FIVB instructor to hold six-day training course

International Federation of Volleyball instructor Dr. Christian Kroger will be spending the next six days on Saipan conducting a teachers training course to help aspiring coaches learn about the proper knowledge and techniques to effectively teach the sport.

Dr. Christian Kroger hopes to help physical education instructors learn the proper coaching techniques to aid them in honing the volleyball skills of their athletes and students.
(Jon Perez)

The event, which begins today and will end on March 24, is one of the programs lined up by the Northern Mariana Islands Volleyball Associations to further promote the sport in the Commonwealth.

Thursday and Friday’s classes start at 3:30pm at the Marianas High School Gymnasium. The training course shifts to the Gilbert C. Ada Gymnasium on Saturday at 8am and returns to MHS on Sunday and Monday.

Kroger, a certified Level II instructor and international coach, arrived on Tuesday after a 22-hour flight from the Solomon Islands where he also conducted a different type of training course.

He said athletes, in all sports, have to learn the proper foundation in order to be at the competitive level of playing. That’s why coaches and instructors need to update their knowledge and skills that they teach to young players.

Kroger added that he created the Sports Aid Program in 1989 and he and FIVB later changed it to the Volleyball Cooperation Program that’s being used up to now.

“To be competitive, one needs the correct foundation. FIVB asked me to create a program to developing countries. The program aims to help young players and if they plan to, up to the pro level,” said Kroger in an interview with Saipan Tribune yesterday.

“The main objective of the program is to aid all participants the foundation and knowledge to help them teach the sport. Learn the methodical approach and have a clearer understanding of the actual skills. Not just based on reading books.”

Kroger, who has a 30-year career in conducting coaches training courses, said players must learn the correct body development, the different stages of the skills used in volleyball, as well as the mental aspect.

“Hitting is one factor and skill of playing volleyball. One must learn the proper coordination and body movement to hit the ball,” said Kroger, who is also a professor at Kiel University’s Institute of Sports Science in Kiel, Germany.

“And in every match there are winners and losers. You must know how to also work with the losers and develop them to take the loss in a positive way,” added the 60-year-old former setter.

He has visited more than 30 countries around the world and this is his first time to go to Oceania where he has already conducted similar courses in Vanuatu, Nauru, and the Solomon Islands.

Kroger said that the instructional manual that he developed for FIVB has been translated to different languages like Japanese, Mandarin, Spanish, Hungarian, Polish, and Portuguese.

Participants of the course will receive instructional materials that he prepared and created while NMIVA will get balls, nets, and T-shirts from the FIVB.