch was water logged from the earlier rush of rain. We therefore stayed at the academy and had our dinner.
Before going on to train with the at the Senior Training Centre, we got to get a little tour of one of the houses where the players live. Each players have a room shared with another and get to stay there for free as part of the deal for playing for Blackburn Rovers. There are still rules though such as when they have to get back by and they have to keep their rooms clean. Otherwise a fine will be given to them. It was very interesting to see how some players live and I wondered how different my life would be if I did that rather than be in Hong Kong.
At 7 pm we went to train at the astro turf as usual but since both U-13 and U-14 were playing football at the same time, we trained with the U-14 team. After warming up, we did a lot of dribbling. This involved just doing some skills without any distraction and then later doing some one on ones. As you may know, I never was a dribbler but it was quite nice to try a few tricks which I will never have the guts to do in a game. We also did some one on ones and two on twos with goals before going to play a game. In the game, I had a solid display as most of my passes were accurate although safe and made some good interceptions and blocks when defending.
Tomorrow is our last full day in Blackburn. It's unbelievable how quickly everything went. I'm having quite a weird feeling in that I'm looking forward to going back to Hong Kong and do all my normal things such as going to school, doing sports and just relaxing at home yet I want to stay in Blackburn to improve my football skills and fitness and become the best I possibly can.
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