After the news was published that the professions of "coach" and "assistant coach" in a sport are now becoming regulated, we sought out the operational director of the National Volleyball League - Men, Hristo Apostolov, to comment on the topic and present the NVL's position.
"The regulation of the coaching profession is a small step in the right direction, but it should not remain only on paper or simply as a code mentioning the position, but should be filled with real content," Apostolov stated toVolleyWeek.bg.
He emphasized that such a change creates prerequisites for the development of the coaching profession, but reminded that a register of coaching staff with specific requirements for each coaching level was created in the Ministry of Youth and Sports seven years ago.
According to him, one of the main goals upon Lyubomir Ganev's assumption of the presidency of the Bulgarian Volleyball Federation was to improve the qualification of coaching staff.
"One of the main tasks we had set for ourselves after Lyubo Ganev's election as president of the BFV was precisely to pay attention to the coaching staff by minimizing as much as possible the opportunity for people who lack theoretical preparation, in addition to practical experience, mainly because they were, for example, athletes, to take on a coaching position."
Apostolov recalled that in 2020, the NVL, with the support of the Management Board of the Bulgarian Volleyball Federation, gave a grace period to coaches to acquire the necessary qualification.
"We gave a grace period for the relevant people, already in an existing situation, and not only them, to take concrete actions to continue practicing the coaching profession. Currently, we have over 550 registered with different coaching levels."
"I will remind you that we had coaches who led their team practically not from the bench, but from the stands."
According to the operational director of the NVL, a successful competitive career alone is not enough to make a person a good coach.
"Someone will say: 'But why is it necessary to train, after playing 15 years of high-level volleyball and learning from the best?!'"
He gave an example with working with adolescents, where theoretical preparation is just as important as practical experience.
"The least of it is because when you take a group of 13-14-year-old children, you will know how much time they need for recovery, what volume of training they would take on, time for loss of concentration during training, what their endurance is, what the psychology is at that age, and so on. The rest is leading matches and training. You don't become a coach by watching YouTube videos. For men, where the season is intense with a number of changes due to many factors, you need to have the knowledge and skills to prepare your team so that it is in peak form when it's the most important part of the season or to change the preparation plan due to some changes that have occurred. I think it's unnecessary to continue pointing out the reasons for the enormous importance of the coaching profession."
Apostolov was adamant that in the NVL championships, the rules have been consistently applied for six years now.
"In the NVL - men, in both our levels - WINBET Super Volley and the Higher League, the rule to sit on the coaching bench is if you possess the corresponding degree - from assistant coach upwards, i.e., coach, senior, head coach. Lower degrees do not allow you to be on the bench and registered. And it will continue this way. Yes, we had many who disagreed with this, but over time it became clear that this is the right thing, both for the teams and for the better preparation of the young players, and now we have no problem. If you are registered - you can be a coach, if you are not registered - you sit in the stands. And so it has been for six years."
In conclusion, he expressed hope that the new regulation will not remain merely an administrative act.
"So, when there is will and desire, things happen, and this, as we all see, affects Bulgarian volleyball. But I will say it again - hopefully, this will not remain just an administrative element, with which, when concluding a contract or attracting a foreigner, the code for the profession is entered and that's it. This change must be clothed with real content. In the NVL, we will continue, this is beyond doubt," Hristo Apostolov concluded.