Roger Spry

Roger Spry (2009)

Roger Thomas Spry (born November 14, 1950 , United Kingdom ) is an English fitness trainer . He currently looks after the Austrian national soccer team .

Coaching career

Spry played an active football himself in the Wolverhampton Wanderers youth team in the 1960s . However, he soon realized that he was more interested in developing player skills than in active sports. He completed a bachelor's degree in human movement science and is a certified UEFA coach educator. His decades of work as a fitness trainer led him to positions in over 25 countries. His most notable coaching stations included u. a. Vitória Setúbal in Portugal , where he worked under head coach Malcolm Allison and the young José Mourinho was his assistant, Sporting Lisbon (Portugal) under Sir Bobby Robson and Carlos Queiroz , Nagoya Grampus Eight ( Japan ) under the later long-time Arsenal London success coach Arsène Wenger , FC Porto (Portugal) under António Oliveira or Panathinaikos Athens ( Greece ) under Fernando Santos . He was also a fitness coach for the Scottish national football team . In addition to his predominant activity in football, he worked as a consultant in numerous other sports (tennis, rugby, cricket) or for individual athletes ( Frank Bruno , Ronan Rafferty ).

In October 2006 , the Austrian national soccer team under coach Josef Hickersberger signed Roger Spry as a fitness trainer to strengthen the support team in the run-up to the 2008 European Championship . Although the Austrian team was one of the fittest teams at the 2008 European Championships, it was eliminated in the preliminary round. His contract, which ran until the European Championship, was extended and he was also the fitness coach of the Austrian team under Karel Brückner . After Brückner was replaced by Didi Constantini , Spry was employed in the junior division from February 2009. Two years later, in September 2011, Constantini was replaced by interim trainer Willi Ruttensteiner , who reinstated Roger Spry as the fitness trainer of the A-team. After Marcel Koller was coach of the Austrian national soccer team on November 1st, 2011 , the cooperation with Roger Spry as fitness coach continued during his seven-year term. Spry was no longer a member of Franco Foda's coaching team , which took over in January 2018

Due to his decades of fitness coaching in internationally successful football teams, the BBC described him in 2007 as "the most successful English football coach, of whom one has probably never heard of".

Working method

Spry does not follow the conventional approach of pure fitness training and sport motor tests, but focuses more on the individual flexibility of the players, also with regard to the symbiosis of body and mind. Spry sees two advantages in his training methods:

“The players act with more strength and more unpredictably. The unpredictability is the most important thing. You shouldn't think in linear schemes and work according to a fixed pattern. "

- Roger Spry

Spry films every training session and analyzes the videos in his own film studio near Birmingham . He analyzes the strengths and weaknesses of each player and puts together individually tailored training programs for each player. These training programs can also be completed outside of the brief presence at a training session for the national team. These individual training programs were not entirely undisputed with some club coaches. The former Rapid trainer Peter Pacult initially spoke out against it. Spry suspected that such disagreements came about when club coaches were criticized in their own training methods.

Others

Spry is widowed and has one daughter. He has published a variety of commercially available training videos. He wears the black belt in karate .

Individual evidence

1. ^ Preaching the skills gospel bbc.co.uk. July 10, 2007, accessed August 8, 2015.
2. ↑ Roger Spry's personal homepage , accessed on August 8, 2015.
3. ^ Preaching the skills gospel bbc.co.uk. July 10, 2007, accessed August 8, 2015.
4. ↑ Spry, Lord of the Unpredictable derstandard.at. October 11, 2006, accessed August 8, 2015.
5. ↑ Spry, Lord of the Unpredictable derstandard.at. October 11, 2006, accessed August 8, 2015.
6. ↑ Roger Spry is again creating home programs at derstandard.at. October 11, 2011, accessed August 8, 2015.

Web links

Commons : Roger Spry  - collection of pictures, videos and audio files

• https://www.rogerspry.com/