Lead From The Front OL/DL Camp

Lead From The Front OL/DL Camp
Coaches Bio: Jon Walker

Lead From The Front Camp is a 3 day intensive Camp for Offensive and Defensive Linemen here in Kristianstad Sweden. The camp consists of 3 days of practices. Each day there are two practices with lunch provided and a film/clinic session after lunch. I show practice film from camp so players are able to see themselves in the drills. I also clinic new drills using film from the US. Coaches can come and participate in practice and in the clinic sessions and I make sure to set up drills to answer questions and address specific areas the coaches would like help with. 

Lead From The Front Camp is more then just teaching players about football. We talk about the importance of a strong character and leadership. We discuss what traits great leaders possess. We want every player to leave our camp prepared to Lead From The Front not just on the field but in every part of their lives. 

To Register visit www.contactsports.se  or you can print the registration form and email/mail it in. LFTF Registration Form

*discounts are available for groups from the same club and coaches who bring a group from their club can attend for free.

LFTF Now in Arlanda!!

*discounts are available for groups from the same club and coaches who bring a group from their club can attend for free.

2012 Lead From The Front Camp

The 2012 camp went fabulous. We had 35 Lineman attend between the ages of 12-19. Most were from clubs all across Skane. There was one from Nykoping(about 4 hours north) and one all the way from Berlin Germany. The Lead From The Front staff does a great job teaching the players the basic fundamentals of playing O & D Line. The players were focused and motivated to get better. We saw a drastic improvement in everyone from the first practice to the last. Especially with the younger players. The little guys struggled just to get into a good stance in Practice 1 and before the camp was over they were firing off with good pad leverage striking with their hands and driving their feet like the big guys. I was very impressed. The goal of every camp is to teach young players how to practice with great tempo. When every camper leaves they are then able to go back to their home club and spread that tempo and show off their newly developed skills. I made a short highlight film of the camp. enjoy!

If you would like to host a Lead From The Front Camp at your club please contact me for more information: 
Email Coach Walker
Coach.Walker@predators.se

Lead From The Front OL/DL Camp

Lead From The Front OL/DL Camp

Just finished a 3 day intensive Camp for Offensive and Defensive Linemen here in Sweden. The camp went fabulous. We had 25 Lineman attend between the ages of 12-19. Most were from either Kristianstad or the other cities in Skane. There was one from Nykoping(about 4 hours north) and one all the way from Berlin Germany. We had 2 practices each day with lunch and a film session in between. The coaches did a great job teaching the players the basic fundamentals of playing O & D Line. The players were focused and motivated to get better. We saw a drastic improvement in everyone from the first practice to the last. Especially with the younger players. The little guys struggled just to get into a good stance in Practice 1 and before the camp was over they were firing off with good pad leverage striking their hands and driving their feet like the big guys. I was very impressed. I would like to thank everyone involved in helping the camp go off smoothly.  The coaches, Medics, Helpers, Lunch helpers, Ben&Sorin. Thank you all for helping in the success of this weekend. I have made a short highlight film of the camp. enjoy!

Predator Day at the Beach

The past couple days here in Sweden have been amazing. Like 80 degrees sunshine with a cool breeze. Rather then practicing this evening I decided it was Predator day at the beach. We all met in Ahus at 10:00 and found a small sand soccer pit that we could use and did some agility, plyometric and position drills for about 35 minutes, then we strapped the flags on and had a flag football game at the beach. Coach Martin arranged for the local hotel there to provide us with lunch afterward. It was a lot of fun and a good change of pace from practice. Today was the perfect day for it as well. By far the best weather we have had here yet. By the time we left the small beach was loaded with people.

Semester.... Kind of? pt3... 4th of July

Happy 4th to everyone back home

I got home from Stockholm on the 4th of July. Big Nick, an offensive lineman on my team invited me over for a bbq. His Mother Jennifer is an American and they had myself and a couple other friends over for a BBQ and a couple fireworks that they had left over from new years. They live about 30 minutes outside of Kristianstad on a farm. They have cattle, horses, they grow wheat, sugar beats, grass and more on the farm. We got to take a short tour of part of their land. I had a great time and enjoyed the company and good food.

That weekend i went to a small party at one of the U17 parents house. I had a blast. Most of the parents that  were in Nykoping were there plus a few more. It was good to meet some of the new faces and spend sometime with adults for a change. haha.

Last weekend I made the road trip up to Uppsala about 6 hours to watch the Super Series championship game. It was Karlstad Crusaders vs Tyreso Royal Crowns. Both teams had beat the other and it was the making for a great game. I drove the boys from Contact Sports (Sorin&Ben) up in the van full of gear for the Contact Sports Sales booth. It was the first time i had driven since back in the States. It was a very long day on the road but it was a good time.

After spending the practice the week before at Tyreso I was definitely rooting for them to win. I think their coaching staff are great guys and do a great job. Coach Andreas is a very good coach and has been an Anchor for that club for a long time. Coach Billgren is a good dude and i know his players love playing for him. As the game unfolded though it was very clear that Tyreso had their hands full with the QB from Karlstad. He was a big strong athletic kid with a good arm. He was red hot all afternoon and lead the Crusaders to a pretty one sided victory. After the game we packed up the van and cruised home.

Happy BirthDay to my Big Bro!!

Happy B Day to my Big Brother Bryce. Love ya Bro. I hope you have a great day and say hello to the family for me. Miss all of you.

Semester... Kind of? pt 2 Stockholm

Instead of returning home from Nykoping with the DM team. I decided since i was so close to Stockholm that i would hop on the train and go sightseeing for a couple of days. Stockholm is a relatively old city made up of hundreds of small islands connected together. It is a beautiful city, each Island had its own unique look and vibe. I got there Sunday evening. Found my Hotel and after checking in i walked around downtown looking for a good spot for Dinner. I found a place not too far. A Belgian brewpub that was showing the Euro2012 Soccer Championship. I stopped in there and had a couple different Belgium Beers and a very tasty hamburger. It was a nice night. I met a couple guys who were from the Bay Area and were in Stockholm for a convention. We hung out and watched Spain dominate for their 2nd straight European Champinoship.

The next day I bought a 24 hour hop on hop off bus tour pass and went and checked out the city. I forgot to take my camera so i was using my iPhone for pictures and it went dead and i didn't know the pin # to turn it back on so i only got a handful of photos. I first went to see the Wasa Museum. Everyone that i talked to said that it was a must see and they were right. A very cool place. It is a museum built around this 380 year old ship that had sunk in the Harbor of Stockholm in 1628. It was supposed to be the flag ship of the Swedish Navy and was the biggest and baddest war ship in all of northern Europe at the time. But on its maiden voyage from the Slussen in Stockholm it sank after traveling like 100o meters from shore. The ship sat at the bottom of the sea for 333 years before it was found and brought up in the 1960's. Because it was sitting in a lot of mud and because the salt content is so low that far inland that the ship was almost perfectly persevered over that time. It is 95% completely original.

Next I went to the Royal Palace. I din't take the full tour but it was pretty awesome to see the size and grandeur. Also to see the different royal crowns and jewels was pretty cool. The Royal Palace is on an Island called old town. Which is the historic district of Stockholm. All the streets are very small lined with all kinds of small shops, resturaunts, cafes and tourist traps. I walked around and found a good place to eat lunch then walked past a Glass Shop (Ice Cream Shop that was making their waffle cones in the store window. So i stopped and got a scoop and found a nice cafe to hang out at and people watch.

The next day I went to the Museam of Modern Art. It was cool it had some nice paintings from a lot of the famous Artists, Picasso, Dali, etc. I then hopped on the subway and made my way out to a suburb of Stockholm called Tyreso. Tyreso is the home of one of the best Football teams in Sweden. I had met their Def Cor. at the DM tournament and i asked if I could come by and check out their practice and watch them prepeare for the first round of the playoffs for the Super Series. I am very glad that i went. It was good to see the level of competition that we will be facing next year. to be able to gauge what we need to do from now until next season to be ready to compete against the best of Sweden. the good news is is that i don't think we are too far away. If our guys dedicate themselves in the off-season i think we can compete against the best teams.

The Wasa Museum

The back of the ship, captains quarters

One of the many bridges in Stockholm.  

The Royal Palace, Right before my phone died.  

 After Midnight in Stockholm, The sky is still light.

The house of Nobles 

Semester... Kind of? pt 1... DM

It has been a while since i have posted in my blog. So here is my attempt to catch you up to speed with my adventures the last 3 or 4 weeks.

Predators Football

As the end of June approached the team began to go into holiday mode a bit to early. Partially because of the schedule where we had 2 bye weeks and one of the teams we played was extremely bad so it was hard to keep motivated and stay focused. Our last game was against Ekeby. A team that although is short on players they are very aggressive and play very hard. We beat them 57-6 the first time around but i knew that it would be a much more difficult game this time around. First I knew they would probably play their best game of the year just because they were playing us. It was also the first weekend of the month long vacation season in Sweden and I knew we would be missing a lot of players. Our starting RB, and both starting Tackles were in Austin Texas representing Sweden for the Junior world championships. 2 Defensive lineman are injured, 2 Linbackers were sick and did not make the trip and all 4 Safeties were on vacation. To top it off I had signed on to coach a U17 All-Star team and the national tournament was that same weekend so I would not be at the game as well.

All of those things made me a little nervous but i have great faith in my defensive coordinator Patrick Bill and i new that our QB Phil Juhlin, with the help of or veteran WRs Ben, Sorin and Mackan was more then capable of leading our offense. We won the game 28-6. Which was a big difference from the first game but i really don't care. We won and came away completely healthy. That I am very happy about.

The DM team that i was coaching was up in a town called Nykoping pronounced "Newshipping". Which is about an hour south of Stockholm and about 4 hours north of Kristianstad. I coached the defense. Which was a nice change of pace. I haven't really coached defense in quite some time so it was fun to get back into it. Our team had alot of talent on it and i knew we would do well in the tournament. But we had some key players missing on offense so I new the defense would have to play great. Our defense did just that. We shut out 3 of the four teams we played giving up a single TD to the team from Stockholm. Our Offense started out slow like I had expected but they found their rythym late in the first game and they never looked back getting better and better each game. We really dominated all for of the other regions. Those kids did a great job playing together with such a short amount of time to practice.

It was a great weekend. I had a hotel room in the same hotel as about 10 of the parents from the team and was able to hang out with them at night and get to know them better. They are great people and very dedicated parents. I had a lot of fun.