22/04/2020 09:30
“Lockdown an opportunity to study, recover from past injuries” – Marco Motta
News from the clubs
Istanbul, Turkey, April 22, 2020. Eczacibasi VitrA ISTANBUL head coach Marco Aurelio Motta and physical trainer Eduardo Romero try to see the stop imposed by the coronavirus pandemic as an opportunity while players, coaches and fans look forward to the return of competitive sport.
“First of all, I hope that everyone is staying safe and our world will get over this pandemic as soon as possible. Of course, nobody was expecting such a long break. This is a new situation for everyone. The most important thing is that our players do not stop working completely and continue being physically active at home,” Motta says. “Sometimes we invite players in groups of two to control their situation, but not all of them together. Moreover, some of our foreign players have already returned to their home countries and for example, Saliha Şahin went back to her hometown Ankara. It is not easy to deal with these conditions but we work regularly as technical staff,” Motta summarises the current situation of his team.
With all competitions postponed until further notice, it is not easy to make a plan. However, Motta thinks that the lockdown is a good time to look at 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 steps by checking our players’ current condition and progress. Moreover, 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 did not have time to do. Right now, many coaches and physical trainers have individual meetings. It is easy to find each other because everyone is at 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”
Acknowledging that this period can be a good opportunity for players who need rehabilitation to fully recover from their injuries, Motta states that he and his staff are working to help the injured players in reaching their former physical condition, especially Turkish star Hande Baladın: “Hande is improving her muscles. She spent a long time without any activity and now she has started to push more.” As many may remember, the 22-year-old outside hitter had an unfortunate injury during the C0hampions League match against Budowlani LODZ (February 18) where she suffered a metatarsal bone fracture on her left foot.
Hande Baladın is currently following a special programme to recover from injury
Update on Hande Baladın’s rehabilitation process
“I follow Hande one-on-one. It is difficult to do that from home so we open the club for her and for Yasemin Güveli as well. 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. Practically, she could not walk for 8 weeks,” physical trainer Eduardo Romero explains. “Last week she started to walk almost normally. She needs at least another eight weeks of hard work to start training normally. She has increased her performance almost with every workout and she is getting 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 does not have any pain in her shoulder when she starts to spike again. And 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.”
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 to see how their exercises went and if they need to add something special.”
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