Vital Heynen is part of what many would consider to be a new volleyball coaching school, one that is very rational and well spoken. His results in the domestic circuit speak for themselves, as he has lead the modest VfB Friedrichshafen to relevant status in European play.
Most recently, his work was recognized when he was awarded Poland’s Men’s National Team’s head coach position. His mission is of course a very difficult one: help the Polish squad defend its World Championship title later this year. Regardless, he has embraced the challenge with open arms, implementing his communicatve ways from the beginning.
In a recent interview published by Siatka.org, Heynen made known his opinions on what he considers to be the optimal way to prepare his team.
“When we look at many players, even in Poland, they have no place to compete at the international level. That is why the League of Nations is the best place for this. I suspect that the vast majority of national teams will also use this competition to test line-up changes. We have two years to the Olympics, so this is a great time to see what you have in your roster. During training, you can not see everything. I do not like the term “experiment”. Regardless of everything, you want to win, but the goal is always to improve the quality of the team.
Do you know what was the biggest problem is in Poland? That it always played strictly for the results. Instead of checking the new players in the World League, instead of giving the opportunity to less experienced players, everyone was focused on instant success. This is a bad way to take things. After all, volleyball players such as Damian Schulz and Łukasz Kaczmarek are lacking experience, and if an attacker is taken to the World Championship, for example, without prior experience, the chances of victory are zero. Poland should organize the League of Nations finals every two years, because then it could easily try out its new players. Besides, experimenting does not mean that we will lose. In every game I want to win, but the most important this year will be the World Championship.”
Heynen opinions are very well founded. The World League, now called Nations League, is contested every year, with the World Championship and Olympic Games being much rarer, and much more important, competitions. There is no reason to go all out in them if they present themselves to be fancy training grounds for better goals.
Vital Heynen Is Learning Polish To Better Communicate With His Players
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