Winter training officially started last week. Of course there has been training sessions throughout the off-season, but now the team has a weekly training sessions in the air dome in Hervanta. Unfortunately winter football facilities are so limited in Tampere that just one weekly session is all we can get at the moment, and getting promoted a few times seems to be the easiest way for us to improve the situation. In fact, as of now we should be happy that we have a chance to train indoors in the winter at all.

Today I had the opportunity to observe the last 15 minutes of the first team’s training session. It was great to see that the pace was high and everybody was working hard. And when I say everybody, that is 23 players, which is very impressive for a team that plays in Vitonen (sixth tier). Everybody seemed to be having fun too, and the atmosphere was altogether very positive.

In addition to the official first team training sessions, many players

have been training weekly in the small field in Kissat-halli. This is an indoors facility with a very small field, about sixth of the size of a regular football field. Eventually this will be where the second team will have their training sessions, but for now it has been a mix of supporters, former first team players, and current first team players having a kickaround together. To me this is another way in which we are a special club. Of course training on such a small field is not ideal, it

is intended for kid’s teams after all, but it is of course much better than nothing. A year ago it was in fact all we had for winter training, and we ended up doing okay once the season started.