Okay, here’s my blog post about my little Taiwan football adventure.
## Taiwan Football: My Try-Out Experience
Alright folks, so lately I’ve been messing around with football, or soccer as some of you weirdos call it. Never really played seriously before, always just a casual kickabout with mates. But I was watching some Taiwan Premier League games online and thought, “Hey, that looks kinda fun, maybe I should give it a shot.”
So, I started by just looking up local football clubs. Did a bunch of searching and found a team that wasn’t too far from where I live. They had open tryouts coming up. I figured, what the heck, nothing to lose.
First thing I did was start hitting the gym a bit more. Been slacking lately so I needed to get my lazy butt in gear. Started doing some cardio, you know, running and stuff. Also tried to do some basic football drills in my backyard. Kicking a ball around, trying to dribble without tripping over my own feet, the usual.
The day of the tryout arrived and I was nervous as hell. I rocked up to the field and saw a bunch of other guys, all looking way more athletic than me. They all had their fancy football boots and matching tracksuits. I felt like a right knob in my old trainers and baggy shorts.
Then the coach showed up, a serious looking dude with a whistle permanently attached to his mouth. He barked some instructions, mostly in Mandarin but I picked up a few key words. We started with some basic warm-up drills. Stretching, jogging, the usual stuff. Then we moved onto passing drills.
- Passing drills: This is where I almost made a fool of myself. I hadn’t really practiced passing properly and my passes were all over the place. Some went too far, some went too short. I felt like an idiot.
- Shooting drills: Surprisingly, I wasn’t terrible at this. I managed to get a few shots on target, although nothing spectacular. I think the goalie was being nice to me.
- Scrimmage: This was the killer. We played a short scrimmage and I was completely gassed after like five minutes. The other guys were running circles around me. I tried to make some tackles but mostly just ended up flailing around like a fish out of water.
After the tryout, I was exhausted and pretty demoralized. I felt like I had made a complete prat of myself. I thanked the coach and went home feeling defeated.
The Result:
A few days later, I got an email from the club. It wasn’t the email I was hoping for. Basically, they said that while they appreciated my enthusiasm, my skill level wasn’t quite up to par. In other words, I wasn’t good enough.
So, yeah, I didn’t make the team. But you know what? I’m not giving up. I’m going to keep practicing and maybe try again next year. At least now I know what to expect. And hey, I got a good workout out of it. Who knows, maybe one day I’ll be good enough to play in the Taiwan Premier League! Probably not, but a guy can dream, right?
Anyway, that was my Taiwan football try-out experience. It was tough, embarrassing at times, but also kind of fun. If you’re thinking about trying something new, even if you’re not very good at it, I say go for it. You might surprise yourself. Or at least get a good laugh out of it.
