Published: 10:19, March 20, 2020 | Updated: 06:09, June 6, 2023
Flick: Bayern in cyber training prepared for possible curfew
By Xinhua

Bayern Munich's German head coach Hans-Dieter Flick walks at the field prior the German first division Bundesliga football match FC Bayern Munich v RB Leipzig in Munich, southern Germany, on Feb 9, 2020. (CHRISTOF STACHE / AFP)

BERLIN - Most of Germany's first-tier football clubs have taken up home-training sessions to keep their squads in the best possible shape.

Due to the coronavirus crisis, team training has mostly been suspended for all of the 18 Bundesliga sides. Clubs advised players to stay home. Travelling has been banned as well as larger gatherings and parties.

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We are prepared for any further measures. We can handle a curfew after we implemented home-office solutions

Hansi Flick, Head coach, Bayern Munich

Eintracht Frankfurt prepared care-packages for breakfast and other daily meals to keep its players at home in the morning and reduce social contacts. The items contain sports-specific food, the club announced.

The return to regular pitch training and competition is not expected before May.

2013 treble winner Bayern Munich has started 75 to 90 long exercise sessions monitored by smartwatches every player has to wear to supply personal fitness data to the coaches at the club's headquarter.

"We are prepared for any further measures," Bayern Munich head-coach Hansi Flick said. "We can handle a curfew after we implemented home-office solutions."

The German reigning champion equipped its performers with a bicycle ergometer to attend spinning training.

Team manager Kathleen Krueger rang up players to investigate their sport equipment assets. "Using the watches, we can adjust training loads for every individual player," Bayern's fitness coach, Professor Holger Broich, commented.

The Bavarians scientific head said maintenance training is the main goal as work with the ball or tactical exercise isn't possible until authorities implement further rules.

Bayern Munich's striker Thomas Mueller (R) is congratulated by Bayern munich's Brazil midfielder Philippe Coutinho (L) after scoring during the German first division football Bundesliga match between FC Bayern Munich and FC Augsburg in Munich, southern Germany, on March 8, 2020. (CHRISTOF STACHE / AFP)

Like Bayern, several clubs have considered setting up individual training in small groups.

Broich expressed his satisfaction "with our first cyber training." A certain level of fitness can be maintained with functional exercise, including weight and endurance sessions. Football specific training has to wait he emphasized.

Next to a better fitness level, this form of training delivers "communal experience" and a new kind of team spirit, the fitness coach underlined.

"All of our performers can see the coaches on their tablet and follow the instructions," Flick reported adding players use the video-conferences for lively discussions after exercise talking about the situation for their families.

To keep up spirits, defender Jerome Boateng initiated a particular challenge producing a video-clip showing him juggling a roll of toilet paper 20 times. The former German international asked his teammates to beat his figure.

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Several performers of the first division clubs like Hertha BSC, SC Paderborn, and the second division sides of Hannover, Nuremberg, Wehen-Wiesbaden, and Kiel had been tested positive and remained in quarantine.

Paderborn carried out a test for the entire team and staff. 45 tests turned out negative.