February 2024

London, Manual Driving, My Training Schedule

Welcome back to another edition of Dodson Diaries!

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Thank you all for the support of my last newsletter. This month, I am writing about my trip to London, learning how to drive a manual car, my typical training schedule, and some random thoughts I had while walking around Gernika. I hope you enjoy it!

London

As I mentioned last month, I could only play in the playoffs during the Round of 16 for EuroCup, but I am so glad I did. For the second game in the two-game series, we traveled to London, a place I have always wanted to visit, and I got to meet family I never met before. Unlike most away games where we arrive the night before and play the following day, on this trip, we arrived in the morning. Later that evening, we had a couple of hours to sightsee. I saw the London Eye, Big Ben and the London Bridge. I remember that night being extremely chilly, but regardless I am happy we went. The hotel we stayed at was in Stratford close to the Olympic Park, which was about a 30-minute train ride to the attractions. The trains were very easy to use. I have never been on a train where you can pay simply using ApplePay on your phone. I am always blown away at how clean and efficient public transportation is in Europe.

While we did not have time to try English food, I did have a chance to try a typical English breakfast in London, and it was quite tasty. Granted, I only had it because I was starving after our flight there and it was the closest “breakfast” establishment to our hotel. I definitely could have gotten a better-quality one, but at least I can say that I tried it.

An English breakfast usually consists of baked beans, fried eggs, bacon, sausage, tomatoes, mushrooms, hashbrowns, and toast.

The biggest highlight of the trip was meeting my family. They were very excited to see me play and even went through the trouble of making custom sweatshirts with my picture and number on the back. Even though we lost the game, things like this help me feel grounded and remember that a loss doesn’t have to define the whole moment. After the game, the team allowed my family to have dinner with us which I appreciated a lot. Since playing overseas, I have always been amazed at chance encounters like the one with my family in London.

Driving a manual car

For those who don’t know, the majority of cars in Europe are manual or “stick shift”. According to a Wall Street Journal article (linked here), 80% of European cars are manual compared to 1% in the US. While automatic cars are becoming more common in Europe, they are still not easy to get. In my contract, I asked for an automatic car, but none were available. I have been learning how to drive a manual car for a month. We have a sponsorship with a local Audi dealership in Spain, so I have an Audi manual car which is cool. The car is special to me because it is my first private car. In Poland, I did not receive a car, and in New Zealand, I had to share a car with two other Americans. Having the freedom to drive to Bilbao or the supermarket whenever I want is great.

This is my car! My teammate helped me learn how to drive one night.

My teammates who learned how to drive manually told me it is like learning to ride a bike. While I see the similarity of this analogy in terms of continuously practicing being the most important, I think a more accurate description of how it feels is learning how to ride a bike with three pedals, a gear shift, and if you touch the wrong pedal or gear the bike stops.

I am learning this driving skill in a very unorthodox way compared to how I learned to drive in high school. In my first driving lesson, our general manager took me to the parking lot to learn. She barely speaks English, so it was quite comical trying to figure out what she was saying I needed to do. One thing I remember vividly is the amount of times she would say, “Suave suave!”, which means gentle in Spanish, as I came off the clutch or accelerator too fast and had to restart the car. Her teaching philosophy is trial by fire because before I knew it she had me the same day driving on the road to the beach that was 20 minutes away. I missed the turn to the first beach we were going to, so we ended up at this scenic pier called El Anchovi. I practice driving a couple of days a week to continue to get better. I am still learning, but I am proud of my progress and keeping with it. I can drive to the airport, in the city of Bilbao and my parking skills have improved. I still have another driving lesson “scheduled” to learn how to drive and park on hills which is challenging. My three-pedal bike with gear shift is not so scary after all.

Training Schedule

Since we are not in the Eurocup anymore, we have one game a week usually on Saturday. We have off the day after the game and sometimes a day during the week like Wednesday. This was our training schedule for last week.

The past couple of weeks have been similar with some changes depending on if we play home or away.

For example, we had a lift and practice on Monday. The lift is usually 45 minutes and the practice afterward is around 2 hours. Once or twice a week we will have two practices in a day. These days are the most brutal. Overall on paper, it isn’t a lot of time, but just like a regular job, there are a lot of unbillable hours that we put in. For example, on Thursday even though we have practice at 4:30, I usually come an hour before to do some activation exercises and form shoot. Then after practice, I might stay for 30 minutes to get some extra shots up. While the practice might only be 2 hours, I spent about 4 hours in the gym in total. Furthermore, before practice, I usually stretch at home for about 20 minutes and after do recovery like my compression boots. On game day usually, the whole day is devoted to getting ready for the game. Now, I am grateful for the amount of hours we spend because it still isn’t as much as a regular 9-5 job, but it is very physically demanding and has its unique challenges.

Walking Occurences

Something I would NEVER do willingly at home is walk; however, in Gernika I have come to enjoy my 10-minute walk to the gym or other places around town. For example, every day on my way to practice, I pass a river and I enjoy watching the ducks and other birds gathered below, especially in the morning. It is very peaceful and whenever I pass I like to see if my bird friends are there.

The river I pass on the way to the gym. You can see some of my bird friends if you look closely.

Below are some random thoughts or occurrences I have had on my walks around town.

• I have found it interesting that in a country that drives on the right side of the road, people tend to move to the left when passing someone heading in the opposite direction on the street. I thought the unspoken norm would be to stay to the right, but I have been mistaken multiple times when I walk on the street.

• I never see anyone while walking either drinking or eating. In the US, it is common to see someone at least holding a coffee or something in the city. In Gernika, I do not recall seeing anyone do so. The only time I see someone walking with something food-related is a loaf of bread they just bought at the bakery. A small detail, but I think it points to how the lifestyle here is not nearly as rushed.

• A couple of Mondays ago, I decided to go to the market. I remember being shocked to see people at 11:30 am on a MONDAY relaxing outside restaurants and bars drinking coffee and socializing. I even checked the time on my watch due to my utter disbelief. I guess my American is showing.

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