When Valentin Altenburg talks about his team, it’s worth watching his eyes. They’re beaming, not just during these days of the European Championships, which have gone so perfectly so far. Three games, three wins, 14:0 goals – that triggered great enthusiasm in the crowded stands in the hockey park, which in turn has an effect on the game of the German hockey ladies. “Absolute goosebumps atmosphere,” say everyone who is there on the pitch and who is not used to getting applause from up to 9,000 spectators. This Thursday (8 p.m., live on the ARD stream Sportschau.de) it is against Belgium to make it into the final on Saturday.
Peter Pender
Deputy Editor-in-Chief for Sports.
Altenburg already had this glow in his eyes during the preparations, at the games against France, India, China in Wiesbaden, Rüsselsheim and Limburg, was happy about well-attended events, about the many hockey kids who lost their idols after the Corona They were finally able to take a closer look at the time and took this great motivational boost to their clubs. “Our sport needs that, it’s so important,” he says. And there is evidence of where this can lead, Nike Lorenz was a runner-up at the double European Championships for women and men in Mönchengladbach in 2011 – twelve years later she is back as captain of the German women.
Hockey needs and has that closeness to its top players, and the women may have needed a coach like Valentin Altenburg. After the Olympic Games in Tokyo, when the women, after a convincing preliminary round in the first knockout game, were completely overwhelmed by the task in the quarterfinals against a weak Argentina, he took over the selection of the German Hockey Association from the Belgian Xavier Reckinger . In the scene he was seen critically here and there, some even accused him of always coaching particularly intensively when cameras were nearby.
But the doubters have quieted down. Gradually, the Hamburger managed to change the appearance of the team. The fact that the internal climate was not the best during the Olympic Games could be seen and heard, young and old did not harmonize particularly well. But this is particularly noticeable when things don’t go according to plan on the pitch. “A coach must always try to make his team competitive,” says Altenburg. And very early on he wanted to lead his team to more self-determination on the pitch.
“He worries a lot,” says leading player Sonja Zimmermann about coach Valentin Altenburg. : Image: EPA
“He worries a lot,” says Sonja Zimmermann, one of the leading players, “and he focuses primarily on us acting as a team, not just as a group of different good players.” A conspiratorial bunch, that’s it pretty worn-out term for it in days gone by. Of course, Altenburg knows what that means, but would never say it that way. “Competitive sport requires a lot of strength and energy, not only in training and games. As a team, we have to take good care of ourselves and make sure our energy balance is right. And I have the feeling this year that there is a very good relationship.”
The fact that this balance is right and has a performance-enhancing effect is mainly influenced by the national coach. Altenburg is a big advocate of dual careers and doesn’t complain that other nations train with the entire national team two or three times a week. “With our decentralized bases, we need a more individual approach, but in our courses we also take part in the things that move us besides hockey. When Selin Oruz recently passed her medical exam, we stood outside and celebrated her.”
But things don’t just have to be right on a personal level, on the pitch, despite all the harmony, above all the right decisions are required in order to solve critical situations, and as independently as possible of the coach, as Altenburg believes. “With all the structure that we specify, we need intuitive quality that does not stick to all agreements. And the player has to know that we have her back, even if things go wrong.”
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All this has now brought them to the semi-finals, which was not a big surprise at the end of the day. It was much more surprising with what enthusiasm and joy the DHB selection went to work on and off the pitch. “We’re here a total of around 17,300 minutes together, but we only play 300 minutes of hockey. If we don’t get any energy from the rest of the time, then it gets tedious,” says Altenburg. There can be no question of that with him: “I get so much back, I could always go on.”
