The women’s volleyball team JymyVolley, which plays in the championship league, got a new head coach at the turn of the year, when Jukka Tuovinen became head coach.
Tuovinen has been coaching men for 30 years at different league levels. The merit list includes both Finnish championships and the title of coach of the year.
According to Tuovinen, the jump to coach the women’s team was quite small in the end. However, the long-time coach was in for one surprise:
– The net is really at 224 centimetres, i.e. much lower than men’s. It brings different things to reception play and groupings.
However, according to Tuovinen, there are few actual differences between the women’s and men’s teams.
The differences in coaching have been in the news before, and at the same time, demands for a change in the coaching culture have emerged in sports circles.
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For ten years, the Finnish Coaches Coach as a Woman project has been driving changes in the development of women’s coaching paths. Other projects also call for coaching to be more individual and people-oriented.
Executive Director of the Finnish Coaches Sari Tuunainen talks about the Our sport development process, where work has been done for a couple of years to change the coaching culture.
– Previously, we talked about athlete-oriented coaching, and now it’s more people-oriented. A person should be encountered as a whole and get to know them. In this way, the athlete also takes more responsibility for what he does and thus gets ahead as an athlete, says Tuunainen.
Tuunainen would challenge coaches to think more about what athletes are like as individuals and what kind of challenges each one needs or needs support.
Coaching that is more human than before?
Jukka Tuovinen comes up with differences in coaching women and men, but he too reminds us that a coach must always know and sense who he is talking to and how.
Tuovinen says that he frequently cultivates development sites, but through a positive approach.
– There is no need to grit your teeth, but more is positively required. When we work like this as a team, the end result is good.
Above all, Tuovinen describes that he enjoyed being a coach at JymyVolley. Coaching women has brought out a lot of positive things.
– Women throw themselves out more than men and try different things. I have also been more active in coaching situations on the women’s side, and humor is always thrown in, Tuovinen laughs.
The need for individual coaching is also recognized by the men’s figure skating team Riverbulls, coached in Seinäjoki Eveliina Haapala.
– There are as many individuals in the team as there are skaters in the team. Although a lot of feedback is given about the program and patterns, it is also given as individuals and what could be done differently on their own, Haapala describes.
Haapala also coaches children. In his opinion, coaching men is no different from coaching others, even though the team is a rarity in formation skating nationwide.
– I train them in the same way as those children under school age, Haapala laughs good-naturedly.
Gameplay more entertaining?
Finnish Coach Sari Tuunainen knows that there are physical differences between the sexes and that there are some differences in both women’s and men’s games, for example in ball sports.
In volleyball, the net is lower in the women’s game, in basketball the ball is lighter and smaller, and in baseball the net spacing is shorter.
However, Tuunainen would rather look at the differences between women and men from the point of view of what they can bring to the game even more.
– I’ve heard that many people find it more interesting to follow women’s football than men’s football, because it’s more tactical in a certain way. For example, much more passes are needed when moving to the other end, says Sari Tuunainen.
Jymy’s coach Jukka Tuovinen recognizes the game differences in volleyball as well. According to Tuovinen, the games at the top level of the women’s league are very entertaining because the ball is alive.
– This also gives salt during training. The ball is alive and there are significantly more genuine game situations than on the men’s side. They are also live situations that the coach has not had to build separately, Tuovinen describes.
Tuovinen’s future?
JymyVolley is currently last in the standings. However, the work is being done hard, and the clearest goal is to maintain a place in the series.
Tuovinen’s own future is still open; the contract is only signed for the spring season.
– I love coaching and I’ve been really excited here. Of course, age also comes, and when you do civilian work and train at the same time, that equation doesn’t necessarily work for you for very long.