Hey everyone!
So here's a brief summary of my weekend:
Saturday: We left at 7:30 in the morning for Norrköping, which is two hours North-ish of here. I had to drive, taking three of our players from Enköping to try out for the team, including two pitchers I've been working with a lot since I got here. Tryouts lasted from 10-6, so it was a long day, but it was good to meet the National team coach, a really nice guy that coached the junior National baseball team for over ten years before switching to softball, and talk with him about pitching and the tournament coming up in Holland. The pitchers threw until the lunch break, while the official pitching coach and myself walked around and helped people. It was definitely a mixed group, pitching in this country is pretty weak. The best pitcher there, though not the best Swedish pitcher (she couldn't make it, but she's on the team no matter what anyway, and plays for Mattias'- the coach's- regional team during the regular season), was a girl from Söder (Seur-dehr), who has a great natural snap and release point. Unfortunately the pitching coaching here is even worse off than the pitching itself- hence why they are desperate to bring over American coaches- so even though she should be throwing all of the pitches, she only throws a fastball and dropball. The pitching coach was working with her during the tryouts on other pitches, and I worked with her briefly on a riseball, which she picked up right away.
So here's a brief summary of my weekend:
Saturday: We left at 7:30 in the morning for Norrköping, which is two hours North-ish of here. I had to drive, taking three of our players from Enköping to try out for the team, including two pitchers I've been working with a lot since I got here. Tryouts lasted from 10-6, so it was a long day, but it was good to meet the National team coach, a really nice guy that coached the junior National baseball team for over ten years before switching to softball, and talk with him about pitching and the tournament coming up in Holland. The pitchers threw until the lunch break, while the official pitching coach and myself walked around and helped people. It was definitely a mixed group, pitching in this country is pretty weak. The best pitcher there, though not the best Swedish pitcher (she couldn't make it, but she's on the team no matter what anyway, and plays for Mattias'- the coach's- regional team during the regular season), was a girl from Söder (Seur-dehr), who has a great natural snap and release point. Unfortunately the pitching coaching here is even worse off than the pitching itself- hence why they are desperate to bring over American coaches- so even though she should be throwing all of the pitches, she only throws a fastball and dropball. The pitching coach was working with her during the tryouts on other pitches, and I worked with her briefly on a riseball, which she picked up right away.
Our pitchers did pretty well, though I think if they make it they'll both play in the field instead. Jonna (yown-na, emphasis on second syllable), who I'm trying to convince to come to the States on exchange, is a 16 year old with a great attitude and work ethic- I think she'd really benefit from coming to play softball at a US High School. Ida's 17 and has a bit of an attitude problem (though she seems to like me well enough so far), but is a great athlete and seems pretty dedicated to pitching- right now, anyway.
In the afternoon we did hitting and fielding. I basically just helped out wherever they needed me, and went over some hitting stuff with the the girls. It looks like I am going to Holland with the team, both as a coach and as a fill-in pitcher, aka someone who can hop in for a batter or an inning to relieve the Swedish pitchers. Mattias said he was hoping to get two or three Americans to do this for the tournament. He also said that if I was staying beyond September 1st he'd invite me as a walk-on to his regional team, who are competing in the European Cup starting the 1st. This makes me very tempted to ditch the first two weeks of school, I'm not going to lie.
We drove back after the tryouts and I got back around 9:30 or so. It MUST be noted that last night was the finals of the Eurovision Song Contest, which is basically American Idol (except the songs are original and are also part of what you vote for, not just the singer), but for the whole European continent. It was broadcast on the radio starting and 9, and it's a huge deal for all of Europe. Everyone here was up watching it when I got back, so it was fun to hang out and watch Freja and Vidar sing and dance to the songs and be amazed over how obsessed everyone is with this contest. The majority of the songs were awful, including one by Greece that almost won and reminded me so much of early Britney Spears it was a little spooky. The Swedish song was actually really fun, but Russia won, after a performance with a famous figure skater and violinist as well as a already famous Russian singer (apparantly Russia decided to sink a lot of money into this year's contestant since they haven't won the competition yet).
Today was really relaxing, we just lazed around during the morning, I jumped on the huge backyard trampoline with the kids for awhile (SO FUN), and helped Ingrid clean off their deck furniture. Then we- Ingrid, Freja, Vidar, Maria and her baby Agnes and I- went to Nykvarn for the afternoon, which is a little craft and pottery village right on a river near town.
We walked through the houses and looked at the pottery and art, then went to a cafe and had a fika (fee-ka- basically having coffee or tea, along with some kind of pastry or cake. Fikas are a big deal here, apparantly). There was some very pretty pottery and glass in the shops, I have to go back to check it out more closely, and to look at the silversmith that was closed today. We went back to the house and got more deck furniture out of the attic, and then decided to barbecue and eat outside on the deck- rough life, huh? It was a beautiful day, the first that was really warm enough to wear shorts since I got here. So it was great to just enjoy the sun and hang out.
Tomorrow I'm going to help out in gym class at Assar's school and teach them the basics of softball, kind of what Ingrid and I did last week for Jonna's class.
Thats all for today! (so much for a brief summary, I don't even know why I say that anymore)
Night!
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