Thirteen-year-old Bruno inherited his love for soccer from his dad, and he’s been playing on a team for most of his life. But at EXPLO, he made the decision to try something different, learning some new skills in a sport he’s always wanted to try.
I’ve been playing soccer since I was little. My dad was really a fan, so we would watch a lot and play a lot in our backyard together. He would buy me soccer uniforms for a team that he would cheer for, which is normally Brazil. My favorite player is Cristiano Ronaldo. He knows a lot of skills and he’s really good at them. He has a powerful kick, and I do, too, kind of. I make goals with it.
Communication is a really good thing in soccer, and you have to think really quickly and connect with your teammate to pass before someone else gets in the way. Teamwork is important because you can’t score on your own; there’s a lot of people on the other team and you can’t get past them on your own.
But even though I love soccer, I chose not to play it here at EXPLO. I already play for a team and there’s no point doing something you do so much somewhere else. There's so many new things here that I wanted to try. I’m in the badminton workshop and it’s really fun. There was a badminton tournament at my school that I couldn’t do because I've only played a few times, so I thought I could really learn more and improve. For example, when you do the backhand, your hand should be around the waist level and you have to use a lot of your wrist. I wasn't that good with it, but I got better here.
Casey Kim