Team
21.02.24
Baumgart gets the ball rolling
On Tuesday afternoon (20th February), HSV’s new head coach held his first training session at the Volksparkstadion. With around 500 fans in attendance, the boys took part in various drills, receiving a lot of guidance and tips from the sidelines throughout the 75 minutes.
The Volksparkstadion was buzzing on Tuesday afternoon, as everyone was keen to see an appearance from the new head coach. In fact, it's been a very long time since the Rothosen have had this number of spectators in attendance at training. When Steffen Baumgart came down the stairs behind the Südtribune at 15:51 CET sporting a black winter jacket, he was given a warm welcome by 500 eager fans, who were given an exclusive insight into how the 52-year-old runs the show. The boys worked their socks off in a number of drills, and were provided with constant praise and advice from Baumgart throughout the whole session.
A good turnout for the first session
The new head coach was spoilt for choice in his first session on the job. The only players absent from training were Miro Muheim (back pain) and Laszlo Benes, who has been granted a trip back home to Slovakia until Thursday. Other than that, everyone else was present, which meant that Baumgart had 25 outfielders and three goalkeepers to choose from, including young talents Luis Seifert, Bilal Yalcinkaya, and Otto Stange. Tom Mickel completed an individual session involving goalkeeper-specific drills with fitness coach Sebastian Capel.
Following a fun warm-up led by fitness coach Daniel Müssig, Baumgart, who will be supported by his assistant coaches Rene Wagner, Merlin Polzin and Loic Fave in Hamburg, sent his team straight into drills. The players were split into three groups and goals were not initially involved, with the groups having the task of winning the ball quickly and then shifting it. A bigger playing area was subsequently introduced with two goals in a game-like situation. It was noticeable that the new head coach repeatedly interrupted the action to provide his players with suggestions for improvements and possible adjustments. “I’m someone who communicates a lot, but not in individual conversations. Instead, they’ll see that I chat to the boys a lot on the pitch and try to build trust in that manner,” the Rostock native explained beforehand in his press conference. The head coach followed up these words with similar action out on the training pitch.