Less talkative, more attentive to girls, how Olivier Krumbholz became a cool coach

Symbolic scene on Saturday, at the Granollers sports center. The French women’s handball team plays scared against catchy Serbs, and only leads by one goal as the epilogue approaches. Olivier Krumbholz, takes his responsibilities as coach and the downtime that goes with it, then turns to one of the taulières, Grâce Zaadi.

– ” What do you want to do ? “

– “We are going to do the same thing again, except that Méline [Nocandy] will put the strong beat on the left ”.

Whatever the meaning of this enigmatic formula, the important thing is elsewhere: France scores, wins, and Krumbholz has once again shown that he knows how to be something other than Sergeant Hartman on the sidelines. Of course, it happens that the natural takes over again, and that the vociferations of an old-fashioned manager resonate in gymnasiums. But they are becoming rarer over time. “I am someone who evolves, like everyone else, he admitted after the Olympic gold medal in Tokyo. I am less exuberant. “

The old Krumbholz

Less because of the wear and tear assumed by 63 years of torturing his vocal cords than thanks to the work of introspection undertaken during his three-year break, between his failed post-Olympics 2012 ousting and his return in 2016. Philippe Bana, president of the French handball federation:

“The three years of stoppage allowed him to reflect, to think, to watch that pro handball is no longer the same. The players who play in the biggest clubs in the Champion’s League, they know their job, we need another model where he brings both solutions himself, because the players are more demanding, and at the same time a model of cooperation . When he returns in the spring of 2016, he does so with this idea of ​​helping players win. “

There is all the same in this change, the idea of ​​a condition imposed to validate a return which could not be done identically. “I was a little forced, and rightly so, to try to be a little less hot in my coaching”, will say the person concerned.

To understand the benefits of the new Krumhbolz, you have to dive into the old one. A less flexible, more vertical management, with decision-makers, executives and disproportionate requirements, in short, the business world but with cages and a small ball. The coach will also admit “having sometimes pushed too far” the athletes to their limits. “Before 2013, we followed to the letter what he asked, summarizes Blandine Dancette, neo-retired after 12 years in blue. Everyone adhered to the project anyway. There were results, so obviously we listened. “

Disturbed by a disappointing level of play and disparate states of form at the start of the tournament in Tokyo – see the case of Lacrabère – the coach of the Blues allowed himself to be caught up by his interventionist demons, through improbable downtime and instructions of all kinds balanced in empty gymnasiums that her vocal flow alone managed to furnish. It will take a healthy crisis meeting within the blue group to restore some peace of mind on the bench.

“They only held a meeting between themselves, says Bana, where they say: ‘There are enough, we have to move our ass. The next day, they crush Brazil. »With a detail forgotten along the way in the account of the boss of the FFHB: at the end of the said meeting, Krumbholz will be asked to lower a tone at the request of Estelle Nze Minko and for the good of the team . This one cash without making a hay, as he will explain after the final in Tokyo. “I am someone open, I am at their service through my skills, but also through my behavior and my sensitivity. So I took their request into account. At the same time, they made efforts on very important things. “

And the new one

It is in this tacit agreement that lies the essence of management 2.0 advocated by the French coach. Manon Houette, 104 selections, illustrates by example. “He and the staff have a big upstream analysis on the video, on the study of the players, etc. And they offer us choices before the matches: “On this phase of the game, we suggest you do that, do you agree with us, can we discuss it?” in this approach that everything is done on a daily basis. We can tell each other everything, adds Dancette. Even in the field, when you don’t understand a situation, you have the right to say “I would rather see it like that”. And we are doing tests. Sometimes it works, other times a little less well. But we adapt according to everyone’s vision. “

All these beautiful people suggest that this less boorish operation would have no reason to exist if this group of players had not reached a barely believable level of requirement, and did not count in its ranks strong leaders of locker room like Grace Zaadi, Estelle Nze Minko or Alisson Pineau. Bana, always:

“Immediately after the Olympics, we got together to argue, to tell each other what was wrong. These players, they come to us to tell us: “We want to win everything, we want to achieve everything, we can’t stand the slightest mistake”. There is a kind of reciprocal requirement. It’s not just a good bunch of girlfriends with nice leaders and nice coaches. These are people who push themselves on the path to performance. “

These people have already won everything and could have stopped there, especially Olivier Krumbholz, who we remember having found too little enthusiastic in Tokyo for a man obsessed by this Olympic dream which had been denied him until then. Without the Parisian Olympiad on the horizon, 2021 had everything to be the culmination of a career in the France team. The success after which we hang up to snuggle up in a sunny corner. “For him, concludes Philippe Bana, 2024 is something very important. There is a form of consecration and fulfillment. He was born for the France team and he wants to go to the end of the road. »Leaving the driver’s seat from time to time.