The team building at Boda Borg was an interesting experience. This involved all of the lads being split up into groups of four. Each group was given a recording document that was completed and stamped after each successful activity. The activities involved climbing and attempting to solve pre-set challenges. It was interesting to see which members of the group were either leaders or followers.
My favourite activity was called The Ship which involved mostly climbing and jumping. The lads who got involved really enjoyed themselves. We then returned to the hotel for our evening meal before we headed off to the sports bar to have soft drinks and watch a UEFA qualifying game involving Henrik Larsson. After watching the game we returned to the hotel to gain valuable rest in preparation for the following mornings training with Sundsvall’s 1st team coaches.
The following morning we were down for breakfast at half seven in readiness for training to commence at half eight. All the lads were looking forward to being coached by coaches who had different ideas and styles.
The training session was enjoyable with more time being spent on technical development than we were used to. The session was concluded to allow Sundsvall’s 1st team to engage in their own daily session. This was also interesting to watch and compare to our own 1st team’s sessions. One aspect of the game that was different to our own was the pace and tempo, this being slower than what we would normally expect.
The rest of the day we were allowed to chill out and relax before our evening meal. After the meal we all took part in a general quiz which was won by the staff team. There has been some suspicion of “foul play” from certain members of the staff team. The prime suspect being Ian Smithson, one of LFE’s Regional Officers. This could result in Ian being sent home early to be replaced by a quality Regional Officer – John Barton…. some may question his suitability as a mentor to young Apprentices but he has always done a good job on his annual visit to Rotherham United. He’s never further than a phone call (or eighteen holes) away!!
The tour is now building up towards the tournament with our first game on Saturday evening at 7pm. Hopefully we can bring you some good news in the next blog.
