Wow, a week has already flown since we had the privilege of having Mikko, Pete and Devon with us for a great day of pro player tips, tricks and drills – sorry about the delay. If you missed the event, you really missed out on a lot of good stuff and there is no excuse for you. Except maybe for Hilu, who called us early in the morning quite upset complaining that “for NINE MONTHS she has been swelling up slowly and steadily, going past the due date just to give birth TODAY! TODAY OF ALL DAYS!” There’s little you can add to that..
We’ve been enjoying a heat wave for two weeks now, and it was hot also on Friday, July 9th. The clinic started with the first players turning up at the site arround 11 am and a steady trickle followed thereafter, with Mikko, Devon and Pete arriving in good time as well. Everyone got their gear ready and at just a bit over 12 we were ready to begin. First off we did a proper and thorough warm-up and stretching session with the guys going over a whole bunch of benefits of a good warm-up.
Extend your career through proper stretching!
After the warm-up we continued with a communication drill that was simple, but geniously eye-opening at the same time. The drill was also a good contingency for the warm-up and I can say from our perspective that the drill has been directly integrated to our training sessions, as we have been lacking in communication all year.. Good stuff.
The day continued with various personal/pair/3 on 3 exercises that were all aimed towards imroving teamplay and a more “goal-oriented” style of play. A lot of emphasis was put on the communication aspect of each drill, and towards the end of the day, improvement was definately seen. We played a lot of drills with the purpose of reaching some specific bunker on the field. After this segment, we focused on breakout variations, running and gunning off the break, player roles and various “smart things to look for” in different situations. The pros were constantly giving out bits and pointers, examples and all the time fine-tuning every aspect of the exercises. To call this a hands-on session would be an understatement.
Now, the way I do this..
After a ton of drills, we got to play proper games as well. The way this worked was that we had a few teams with full or close-to full 5 players present at the event, and the rest formed up 5-player teams and everyone got to play against the pros. Mikko, Pete and Devon stayed on the field for as long as they could at a time, always taking two additional players to play with them. I got to play one point, and man, it’s sweet to play against these guys and succeed in something you try, but the priceless part is to play with them. That really opens our eyes (and ears) to the importance and benefit of proper communication! Everyone willing got their picture taken with the guys, and a signed poster was handed out as a mement o. Nice!
After the event we went for dinner and a few drinks at the terraces downtown before naturally heading out to The Tiger to lose a few memories 
All in all, I think that the day was a great success, there were no hickups or standing around – we were constantly on the field, learning from the best. As organizers, we wish to thank Mikko Huttunen, Pete Utschig and Devon Stutz for being great educators, absolute professionals in such clinics and also for being a great bunch of guys! Also, everyone that participated, thank you all as well for the great atmosphere, it was absolutely fantastic to have all of you here! Thanks also for DYE for making this event possible and our shoe sponsor Goldhammer for livening up the event – and congrats on signing with Mikko! A very special bit of love goes to our field manager of the event – Aleksi. He worked his ass off to keep everything running smoothly and took care of the BBQ as well!
Check out what Devon thought of the trip from DYE Scandinavia’s facebook and see how the rest of Mikko’s trip was from his blog – check out the flickr feed – quite the fishermen with Pete
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