08/09/2020 14:20
Michał Bąkiewicz grows next generation of Polish Volleyball stars
CEV U18 Volleyball European Championship 2020
Lecce, Italy, September 8, 2020. Many Volleyball fans remember Michał Bąkiewicz as a player of the elite Polish men’s national team – with whom he claimed a silver medal from the 2006 edition of the World Championship in Japan as well as EuroVolley gold in 2009. Michał retired from competitive sport in 2014, when he decided to start a coaching career, wishing to pass his experience on to the next generation of Polish Volleyball players. Right now, he is coaching Team Poland at #EuroVolleyU18M and on Monday, after recording two wins in as many matches, his group secured a spot in the semis of the tournament in Lecce without dropping a single set this far.
Bąkiewicz played for Poland at the 2004 Olympics in Athens and he achieved much success in the Polish national league with four titles to his name to go with three Polish National Cup crowns and one Supercup.
Under his guidance, Team Poland has showed a terrific performance in their matches with Czech Republic and Germany in Pool II in Lecce. “The transition from the court to the bench was not that easy,” he admits. “These are two completely different jobs, because as an athlete, you train, play and then do not think about Volleyball that much, while as a coach your thoughts are always there. You have to make plans and programmes and deliver these when you go to the arena,” he says.
Bąkiewicz is currently leading Team Poland at #EuroVollezU18M in Lecce
Bąkiewicz has always had clear ideas about his future: “Since the last years of my competitive career, I started thinking as a coach and as soon as I decided to quit the action, I started my second life as a coach, a step that I consider somehow natural for my personality and features,” he adds.
The first experience as an assistant coach came with AZS Częstochowa, where he finished his career as an athlete, before quickly transitioning to the role of head coach. What made his sporting life not that easy was a blood circulation problem in his hands.
Michal is a recipient of the Knight’s Cross of the Order of Polonia Restituta after his EuroVolley success in 2009 in Turkey; he stopped playing for the national team in 2011, after claiming bronze at the FIVB World League Finals held on home soil in Gdansk.
Comparing his own times with today’s Volleyball, he says, “I look at my boys today and I think they are lucky for the positive evolution that Volleyball has undergone from an organisational standpoint, which allows them to work much better and more effectively than we did a few years ago.”
Team Poland will complete their duties in Pool II on Wednesday when they play the still winless Belarus.
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