Werder Bremen Coach Luca role model for disability footballers
Luca started playing football at our member Werder Bremen in 2010. Back then he was just a handicapped boy who wanted to play football. Today, as a young coach, he is alone in charge of the training sessions – despite, or perhaps because of, his own handicap.
He leads the way as a trainer, as a role model for the kids who follow him. “Sometimes I have to get a little louder than I actually want,” he admits. “The training has made me much calmer and I can better deal with the individual problems of the boys – and I have to.”
In his group, some young people have none at all, some a mental disability, others a physical one. They all train together. The training as a young coach that Werder Bremen and other partner clubs offer together with the Scort Foundation has taught him to overcome this challenge.
THE HANDICAP IS NO EXCUSE FOR HIM
“We have an age gap and a performance gap, you always have to combine that somehow,” the 19-year-old describes one of the obstacles he has to overcome every week. Together with other coaches, he constantly develops training plans that take into account the individual disabilities of the kickers. “Warm up, main part, end – you have to think about variants everywhere”, said Luca.
After theoretical lessons at the sports school in Hennef, Luca spent a week as a mentor in Basel with his tandem partner in the Young Coach training course in order to learn exactly that in practice. The contacts he made then help him still today: “Sometimes I ask for advice in our Whatsapp group, for example, when I need special exercises for a group with many participants with Down syndrome”.
However, the impairments of the participants do not prevent him from demanding a certain ambition from them. “Concentrate” or “Come, faster” are often heard in the soccer hall. The hemiplegia, which you can occasionally notice during a quick step or exercise build-up, is no excuse for him. He has been a Werder fan since childhood and trains as a player in the hall after his sessions as a coach. Inclusion and Werder – a combination that Luca appreciates very much from his own experience: “It inspires me that we at Werder are open to every origin and every impairment”.
Luca has done well and built trust with the boys. They approach him with personal problems and report if they had a bad day. But Luca wants to improve even more. His next goal is to find better access to the parents of the participants.
