My Four Superstar Ex-Boyfriends

Chapter 4: Initial Resistance

"In order to familiarize myself with you and get to know you more quickly, I would like to take a picture of each of you. Please let me know your names after you have come to me to have your picture taken."

Just five minutes into the session, Emily had finished all the Czech sentences she had memorized. To her satisfaction, she felt that the group of students she was leading had understood exactly what she had said in Czech, and that she had not forgotten any words or gotten the order of the sentences wrong.

Emily tried to look as confident as she could, and then let the boys, who had never been in such a situation before, come to her one by one.

And not far away, a few paces from her, the boys were talking openly about her arrival.

"So this ...... lady, she's the new soccer coach?" A boy with a freckled face said so with a very skeptical attitude.

"Of course, dumbass didn't you just hear her introduce herself? Heinz said a new coach would be here today and it's practice time now, do you think there's anyone else here we don't know besides this woman?"

"But ...... she doesn't look anything like a soccer coach. I feel like she must not even have played soccer properly."

Luther, who was wearing blue and had straw-like messy blonde hair, and his friend on the team, Bielsa, said. When the freckled boy heard Bielsa say that the new coach must not have even played soccer properly, he asked curiously, "How do you know?"

Strawhead Luther then turned his head with Bielsa while scolding, "Dumbass, how old does she look to you?"

Freckleface, "Twenty-something ......?"

Strawhead Luther: "Isn't that right! Would a woman in her twenties who has played soccer look like she's in shape? My mom is slimmer than her. There's only one reason women in their twenties get fat like that, they have no demands on themselves and are weak-willed."

"Ahem." Hearing his friends on the varsity team start talking about such things, as the captain of the varsity team, Heinz, who had the best ball skills in the team, still raised his voice to remind them in the end. But instead of stopping this discussion, the three main players in the varsity team attempted to drag Heinz down with them.

"Hey, Heinz." Strawhead Luther said as he put an arm on the back of Heinz, who was a little taller than him, "Go talk to Mr. Principal, we can't have a woman coaching us. Not to mention a woman who doesn't even know how to play soccer, she doesn't even look qualified to teach badminton. Don't you think it's ridiculous and funny?"

It was also at this time that Emily, who had already finished recording everyone else's information, signaled the small group of four hiding there to quickly come here to record their personal information. So Heinz, who was still being held by Luther's arm, turned to his straw-headed friend and said, "Seeing as she's still serious about getting ready, let's finish today's training first."

With that said, Heinz then walked over to Emily, who smiled at the boy who had made a good first impression on her before pointing her Polaroid at the other and clicking the shutter. The photo was soon printed, and Emily pasted it into a thick black notebook she had brought with her, before asking Heinz to write his name underneath the photo.

And then it was the freckle-faced boy's turn. After the other girl had written her name for her, Emily gave the other girl's legs another customary glance, which led to, "Matz, you're not wearing leg guards?"

"Oh ...... right. I'm not wearing them." Freckleface was suddenly a little nervous about being asked such a thing by the new coach they didn't recognize while his varsity teammates watched. He shook his foot, trying to look more relaxed, "Ah, I-I'm not used to wearing shin guards. I think ...... it makes me more relaxed, feel free, and kick better."

Emily almost laughed when she heard such an answer, she said, "Matz, you have to wear shin guards when you go to training, it will protect your legs and make you less likely to get hurt."

"But our old head coach was never this tough on me." Freckleface glanced at Inuyasha Luthor, then lifted his breath and deliberately made himself look a little more arrogant as he said, "If you're only doing this because you're worried that me getting hurt in training without leg braces will cost you your job, then you ...... you... ..."

"Listen Matz," Emily, who had closed her notebook, really felt helpless and amused by the words of the freckled boy in front of her, which led her to say seriously, "In this world, there will be no coach who can protect his players from getting hurt in the confrontation of a game. The only ones who can do that are the players themselves. You should have been more responsible for yourself. Now, go and pick yourself a pair of the five pairs of leg guards I borrowed and put them on."

Emily who said these words spoke very slowly and also used the simplest words and the simplest expressions. And, she also watched each other's expression, demeanor and reaction very carefully during her speech to make sure that the group of Czech boys really understood what she said.

"Which one of you is the captain of my soccer team?"

Emily asked after finishing taking down the information on the group of varsity members, after clapping her hands twice so that the boys on the field could hear her high-fives.

After Emily repeated the phrase twice in German and English, respectively, the boys all looked at me and me at you before setting their eyes on Heinz. The boy had handsome eyebrows, and if you just looked at his build, you'd be more likely to look at him as a real, adult who could stand toe-to-toe with you rather than a child.

"It's me."

After a few moments of silence, Heinz spoke the words. Emily then nodded at him, which led to, "Good. Now, why don't you lead the team in a little warm-up and stretching."

Though Emily didn't realize it herself, she did have awesome powers of observation. She might not be able to remember the face of someone she'd only met once, but she could remember the size and shape of that person. This is probably an added skill that comes from her ten years of life as a "superstar girlfriend". After all, if you're like her and you go to the game almost every week, the first thing you should learn is to recognize a person even from a distance just by the way they run. Otherwise, when you go to a live game, at best, you're just going to follow the guys on the sidelines and make a fool of yourself.

As Heinz led the team through warm-up drills, Emily flipped open her notebook and began writing down what she observed under the directory that corresponded to each varsity team member's photo. Like the little gestures someone would unconsciously show while running, like the first feeling someone gave her.

[Heinz, the captain, is about six-foot-two, and from the way he runs, it looks like he might not be in the habit of fancy dishing.] [Luther, he looks the least like me out of all the kids. But he looks confident and should be one of the more physical kids.] [Matz, physical fitness needs to be strengthened.]

While recording this in Chinese, Emily was also trying to correlate the young faces in these photos with their height and build. Now, she was able to determine the general physical fitness of these boys by the intensity of the warm-up training they usually performed and the reaction of each of them after it.

After Heinz brought the team back for a stretching session, Emily began the first drill of the day: passing, ball control, and catching passes on the run.

No matter what level of player, passing and ball control are the most basic and indispensable. However, players who play in the top leagues will be able to complete their pass catching and ball handling drills in more difficult exercises.

For example, at Barcelona, the La Liga giants, who emphasize passing and ball control, players practice the huddle almost every day. It's a fun, childlike, and enduring soccer training program.

The most basic training is to form a circle with three players, one of whom is inside the circle. The three people in the circle are responsible for passing the ball to each other, and the person in the circle is responsible for grabbing the soccer ball from the three people passing. There are many different variations of this drill as the players get more advanced.

One reason is to increase the number of people in the circle. Increase the number of people on the perimeter from three to five, and the number of people in the circle from two to two.

Another reason would be to add the concept of athletic warfare to the snatch circle, with complete snatch circle training in a non-stop running game.

This drill may look like a child's play, but in reality it tests and trains the full range of abilities needed to be a player. Footwork, awareness, anticipation, the rhythm of the ball and stopping the ball, and even teamwork.

More importantly, this is not a mechanical training, it is very interesting, but also test people's patience, in the circle training in the practice of all the practice can be used in the matches.

But before she could start the group of players on the snatch drill, Emily had to evaluate the varsity team she was working with. For example, how big of a gap there will really be between the average varsity player and a professional player playing in a top league. Knowing that gap and understanding the way these kids play soccer might be the first thing she does when she takes the job.