Today marked our second session in three days with the chiropractic crew. I met them at the local Walmart and hopped in the back of a large 12 seat passenger van. To my surprise Rafa was also in there, which was a fun way to start the day. 

His father, nicknamed Crusty, helped translate for some of the chiropractors. Today’s location was very far away in a small surf town in Bucerias, part of Nayarit where we were on Tuesday. This program was approximately 90 minutes away, so I popped in some headphones and settled in for a long drive. Sitting in the backseat by myself in what could only be described as a bouncy castle of a passenger van, I felt the extent of every single pothole and speed bump as paved roads became far from such.

Finally we reached our small little town, which is home to a small community. We were working with a little community center. The chiropractors had a little overhang meant to shade them from the strong rays of sun. Unfortunately, there wasn’t any real room for soccer.

Welp, the street will have to do, I said to myself. Things started off pretty small, as we kicked off with a group of just three young players. It was two little girls, and then another little guy named Alfredo. The latter was super animated, while the girls were a bit shy and timid. Luckily, Alfredo was plenty energetic for the whole group.

We began with push passes and headers, before quickly lining up to play mano o cabeza. The young kids loved this one, smiling and laughing at every chance they could get. The smiles were as big as the laughs, but the amount of sheer joy was bigger than them all.

Just as Tuesday played out, our group was constantly changing, though every once in a while a participant would return to join back in on the lesson despite heading home for a bit. I took out a few bracelets to give to each participant and heard them whispering among themselves “Ohh!! I want USA colors, is this one USA?” – pointing at a little red white and blue number.

I barely had a chance to rest before a pair of older boys made their way to the street for some footy. We were practicing passes, volleys, headers, and chest control as a starter. I then walked both of them, Edwin and Cesar, through some neck stalls and forehead stalls, which they enjoyed despite the challenge. I made sure to walk them both through each step slowly. Making sure we were all on the same page before moving to the next.

The cool part about this approach was that much like with Rafa just days before, when a couple new boys entered the fray I watched Edwin walk the new participants through our drills in the same exact way I had walked him and Cesar through them. He was running a heading drill and I watched in awe as I saw him gently tossing the soccer ball to the boy, encouraging him with every throw. “Right here, head it right back to my chest,” he said, just as I had moments before. The boys were all about 12 years old, which made it even cooler to see participants like Edwin stepping up to lead his peers.

It was really cool and I stood there admiring them acting as captains without even being prompted to do so.

Eventually, Cesar & Edwin left for their respective houses and I moved my focus to the new set of 12 year old boys. We were working on a freestyle trick, the neck stall. Patiently, I guided each of them through each step, with the ball resting beneath their feet.

“So this is the trick, but just level one of it,” I said, before they mimicked it successfully. “If you want to take it to the second level, you can try walking around with the ball balanced on your neck.”

“Profe, What’s the third level?” asked one of the boys, wearing a rainbow striped shirt. “You said one and two? One was to put it there? Two was spin?”

“Ooh okay, so one is to put it there, two is walk, three is spin, and fourth is push-ups,” I corrected, with a chuckle.

Once they had given their best shot at all four levels, I moved over to teaching forehead stalls.

“Like this, profe?” the same boy asked.

“Sí amigo, but poco a poco. Maybe today you can only balance for a few seconds, but maybe tomorrow a few more, then next thing you know you’re balancing it for hours!”

He laughed and got right back to work, determined to reach more than five seconds immediately, to prove me wrong. As I distributed the rest of my soccer balls and packed my bags to leave, I managed a glance to my left, just outside the high fence of the compound. I saw a ball flying into the air and returning back to earth. I decided to narrow my gaze to find its owner. It was the rainbow striped shirt from before! He was pacing left, right, left, right on the stone-covered street while balancing the ball carefully on his neck. His eyes caught mine and he flashed a smile, one filled with pride, determination, and accomplishment, as I threw him one back to commend his practice and persistence.