Nr. 3 - Lietuvos sporto informacijos centras

2012 Nr. 3(69)
45
competence, commitment, mental resistance, fair
behaviour, putting the coaches’ work in the first
place, support during sports competitions, showing
them the right way, honesty, respect and trust
(Herzig, 2004). Female athletes expect their coach
to create a friendly atmosphere, to be able to make
the training interesting, to introduce them to the
arcane of sports activities, to live their emotions
and feel a special value in the preferred sports
discipline (Rutkowski, 2003).
The conclusions made by coaches who worked
with female athletes on the highest professional
level are very interesting. Andrzej Niemczyk, one of
the best coaches in the history of the Polish women’s
volleyball, who earned two European Championship
gold medals (2003 and 2005) with his team, as well
as has a rich experience with international teams
(including training FC Lohoff, the BRD national
team, with which he achieved the BRD champion
title 6 times), thinks that “(…) training women’s
teams is much more difficult than training men.
When I added new names to the team, they were
usually young players with good perspectives. The
intelligence of my players has never been the most
important factor. During training sessions, I would pay
particular attention to commitment and diligence in
performing the technical and tactical elements. I used
to appoint to the national team players who were not
necessarily the best in league tournaments. I would
search for players who supplemented one another
with their characters, as well as with their tactical and
technical skills. In order to achieve success in sport,
you need people who have that something in them.
I do not demand from schools to raise disciplined
and obedient nuns, but to shape personalities. Only
girls with personality can win tournaments. That is
why I have always preferred to choose players who
left their homes early and attended boarding schools.
Such girls become independent quickly, know what
they aim at and are persistent, wanting to achieve
their goals – that is the type of girls I like to work
with. Education through sport is not just an empty
slogan. If the coach has a little bit of a pedagogical
talent, then this type of education can be really
effective (Czerwiński, 2011, p. 42). He also made
interesting observations regarding personal bonds in
a team. He said: “(...) when I was a beginner, I used
to make mistakes, e.g. my wife used to play in the
national team that was led by me. Wanting to show
my objectivism in front of the group, I would give
her extra exercise to perform, demanding particular
commitment and correctness. I did not repeat this
mistake while working with my daughter. I managed
to convince the girls that I am responsible for the
quality of my training work. Self-discipline returned
good results. I never minded the presence of their
husbands and fiancés in periods when both sides
found it appropriate. I have always tried to conduct
training sessions in an attractive way from the point of
view of the content and type of exercise. I used to pay
particular attention to it in periods before important
matches. I have never trained forcibly, when I saw
that girls were performing a task wrong, I moved to
another one, trying to figure out the reasons of their
decreased commitment. Especially in the periods of
hard training, I tried to appreciate their involvement.
I never avoided praising them. (…) You need to act
as their father, friend and confidant, and need to
notice new haircuts and dresses” (Czerwiński, 2011,
pp. 44-45).
Ludwik Miętta-Mikołajewicz, for many years
coach of the Polish national basketball team (that
won medals during European Championships in
1968, 1980 and 1981) and the author of the success
of the “Wisła” club from Kraków, the 14-fold winner
of the Polish Champion title, said: “I have always
solved conflicts using persuasion and showing the
reasons for which a given player should be the
leader, however this is always a difficult matter,
especially in female teams. As the national team’s
coach, I considered working with a psychologist a
must” (Czerwiński, 2011, p.53).
The need of solving conflicts quickly and the
importance of using a psychologist’s help have
been stressed also by Andrzej Niemczyk: “In case
of conflicts, you need to act fast. If you try to wait
for the conflict to disappear by itself, you usually
end up with a total failure in the team. The role of a
psychologist in a national team, especially if it is a
women’s team, is very important, but my approach
to the role of psychologist is such that I think that
the psychologist is for me and not for the players.
It is me who uses the psychologist’s advice; it is me
who receives comments about the team, as well as
about individual players. It is me who has to apply
them, not the other way round. It is the coach who
has to be a psychologist, an educator and an expert
on volleyball. In difficult situations, I have always
made quick decisions. And each decision was based
on my knowledge and expertise” (Czerwiński,
2011, p. 53). For young coaches, he suggests
“patience and constant learning, not only in the