It´s has been a year since Share & Play started! Why did I start in this journey? Easy question, easy answer: I was not just playing handball in my 19 seasons as professional, I was also learning. The experience was not only taken on the court but beyond the game. In every different situation I was involved I had the opportunity to learn or to improve. Many foreign players, many different cultures, many different ways of life. There was the student one, the artist, the lazy one, the religious, the fitness addict, the businessman, and the wild ones among others. I started playing handball with one of the greatest generations in the 90s, I keep playing with the next generation in the 00s and I finished with the present generation in the 10s. Time changes and we change as well, that´s why there´re many differences between every player and every generation, so I was able to contrast all this differences from my country and from a different country when I moved out from Spain. It was like keeping experiences as ¨colours¨, I was just avid to see and to learn. Every travel, every team, every player brought me more ¨colours¨ to my palette. Believe me, nothing less than amazing.
Long before my professional retirement I took a decision, I wanted to help sport and I wanted to educate kids and athletes to take advantages from sport. I always had a strong social commitment, so the idea was to solve some actual problems through sport, because I know how powerful sport is. The future must be different; we need healthier and better-qualified kids. Kids are kids and they should be playing with no discrimination, no matter the gender or the colour of their skin. They need to enjoy, they need to smile, while playing because this period of life is never coming back. It was time for me to start painting the picture, It was time to start sharing the experiences and knowledge for the good of the kids and the athletes. Do you want some advice? Enjoy the process, seize the day.
Everything started in Berlin, where I came with an idea and a plan. It was clear to me what do I wanted to achieve but between the purpose and the goal it was an empty hole. With the help and advices from my friends from Street Football World I was able to compress the idea and turn it into a concept.
The concept was defined after some months of hard working to develop the methodology and transfer the concept into a program. Web design, scientific researches, meetings with partners, meetings with schools, and several other tasks included didn´t let me too many free time. But I was enjoying every second. I wasn´t earning any money but I felt more satisfied than ever.
I was building something at the same time I was facing the retirement and the unemployment, two new words for me. That means low-low-budget travelling and control cost, to be able to visit companies, clubs and organizations around Europe.
And this is how we started, with a four months pilot program in the Primary School from Dutenhofen. The results were fantastic and very optimistic, in only four months kids got the concept of the program and improved in all the topics as well as they changed the way to see some subjects. The goal was fulfilled.
Summertime was perfect to do some adjustment and to get ready the program for the new season. A few schools and clubs were interested and it was time to adapt the contents to every need. Nowadays we are present in 4 schools and 2 clubs. At the end of the day we´re working with around 88 kids. The rate of improvement is growing up and we´re about to close some more agreements in the next months.
Thanks to everyone to make this dream possible, we´re building an awesome community!
