Hugo Silva thinks Volleyball

TV – 20 questions Think Volleyball Inquiry, version 1c, Hugo Silva

  
Hugo Silva is the young manager of the Portuguese national volleyball team, that had a surprising behavior at the recent European qualification and made it to the final in Group 2 of the World League. Hugo has been creating and managing volleyball teams for quite some years, now. Straightforward and courageous, Hugo gives us a relevant view and proposes real solutions to an anemic school and university sport . Hugo also defends that actual madness, as in passion with few boundaries, is essential to reach the top. His idol in sports is a player he trained, which is rare, the olympic and international Portuguese setter Miguel Maia. Let's hear Hugo Silva thinking volleyball.

1 - Volleyball is the 4 or 5th sport in the world with a wider base of fans, even greater than basketball. What should be made to communicate and show better this sport that so many millions pratice and love?

Hugo Silva: Volleyball, more than any sport, is in every corner of the world, because we are talking of the International Federation (FIVB) with more associates, about 300 countries playing federated volleyball and I doubt that in any other sport all the continents are so well represented like in volleyball. Evidently, in these times, the social media are the greatest vehicle to promote any sport, and show how beautiful this sport is. The bet in social media is fundamental, but also in television broadcasts and in open channel, to reach every single home. And not to be the greatest sport, but the best.

2 - Concepts like NBA make the show and the sport themselves. Do you think volleyball, as a show, would benefit from concepts like those? If yes, how and where should it be built? World League? In a strong national league like NBA?

Hugo Silva: Volleyball is a sport that you love or hate. Obviously, having a show associated to the sport would sell much more, but I'm a conservative in this matter: I prefer not to see my sport being put in the background by a musical concert of any artist. NBA needs the show because, in some times of the play, it's dull. Volleyball fixes the public attention in each second of the game. Who seeks volleyball seeks a sport show, not musical or artistic.


3 – Means and goals, strategy and principles. Are there any limits in strategy to the victory? For example, do you admit pressure inside the court, with your players bullying players from the opposite team? What are the limits? And when you want to hire a certain player, should there be a regulation on the way athletes are contacted and by whom?

Hugo Silva: Like everything in life, balance is the secret to highest level competition. At this level, everyone must be prepared for any kind of pressure, internal or external. I, myself, seek to create that pressure in the adversary with words or behavior, always respecting the boundaries, the persons and the teams, even knowing that, sometimes, the opponent can interpret our behaviors as offensive. This game is for an elite, and the focus must be totally in the game, and athletes are trained, day in and day out, to abstract themselves from the external factors that may diminish their performance.

4 - How do countries like Italy manage to stay at the top for so many years, how did countries like Poland, Germany or France reach the top and how can countries with tradition in volleyball like Portugal and Spain, among others, get there?

Hugo Silva: More than tradition, reaching the top varies according to sport policy of each country. Unfortunately, it depends on the money invested and the incentives given by private and public companies. First, and almost as a rule, only developed countries can have the sport as a pillar of the growth of values in the society. No wonder that the biggest economic powers are the biggest sports powers. Who wins more olympic medals? The same. USA, Russia, China, UK, Germany, etc.

So, in Portugal there should be fiscal incentives to companies that support sport, and the country should look to the reference athletes as heroes and mirrors of themselves, they should feel proud of them and respect their effort.

5 – When you travel with your team, to traineeships or competitions, do you defend that the team should be isolated in a bubble, with no contact with the “outside world”, or, on the contrary, do you think that the team should promote the contact with local reality, including or not the adversaries, like we see, for example, before great matches in the ATP world tour? What are the advantages or disadvantages of each option?

Hugo Silva: My attitude towards athletes can be summed up as the following: “Maximum liberty, maximum responsibility”. Thus, the athletes have the liberty of following their routines, regarding that these routines never harm the main goal: the competition. I am in favor of the inclusion of places and persons everywhere we go, but the athletes are warned, in the beginning that it's the commitment in the obligations of training and the focus in the game, that should be doubled, that earns them time to do other things. It's important to mention that I don't force anyone to those contacts with local realities. Like I said in the beginning , all of them have liberty to do their choices. That liberty ends in priority to rest, train and play.

6 - Do you think that the sport taught in schools would benefit from specialized school subjects that could be an option in the pre-university and university years, like we see in some countries, like the subject “indoor volleyball” or “beach volleyball”, even if the graduation is different, in theory, like, v.g, Law or Architecture, and is it essential, like in the USA, that the sport in the university should be considered as a foreground to the main leagues, as athletes are much more mature than in the younger leagues?

Hugo Silva: Once more we are talking about sports policy. The current university sport in Portugal is going out, drink and date, and a bunch of institutions that award mere intellectuals. In any university do we talk about sport as reference to the institution, not even Coimbra, with its famous academic rules! I have no doubt that, if it were not for clubs, that in Portugal do what universities should do, many sports would end. Salazar loved soccer. Our universities are the soccer teams of Benfica, Porto and Sporting and sports where these teams don't bet can't grow. This is our country in 2016.

Another nonsense is having school sports where the state spend millions and we don't see any growth in sports and where there is no intervention of sports federation, that are never heard.

We should also talk about sport in schools, yes. After the 9th grade there should be specialization, but each sport should be teached by a specialist, and not an alpinist specialist teaching volleyball. Initially , the physical repertory of the students should be varied and give access to multiple opportunities, able to develop physical abilities. After this, the specialization should be considered. I don't doubt that the sports in schools, in these phase of specialization, would be much better with sports federations, that know how to run the money they spent developing athletes


7 - Something you learned in volleyball that you take to your attitude before everything:

Hugo Silva: My biggest learning in Volleyball is that nothing is achieved without work and that a strong team is worth more than a set of star players with big egos worried, mainly, about themselves.

8 - Something you learned outside volleyball that you bring into it:

Hugo Silva: Loyalty and straightforwardness. If there is something that I'm proud of is that I never stop saying what I think, even if I know I can hurt my interlocutor.

9 – Literature, Arts, Cinema, and volleyball: is there any fictional work that you know that puts us inside this sport? And what non fictional book is your “bible” in volleyball?

Hugo Silva: I'm not a literate or cinephile par excellence, but I accept the challenge : I like the “Mission Impossible” films, because I love challenges and the more diffcult they are, the more I like them and motivate myself and those that I teach and train. As for my “bible”, it's not a volleyball book: “The Present”, Spencer Johnson. Volleyball is a hard sport with many variables to the victory, but, in my opinion, we coaches make it even harder, because we don't plan our volleyball way, as well as the way we see ourselves in it, but we tend to copy what a coach beside us does or that we saw in the internet.

10 - What changes in the game would make it better?

Hugo Silva: I wouldn't change a thing. It's a perfect sport :)

Now, seriously: I would change the qualification rules to the Olympics. Olympics give access to teams from all continents, and I would change it to the real 14 best teams, that usually can't qualify.

11 - Tell us a secret about your work that you think makes it singular:

Hugo Silva: My secret us is to show I'm mad about volleyball, and that can been seen in my behaviors on a day to day basis.

12 - Can an athlete reach excellency without wining? Why?

Hugo Silva: I never heard of anyone winning wars without winning battles. To win or to do everything to win is what make us stronger and better. I would say that victory is the feed of a top athlete, more than any money he can earn.

13 – Which is the most important part of the game (give us a detailed view of each technical gesture and each part of the game) for you?

Hugo Silva: For me, the most important technical gesture is the block. With it I stop the opponent weapon that is more difficult to fight: the attack. As to the description of the block, here's a complex matter. There is a phase of reading the kind of ball we are going to receive, a cross and quick call and a jump in the right timing, where the way the player puts arms and hands has a decisive role in the block or, at least, damping of the ball.

14 – What do you think about, and how do you manage, internal competition in the team?

Hugo Silva: a strong team begins with a good 7-base and quality solutions in the bench that allow the team to resolve what the colleague temporarily didn’t do. For example, the Portuguese national team lacks this aspect, and that tends to make our teams more fragile. You can't make a good team without internal competition: healthy and correct internal competition, of course.


15 – Leave a message to athletes with the essence of what you think they should put in volleyball and can make them and the sport great:

Hugo Silva: My message is fit for everything in life: if you want to have success in a certain field of action, you have to absolutely prioritize that specific field over any other. If you want to have success in volleyball, you have to absolutely prioritize volleyball over anything else, and, in a certain way, as said above, have a certain dose of madness in what we do.


16 – The same to coaches:

Hugo Silva: To coaches, the message is the same. Maybe I get some criticism for what I'm about to say, but I always say what I think: in my opinion, although we have good coaches in Portugal, none of them has conditions to remain at the top, because none of them puts volleyball on the top of his or her priorities.


17 – Finally, the same to directive staff:

Hugo Silva: We have to pay tribute to the efforts and dedication of directive staff, but I also say that, if a certain director is just acting by pure obligation, then he or she should pass the responsibilities to newer elements that bring new ideas and energy to work.


18 - Your Idol in Volleyball, and why:

Hugo Silva: In my time, I had an adoration for Joel Despaigne, but later, and after working with him and having the privilege of being his coach, Miguel Maia is, for me, the best player, ever, in Portuguese volleyball, and maybe one of the 10 best of the 20th century. One word for his person and for his qualities as player: EXTRAORDINARY!

19 - Your idol in sports, and why:

Hugo Silva: In sport, it had to be someone from volleyball. MIGUEL MAIA, again. As his coach, it was a pleasure seeing what he could do with a volley ball in every training session. Moreover, not only with a volley ball. Miguel was good at every sport, a fated and true ace. His technique, unique, doesn't come in the books and those who try to imitate him, can't. He is totally unpredictable and his speed of thought and answer are chilling! I think we won't have another in the days to come.

20 - You idol in life, and why:

Hugo Silva: My parents. If not for them, I wouldn’t have the opportunity of enjoying the good things that life gives us.

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Thank you for your answers. Let's make volleyball better. This in an independent inquiry, both in questions and in answers.
TV – Think Volleyball (from volleyballers to volleyballers) – PG-M Pedro Guilherme-Moreira – Revision by Clara Amorim