TUESDAY…
After about 4 hours of sleep the night before, we got up early Tuesday morning to catch our flight from Zurich to Düsseldorf, Germany, and then to our destination of Toulouse, France. The flight wasn’t too bad at all. I was able to finish The Way of the Wild Heart and passed it on to Dan. I am already planning on reading it again after he finishes. I recommend it to anyone, male of female for that matter. He gave me the book The Irresistible Revolution by Shane Claiborne, which I am very eager to start reading.
We arrived in Toulouse around 1:30 and were met by Boris the coordinator and pitching coach of both the senior and junior national French baseball teams (Pole Toulouse). Individually they are The French Baseball Toulouse Academy as part of CREPS, the whole academy (http://www.ffbsc.org/default.asp or http://www.midi-pyrenees.jeunesse-sports.gouv.fr/web/creps/11-le-creps-de-toulouse-mp.php). CREPS is an athletic/academic academy in Toulouse, France home to over 20 sporting teams, both male and female. Check out the link above for more information. The academy houses, feeds, teaches, and trains these young athletes ranging from around the age of middle school to seniors in high school. The junior national team that we will be working with is mostly 15-18 years of age. Boris took us on a tour of the academy and explained to us how everything works. He showed us all the facilities, ranging from a completely “grassy-turf” infield (baseball), rugby and soccer fields, professional sand volleyball courts, tennis courts, track and field, fencing, tae kwon do, you name they had it. He also introduced us to many different coaches, all who had seemingly high athletic achievements nationally and on a world level. And then out of the woods sitting on top of a small hill was a CASTLE! Yes a castle. The director, doctors, and other administration are housed in a large castle like building on campus. We had the opportunity to meet the head director, tell him what we were planning on doing with the team, and get invited on a 6:30 a.m 1-hour run. We declined graciously after Boris warned us that he was a marathon runner. We also got to see the medical area where they perform physicals, nurse injuries, and consult athletes. They didn’t have the most fancy machinery, but they did have a BioDex.
After the tour, we had the opportunity to meet the team. Only about 3 or 4 of them can understand/speak English so they served as our translators. Boris allowed us to put them through a CrossFit workout as their weightlifting for the night. Nearly all of them wanted the throw up by the time they were done. I did get a lesson in French, learning that “aleah” means, “let’s go”. So as they were running, we were constantly yelling, “Aleah, aleah!” After the players had regained their stomachs, we ate dinner in the on campus dining area. The food consisted of bread, salad, yogurt, chesses, a desert, meat (beef/fish), fruit, and vegetables. It was all very healthy, yet served in portions to fill the athletes. Sorry Andrew, it was nothing like the T-Tabe at school. Only water was served to drink. It was very interesting to see where Sodexo was the supplier of the food being the same company that supplies Russel House on campus at USC.
After dinner was served, we met with all the players in a study room. Dan presented why we were here and the importance of being not only physically tough but especially mentally tough in the game of baseball. He presented the 10 fundamentals of “Heads Up Baseball” and introduced the idea of CPT. “C” being Self- Control, “P” being Plan, and “T” being Trust. Trevor took Control, Chadwick took Plan, and I ended with Trust. It was a lot different than teaching this Maymester at USC in the fact that I couldn’t just ramble on and expand on ideas. I had to keep things simplified so that they would not be lost in translation. In a lot of ways this was good, because it made us get to the point and keep the methodologies simple. Once we finished up, we challenged the team to a scrimmage the upcoming Thursday. Loser will have to do a “human machine” in front of everyone at dinner. On Thursday, the 5 Americans (1 MLB Euro coach), and 4 of the coaches are going to take on the French junior national team in a live game, 7-inning scrimmage. Boris gave us actual jerseys and pants to wear. I cannot wait!!! Those pictures will definitely be up!
WEDNESDAY…
We started off the morning on Wednesday meeting with both Boris and Gerardo, who is the head coach. We met for about 2 hours, allowing for them to ask questions and talk about their current coaching strategies. We worked to offer advice on different ways to run practice, present constructive criticism that would benefit the players the most, and improve the psyche of the athletes. It sounds like the majority of the players are intimidated. Countries like Spain, Italy, and Germany have players who’ve grown up playing the game of baseball and have a much stronger history of the game. Many of the players for France have maybe been playing 4-5 years. This is very helpful in planning our approach for further sessions with the players. Wednesday was like an end of the year field day for the athletes; so many of them were at the sand volleyball courts. The four of us headed that way and joined them. The night before we had challenged any 4 on the baseball team to a volleyball game (separate from the baseball game), loser had to do a human machine that night during the banquet. Well let’s just say the Americans swept the French. We played about 5 games winning every single one. The final game was the toughest. The French team consisting of Boris (very good!), a couple baseball players, and a girl from the volleyball team stood in a straight line and sang the French National Anthem prior to the start of the game. Worried that we would mess up the Star Spangled Banner, we decided to do our talk on the court. We ended up winning a close one 21-19. It was so much fun just getting to be out in the hot sun (80-85 degrees) interacting and playing with these kids. It provides us with a good opportunity to personally reveal how we can maintain that focus/concentration. During the game, I figured that they were talking some trash in French, but I had no clue what they were saying. After that we rested for a little while. Dan, Trevor, and I headed out to one of the rugby fields to spend some time in fellowship. We decided we are going to read through/discuss Philippians as a sort of Bible study. I am really looking forward to spending that time with those guys, studying the Word.
We headed towards the banquet and prepared to watch the human machine. It was great! There was like a sort of pep band playing, so the kids motions and sounds were nearly in sync with the music. We then had dinner and broke out into another night session with the team. Tonight, they split into three groups and had three different areas to visit. Dan went through some Progressive Muscle Relaxation, Trevor talked about goal setting, and I addressed concentration/focus. Though speaking for translation is pretty tough, I’ve really enjoyed these opportunities to teach.
After our domination on the volleyball courts, the guys’ attention shifted to our game on Thursday. We’ve begun to talk a little to get them excited. I’ll be playing second, Dan at short, and Trevor and Chadwick in the outfield. I am hitting leadoff and have already decided that I am going to be looking for that first pitch fastball to crush! When we got back to the hotel, we suited up in our uniforms and snapped some team photos. It’s GAMEDAY in the morning!
THURSDAY…
The French got their revenge on us this morning, beating us 4-1 in the scrimmage. However, I cannot express how much fun it was! Being able to go out and play the game that I grew up loving so much, free of both anxiety and stress was great! Being in full uniform, going through the ole warm up routine, and stepping into the batter’s box brought back memories that made it hard to believe I am already two years removed from the great game. As I mentioned yesterday, I was leading off and starting at second (later moved to shortstop). Was I able to perform to my expectations? Honestly…no. Did that bother me a little…yes! Offensively, I struggled. Who knew only three games of intramural softball in the spring could slow my swing down so much. Defensively, it was just like before. Dancing around, scooping up whatever came my way. I could’ve stayed out in the field all day and just fielded ground balls. Though we fell short of the victory, it was also great to the see the athletes making the mental adjustments as they were playing. There performance definitely saw improvements both individually and as a team. So we lost, and yes that meant that when we got to the dinning room we were going to perform a human machine in front of around 50-60 people. Well we did, and they loved it, video taping us and giving us high fives as we finished up. (Don’t know what a human machine is…think of a chorus of noise making and dancing where everyone has their own act.)
We then headed back to the hotel and caught a train into downtown Toulouse. It took us a long time to get a ticket because we only had paper money and the machine only took coins. By the time we got into the city center we only had about an hour to walk around. We found a patch of grass and just laid down to read for a little while
. We headed back to the academy for dinner as well as the night session. Prior to dinner we put the team through another CrossFit workout, and then when coming back out to the fields we did some Team Dynamic and Active listening exercises.
FRIDAY…
Friday afternoon we returned to the academy to do some imagery sessions with the players that were still there. On the weekends many of them go off to play with their club teams, but most were still on campus. I took fielders, Chadwick had the pitchers, and Trevor ended it up with hitting. This session concluded our time with the French junior national team. Trevor and I ended the stay with a game of ping-pong against a pair of French girls coming out victorious.
The work done in Toulouse has been really good. The team and the coaches have been so open to our teachings and presence in general. Boris was an absolutely wonderful host and has such a heart for growing the game of baseball in the country of France. Tomorrow we plan to get up early and head to Barcelona, Spain for the weekend.
*I apologize if the posts have been bland. With no Internet the past couple days, I’ve just been able to take short notes on the things we’ve done and experienced. Hopefully now, I can be a little more descriptive.
TODAY…
We over slept a little this morning and didn’t hit the road until around 9. I was fine with that because I was finally able to get a full nights rest. We rented a car Thursday morning, so we packed in tight with our luggage and hit the road. With Dan driving, me navigating, and Trevor and Chad in the back, we cranked up some French radio (techno, rap, oldies, and today) and headed on our way. The drive was beautiful. Though it was still cloudy from the rain the night before, the extending fields of what I am guessing were olives crept along and up the sides of the growing hills. Every so many miles (excuse me…kilometers) you could see off in the distance old castles. We decided that on the way back on Sunday, we would stop to check these out. Seeing these castles and other stone ruins in the distance just made me thing back of the history Europe has compare to that of the U.S. By no means am I history guru, but thinking of our proximity relative to the beginning of civilization (a trip I want to make in the near future) was pretty cool. As we continued on our way to Spain, elevation began to increase as we worked our way along the countryside. I noticed that there were no billboards along the highways in France, and off in the distance you could see little townships up atop of hills. Boris had told us that unlike Spain, France prides itself in the smaller, rural, towns. We crossed the Spain border as were amongst the mountains, and then began to make a descent into sunny and warm Barcelona. Navigating was tough and once we were actually in Barcelona, we nearly ran out of gas while searching for our hotel. I had to put to use what little Spanish I had retained from high school and college in order to find the place. After talking to gas station attendants, the police, an EMT, a pet-store owner, and random people on the street, we have finally arrived. I believe we are headed out in the next little bit to grab some food and begin to experience yet another culture.
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