First Practice!!

Putting on the jersey made Madoka feel like a changed girl. Well, not literally of course, but there was a spring in her steps that wasn't there before.

Outside, everyone was still warming up - Tsubaki and Shion were passing back and forth, and Madoka couldn't help but notice how cleanly they were playing.

So why was the team's record so bad if...everyone was really good?

But before she could get her answers for this question, Chizuru waved her over.

"Ishikawa, do you have any problems with your health right now? Any nicks or bumps, anything that bothers you physically?" she asked, typing something in her laptop.

"Oh, umm...I don't think so. Why do you ask, senpai?"

Chizuru answered without looking up on her laptop.

"Can't have you practicing with any injury, can we? Alright, go warm up with Tsubaki and Tokigetsu, they will help you stretch."

Madoka nodded, seemingly quite impressed that Chizuru was taking notes of possible player injuries before practice. It was standard procedure for actual clubs, but usually even in the youth teams she hung around with, this step was usually skipped on training days.

Heading over to Tsubaki and Shion, Madoka felt her mouth get a bit clammy from nervousness before speaking up.

"A-ah umm...Yamamoto-senpai, could you help me stretch please?"

"Hm? Ah, alright, give me a second." Tsubaki sent the pass back to Shion who collected it with a flick of her foot and went off to do...her own thing "Let's get started with some dynamic warmup first then."

It was just the four of them for about 5 minutes, when Madoka heard the sound of footsteps rushing through the tree lines, thumping on the beaten path.

"We're...HERE!!!"

"Hinaaa, slow down!"

Two girls arrived, with the seemingly more excitable one dragging the other by the hand. They shared the same bright cyan hair, though the grinning one had a cool wolf cut and the other one had low twintails.

Chizuru paid the ruckus no mind as she just casually tilted her head to look at them, beckoning them over.

"Hina, Yukimura health check."

"Alrighty then!" The one who Madoka presumed was Hina sprinted over, and even did a flip on her way there as if she was an acrobat!

Also a bit extra.

But like, charmingly extra.

"I think I'm all good, no nothing anywhere. Onee-chan is good too, right?" Hina turned to the more reserved girl, who pushed up her round wide-rimmed glasses and nodded.

"Alright, I'll note that down then." Chizuru tapped her keyboard before looking over at Madoka "Ah, right. Ishikawa, these two are the Yukimura twins. The loud one is Hina and the quiet one is Saya. Yukimura, Hina, this is Madoka Ishikawa, the newbie. Treat her well."

Saya's posture shifted uncomfortably, her eyes slightly downcast as she looked up at Madoka.

"H-hello, I'm...Saya Yukimura...umm...I am a second year, it's a pleasure to meet you."

Hina, meanwhile, had her entire face lit up with joy and curiosity as she ran straight over and got right into Madoka's face.

"Hello!!! Captain told us a bit about you! Wow, you're really cute. Your hair is really cute, what position do you play? How long have you played for? Can you dribble, do you want to see me dribble? Hey, what about-"

Tsubaki intervened, gently pushing Hina away from the overwhelmed Madoka who could barely get a word in.

"That's enough, Hina-san, don't overwhelm her like that." The vice-captain scolded Hina like she was her mother "And Madoka...? Don't worry about answering all of that, Hina-san is just very energetic. I'm sure you'll get to know everyone soon."

Madoka could only nod stiffly.

"O-okay. Um...it's nice to meet you then, Yukimura-san."

And Hina and Saya answered...at the same time

"Nice to meet you too!"

"It's...nice to meet you."

...

Silence.

"See, this is why we call one of them Hina and the other Yukimura if you don't want to be too chummy." Shion did not care as she was more focused on juggling the ball with her foot. "You two, get to changing."

"Aye aye! Come on, Onee-chan!"

And the twins dragged each other into the clubroom.

Practice started soon after when everyone had finished their warmups. Chizuru, with her laptop in hand, started the session for the day.

"Alright, this is technically the first official training of the year and because of that, I don't want to put a lot of expectations on...anyone of us. Everyone will be coming back this week, maybe except for Nishijima who is injured..." she looked at the second years "And because I haven't fully understood Ishikawa's ability yet, we'll start simple today, alright?"

The first drill was a rondo. Madoka knew the drill, obviously. She'd watched enough football to recognize one instantly. But this was the first time she had actually been inside one.

The 4 of them - Madoka, Tsubaki, Shion and Saya - stood in a circle while Hina was in the middle. Meanwhile Chizuru just said...

"Old man bones, can't play. Remember, one touch if you can, two touch if necessary. Hina, don't take it easy on Ishikawa"

And just sat down on the bench nearby, opening up her laptop.

And the game began.

Shion got the ball first, and Hina immediately gave chase, but without even bothering to look engaged, she immediately switched the ball to her other foot and passed it to Saya, who pinged it to Madoka.

Madoka, watching Hina turning to her, accidentally fumbled the control, sending it a bit in front of her. But luckily, she could get to it in time and send a pass to Shion.

Then Tsubaki. Saya. Tsubaki. Madoka again (who luckily did not fumble a pass this time)

"Oh my goshhhh! Why is everyone so good at passing!"

Hina vocally complained, but she was still grinning wide. Chizuru's voice rang from the sidelines.

"Watch how they are pressing and their body orientation, Hina. Stop chasing the ball!"

The ball reached Saya's foot from Shion, but she was facing the keeper's direction...and with Hina closing down on her.

"Eek!"

Saya yelped, luckily getting a pass off to Madoka. But it was slightly underhit, leaving it slowing down in this weird limbo zone...and Madoka paused for a split second because...

'Do I run up to get it? It IS my ball right? In a real game, I'm supposed to walk up for this. But Hina-senpai is closing in, what do I-'

And so, she walked up and received the ball. But now on the ball, with her body facing Hina who was QUICK on her foot, Madoka began freezing.

Foot switch? No, open up a pass to Tsubaki? Turn her body? Shield the ball?

She attempted a foot switch like Shion...but it was too late as Hina easily intercepted with the ball.

"Gotcha!"

"Oh...it's my turn to be the defender then."

As the defender, Madoka did not fare that much better. She knew to watch body orientation rather than pressing with just stamina and speed, but it was much harder than you would expect...

It was virtually impossible to get the ball from Shion.

Tsubaki was hard too.

Saya was probably the easiest but then Saya would also have an escape from pressure.

And Hina...

"Hina, one or two touches only." Chizuru yelled from the sidelines while Hina was juggling the ball on her head.

"Boring! Fine!"

By the end of it, Madoka luckily managed to scrape out an interception from Tsubaki to Hina, ending the rondo.

Chizuru hummed for a second and put down her laptop before stretching her shoulders like she just got up from a really good nap.

"Tsubaki, can you train dribbling with Hina? Focus on your ability to manipulate the defender. Hina, you focus on crossing accuracy, Tsubaki can help you with it. I still have your notes from last year."

Tsubaki nodded and Hina did a salute.

"I understand."

"Aye aye captain! Come on, Tsubaki-senpai!"

Then, Chizuru looked at Saya.

"Saya, your passes are still good, but I want to focus a bit on how you deal with presses from behind you and maintain possession. Shion, can you coach her with this?"

Shion groaned and but she did not vocally complain.

"Alright, come with me, Yukimura."

"Y-yes, I'm coming."

Which left...Madoka and Chizuru together. And Madoka was a nervous wreck - she knew that Chizuru was kind and fair despite how chill she was, but it didn't help with the anxiety of being alone with the captain?!

"Ishikawa."

"Y-YES?!"

"Come with me for a moment, a little walk over there."

As they walked, Chizuru still had her hands in her pockets as she kicked a ball forward. Madoka was lingering a bit behind her.

"How do you like practice thus far? It's not too much for you, is it?"

"N-no, it's really really fun, everyone is really nice!"

"I'm glad you think that way. The girls are nice, but some of them can be a bit...eccentric." Chizuru stopped and turned to face Madoka. "Ishikawa, what do you think you did well that drill and what do you think you could improve on?"

She passed to Madoka. Madoka passed back.

"I...don't think I did that well. I lost possession, I fumbled...I got a lucky interception because Yamamoto-senpai tripped on a bump on the ground."

Chizuru returned the ball.

"There can't be nothing good. Give yourself some credit, Ishikawa."

Madoka played with the ball in her foot - right to left - before sending it back with a disheartened sigh.

"I guess...I kept playing? Kept pressing?"

"You read pressing triggers quite well, actually." Chizuru interrupted her. "And also, your technical baseline is not bad...your touches are good, your control is clean. So don't be too hard on yourself."

The ball returned to Madoka's feet. Right to left. Back again. She kept moving it without really thinking about why.

"But...I still didn't do well..."

"Hm, do you notice what you are doing?"

The redhead looked up at her captain. "E-eh? I-I don't?"

"Look how well you are playing the ball. The actual thing you are lacking is decision making speed and intuition. It sounds contradictory, but footballers at the highest level don't actually think that much."

She pointed to an imaginary whiteboard...and Madoka could somehow imagine it manifesting with bunch of cute chibi shapes.

"Your great understanding of football knowledge is actually both a blessing and a curse. If I show you a tactical diagram, you can probably explain it to me...but you are used to seeing a game from a bird's eye lens like on TV. How did you feel when you were in the rondo?"

Madoka thought about it and spoke up hesitantly like she was afraid of getting it wrong.

"Everyone felt...really packed together?"

"Yep, you got that right. And that's the constraints that footballers have to work with...not every decision is automatically the mathematically optimal decision, and that's normal. Trust your intuition a bit more, don't let your knowledge be a shackle."

Chizuru picked the ball up.

"At first, you will fail...because intuition has to come with experience. But be open-minded to your natural instinct for that case of the game too."

It was...mind-blowing.

Objectively, it was a very simple thing to understand - the Madoka who could easily sleep through Math I and still understand it should be smart enough to understand this intuitively. But she did not...until Chizuru talked to her about this.

But still...

"But what if I get it wrong...?"

"Then you learn from it. A balance is struck when you can find intuition and knowledge a middle ground. That's all."

Chizuru looked kind for a moment...then she sighed loudly and threw the ball back into the center of the field, putting up an air of 'retired old man laziness' again.

"Come on, let's get back to everyone. It's probably time for the main event anyways."

"Main event?"

Chizuru turned a bit, tilting her head with a cat-like grin.

"Yep, 3v3 will be our main course today."