Here at Inter Campus, we very rarely take two-week-long trips. Both because we don't want to overdo things during our courses and because of the tight schedule which means that we're busy somewhere around the world for at least 10 days a month.
This latest trip to South America, however, was both an exception and a test for us coaches. We had to work out how to best use our resources, as well as organise logistics and institutional meetings with the project manager. On top of that, we had to adapt our training content to the needs of the children and coaches.
With that in mind, Colombia and North-East Brazil have both a lot in common and many differences.
In Colombia, for example, there is a consolidated group of coaches. They have a very good level of technical and practical expertise after years of training, as seen by the results they achieved in the tests we ran on our latest visit. Plus, almost all of the boys and girls (around 400 attended the Christmas party) know us, call us by name and can't wait for us to come back to Colombia.
Thanks to the tireless work of Ricardo Martinez, our local coordinator, and Viviana Mutis, who represents the Crecer Jugando foundation, there are always coaches at the courses despite the fact that the majority of them have to travel great distances to attend. There are those who have to get up at the crack of dawn and travel for four to five hours or even those who live days away like Cesar, coach at the Puerto Carreno site, close to the Venezuelan border which will be the destination the next time we visit.
In Brazil, meanwhile, the projects are widespread and very different from a technical perspective. Recife, our old stomping ground, which now boasts six different sites, has a tight-knit, well-trained and motivated group of coaches. They're always keen to ask questions and over time they have really bought into our methodology, agreeing on its effectiveness and using it in every training session. We should also mention our relentless coordinator Augusto Lira, involved since 1997 and crucial in the project's continued growth, along with coaches Lucas, Marcelo, Luciano, Leonard, Edmilson and Claudio.
The project in Camocim, a small village in the State of Ceara, is still very much in its infancy. Only open a year, it has made giant strides since it was inaugurated in the spring of 2016. Coaches Jorge and Ana Clara, who will be replaced by Dan Dan next season, have a clear idea of how to structure their training sessions, with the help of school activities. Thanks to the passion of the coaches and the flexibility of our partner Brincar de Viver - who provided us with an Inter Campus office complete with lots of Nerazzurri seats to run our training courses - the scheme continues to develop and the children are growing in every area.
Finally, following on from our recent visit, we stopped by the Pititinga and Maracajau projects. These two sites are fortunate to work with handyman Braz, assisted by Milena who chairs the Vida a Pititinga foundation. Braz works with four groups of boys and girls of varying ages under the auspices of the foundation. With only two days available, our schedule was very hectic and really diverse. We held a tournament with all four groups at the Centro Sportivo Giacinto Facchetti in Pititinga, trained on the beach at Maracajau and then played some futsal on the concrete pitches nearby. After all that, we went over some new training ideas with Braz - as ever in line with our methodology - and helped him to correct the most common mistakes, such as low intensity and demonstrating a piece of skill.
What more can we say? As ever, you reap what you sow and Colombia and Brazil were no exceptions!
Juri and Andrea
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