Day Six - Training has begun!

---

By: Aidan Djavadi, Aaron Arias

"We may need to learn how to feel again and learn how to learn again."

Today we transitioned from tourism to water polo. Before our first training with Ferencvárosi Torna Club (FTC) aka "Fraddi" we went to Hero's square. Hero's square is noted for its iconic statue complex featuring the seven chieftains of the magyars and other important national leaders. This land mark is a great recognition for the brave chieftains. This piece of history marked the beginning of the end of our first half in Hungary and the transitioning from tourism to water polo.

FTC is home to well known olympic athletes Dániel Varga, Norbert Madaras, and Stefan Mitrović. As well as being home to these well known athletes, FTC has 79 medals from 1909-1999. After being established in 1899 Fradi was in a Final game after just 10 years and became runner-up. This is important because we remember why we are here. This transition requires a mindset change, we must focus and dial in. This transition enabled our team to perform well and play hard in the scrimmage. Had our minds been stuck on tourism we as a team wouldn't have been able to play well.

Following our scrimmage against Fradi we ate a surprisingly good lunch just outside of the pool where they served a soup with chicken and rice and for dessert, cherry pie. We then took 2 buses back to our hotel in which we were able to rest before our next practice.

Our next practice was not with any hungarians other than our very own Milan. During this practice we warmed up together and worked on 2 specific drills to help us be quick in the water and also our shot blocking. This is all a mental game because it is hard to always have a great mindset when you only train with the same people all the time.

Lastly we had dinner at Stefania's pizzeria where Ethan yet again got a cheese pizza.This day has been a lesson to our team by teaching us how to transition from mental slumber to focus.

- Aidan and Aaron

---