Sprinting, throwing and lots of physical contact. In addition, there is a harsh tone on the playing field that ensures that you sometimes collide and land with a crash on the lush green. No, it’s not exactly the most beautiful thing you could imagine on a cold winter evening in Salzburg. Nevertheless, I threw myself into the heavy football equipment for SALZBURG24 and started a self-experiment during a two-and-a-half-hour training session for the Salzburg Ducks, who compete against the best teams in Austria in the highest national league.
The first challenge is dressing
With a certain tension in my stomach, I arrived at the Ducks construction site next to the Salzach in the North Sports Center shortly after dark on Tuesday evening at 6 p.m. The first challenge? Putting on the equipment with jersey, pants and helmet. Not that easy, quite narrow and unwieldy. Coaches, supervisors and finally Ducks boss Christine Gappmayer herself had to lend a hand and support me here.
SALZBURG DUCKS The first big challenge arose when putting on the equipment.
It was made very clear to me right from the start that it wasn’t the character’s fault. So things can only get better, I thought to myself. But it didn’t take long until I asked myself what I was actually doing here.
Part of the Salzburg Ducks from the start
After a speech from Coach Johansen and a really nice greeting in which he loudly introduced me to my teammates and which made me feel like a duck too, we started warming up. After one or two easy laps around the field and a bit of stretching, I even thought it wasn’t that difficult after all. But then came the push-ups, which caused beads of sweat to run from the forehead to the lower half of the face.
Command after command, I completed the strenuous exercises that were actually just intended to warm up. The main thing was not to be last and not to step out of line, that was my motivation. The positive thing was that I felt like I belonged right from the start. My teammates talked to me and high-fived me as if I had always been there. Stranger? Not here.
SALZBURG24/GAUDREAU S24 was a training guest at the Salzburg Ducks.
After warming up, we got down to business. True to the motto: What you have done so far, Mathias, was something for small children. For the first time in my life, I threw the famous egg, which is probably attracting the most attention of the year, especially during Super Bowl week. Did I catch a throw on the run? No. But it was really close (Video above). Luckily I wore gloves.
Of course, this was no easy task given the cold conditions in the north of the state capital. The reason why I didn’t really succeed in this exercise was that I preferred not to put on my glasses for safety reasons. The coaches didn’t really care. They didn’t want to hear excuses.
Nobody said football wasn’t important
Words that gave me an important motivational push to give me full throttle again in the following training stations. With the egg under his arm, it was now a matter of asserting himself against the opponent in a rotating movement at full speed and with plenty of physical contact. “We call this a spinning move,” they said. Not only did it look tough, it was tough too. Because on the second move I became acquainted with the freshly laid artificial turf pitch in the North Sports Center. Even the coaches had to laugh for a moment. After all, no one said football wouldn’t matter.
First meeting with Ducks star Stefan Ilsanker
After I had shone as a spectator during the tactical exercises, I finally moved on to the throwing exercise. The ball should fly and not float through the air. But then I quickly got the hang of it. The third attempt was more than acceptable. Is it enough for the fighting team? Hardly likely. But when Ducks newcomer Stefan Ilsanker approached me with the words “don’t you have any soccer shoes?” greeted me personally and asked me about my height, I dreamed, at least for a few seconds, of becoming a permanent part of the Ducks. But I would need a lot more strenuous training to do that.
At the end of the training there was an obligatory group of players where Coach Johansen praised me again for my efforts in front of the entire crew. To be honest, apart from the low temperatures, the applause from the 35 players gave us even more goosebumps.
After the first football taster evening of my life, I already felt a lot of muscle soreness in my thighs and calves. My upper arm also hurt. I didn’t even know what exactly. What I did know was that football is actually for everyone. No matter whether narrow or wide. Man or woman.
(Source: SALZBURG24)
2024-02-08 07:49:10
#Football #selfexperiment #sports #editor #Salzburg #Ducks
