Speaking to Pedro García Rosado (UMF Sindri Höfn)-Basquet Zone
We escape again from our borders and this time we head towards the icy lands of the wonderful island of Iceland.From there the Spanish coach Pedro García Rosado (1990, Málaga) attends, which currently directs the UMF Sindri Höfn of the Second Icelandic Division.Let's not be fooled by his youth, because despite his 30 years of him accumulates experiences and a great background.A coach with a lotto female basketball and finally undertaking another new experience.Of all this and much we talk in the next lines.
Basketball Zone - Short career as a player, but what better place to start training than a mythical “square” like the Guindos.How were those beginnings at EBG Malaga and that 12/13 season within the Júnior del Unicaja?
Pedro García Rosado-They were very fun, I was 16 years old and I started with a group of 7-8-year-old girls while I was an assistant to another team with Tomás Rueda, from which I keep a lot of love and we still have a great relationship.EBG Malaga is the ideal environment for any boy who wants to play basketball and for any young coach, you have huge coaches around you to learn, experienced people who want to help you and young people with a lot of hunger and today continueSo.Many players have come out that you all know: Alberto Díaz, Francis Alonso, Sabonis Domantas ...
ZDB - With 23 years, in the summer of 2013, you go from your comfort zone and you leave the CBACADEMY, a place where 100% of the time is thought of.What motivated you to get out of Malaga and how do you remember that year next to young talents?
PGR - I left something before, at 21, which was when I had my first experience in England, but it is true that the season I spent in the CBA was very intense and marked me a lot as a coach and as a person.We trained many hours, it was a different method from the one I was used to and, well, that's what it comes to their co -confort zone, see new things and try to learn to the fullest.We had a level of brutal players, several of them in ACB right now such as Yankuba Sima and Vladimír Brodziansky, plus several who are by gold, silver ... it recruited very well and works very intense.
ZDB - The 14/15 season you leave from Spain, nothing less than the United Kingdom, the Reading Rockets, and there you remain three seasons.We imagine that it was an enriching experience in every way.How did the opportunity arise?
PGR - It was a brutal experience, the one that has marked me the most and perhaps even the one I have enjoyed.As I was in the past two seasons in England, on this occasion Manu Peña was already at Reading Rockets, he had been a season and had a previous relationship of Italy and through him it was the one who proposed it to me and I went to visit them in June andThere we already specify everything.
ZDB - There, in addition to the second coach of the senior team, you trained different training categories and could be in the technical staff of the British training categories.
PGR - Exact, there they have a model that I hope we could have in Spain, the Institute and Baccalaureate is connected to basketball, my office was in the institute and I was in direct contact with the professors of the players.Basketball was one more subject for high school players, so we had training during the day, this facilitated everything much since we organized the schedules with the teachers and, well, there was a job together to look for the best for students/athletes.All that work was then rewarded in the first team, where we had many young people who contributed more and more and in Manu confident and gave them opportunities, in the end this was the work of many people involved and everyone with the same idea.
ZDB - We can't go without asking you for an old friend of this website like Manuel Peña, now at ACB, with which you worked side by side.We are sure that his presence in Reading was very important for you, being, as is Manuel, a person who gives so much to others and with some magnetism.
PGR - Manu has marked me a lot as a person and as a coach, there have been many hours, trips, calls ... We are great friends.Today we have a very strong relationship and share projects, Campus ... Manu's mind never rests and sometimes you have to scold him to relax a bit [laughs].
ZDB - You return the 17/18 to Spain, perhaps in a sense a turn because you go to female basketball when signing for Pickn Claret, being that first year assistant to the senior team and carrying several teams of lower categories.How was the return to Spain?
PGR - It is true that I wanted to return, I think it was the right time to continue discovering, learning and living other experiences.I went to Picken Claret by my friend Carles Martínez (another big one!).With Carles he had worked several summers in a row in Mallorca on the Summer League campus and since then we had a good connection.It was a very good first season with sports successes (we arrived at the ascent phase to LF1 and competing well) and on a personal level I worked and learned a lot with Carles, it is a great leader we all followed, what he said we all believed them andWe were going to death with him.
ZDB - 18/19 you assume the Female Sports Directorate of Picken Claret, in addition to being the first coach of the senior team in LF2.However, in the middle of the season, you leave the team to be an assistant coach in the Women's League, in Al-Qázeres.How was that season?
PGR - After the first season at Picken Claret to Carles Martínez, the prize of a bench in LF1 in Ferrol (very deserved) comes.As a result, the club trusts me to continue with the project, it was a great experience without a doubt that time in Claret.And then the leap to LF1 came from the hand of Ángel Fernández, which I thank her confidence very much;He has a lot of experience and, well, it is never easy to reach a team where there is no good dynamics and inside the locker room there is some "move", but Angel knew how to fight very well and kept the category and even with options in optionsThe last day to enter the playoffs.
ZDB - Despite the change of main coach, you follow as an assistant coach of Ricardo Vasconcelos in LF, in addition to carrying the junior team ... until the Covid stopped everything.How was the 19/20 going?
PGR - Ricardo Vasconcelos has a lot of basketball, absolute coach with the selection of Portugal, basketball student and someone very close and affectionate with everyone around (players, staff, club, press ...).We had many players of the previous season, we kept Paula Ginzo as a key piece and then many young players, since we had no budget for the most experienced players.Despite this we made a strong first round and then in the second at the beginning it cost us a little but I am sure we were going up if we had not stopped the Covid.Ricardo did a great job and I would have loved to continue working and learning with him.
ZDB - Almost before summer your signing came for the UMF Sindri Höfn Icelandic, a total change, because you came out again from Spain to set up nothing less than Iceland, going from coach assisting the main coach and female to male basketball.How was everything gestured?
PGR - Well I am basketball coach, sex does not matter in that aspect, so you have to always be prepared to see which one is the best option.The reality in Spain was screwed with the Covid, teams lowering a budget on the one hand and always even more in the technical bodies, so it was clear that I would be with the suitcases prepared to go wherever it went.It was all through Óscar González, he was usually training with the players in Al-Qázeres (he was very fit, for gold without problems) and since then we had a good relationship.He proposed the option to go to Iceland and after talking to Spanish coaches who were already here (Israel and Richi) and studying the situation a bit comparing it to the other options because it was the best of them without a doubt.
ZDB - Iceland is a country that soon closed borders to high -risk areas of Coronavirus such as Spain.Did you have a quarantine period?How were the first days?
PGR - It's the best they could do.I came on July 27 and since then the protocol still keeps it and even stricter: PCR at the airport, it doesn't matter if you are positive or negative, a week of quarantine and second test.To get out of quarantine you need two negative tests.Today, apart from that, they also ask for tests before arriving (depending on which country comes).
Today it can almost be said that Covid has almost disappeared, we have about one case every three weeks (throughout the country) and is always someone who is already previously in quarantine.We live very calmly, luckily I don't know what it is to live with Covid just.I am very sad that in Spain we were not just as strong as Iceland, but of course I am not I who know at the political level the tessitures/economies of each country.
ZDB - You start the League, but suddenly the coronavirus for all sports competitions.Could you train or were you confined?How do those months have been without the party award?Is it hardly hard?
PGR - Despite all the restrictions in the country there was an average of about 30 cases a day (in a country of about 300,000 inhabitants), which they considered something very high, so all parties and training stopped completely,Restaurants ... Every three weeks they reviewed the situation and so we were two and a half months almost unable to train.It became very hard and we had to be creative.We sent them work plannings at home through zoom with the physical trainer, we gave each ball to each one to do some out of an outer track that we had, several degrees below zero and snowing, the players wanted to kill me but goodIt was simply to change the chip and get out of the house a little.And then we also made several sessions with a Spanish psychologist Albert Quílez, who helped us a lot.
ZDB - The League is restarted and the truth is that you are very good, in the upper area, where there are five very equal teams, facing crucial matches.How is the "short" season?How many teams ascend and in what system?Was the ascent one of the objectives of the team when you arrived?
PGR - We had to make preseason from the beginning, we did not want to risk injuries (we have short equipment), we preferred not to get so well at the beginning but that we all arrived together.Things are going well, we cannot complain, or relax.We are third to a victory of the two above and the two who chase us have a victory, so, as you say, very matched the five above.It can go from everything.
When I arrived here I came with the idea of doing a medium -term project, the objective of ascending is in the medium term.That objective is not real in this first season (by budget), although that will never mean that we are not going to dream and work so that we can have our options from the first season as we are trying to demonstrate.
ZDB - The weight of the team is carried by foreign players, two of them Spanish.Gerard Blat, with experience in gold, is playing at a very good level and Aleix Pujada is also responding.How do you see them?Is it appreciated to have someone close to speak your language?
PGR - We are in a town of 2,000 inhabitants and six hours from Reykjavík, that means that 90% of young people once the institute end up being studied at the University of Reykjavík, so the talent escapes that theClub is forming.Therefore, the contribution of foreigners is essential, although we have several local players who are helping us with different roles, some less visible in statistics than others but equally necessary.
The issue of bringing you to players to speak your language can be a cheat, since if we only speak our language it can have consequences that we do not want, so I try to speak to them in English enough, although it is true that we try to take advantage of sharing the languagein the phases of the party or for me to clarify any questions.But both have adapted very well and speak English very well, which as bases is essential for the team.I am very happy with the level of both in the sporting aspect as well.And then there are two great people.
ZDB - Another important player with extensive experience in Iceland is Gerald Robinson.Can we talk about him as a key man in the area?
PGR - is the veteran of the team, a lot of international experience and also in Iceland, which was key to me to have someone of their level and their experience in this country: arbitration, scouting, rivals.No doubt it helps a lot.We talk a lot, I like being close to the players and Gerald Robinson helps me inside the locker room.At the sports level he undoubtedly marks the differences within the area.
ZDB - The other two foreigners are the "Rookie" Dallas Morgan (which replaced former Clavijo Beau Justice, injured) and former eba Haris Genjac, who recently arrived.Are statistically shine less, but how are they being found?
PGR - Dallas is a Rookie, with what that entails in all aspects.You have to adapt to the game something more "European" we try to do, and that takes time and from there comes the ups and downs of some games.We do not want him to be the typical American who only puts and throws, we try to help him be able to do more things: play readings, decision -making, defensive responsibility ...
Haris arrived in February, is a boy who is giving us things from the first moment.Iceland is a physical and hard league and he is adapting and is helping from the first moment.Very good boy, very enableable.He has basketball for a long time.
ZDB - Another aspect that interests us is infrastructure.In the end you pass from an LF team with a “professional” structure to a training team in which local players are amateurs and scarce.We imagine that facilities thoughts, training, "scouting" would be very different from yours.How is that difference and that attempt to progress to the club in these aspects?
PGR - As you say, "professional" female league, because it is not.The coaching staff was not professional, for example, and we didn't have twelve professional players either.In our club the local players are amateurs, since they study at the Institute (three of them) or work (three others), so with the Institute we do several training at seven in the morning before entering class and thenWith the rest I train in the afternoon.The key to the club is undoubtedly professionalizing local players, I think they are the key in any club in the world and is a global error, perhaps, not to value sufficient at the economic level (on a personal level that they are undoubtedly valued) To the house players, since there is no one to leave the shirt or transmit the feeling for the club more than those players (the best example is Alberto Díaz in Unicaja).
ZDB - Probably due to economic conditions and treat them as professionals, this campaign has been an important landing of Spaniards in Iceland.In the First Division are Aurrecoechea, Guardia and Navarro, in addition to Israel Martín on the benches.In Second was Medina (with large numbers) and Clement and Rubiera arrived, in addition to Mikel Ereño on the benches and the Spanish colony of Sindri.What do you think are the reasons for this landing?
PGR - I think it is undoubtedly the economic part.In Spain we have many seasons making the "error", from my point of view, of wanting.The players come here for better salaries or at least they are given a job with a decent salary and in the end they can do the same as in Spain and at least they can save every month, you can afford a good vacation, pay for a coachin summer or whatever they want.I do not know in Spain how many eba and silver clubs are able to offer the players a decent job instead of giving them € 300-400.It is possible that some players prefer to collect that amount, not work and fight/dream of one day having the opportunity to collect a decent salary playing basketball, which I admire.You have to take great care of those boys.
ZDB - Iceland is not a very numerous country and there are many competitive sports.How does the club achieve that basketball attracts young people?Have you implanted any improvement to grow with all the experience you have?
PGR - At the quarry level our club suffers being in a small town, where they have many sports to choose young people and good facilities: football, swimming, gymnastics, volleyball ... There is a lot of rivalry between sports.I am on a day -to -day basis with the house coaches, we talk a lot, I spend clinics, we sit down to prepare planning, training ... It is a medium -term process.
ZDB - How many training sessions do you take a week?Is the calendar readjustment difficult to establish a dynamic?
PGR - Every week is a world, since for the calendar at the beginning we have been playing two weeks two weeks, so we have been adjusting loads, weeks with less training where we had to be very focused on us and less scouting, weeksLonger where there was more time to prepare more scouting things.In general, if we have only one game we rest two days a week, sometimes two days in a row or separateAll as professional as possible.
ZDB - The team belongs to the city of Höfn, one of the most important areas of Southeast Island, but is a small fishing port with less than 2,000 inhabitants.How is the change of living in a city to do so in such a small town?
PGR - I think it is the best year to live in such a child, since here the Covid disappeared before Reykjavík (the capital), so we have had a very calm year.It is a very tourist town for its fishing port and a tourist passage zone that run through the southern part of the island.I don't need a car, I'm walking everywhere and it's something that I love and I really enjoy these walks.We have some glacier views that are spectacular.
ZDB - You also have to talk about the weather, because you pass from heat cities such as Málaga, Valencia, Gran Canaria or Cáceres to Iceland.Did you have to buy a lot of clothes or saved a lot from your time to the United Kingdom?How do you carry the issue of so few hours of light?
PGR - The coaches have to be a bit "chameleons" in all aspects (equipment, cities, temperature), so I adapted quickly.Yes, it is true that I am more warm than anyone in the team, the players sometimes laugh a little (I go with a double layer throughout the body).The theme of the few hours of light I do not know if it is a false myth or that is that this happens to the north.Here to the south where we are we have not had so few hours of sun, it is true that in December it woke up at 8: 30-9: 00 and sunset about 15: 30-16: 00, but it was that in England it wasThe same, so in that aspect I cannot complain anything.
ZDB - Iceland is really a paradise.Any place that is forced visit?Any a little outside the usual tourist points?
PGR - I recommend everyone to visit Iceland, it is a pass and the photos do not do justice, it is even more beautiful and shocking in reality.You have to come about two weeks and travel the entire island.I really like hot tubs that are small swimming pools (even bathtubs), which are in the middle of nowhere, with natural hot water and many of them are free and you can be at twelve o'clock at night watching dawn insideOf these, it is a great feeling.Recommendations, many: waterfall route (there are many and immense), visit a cave in the glacier, Geiser (investigate for YouTube/Google), then in the north are the "gas fumaroles."It is a wild country with many types of landscapes.
ZDB - How are you as a coach and who has influenced you more?Do you look at an elite coach?
PGR - I will start with the last question since I think they have influenced me and they continue to do it.Starting with Tomás Rueda.The first great teacher I had, someone who taught me the love for teaching (it showed that he was and remains a teacher at school).In Unicaja I was very lucky, I had to learn on each side, it was a clinic daily, in quarry we had Bernardo Rodríguez, Paco Alonso, Francis Tomé, Manolo Trujillo, Leandro Ruiz, Rafa Piña ... and then he was lucky enough for themornings go daily for ACB training and here I keep the figure of the assistants, Paco Aurioles and Ángel Cañete.
Once outside Malaga, in the Canary Islands Basketball Academy (CBA), by Rob Orellana I learned the sacrifice and effort to demand and try to educate the players so they could get up.
Manu Peña, both on and off the track, has been an example to follow.Then someone who has marked me a lot and from which every day I learn is Jaume Ponsarnau, I think I will never meet someone so humble at that level, he is a person with a tremendous heart, who is always giving others, a technical/tactical levelbrutal.They are very lucky in Valencia to have someone like him (I don't want to forget Juan Maroto).
As a coach I like to adapt to what I have, since today I have not yet been able It is always an agreement between both parties. For example, I like to squeeze in defense from the front line at all, but with short template as we have it is not real that you can ask the boys to be squeezing on all track, so we have to adjust. In defense I like to be active in the ball (hands/feet), close spaces the players without ball, that no one of the attack feels comfortable penetrating (broadly speaking ...). At the offensive level, the beginnings of systems where they feel comfortable and can deploy their best game; I would love to have several shooters like Carroll coming out of indirect blockages and make systems of that style, but I do not have them, so you have to adapt and try to look for ideas where the boys feel comfortable so that they are more successful and give us better results ( how simple it sounds).
ZDB - You are only 30 years old, but you have a lot of baggage and you were always very clear about your commitment to fight to be a coach.Soon you were already superior coach for the Feb and then you continued with the title of FIBA coach.We are convinced that he has not stopped the thing there.What do you do now?
PGR - I don't know at what time I have decided to dedicate myself to being a coach, I think this has been coming little by little, but hey, I still don't know what I will be older.But it is true that I like to be prepared, continue learning and not only with courses, since I think that all coaches will agree that we learn more seeing a training of another coach or taking something post -training/game, on campus whenWe got the coaches at night (I do not change for anything those experiences that I have had in the Summer League of Mallorca, also four summers that I have spent in Italy).Now I am in a season in which I have given a break of courses and I am trying to see a lot of basketball from many countries and levels, exchange training videos with other coaches and comment.I think there are many ways to continue forming.
ZDB - In addition to all this you have continued your studies and, if we are not wrong, when you were in the United Kingdom you took the opportunity to get a race (Business Management in Sports).Where did you find the time?
PGR - Well, as I said before, I don't know what I will be older and last year I ended the business of Business Management in Sports, which I made at the Open University of England (it's like the UNED of Spain), that's why I could continue itstudying at a distance.There have been four hard seasons, to get up at six in the morning every day to be able to perform on both sides, but I have done it with pleasure and this course/season I am taking it calm, another career ... we'll see, I think it is good for coaches to have the mind in something else beyond basketball.
ZDB - You are very restless: main coach, assistant, male, female ... Where do you look in the future?
PGR - I don't want to look like any philosopher, but I see life as a cluster of experiences and with that motto I see myself in the future, enjoying experiences, preparing in the best way for what I can come, but always enjoying and being happy.
ZDB - Thank you very much for your time and for reviewing with us your career, Pedro.
PGR - Thanks to you for the work you do and, if someone has been able to reach the end after all the roll I have released, thank you very much [laughs].