This is Harder Than I Thought...

I thought to myself, there's no way I can practice today. There's zero chance.

I feel that Luis have this passion and love for this sport that not so many players have.

So the USA national team head coach just resigned. There's no coach right now. If you do it, it's an incredibly big accomplishment. I'm thinking of going for 20, 28. Like, I'm literally handballed. You think you can do it? Something that I think is even more valuable, which is and failing and being okay with, like being thrilled that you don't have to. Reg Lewis house. They've broken the whole house and ripped it apart. Martha's not coming. She's not coming the whole trip. Somebody just broke in his car. He took the stuff out of his car.

So I am coach Danny Gordo. I am from Valladolid, but I feel that I am born in Leon because of. I come here 20 years ago and I grew up in this club in De Marleon. My passion is humble. My passion is try to help the players to find their best and try to push them to get their goals. I think this is the reason that I am a coach. This is the same feeling that I had, like goalkeeper, now I have in the bench. Something like that.

Lunes Monday, start of week two. Week one was probably one of the most intense weeks, I don't know, in the last couple years. Just with all the emotions, the ups and downs, the break ins, the practice, my body being sore, just so much happening. I'm glad we made it through. We made it through week one and we just started week two practice. I was a little worried because the end of last week, my body was exhausted. My body was just beaten up. My feet were hurting, my knees, everything was tired. But luckily we had a few days off to recover. So I felt pretty good today. My feet and body's a little sore, but it's way better than the last couple days. Today's practice, I felt a little sluggish, though. They were really starting to get into more tactical stuff with a lot of speed. And they were just kind of blowing right by me. So I felt the six years of not playing today in terms of, oh, man, I gotta really remember how to play this game. I gotta learn more. I gotta watch these guys who are pros and really kind of mimic their movements, mimic their strategy and just kind of study it and then go practice it and try to do it myself. So I was a step behind all these guys. Made some good plays here and there, but I just have such a High standard. I want every play to be great. So it felt, felt a little off. But not every day is going to be some perfect day of practice or perfect performance. You're not always going to be able to be the most elite level every single day. And I know that. And I also knew when that happens, it's more about, hey, just give your best in this next play. Just give your best in this next play. Learn, give good effort, do your best. But it doesn't have to be the best. And so we've got practice tomorrow, then I'll take a rest day, practice the next day, and then they're playing a game. So it is going to be a very intense week of practice, sprinting non stop. And hopefully I'll get some reps in start of week two. Off to a good start. Healthy, recovering. It's a beautiful day. We got the river, we got the greenery. Life is good. I can't wait to see what we create all week. It's going to be better than last week. That's what my plan is.

Last summer, he texted me from Paris. He was watching one handball match in the Olympics. He called me, Danny, I have a dream. I want to play Olympics with my team, with my country. We are going to play in LAA in 2028. I want to be part of this. And this is your dream. But also it's my dream that you could be there. Why not? We start to make a plan. The first step is recover these kind of feelings that you need to have to be a handball player. And now, during this month, I hope that we can get this goal. I feel that Luis have this passion and love for this sport that not so many players have. I hope that we can work together for this dream.

So the mind and the body are a funny thing because I woke up this morning in utter agony. Pain. My legs. I could not move my legs. I got up, I needed to go to the bathroom. I literally stood up. It took me like five minutes to walk to the bathroom. I thought to myself, there's no way I can practice today. There's zero chance. And in my mind, I gave up. I was like, no, I have to listen to this. There's so much pain. Like, I can't play today. I'm gonna hurt myself. I literally texted the coach and I said, hey, I think I need a rest day. I'm gonna come back tomorrow and recover. He said, no problem. So I went back to sleep thinking, okay, I don't have to go into practice. Then I wake up two hours Later I get up, I feel, start to feel a little bit better. I start stretching, I start doing the rolling my feet out. I start stretching my legs, rolling my legs out. I'm like, huh, okay, I'm starting to feel a little bit better. So I text him back and I go, hey, what's a better day to rest? Is it today a better day or tomorrow a better day? And he goes, come today, it's going to be a good day of practice. I'm like, okay, I think I can get through today. End up going to practice. I probably felt the best that I felt since the beginning. I had my best practice. The coach said, he was like, this is your best practice. And it just goes to show that, like, your mind can play tricks on you. It's amazing what just a couple hours of extra sleep or a couple hours of just processing and stretching and moving. Once I started to move, like my body started to flow better. It's just amazing what you can do when you don't allow your mind to have control over you now. More or less. Good, good. See, in the other year, all, all is black in this city, in this moment. No. Okay. It is a beautiful day here in Leon. I'm just leaving the treatment, therapy, treatment that I had. Interesting thing that happened yesterday after practice, I'm going to the locker room and one of the guys, one of the teammates in the locker room was kind of just sitting there with his hand on his head, like leaned over and I was like, everything okay, man? And he said, I'm old. I go, how old are you, bro? He said, 21, dude, I'm 42. I'm, I'm double your age. And I go, old is a mindset. It's in the mind. You've got to approach life with a childlike energy and attitude. You've got to approach life with a, a joy, a pleasure, a fun. A couple of the guys were in the treatment center as well, and I was chatting with them as I was getting work done. They came in the office and said hi to me. And I was just being playful with them. And I think too often when we think old thoughts and we think tired thoughts, when we think challenging thoughts, we put our mindset in this. Life is hard or this is tough, or I'm exhausted. Our body's going to follow the way we think. And the more light hearted we make things, the more gentle we make things, the more playful, fun we make things. Gosh, our body's gonna respond. We're gonna feel younger, we're gonna feel Healthier. We're gonna feel lighter, happier, and we're not gonna be carrying this pressure and this weight around us all day because we're saying, oh, I'm old, I'm tired, or, oh, it's hard, or it's unfair, whatever. Like, I get it. Life is challenging. Life is hard at times. It's even harder when you think it is. And when you just make life about play, about fun, about generosity and kindness and gosh, enjoying the moment. Like, it's such a gift. It's such a. Like, look at this. I'm in the middle of Spain right now, living the dream. There's this incredible buildings and walkways and churches. It's freaking epic. I'm training with guys half my age, and I haven't played in six years. And I've got pains in my toe. I've got turf toe. I tore my Achilles two years ago. My shoulder's hurting me. Yes, all those things are true also. And do I want to let them rob me of my joy in the moment? No. I want to enjoy my life. I want to enjoy my day. I mean, look at this. This is freaking epic. This church. This is epic. Life is epic. When you look at it with that type of mindset, when you look at the mentality, that. Man, what a gift. What a joy to be able to be alive right now. What an opportunity. My buddy just texted me. He used to be on the USA team. So the USA National Team head coach just resigned. There's no coach right now? No, it just happened this weekend. So, I mean, you go through a coaching selection process, like, rather. I. I don't think they're going to name an interim. They're just going to go right into the selection. What a crazy whirlwind, man. I thought he was going to be the coach. He told me if I'm playing in Europe and I'm performing at a high level, that he would have me on the team. So now this puts a whole wrinkle in my. In my journey. Crazy, crazy plot twist. So I talked to the coach that I played with for a few years. This was like a year ago after the Olympics. And I was telling him, hey, I want to come back. What's it going to take? And he said, you need to be playing with teams in Europe professionally, then I'll come watch you and kind of like evaluate your play. And I was like, well, what if I'm just as good as everyone else, you know, in the next three years? He goes, then you'll have a spot on the team. He's like, if you're looking good and you're helping us in a lot of different ways, then we should have a spot for you. So now that coach isn't going to be there. So it's like, okay, who's the next coach? Is he actually open minded to having a 45 year old on the USA team? That's like. Or is he going to be like, no, I just want the young guys to play and learn. So this is a big like twist where I have no, it's either going to be huge in my favor where it's like, okay, he wants more American born players that are actually going to, you know, represent America because most of the players on the team are European with American passport. Like they're one of their parents was born in America or something. So it's either going to be a massive win or another big challenge of figuring out who's his coach. Enrolling him in my dream and vision and making sure that he sees the value in me as an athlete that can compete at a high level, but also as a leader in spreading the story and the message of USA handball where no one knows about it in America. And so hopefully this new coach, whoever they choose, will be someone that sees the value in that. More uncertainties. We'll see what happens. I have no idea. Who knows?

Luis has something special. Luis loves this sport. I feel it, I smell it. I see him in his eyes when he scores one goal or when he miss one action, how he gets frustrated with himself. So there is something inside of him that you can buy or you can sell. You have it or not have it. And Luis has this also. I speak with the guys, with my players here in Leon. I said this kind of illusion that he has for the sport. Maybe some of you, me also. We have to have Luis like example. We can teach him, but also we are going to learn a lot from him. I think that he's going to spend everything for get this dream. Speak with coaches, with players, try to learn from everyone who can teach some topics, some details about handball. For sure he's going to do everything. He will find the places, the times to this performance that he needs for being one of the 14 players who play in Olympics in 2028 in we are going to be here for help him AD Maron me, my players, my staff, because I think that he really deserve it.

Martha just got here. She just arrived, her and her mom. So I'm going to go grab them real quick, get their bags. Bienvenidos. Good to see you. Come on. Come on in. Hola. Hola. Good to see you. Come on in. She's arrived. She's arrived. Going outside. So happy to be here. Feel good to be here.

Yes.

Hola, Spain. Hello, Michael. For a long time. All right, so we finished week two again. Week one was an interesting experience, to say the least. Just lots of ups and downs, but to get through this first week was a. Was a big one. Second week, again, I was feeling pretty sore still, but I started to feel better at the end of the week, and I wasn't sure if Martha was going to come or not. It was this uncertainty, but she was able to make it, so she just changed her flight to come a little bit later. So it's. It's good to finally get her. Her mom's visiting as well, so we got to experience a little bit of the city together. We got to go to the church and kind of just experience the awe of how they built this incredibly massive church. I think it's over a thousand years old, and with 5,000 people in the city, they built it in in 50 years, it's pretty amazing to see how they created this work of art. I feel like I'm finally starting to get. Getting the flow after the second week. Like, the body is starting to get a little bit better. I'm still doing treatment. I'm still sore and tired, but I'm like, I'm not as sore. I don't feel like my legs are going to fall off now. It's more about making sure I continue to maintain my strength, continue to stay flexible so that I don't injure myself, and just keep elevating a little bit by little bit. And now I feel like I can think while I'm playing. It's. It's like, okay, I'm not making as many mistakes. I'm out on the court. I'm able to, like, adjust and shoot a little differently. I'm able to recover faster as opposed to just being thrown back in the game after six years. So it feels good about that again. The Spanish league in Spain, they play very fast, they're very smart, and they play extremely fast. So to come back after six years of not playing into, like, one of the top leagues with that speed and that quickness and that intelligence, since it's just been a lot, hopefully these final couple weeks, I can start to improve. I can start to see myself get better. I can start to see the hard work paying off. Thank you guys for watching this video. If you haven't yet, subscribed. Make sure to subscribe below and watch the previous video to see all the chaos and excitement that happened in the first video. We've got more great content coming soon, so make sure to subscribe. Click the notification. I'll see you in the next video. So the USA National Team head coach just resigned. There's no coach right now. More uncertainties. We'll see what happens.