Julio Velasco changes sports for a day

A day to exchange information, training philosophies and group management, share principles and compare views on the vision of the sport: the gathering in Verona, where the Italian National Rugby team prepares for its debut in the Quilter Nations Series on Nov. 8 in Udine against Australia, received a visit from Julio Velasco, the technical commissioner of the Italian women’s national volleyball team, fresh from its World Cup title. The invitation to the FIPAV coach, one of the most successful coaches in the history of Italian and world sports, with Olympic and rainbow titles on his palmares, was invited by Azzurri coach Gonzalo Quesada, who brought Velasco to spend a day together with the Italrugby group for a mutual interchange of information related to the preparation of matches at the international level.

“Julio Velasco’s presence at the gathering is a great opportunity for all of us, staff and players, and can be an inspiration to us. He asked us to observe the working methods and spend a day with us. We then had the opportunity to compare ourselves with him: it was a very important moment for us” highlighted Gonzalo Quesada, technical commissioner of the men’s national team.

“I started as a coach sharing methodologies with other sports, considering that in Argentina clubs are multi-sport: basketball, soccer, tennis. When I played volleyball – said Julio Velasco – I was in a club that had the rugby section, field field hockey, basketball. I really like rugby and I watch it a lot-I even played a year when I was younger. To see how they work, how they coach, the speed of the players live: if you see it on TV you don&#8221t realize it, but up close it”s very nice.

On group management, the Italian women’s national volleyball team coach said: “The first thing is that we have to ‘convince’ the players: they do everything on the court. If we can&#8217t convince them, things don&#8217t work. After that, we also have to make them work well together: a united group helps things work, but it also helps to have a united group. It is a kind of ‘back and forth’. It doesn&#8217t necessarily mean it&#8217s a winning team, but it&#8217s working: sometimes the opponent is stronger and even doing everything we can doesn&#8217t help. In team sports, help and cooperation among teammates should not be a matter of ‘ethics’: if it is, all the better. But it must be one of the components of the game” Velasco stressed.