In September it was finally time, namely 13 weeks of internship in southern Spain. In sunny Fuengirola, which is located exactly between Málaga and Marbella. I left for Spain in good spirits, but already in the first weeks I had to deal with some disappointments. Like the point that family and friends wouldn’t be able to visit me in Spain because of the negative travel advice, I missed the hockey game and I already saw my belly grow from the delicious Spanish food. So what’s the solution for my belly and no closest friends and family? Find a hockey club and play hockey in Spain! That is easier said than done, because there are only 12 hockey clubs in Andalusia. I was lucky because in the town next to Fuengirola there is a hockey club called C.H.P Benalmádena.
Difficult contact
The first contact was a bit difficult, because I couldn’t find an email address to get in touch with. After some hesitation, I finally sent a message on Twitter and in the end I received an e-mail address and I could see what options there are. There was room in the 2nd team which plays in the Andalusia League, perfect for me. What followed is something I did not know from the Netherlands: paperwork. In the Netherlands you register with an association and pay your contribution, but in Spain that is not so easy. In total I had to sign or deliver 6 documents. Fortunately, this was all arranged in a week and I was able to participate.
When the first day of training started, I immediately got the question: how would I get to the hockey club? I don’t have a car or any other means of transport here in Spain and public transport is hell. Fortunately, several Spanish Dutchmen play at the club. This allowed me to be picked up from a station and ride along to the training. Along the way we tried to get to know each other a bit with poor English / Spanish. After a 10 minute drive through the mountains and past typical white Spanish houses we arrived at a hockey field. It’s the most beautiful place for a hockey club I’ve ever seen. On the one side mountains and the white houses and on the other side the Mediterranean Sea and the touristic cities.
Hockey in Spain
We enter the grounds and in my limited Spanish I introduce myself. Everyone is very friendly and I click with some of them right away. After some warming up and warming up, we will start training and that is difficult to understand in the beginning. In the Netherlands it is short and quick to start, but here in Spain they explain it for a long time with a lot of extra instructions.
We train in Spain the same as in the Netherlands, much on passing and technique, but the game at the end of the training betrays differences with how we play hockey in the Netherlands. In Spain it is much more about the action and playing hockey on each other like an ant’s nest, while in the Netherlands the focus is on using the spaces and passing. It is precisely the differences that make it fun and challenging to play hockey in another country and gain more experience.
I also played in the competition which is a completely different experience. It means even more paperwork and even a medical exam (which boils down to: Do you have a heart condition? No? Okay, then you can play hockey). Furthermore, an away game is quite an undertaking. Namely long travel time, a lot of waiting, but also fun. We played against SADUS, the hockey club from Seville. So what meant a journey of 3 hours there and 3 hours back.
Club against club
In the Netherlands we are used to playing against each other as teams, on the other hand in Spain you play as a club against a club. This means that you go to Seville with the whole club with a tour bus and then have to wait until everyone has played. As a result, you spend the whole day on the game, while in the Netherlands you lose a maximum of a few hours. My alarm went off at 5 am to go to Seville. After a quick breakfast, I headed to the station to catch the 6am train to Benalmádena. At 7 o’clock we boarded the bus to Seville. Everyone grabbed a few more hours of sleep to appear fit and awake at the game. After a good journey through the quiet hinterland of Andalusia, we finally arrived in Seville. Unfortunately, the men’s team was not allowed to enter the complex yet because of Corona.
We used that time to have breakfast at a restaurant and discuss the game. Around 12 o’clock we could finally enter the complex and get ready for the game. Unfortunately we lost the game 3-2 in the last minutes, and that hurts even more when you’ve been on the road for so long. In the end, I was back home around 7:00 PM, while this match was still relatively ‘close’, as San Fernando and Jaén are even further away.
End of the internship period
Finally, this week is unfortunately my last week in Spain and I will have to say goodbye to the team and hockey in Spain. It is a pity that I cannot finish the whole season, especially because we are first and I want to contribute to the championship. Fortunately, many airlines fly to Malaga from the Netherlands, so I will probably fly back and forth a few more times next year to support the team and maybe play a few more games. If they go to the national championship, I will definitely want to be there.
