A New Experience, A New You
“For what gives value to travel is fear. It breaks down a kind of inner structure we have.”
When I was 23 years old, I was stuck. I finished my master’s degree, was coaching part-time, and was uninspired by any job prospect. So I left. One-way ticket from New York to Spain, the mecca of football in 2013. I never thought I’d find what I did.
Camus was right. Unrooting yourself is scary. You realise everything you know about yourself lies within the familiarity of home, routine, familiar faces. The different surroundings of an unknown place serve as mirror. You think you are experiencing a new place, but in reality you’re forced to see yourself in a new way that you never have before.
Camus continues, “Travel robs us of such refuge. Far from our own people, our own language, stripped of all our props, deprived of our masks, we are completely on the surface of ourselves.” Away from the refuge, you are forced to question why you do the things that you do. You realise you’ve never been forced to answer these types of questions.
If travel questions your way of being, then immersing yourself in a new football culture asks these same questions of the way you coach, and from experience, it’s an uncomfortable process. It makes you question your methods, and often times, it shows you that you do what you do because you’ve copied what you’ve seen. It’s uncomfortable knowing that the majority of your coaching behaviour is unconscious and simply a product of your environment.
Culture is what we see in our windshield, and the customs and practices of our culture sweep us along without a second thought.
I was only meant to stay in Spain for one year, but I ended up staying for six. Every year I realised I wasn’t done being questioned. I wanted to reflect more on what and how I coached. I wanted to reflect on who I was independent of my surroundings.
When I came home after 6 years, I was a different person and a different coach. But what they don’t tell you about your return, is that you won’t look at it the same. I could see things that others had taken for granted because they had been swept along by culture for many, many years without ever asking why. I wasn’t better or worse, I simply had seen different things which gave me the ability to question things more deeply.
Over the years, I have wanted to give this experience to others, and this was the birth of the It’s Just a Sport Course in Granada, Spain. It was important for me to provide more than just content but the whole experience.
This is why the course instructors are from Granada. They are incredibly qualified coaching instructors who were brought up in a different football culture and their thoughts reflect that. This creates for a beautiful exchange of ideas and thoughts that you can’t fabricate.
This is why we visit genuine Spanish clubs. Grassroots clubs where you will see and experience the real Spanish footballing culture, and not just the elite clubs. There is something incredibly powerful about meeting your coaching counterpart from another culture. A person that understands the struggles of the day-to-day grassroots club coach.
You’ll see your players’ counterpart from another culture. You’ll see what young players are like who are brought up in a different football culture. You’ll naturally compare and contrast but more importantly you’ll see new possibilities.
I will tell you that the content we’ll work through is top stuff, because it changed me. It will help your coaching no matter what level you coach. It’s also not solely It’s Just a Sport content, it’s the work of our brilliant instructors. However, that’s not as important to me as the experience is.
The experience and how you reflect on your experience in Granada is what will change you fundamentally. You’ll know there are other possibilities. You’ll know you can work in a different way if you choose to. You’ll know yourself deeper.
“Travel, which is like a greater and graver science, brings us back to ourselves.”
