Russia women’s coach Vitaly Volynchenko spoke to IHF.info about the support he receives from his family and what it is like being at a home world championship for his player and for him.

IHF.info: What did you do after the USA win which saw you qualify for the main round?

Vitaly Volynchenko: I was just thinking and contemplating about the next games we had coming up. As you know the teams we are going to play against are very strong teams – Denmark, Norway and Vietnam, who are a very strong team from Asia. There are European champions in our group and we must concentrate on them.

IHF.info: How do you get your team to concentrate on their job on the sand and not the whole event itself?

Vitaly Volynchenko: I have a lot of experience of coaching - more than 30 years, so I know how to add and sum up everything. 

IHF.info: Is there anything your team could do better or anything that concerns you in this home championship?

Vitaly Volynchenko: The bit I am worried about is the pressure, because I can see the girls are still worried. It is not only the world championship itself, but the world championship in Russia. They see a lot of supporters and fans here and are maybe ‘twice’ more worried than usual.

I would like to change to develop our psychological training because they are not always stable, and I have seen that over the first two matches, but we will work on it. 

However, I hope that the world championship goes well for them and they play well.

IHF.info: What about you? How is it to coach in a home championship?

Vitaly Volynchenko: My family support me very much, unfortunately they couldn’t come and make it here, but I still have a lot of friends here, including some relatives of some of the youngsters I previously worked with.

We are all working together, plus there are also supporters from Stavropol here too (three of the Russian team play for Stavropol-Skfu) – my family understands that handball is the most important thing for me and they always support me.