The role of the coach in the academies of PAOK

The information of the “black and white” PAE

In an academy each age group has its own needs and goals, its own parameters of fitness. Each move must be planned gradually and with the aim of highlighting the elements that turn an athlete into a champion. And this is something that PAOK Academy knows very well.

The fitness trainer is a very important. Gear of the machine. It has to provide those skills through which athletes will be highly trained in the field of fitness. Clearly in collaboration with the support staff involved in the training of footballers and ensuring that they maximize their knowledge and development (soccer coaches, goalkeeping coaches, psychologists, medical staff, nutritionists, video analysts, caregivers, sports scientists and educators).

The reason belongs to the physical fitness coaches of PAOK Academy:

Evangelos Alexopoulos – K19

“The daily improvement of the weaknesses that every footballer has in the elements of physical condition is a daily part of the training process. The role of the fitness coach is to improve the players in the elements of fitness and to control the burdens in the coaching process. Also, programming the elements of fitness in combination with the technical elements is an important part of a coach’s work “. The fitness coach controls the training load of the players with live recording via GPS devices, in direct collaboration with the coach. In simple Greek, every time it is checked how many meters he ran, how many sprints, how many accelerations, how many decelerations, how much load the footballer has “. “Of course, on a daily basis, the technical staff prepares the training plan that will be implemented, while at the same time the programs are done in the gym and on the field on an individual and group level.”

For Isbilir – Κ17

“I feel lucky to work with the children of the PAOK Academy, because they belong to the elite group of athletes in Greece. This, of course, gives me more responsibilities, as our work must be at the required level in order for players capable of responding to modern football to emerge “.

In our time, in order to be considered successful as fitness coaches in professional football, we must ensure that every athlete must have technical skills, tactical knowledge, good psychology, good physical condition and mental ability, so that his performance and endurance are appropriate in the face of any difficulty encountered. For this reason, the training must be continuous in order for the young athletes to reach and be maintained at a high level “. We gymnasts first work with the training team, and then with the medical team, with the occupational physiologist, the psychologist and the nutritionist.

The season starts with medical examinations of the athletes. Obviously, our primary concern is to be healthy. Then, on and off the field, we do some tests with the help of the occupational physiologist to see at what individual and group level they are. At an individual level, we identify weaknesses and do individual improvement training. If an athlete is, for example, out of the average in physical measurements, then the nutritionist helps us. “After all this process, we plan the fitness trainings in the preparation, in the competitive period and finally in the transitional period”.

Vassilis Bilis – K16

“A fitness manager, especially in developmental football, has to take on a lot of complex roles, that of coach, occupational physiologist, psychologist and coach, of course. Of course, at PAOK Academy we have the pleasure to enjoy significant scientific support from our occupational physiologist, psychologist, nutritionist. And of course, we must never forget that in developmental ages we are primarily educators, as we address children and adolescents. The job and goal of the fitness coach is to train young players on flexibility, agility, muscle fit and quality training in general. After all, the athletic goal is always to get the best out of each child and develop him into a front-line athlete. “The ‘moral’, however, is to be able to ‘graft’ a mixture of a nice person, a good student and a very good athlete”.

Vassilis Leftheroudis – K15

“The role of the fitness coach in the developmental age is considered more than important and multidimensional. That is, at the age when skills necessary for children involved in championships are rapidly increasing. In addition to physical condition, ie strength, endurance, speed, flexibility, which are its definition, the trainer should train children to manage and control all the above abilities. But beyond that, the psychological factor is just as important. Persistence and consistency for continuous effort and improvement are gifts that follow someone in all aspects of his life. “The fitness coach is the one who will stand next to the children, on the pressure of the match and the training, he is the one who will guide them properly, so that they can manage to achieve their goals”.

Andreas Balabanis – K12

“During childhood, fitness training is carried out in a way that is enjoyable when performing exercises for children. At the developmental ages of 7-12 years, the training unit aims to teach football, but also to have fun as we must not forget that young footballers come primarily because they love the game. In terms of fitness content, we focus on small racing games to initially improve the endurance of our athletes.

Then in exercises to improve speed, enriching the exercise book, usually with the use of a ball, clearly more interesting for children. “Relay races and competitive games lead children to develop parts of fitness such as speed, agility, balance.” Usually at 7-8 years young athletes are able to control their body in space and react to stimuli, so that we develop the reaction to their actions. The training of such an exercise book is important to be done progressively. We place this program at the beginning of the training, thus achieving, in parallel with the warm-up-activation of our athletes, a guide for prevention of injuries at a later age after 13-14 years, where due to physical development we usually encounter the first muscle pains. What we need to keep in mind as fitness coaches is that we improve the elements of fitness in children through play. At a young age, the GAME must have an unquestionably leading role! “