Bangkok, Thailand, March 28, 2023 – Expert Belgian coach Mr Jan Jose De Brandt will lead Nepal national volleyball team, aimed to take its women’s squad to new heights.
As part of the FIVB Volleyball Empowerment Project, Jan, 64, started his six-month job with Nepal from March 8, 2023. He is currently coaching the Nepal women’s national volleyball team in their preparation for hosting the Central Asian Volleyball Association (CAVA) Women’s Challenge Cup, which is due to be held in Kathmandu between May 20 and 29, 2023.
Jan last coached the Austria women’s national team between 2020-21 and Hungary women’s team during 2018-19. In club competitions, he became the head coach of Fenerbahce Grundig for 2017-2018 season and Fenerbahce Acibadem between mid of 2008-09 to 2009-2010 seasons and led the latter to winning the Turkish Cup and Turkish Super Cup as well as second place in the Champions League. He also coached professionally in Belgium, Italy, Turkey, Spain, Azerbaijan and Germany.
Jan’s first challenge as the head coach of the Nepal women’s national team is to lead the host team in the CAVA Women’s Volleyball Challenge Cup, which has attracted eight teams to vie for top honor. They are Bangladesh, India, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Maldives, Sri Lanka, Uzbekistan and hosts Nepal.
Ahead of the CAVA Women’s Challenge Cup, Jan talked about the Nepal’s preparation and what he has aimed for for the competition.
“Before coming to Nepal, I watched Nepalese players’s video and it was what I had initially expected. The Nepalese team missed a little bit length in the team, but OK, this is Nepal women’s national team. It’s something for the future to find taller players and to make them better,” Jan De Brandt was quoted as saying in a recent interview.
“The quality of a team depends on the competition first. There is no Nepalese player who played abroad, in Europe for example which is a strong competition. So, the young experience is what you played in Nepal. And this is the national term for the lower level, but slowly they will be adapting tactically and they are playing better. However the problem is to find the practice game. If you are playing only in club competitions, you can’t grow anymore because in Nepal, they can score with this ball and easy ball, but you can’t score in international competitions with this ball because the block is better, the defence is better. So, the solution is in Nepal to play against boys, When the boys are inviting, they can play harder, attack harder, so we can defend better. So in the first month, we invite some boys and we then can play a tall, strong team.
“You will never have enough time for the team. Volleyball is very complex sport and open sport, always with new situations, enough to adapt quickly and so, two and a half months is a nice preparation for our team for the first tournament in the Women’s Challenge Cup and we are lucky to have another two and a half months to prepare our team for the Asian Games. That means we have 5 months to prepare for two tournaments. It’s not bad. It’s good for our team.”
Asked about the Women’s Challenge Cup on home soil, the coach said, “For me, the winning is not so important. I want to see my team grow in two and a half moths. I want to see every player play better and better in all volleyball skills. If it’s enough for winning, OK, this is perfect, but if not, we have to learn what we need more for our preparation for the Asian Games.”
QUICK LINKS
AVC Website: click www.asianvolleyball.net
AVC Facebook: click www.Facebook.com/AsianVolleyballConfederation
AVC Twitter: click: www.twitter.com/AsianVolleyball
AVC Instagram: click: https://www.instagram.com/avcvolley/?hl=en
AVC Youtube: click: Asian Volleyball Confederation
AVC WeChat: Asian Volleyball Confederation