This morning I awoke to more Tel Aviv city sounds, and a soft breeze coming through the large window of the apartment’s living room area where I am sleeping. It’s a great way to wake up. After my regular storm of email correspondance, I pulled more materials together for the coaching clinic. With all of the necessary PDFs loaded on a thumb drive, I found the nearby copy center and setup my copy job. By noon it was done and I was heading north to the Sportek fields.

Maggie, Nathan, and I found a shady spot near the central field area, and then moved over to the east end of the park after finding a better area with more shade and benches. By 1:45, 7 coaches had gathered so I got started. Over the course of the next 5 hours I ran through a general coaching clinic, covering topics ranging from “The Ideal Ultimate World” and Spirit of the Game, to drill suggestions, how to run an effective practice, and how to promote the sport. I had a wonderful time learning about Ultimate in Israel and cities around the US from the other coaches. We had some spirited discussions, and could have certainly gone on for much longer.

By about 6:30pm we packed up and walked a few blocks west to an American style pub where we had a great dinner and talked more about, what else, Ultimate. I got some more details about tomorrow’s Israeli Junior National Team training camp, which will actually run through Friday and all day Saturday as well. Dan one of the coaches, said I was more than welcome to attend it all, so I’m going to! I can’t wait.

So… I’m going to work with the Israeli Jrs for the next two days and then the plan is to take the train to Haifa on Sunday evening after a second clinic in Beit Sahour. After touring Haifa for a day or two, we’ll head up to Acco for the start of Camp UP!

Time is flying by!