Laurent Tillie looks back at the crazy week of French volleyball

Three days after the Berlin exploit, Laurent Tillie still has small eyes, even if he has energy left for a last pair of interviews before a deserved rest in his house in Cagnes-sur-Mer. The coach of the Blues, in office since 2012, has lived almost everything with the France team. The medals, the crazy overthrows in the World League, then the (brief) status of new terror of world volleyball. But the great guy of tricolor volleyball (four Olympic qualifiers as a player then coach) does not need to force himself to recognize that the ticket snatched for Tokyo during an Olympic qualification tournament of crazy density represents one of the most beautiful pages in the history of tricolor volleyball.

🗣💬 "Can we talk about a miracle? Yes, completely"

🏐 🇫🇷 The coach of the French volleyball team, Laurent Tillie, analyzes the magnificent qualification of the Blues for the Tokyo Olympics at the end of the Berlin TQO #rmclive pic.twitter.com/wio1QSqTnB

Are you still on the cloud or already focused on Olympic preparation?

I assure you, I have absolutely nothing in mind. I'm going to look at the calendar and start a countdown. But for now, we're blowing. I leave the players alone, first because I think they are sick of me, and I'm sick of them. They need to breathe. The next collective time will be at the beginning of May, and by then I won't interfere with anything. What I said to my captain Ngapeth and two or three elders is that I will come to them so that we can co-build a program for the Olympic Games, according to the needs of the players and our obligations. Remember that my captain Benjamin Toniutti has already played with his club in Poland. We finished on the 10th, and they had a league game on the 12th. Well, he was on the match sheet but he didn't come home.

Is that the daily life of a French international?

You can not imagine the dose of stress they undergo. When I have been beating executive players for four years to tell them that they must train, that they must play all competitions and all games with the same determination when they just want rest ... Training, in volleyball is a lot in played form, a lot of friendlies, training sets played hard. It means serving maximum speed, working the intervals, working the relationship between the passer and the attacker, between the receiver and the passer, they never stop. Everything was directed towards this Tokyo objective. If you had seen the heads of Serbs and Slovenes who will not go to the Games while they were in the final of the Euro in Bercy [beating France, 4th, editor's note]. Taking part in the Olympic Games is stronger than anything. It is the reward of all these battles for nothing, or rather to be ready on D-Day.

# pic.twitter.com/uojKPWPnS4

Is that why we saw you cry after the victory against Germany?

We have been thinking about this prequalification tournament for a long time. It was our last chance to qualify. And there were so many small glitches accumulated, between the packages, the personal worries, that we thought that we would go with the force of despair. And then we had to hear all these criticisms after the Euro because we wanted the medal and we pass for idiots because we don't have it. It's magic what we managed to do, I've never had so many returns. Between Facebook, WhatsApp, SMS, I had to receive more than 200 congratulatory messages. It has nothing to do with what we have known before. When I took the selection in 2012, I programmed the first training of my mandate the day of the opening of the London Games. We were qualified for nothing at all, but I wanted to show them the course by this symbol. Symbols are important.

What do you say to your two-set pointers for Slovenia in the semi-finals?

On this match, I'm just trying to reassure them, show them that it's going to be possible, or at least make them believe. Ok, they are playing well, but if we want to hang on, we just have to try to give our backs and say to ourselves "We are going to try to hold on because they cannot hold this quality of service. If they get there, we shake hands and go back. However, if they go down, you have to be there. ” And that's courage, taking hits, taking money. The old ones held up, and it combined with the entry of new ones like Patry or Brizard who were able to give a boost. Then the team managed itself.

This is how France 🇫🇷 booked their spot in the final of #RoadToTokyo! 💪Tomorrow in Berlin, they are going to fight for ticket to # Tokyo2020 !! #HeroOrZero pic.twitter.com/9jMU6JjYnj

That is to say ?

I often make the analogy with rafting. When it moves in all directions, you just give an oar stroke here and there so as not to capsize. It's the same. When you are in a state of tension, arm wrestling, it is in small touches. And when the team takes over, it is important not to intervene.

You don't even talk to them anymore?

No, almost not. I don't take time-outs, I ask very little, just a little adjustment here and there. They took over the boat. We come back to all these matches, all this training, all this experience, to arrive at this self-management on important moments without my being able to pollute their game.

It’s a form of accomplishment for a technician when it’s going by itself, right?

Yes, it represents a huge collective success to see that all the subliminal messages that we could send during the preparation, during the tournament, during all these years, worked. Brizard and Patry, for example, it is the advent of patience and training. These two young people, they have been there since 2017. They made matches, they went upstairs with incredible performance levels, then they went down very low, we had to allow time and keep them ready for the great occasion . In Berlin, the group was very strong in sharing. Sharing of skills, sharing of places, sharing of responsibilities.

🎙️ "We are survivors!" - said 🇫🇷 coach Laurent Tillie in tears of happiness after huge success of his team which just qualified for # Tokyo2020 !!! Check out post-match interview !! # RoadToTokyo @ FFvolley pic.twitter.com/CnskhyGQsF

The team had passed through in Rio in 2016 when it arrived in full flock. Have you learned from this failure?

The failure of Rio is a whole set of things. Even if they were well alerted and they were incredible in attitude, there is a physical dimension to the Games that you have to live to realize. We qualified very late, in June in Japan, then we returned to France, we left a week later in Australia for the World League, then back to Europe again. Then a week of rest and direction Brazil. This time of sacralization that we did not have four years ago is very important. It was a tournament like any other.

What is the objective? A medal ?

It's very complicated to advertise anything. We still have the ambition to get on the podium but on 12 teams, there are ten who can win or almost. There will be Russia, Brazil, the USA, Canada, Poland… But we have the experience of 2016. When we go to the Olympics once in a while, like us, we have no Olympic tradition . There, the players who were in Rio, they will be able to supervise the new ones and know what it is about the Games. We may be better prepared. Because the first one, we are so moved, shocked, disturbed, by all the aura that there is around, we lose our means a little.

Beyond your team, what does it mean to go to the Olympics for French volleyball?

We fight on all levels. We are fighting to recover young people who prefer to go to rugby, football, basketball, or handball, rather than volleyball. We need exposure to recover these young people, to find partners, to attract spectators, to talk about us. We are always in this search for exposure without perverting. For us, the Games are a big door. Everyone is interested in this team and it will last until the Olympics. In the perspective of Paris 2024, it was very important to be part of this continuity of Olympic life.

Sport

Euro volleyball: Crazy reflex and diving from the end of the world, that's how the French defense disgusted Italy

Sport

Euro volleyball: Great disillusionment for France, beaten by Serbia in the semifinals

• Japan
• Volleyball
• OJ 2020
• Sport