Head coach Marco Motta and fitness coach Eduardo Romero share what we have been focusing on during this time without competitions and team practices due to the pandemic.
“First of all, we hope that everyone is staying safe. Hopefully, our world will get over this pandemic as soon as possible. Of course, nobody was expecting a long break like that. This is a new situation for everyone. The most important thing is that our players don’t stop working completely and continue being 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 already returned to their home countries and for example, Saliha Şahin went back to her hometown Ankara. It is not easy when your team is mobilized. But we work regularly as technical staff”, Motta summarizes the current situation of his team.
With any competitions ahead in the short future, it is not easy to make a plan. However, head coach Motta thinks that it is a good time to look on what we have done so far and what we need to improve: “The most important thing is it is a time to plan. We are trying to plan the next step by checking our players’ current condition and progress. Also during our time at home, we are watching videos, matches and looking at reports. It is a good time to study. We have time to get a closer look into things that we normally didn’t have time to do. At the moment a lot of coaches and physical trainers have private meetings. It is easy to find each other because everyone is home. Now everyone is spending time to talk with each other. Also with my family, I talk for 1-1.5 hours a day. We have time and we create our own routines.”
"A good opportunity for injured players"
Believing that this period can be a good opportunity for players who need rehabilitation to fully recover from their injuries, Motta states that it is their main focus to help the injured players in reaching their former physical condition, especially our Turkish star Hande Baladın: “Hande is improving her muscles. She had a long time without activity and now she has started to push more.” As you remember, the 22-year-old outside hitter had an unfortunate injury at our Champions League match against Budowlani Lodz (February 18) where she had metatarsal bone fracture on her left foot.
Update on Hande Baladın’s rehabilitation process
Updating us in depth about Hande’s rehabilitation process, our fitness coach Eduardo Romero explains: “I follow Hande one-on-one. It is difficult to do that at home so we open the Club for her and also for Yasemin. Hande’s individual workout program includes more exercises for the rehabilitation of her injury, but it also has some exercises from her personal programme during the season. Practically, she couldn’t walk for 8 weeks. Last week she has started to walk almost normally. She needs at least another 8 weeks of hard work to start training normally. She has increased her performance almost every workout, she gets better and better. The other point we have been working on is the shoulder injury she had in the past. We try to strengthen her upper body, to bring her shoulder to a better condition so that she doesn’t have any pain in her shoulder when she starts to attack again. And after that – as for all our players – our goal is to avoid a lack of form and to continue working out in the highest level possible.”
Keeping in touch with the players almost every day, Eduardo adds, “Together we try to manage this period as good as possible. We try to variate their programmes and prepare them individually, because they have different tools for working out at home. At the end of every week, we talk with the girls how their exercises went and if they need to add something special.”
