Coaching Development within the German Football League
In March of 2019 SRS-International teamed up with the University of Alabama. A small group of American football athletes from the university came and spent a week touring Germany and the serving the GFL. For the athletes of the University of Alabama, this was a first trip to Germany and for some their first trip overseas. It was a great time to take in the German culture, food, sights and sounds. The trip provided an opportunity for them to come alongside clubs in the development of their coaching staff through actual on-the-field training. It was also a time for the student-athletes to make discoveries for themselves about Germany. They saw a Bundesliga football/soccer game, toured a Bundesliga soccer club, saw the Mercedes Museum in Stuttgart, and toured a concentration camp. They were thankful and humbled by the generosity shown to them by Germany.
They also had the chance to come alongside American Football coaches and athletes, and it gave them a small glimpse of what NCAA D1 American football is like. They visited 3 cities and multiple American football clubs across Germany. They brought their strength, knowledge, and sheer passion for the game onto the fields. With this came an excitement that can only be described by German coaches as what they miss or lack on the field. The American football coaches and athletes had the opportunity to spend some quality time after practices with German coaches to gain better perspective on the coaching culture within American football in Germany. The idea was for the players to share from their perspective what coaching the whole athlete is like and to help empower the coaches’ focus on not just the player as an athlete but to a player as a whole person. We are praying for our partnership with the University of Alabama and what might happen in the future.
SRS-In Sport News 