After successful years as coach of the Polish and German national teams, Vital Heynen decided to start over. The Belgian has been the coach of the German volleyball team since January. A completely new situation for the 53-year-old.
Vital Heynen doesn’t really dare to make a prognosis for the coming weeks. “I do not know it either”, the Belgian answered on ZDF when asked what could be expected of the German women’s national team at the upcoming World Cup.
The success coach is certainly not lacking in experience. Bronze with the German men in 2014, four years later gold with Poland – the successes speak for themselves.
But women’s volleyball is new territory for Heynen. “This is my first World Cup with a women’s team.” Maybe that’s the reason why the Belgian is so reserved.
Because the long-time coach sees big differences between his previous stations. Less on the field, more in the head: “Women need a lot more support in their belief in themselves”Heynen stated in an interview with the “SZ”.
A situation the Belgian doesn’t know from his previous coaching posts: “Men think too little, women think too much – this is confirmed again and again. […] [Sie] are always busy trying to improve, much more so than men.”
Heynen warns of the group
Before the start of the World Cup, Heynen dampens the expectations of his team on ZDF – the national coach does not think a medal is likely: “I don’t think so. We have a tough group. If we get out of there, we’ve already done a great job.”
In addition to the top favorites from the USA and Serbia, Germany shares Group C with Kazakhstan, Canada and Bulgaria.
The recently successful dress rehearsal gives hope: the women won 3:2 against the Olympic bronze medalist from Brazil after being 2-0 down.
The motto: fun and dirty volleyball
“Maybe that was too good, that’s always dangerous”, a cheerful national coach joked to ZDF. Heynen doesn’t want to build up any pressure ahead of the tournament. The goal of the coach: “Everyone watching should have fun with our team.”
But without sporting ambitions, Heynen will not go to the World Cup. The 53-year-old therefore demands from his team “dirty volleyball”. “You don’t have to make the point of everyone saying ‘Wow!’. A short lob behind the line where no one can get the ball also scores a point.”
World Cup as the first step towards the Olympics
Although you want to reach the knockout phase at the tournament in the Netherlands: “To survive the group stage would be a success”, so Heynen in the “SZ”. However, the focus is already on another project: “The big goal is always the Olympics, for that you have to be in the top twelve in the world rankings, then you’re on the right track.”
For the Germans, the World Cup starts on Sunday evening (7 p.m.) against Hungary. Maybe the national coach will then know where the journey is going.