During the coronavirus quarantine I have tried to get myself organised to do things I wouldn’t normally have time for, so in this article I’ll give you an insight into what I’ve been up to. I’m trying to use this space to lift the spirits of those of us who are locked away at home and especially for those in hospital. We will come out of this stronger!
Reading: one of my main pastimes
I have been reading a lot lately, looking over old notes that I made on books I really enjoyed reading, notes that I felt were important to keep at the time of reading.
The first book is “The score takes care of itself” (My Philosophy of Leadership), by Bill Walsh with Steve Jamison and Craig Walsh. This is a great book about how coach Bill Walsh changed the course of the San Francisco 49ers in the NFL, focusing on organisation and leadership.
The second book is “Legacy” by James Kerr which is about the All Blacks, like the previous book, it talks about what had to be done after a period of poor results in order to return to the core “values” of the All Blacks which had been lost over time.
Book of these books discuss how the club or institution’s organisation relates to the way the team represent that club or institution, its values and its minimum accepted standards within the group of employees and players.
Exercising at home
On the other hand, during this quarantine I have really had to adapt the way I exercise. Before quarantine I never went out jogging as I have had both knees operated on, but I did used to go out to the gym and do other things to stay fit.
Now, as gyms are closed, everything revolves around my exercise schedule at home, which I carry out without weights or equipment, meaning that I have to be creative and motivated.
Football
I have also looked over a lot of things from the clubs I have been at, things I thought were done well or could have been better, looking more specifically about why this was. I have even been looking at the odd match report from the more recent clubs.
And finally, maybe I am getting nostalgic, but I must confess that I have even been watching some matches from back when I played, which are available on the television and Youtube.
Perhaps the best I watched was the 1995 Cup Winners’ Cup with Real Zaragoza. Most of the players from that team are in a WhatsApp group and we have all reminiscing about the match, laughing and joking about the good times, not just remembering that one particular win, but generally having a good catch up (it lasted more than 2 hours as it had been such a long time since the last one), constantly chatting with my teammates and life-long friends. Having said that, we obviously talked about when Nayim scored that goal, celebrating as if it were today!