Heynen for WoV – “I made all my plans around idea of getting medal with Poland in 2020 Olympics“

Vital-Heynen

Why and when did you decide to apply for Poland national team head coach?

„It was a very long procedure. It began somewhere in October, November, I’m not sure exactly when. The starting point was that I have always been interested in coaching Poland national team. For me, it’s one of the most interesting teams to coach. Maybe the most interesting. When I heard Poland national team was looking for a new coach there was absolutely some interest from me.“ Vital Heynen said after being appointed as Poland head coach.

What was the main reason why you decided to apply?

„The main reason is that it is such an interesting national team. We have a project to go to the 2020 Olympic Games and, I think, Poland has to be there. That’s the biggest step. Then, to fight for the high places. I made all my plans around the idea of getting a medal there. Poland won the last Olympic medal in 1976. It’s clear, we need to get the medal after 44 years.“

How the process of applying for Poland national team head coach looked like in your case?

„At a certain moment, 10, 12 or 15 coaches applied. I think 7 coaches gave their ideas and I was one of them. Afterwards, I talked to the technical committee to which I explained my ideas. Then, they came to the decision to cut to three coaches and, finally, to one coach. Later, we sat together to make the closing deal. There were so many contacts with Polish federation and the most were based on the ideas I was bringing.“

Will you keep performing a dual role, in the club and in the national team, at the end of the season?

„Yes, from the beginning I was explaining that it is not a bad thing to coach two teams because there is a clear split between the winter and the summer season. Summer is for the national teams, winter is for clubs. There is almost no interference in the negative sense and the big advantage of the coach doing having two teams is that for 12 months in a year he’s busy with volleyball. Now, I’m busy with the Champions League and all the other things. You follow all the other leagues because there might be one of the teams I will have to play in the next round. You are busy with your own team to see what you can do for it. That way, you automatically follow the whole volleyball world and you are much busier looking for new solutions and creating them. I’m not a coach for so long, maybe 12, 13 years or so, but most of the time in two teams at the same time. It gives you progress, faster learning. The goal of everybody, including me, is to learn more.“

Did you speak with Polish federation on the possible contract extension after the 2020 Olympic Games?

„I think in Poland coach can stay for three years and do a good job. I explained to the Polish federation I will do my ultimate best not only to stay for three years but also to help them to have a new coach, a Polish coach, after 2020. So, in this moment, it is not my ambition to stay there after 2020. I want to help Polish volleyball the best I can and I also hope I can help Polish coaches to, hopefully, do better after me. I also hope I can leave the certain structure in 2020 so the next coach can come and work. I think that’s the goal but it’s far away. Step by step.“

Do you have some preliminary ideas in which direction your work in Poland national team will go?

„I have a lot of ideas but the basic is to integrate young guys and help them have good relationships with the old guys. That’s for the World League. We have a lot of talent in Poland to slowly go to the World Championship to a smaller group. I think World League will be hard. We will play every game to win but if you want to put up with young guys you sometimes have to lose the game by testing young guys. This you cannot have in the World Championship so I hope young guys will mature fast and help us in the World Championship to make a good result and not to lose too many games.“

What are the key things you will impose as the new head coach?

„I think everybody knows players are, for me, very important.  At the moment, I’m busy by talking to my players in person or by to phone. I think that’s the first thing, to have the players behind my ideas. As well as the other way round, to get ideas from the players where I am behind so that we can have the common way of thinking. I’m talking a lot to my players and it’s going pretty well so far,“ Heynen concluded.

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