Austrian youngsters complete first training camp since lockdown

Vienna, Austria. This week the first camp for Austria’s youth national team since the lockdown ran from Monday to Friday with participation of players born in 2004 and even younger, who worked under the guidance of head coach Roland Schwab and his support staff at the VIVA Sports Centre in Steinbrunn. The head coach of the women’s ‘senior’ national team, Jan De Brandt was also there for two days to take a closer look at the young Austrian talents. 

It all started with the coronavirus tests, which fortunately were all negative. “It was a week of training as you would like it to be. Everyone was super disciplined and highly motivated. We were able to concentrate fully on the sport. We improved a lot, technically as much as physically. We were able to make perfect use of the great infrastructure and worked for five hours a day. We were also able to make ideal use of the time that the evaluation of the COVID-19 tests took on Monday with motor tests and a physiotherapeutic check – while maintaining a two-metre distance,” said Schwab, who was completely satisfied.

The coaching staff gathered a lot of information, now it is a matter of “promoting the individual development of the players so that we have a powerful squad for the qualification for the next U19 European Championship in early 2022 and as many players as possible for the women’s national team in the foreseeable future,” he continued. 

The girls will first work at their clubs, before another national team camp is on the programme at the end of October. The next major highlight are the MEVZA Championships in January!

Sources:
CEV – European Volleyball
ÖVV – Volleyball Austria