The first session with a player from Onitsha lasted six minutes. He answered every question in monosyllables and left early.
The second session, the counsellor switched to Pidgin. The player stayed for an hour.
Language is not just communication — it is trust. For many Nigerian athletes, formal English is the language of authority, of report cards, of things that go wrong.
When we started running Pidgin-first sessions, attendance doubled within a month. Drop-out rates fell by 60%.
One goalkeeper from Warri told us: "When you talk to me in Pidgin, I know you're not writing a report. You're just talking to me."
That distinction — between documentation and conversation — is everything in sports psychology.
"When you talk to me in Pidgin, I know you're not writing a report. You're just talking to me."
— Goalkeeper, Warri FC U-20