Tuesday June 15th

Today was another full but good day. We continued with the team competitions and also continued teaching through the AIA principles. Today was also the first day that our AIA team got to train with all the South African players in a session run by our AIA coach Mike. The South African girls at this training camp come from four different teams, all playing at some of the highest levels for their age groups in South Africa. One of the teams is the U17 National team who has just recently qualified for the U17 World Cup! Needless to say, the competition is good and we are enjoying learning a thing or two from these players.

In order to get better insight into what our girls are experiencing in these training sessions and teaching sessions, here are some thoughts on the day from on of our AIA girls, Laura Novikoff...

"This afternoon we continued talking about the principles, and today the one we talked about was "Inside Game." It deals with the athlete's mind, and where we get our motivation. As a Christian athlete, it's so easy to say that my motivation is glorifying God, but that is definitely tested when I get into an actual competition. After we listened to Asif, the speaker today, we went right outside to play soccer and try to apply what we learned, and the staff, who act as referees/coaches, deliberately make life difficult for us so we can see how we respond. Needless to say, emotions can get a little heated, mine included. So today, we were playing and Mike, our coach for the AIA team, stops the game and tells us that the intensity of the game is awful. he says this in that low, "I;m very disappointed in you" tone that makes everyone feel like the scum of the earth, we didn't know until later that the whole thing was planned. He then looks at me and calls me out by name, in front of everyone, ouch. I, of course, felt the need to redeem myself and played like a madman for the rest of the match. The point of the whole exercise was that we need to have motivation that is more constant than coach, and the message definitely rang true with me. The funny thing about coming on tour is that you show up, thinking you're going to help the people around you, and you find yourself learning and growing from the things that you're supposed to help facilitate...humbling for sure.

On a lighter note, a couple of us were interviewed by FIFA. A couple reporters came to our camp and wanted to do a story about what we've been doing here, and the story will hopefully be aired before the US plays Slovakia on Friday on the BBC channel I believe, but there's a chance that it might make it to America!! Very exciting!"