In April, Helena Havelková ended a career studded with Italian, Russian, Polish and Turkish titles. However, the three-time best volleyball player of the year immediately put another sporting goal on her shoulders.

She began training in beach volleyball with a vision of one of the few goals she failed to achieve in her career. She wanted to represent Czechia at the Paris Olympics in two years.

“It was very difficult in the six, but on the beach I feel a chance. I know it’s possible. I’m not as successful under the Czech flag as in club sports. It’s a new challenge for me, a new motivation. And I really like that. I would love for her to still be on the pitch because I have something to catch up on,” Havelková said in an interview with the moderator of the broadcaster and former handball representative Karel Nocar.

His plan is seemingly simple: transform quickly and be the best he can be as quickly as possible. The well-known trainer Simon Nausch helps him there.

“I prepared a lot mentally and with a mental coach. I was terribly afraid of having to relearn everything. But I’m excited, Simon studied me and now we’re just fine-tuning things,” explains the volleyball player. .

He gets used to the significant differences between indoor and outdoor sports.

“The first week my hands and feet were completely frozen. Running in the sand is more physically demanding, the more the wind the ball behaves differently every moment. It’s still volleyball, but that’s the difference” , she points out, alluding to the radical change in sportswear.

“I’m basically naked there, but that’s fine with me. It’s worse with my boyfriend, he has to get used to it. He can comment, but he only has limited powers,” laughs Havelková.

In Russia, it’s a question of survival

After fifteen years of a world traveler’s life in volleyball, she once again dropped anchor at her home in Liberec. Her second home is Budapest, Hungary, where her boyfriend lives.

“Because I have traveled so much, I don’t really notice where I am, what time it is or what the weather is like. I am constantly adapting. But I feel most comfortable at home in Liberec with my family, that’s where I relax the most,” said the former captain of the national team.

The most successful Czech volleyball player of the last decade recalls her greatest achievements in the podcast. In her heart remains a strong emotion from 2012, when she had an almost perfect season in the Italian team Busto Arsizio.

“We won everything we could. We only lost once in the season. I was the captain, I also won individual prizes. It was my best year. There were six seven thousand people, which is not normal for volleyball. They even stood on the stairs. After the game, I signed autographs for an hour, “describes Havelková, who also recorded the same year his greatest success in the national team, a triumph in the Europa League.

Perhaps she experienced a little stronger euphoria during her last success in Russia two years ago.

“I had injured my Achilles and I thought I would probably never reach the top. Russia is a massacre of a country as such, it is very difficult to be a foreigner there, to s ‘establish and survive there,’ she said.

The player, who spent nine out of fifteen years in Italy, also discusses the specificities of the women’s team in the podcast.

“The coach has to be almost more of a psychologist, the first month everything is fine, but then the problems come. I was either liked or unpopular. Nothing in between. My character is such that what I see is what I I can “I don’t lie much, it’s always about me that everything is horrible to see. When someone doesn’t go 100% to training, I can’t stand it. It may not be pleasant for someone, I do everything and I expect the same from my teammates, ”she confides about her own characteristics.

Listen to the whole conversation in the Bez phrasí plus podcast. Helena Havelková previously described her story for the Bez frazí portal in the text p titled Half Man.