Hopefully our world will get over this pandemic soon. Of course nobody was expecting a long break like this. This is a new situation for everyone, but the most important thing is that our players have not stopped working completely and are continuing to be physically active at home.”
“Sometimes we invite some players in groups of two to control their situation but not all of them together. Besides, some of our foreign players have already returned home. For example, Saliha Sahin went back to her hometown Ankara. It is not easy when your team is immobilised but the technical staff still work regularly.”
Coaches have the difficult task of planning ahead without knowing when competitions can resume again, but Motta thinks it is a good time to evaluate what the team and the players have done so far and what they can improve on.
“The most important thing is this is a time to plan,” the Brazilian mentor said. “We are trying to plan the next step by assessing our players’ current condition and progress. Also we watch videos and look at reports while we are at home. It is a good time to study. Now we have time to get a closer look into things.
“At the moment a lot of coaches and physical trainers have private meetings. It is easy to find each other because everyone is at home, so now we have time to talk to each other. I am also able to talk to my family for an hour or an hour and a half each day, we have time and we create our own routines.”
Motta also believes that this period is a good opportunity for players to recover from injuries. His main focus is to help injured players return to their regular physical condition, especially young Turkish star Hande Baladin.
“Hande is improving her strength. She had a long time without activity and now she has started to push more,” Motta added.
The 22-year-old outside spiker had an unfortunate injury during their Champions League match against Budowlani Lodz on February 18, when she fractured a metatarsal bone in her left foot.
“I follow Hande one-on-one. It is difficult to do that at home so we opened the club for her, with Yasemin Guveli. Hande’s individual workout programme includes more exercises for the rehabilitation of her injury but it also has some exercises from her personal programme during the season,” said fitness coach Romero on Baladin’s condition.
“Practically she could not walk for eight weeks. Last week she started to walk normally. She needs at least eight more weeks of hard work to start training normally. She has increased her performance in almost every workout, so she is getting better and better.
“The other point we have been working on is the shoulder injury she had in the past. We are trying to strengthen her upper body to bring her shoulder to a better condition so that she won’t have any pain when she starts to attack again. After that – as for all our players – our goal is to avoid a lack of form and to continue working out at the highest level possible.”
Romero keeps in touch with the players almost every day. He provides them with different stay-at-home fitness programmes and evaluates their progress each week.
“We are trying to vary the programmes and prepare them individually because they have different tools for working out at home. At the end of every week, we talk to the girls to see how their exercises went and if they need to add something special.”
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Source: Volley - fivb.org
