As I am traveling back from Lucerne to Bern I get a message from John Jordan who lives in Bern. He is the head coach of the Bern U19 football team. Although I had never met him I returned his message informing him that my
phone was on the verge of running out of juice and that I would respond when I got back to Bern and plugged in my phone.
After getting back to Bern and getting my phone issue settled I connected with John and we got together for a few hours later in the afternoon. John was born in Canada and has a PHD in history. He did grad work in Great Britain and again here in Switzerland.
He has been coaching in Switzerland and has also become a referee along the way (Why would you want to do that??). He is a very interesting man and we spent several hours telling stories and talking about football experiences we have had along the way.
Later in the day returned back to the apartment and then went to dinner with the Thun coaches where we had a very good pizza. Afterward went thru the practice schedule and Stephan gave us his impressions on what we wanted to accomplish at our camp in Oberharmersbach, Germany this upcoming weekend.
We had a nice dinner….got business out of the way and drank some beer. After finishing up our night we felt pretty good about the upcoming camp agreeing that we had a pretty good chance of getting our objectives accomplished.
Thursday was spent preparing for our early departure the next day. Got some things done shopping wise, read a book and drank some beer – oh yeah worked on some football as well.
Friday came fast and hard with the bus to Germany leaving a rainy Bern 5:30 in the morning. Due to our ambitious schedule (two practices on Friday when we arrived) we had to make the early start.
I have to say I was really excited about our trip for a variety of reasons. But, the biggest being the genuine enthusiasm of the group. The Tigers were eager to play together as a team. That is always a great thing to observe.
After our arrival – we got suited up and went to work on the field. I said this earlier, but it is amazing to see these athletic complexes basically set up in the middle of nowhere. A beautiful synthetic surface set down in this smaller town. Obviously, it was established for soccer teams but it truly suited our needs just fine.
We opened camp with a very spirited practice which showed a great deal of detail in the planning by Stephan our head coach (I am guessing his right-hand 
man Daniel had something to do with it as well.) One way or the other it was a very well thought out plan and it was obvious that this organization allowed the players to work through the day effortlessly.
I realize that the teams across Europe (and Switzerland is no exception) practice long and there is some strong hitting because they only get three practices per week. But, I literally cringe at some of the hits that are delivered. 
But, amazingly they help each other up – ask if the opponent is OK, hug and continue on. These guys play hard and do not hesitate to drill each other…. But, yet they still have genuine concern about their teammates.
For as long and hard (hell the warmup is tough) as the practices are there is little or no complaining. I have watched many practices in Switzerland over the past several years. They are similar, yet different than our sessions here in the states.
They are structurally the same but obviously longer as I said (and the thud and tag-off tackling concept is just beginning to take hold here). Often ,most of the time actually, the only lines on the field correspond to soccer. Rarely are there any goal posts for practice areas.
But, it is amazing how quickly you forget about this and just practice. I mean as an American you study the field beforehand and wonder how this is going to work. But it does! It’s like when you were growing up and got together to play in a field…there weren’t any markings – you just figure it out.
That is exact.y what happens here. The Swiss have figured it out. If you want to play ball – you play ball. I love it!
You should see the hotel by the way. The owners have five separate hotels all 
gathered around each other along with the obligatory restaurants and beer 
gardens. Obviously this isn’t tourist season – so in this sprawling complex that is compressed around a narrow thoroughfare – it is not bustling right now. (And by the way the drivers really go through these narrow streets very fast. Unlike Switzerland it is the pedestrian traffic that has to avoid the cars!)