Seit vier Jahren engagiert der ÖSBV PJ Nolan als Nationaltrainer. In einem Interview, das im Rahmen des Trainingscamps im BLZ Wien am 6.-7. Dezember 2014 stattfand, spricht der irische Coach unter anderem über sein Training, über die österreichischen (Nachwuchs-)Spieler, über die Zukunft des heimischen Snookers und über sein Lieblingsessen.
Das komplette Interview (ca. 12 Minuten) steht HIER zum Download bereit.
…PJ Nolan (Mitte) steht im Interview Rede und Antwort. Links Dominik Scherübl…
Ausschnitte aus dem Interview:
PJ Nolan über …
… seine eigene Karriere:
„I played the likes of Ken Doherty, but I knew I was never going to be a top player, so I went into the coaching part. My greatest successes have been as a coach. I coached David Hogan to win the European Championship. Jason Devany won the Pontin’s Open and the Junior Pot Black which was held on the match table in the Crucible.”
… seinen Start als ÖSBV-Nationaltrainer:
„I got a phone call from Paul Schopf, because he wanted to come to Ireland and train with me. Then I trained Dominik Scherübl, and they came back, and they told the federation they like the training that I give. Then Christian (Fock) and Franz (Mészáros) asked me to come over for one training session and the players loved it. I really enjoy training the Austrian players. They are really enthusiastic.”
… die Zukunft:
„The part that is hard to do is (raising) the number of juniors to play. It’s hard to find players who are actually committed to train to a high level. In China, they have the world champion this year, 14 years old. In England, Scotland players are coming in at a young age. That’s the part that Austria just has to be keen on, to produce more juniors. We’ve got one junior, Florian Nüßle, he is 12 years old and he is amazing. And hopefully we’ll have more of Oskar Charlesworth, 14 years and an excellent player as well. We need them to come through for the future of the game in Austria … The main goal is to develop a team of juniors that will develop over the next four to five years on international stage … The only part, where I see the need to improve, is the quality of training per day, per week, not just during the camps. I would love to have at least one player on the Main Tour. I would love to have academies around Austria, under control of the federation. Günther (Eckhart) and Kim (Chau Zi) assist me at every training camp, and they are excellent coaches.”
… gutes Training:
„It’s not the hours, it’s the quality. We have different sections of the game, so we train long potting, match play, break building. We usually do 1.5, 2 hours on one particular part of the game. We record the players, so they go home with a dvd and they can study the technical part that is needed to improve. Snooker is a very technical sport, technical and mental. Austrian players are very strong mentally, but under pressure, that is where they can go weaker.”
… Snookertische in Österreich:
„They are pretty good. The only problem is, that there is a certain table that’s used for international events, it’s called a Shender table. There is none in Austria. If we had a few of those tables, it would be a better preparation plan for the Austrian players. In the academy here, there are Wiraka tables. They are very nice tables, but they are not the original international tables. And then we have Andreas Ploner, who is semi-professional at the moment. If we had one Star table, it would be the perfect solution.”
… Andreas Ploner:
„This year at the European Championships he reached the quarterfinals, and he beat my Irish player in the Last 16, who at that moment was the number-1-ranked junior in the world. Andreas beat him 5-3. He has a good chance (to make it to the Main Tour), and he is a very professional boy.”
Word Rap:
Florian? Champion.
Referee? Excellent.
Pool billiards? I don’t know anything about them.
Wiener Schnitzel? Love them, they are my favourite.
Betting? No, thanks.
[Das Gespräch führte Andreas Kronlachner, Pressereferent der Österreichischen Billardunion. Die ÖBU ist der Dachverband, zu dem auch der ÖSBV gehört.]