[SPORT] The active confinement of the youngest coach in Primera: "Telework will continue in football"

[YaKuZa--BoSs]

 

 

Diego Martínez, Granada coach, in full training.

 

 

Granada CF, pulling a work permit, changed its province last week to travel to Marbella for a mini preseason. "It has been very good for us," says Diego Martínez, his very young coach (39 years old), the revelation of the League suspended by the coronavirus. Today starts before one of the bones of the championship: Getafe. While other locker rooms have shown reluctance to be concentrated, the coach from Vigo has had no problems in doing so. It has been the only team that has.

His ability to persuade is demonstrated in the 39 points that the Nasrid team looks like, recently promoted and much closer to the Champions League than to relegation, in the absence of 11 days. Only a defensive oversight left them out of the Cup final in the last minute. The stadium of the boiling Cármenes will miss him now.

"Definitely. But what we lose in the home environment we will gain outside. For everyone it is the same. And the best will continue to be, with or without an audience », he advances before being asked about the beneficiaries or disadvantaged of the new League that is arriving. Unlike Quique Setién, complaining about the five changes, he says he does not have the crystal ball. "No idea. We will see. Whoever adapts faster physically and mentally, will do better in such a concentrated format. But, I insist, the best players will continue to make a difference, "reassures his Barcelona colleague.

Martinez speaks loud and clear. Now, in empty fields, he and his companions will be heard as never before. A help to the footballer? «Most of the voices we give are emotional support, encouragement, not technical indications. If anything corrections. It is like the goalkeepers. They speak to reinforce the defense and accompany it ».

FROM FERRÁN ADRIÁ TO THE HANDBALL
Studious of other sports, he believes that the five changes are interesting. "This rule could stay. You do not have to be afraid. Look in the basket, when the possessions went down. Or in soccer, by forbidding the goalkeeper to catch the ball with his hand. That revolutionized the game ”, he analyzes with radar activated. During the crisis, he took the opportunity to soak up books, review references from other subjects -such as the great chef Ferrán Adriá-, prepare Masters conferences or watch coaching courses such as Joan Plaza and Xavi Pascual (basketball) or Juan Carlos Pastor (handball) . Vintage sport has also hooked him, from the World Cups to Indurain's climbs on the Tour.

The leader of Granada has spent weeks trying to convince his boys of the new challenge: to leave the confinement with his legs and head in a position to compete with the highest demands. In the running of the bulls, Diego Martínez had to adapt his powerful face-to-face with the player to online tutoring, in the line of coaches such as Jose Bordalás, his rival today. «We set a work routine, but with freedom of schedules. Each family carries its rhythms and we did not want to be invasive ”, he recounts about the hardest days of the crisis, among doubts, anguishes and various domestic situations.

“There were players who were alone and required more attention. One of our doctors works at the Granada hospital and helped us to resolve doubts and reassure the group, "he thanks, as flexible with his schedule as he is adamant in the controls of fat, muscular perimeter and weight that he demanded.

VIDEO CALLS
In his opinion, as has happened in so many other sectors, teleworking will remain in football: “There are very valid elements that will be maintained, both in communication between the coaching staff and with the staff during vacation periods, for example ». Consultations, personalized videos, talks ... Professional and family connections. There, he admits, that emotion could sometimes, like so many. Sara, his grandmother, is to blame. She lives alone in Vigo. And at 84 years old she learned to make video calls. Saud Her generation is incredible. They went through war hardships and now they talk and see their great-granddaughters on the Internet, "she reflects.

"There are many lessons to be learned, such as the value of health and family," she says. And new habits. «The first training, with all the hygiene measures, became rare. Now, however, it is normalized. You see a bottle of hydroalcoholic gel and you head for it ». Today they will not be missing on the bench.