Zlatko Olić: Together We are Rijeka

Croatian football club Rijeka – Zlatko Olić: Together We are Rijeka

Football tactics, technique, development of fitness, and then mind preparation are four basic elements in football game. The interaction, development and quality set up of the four elements leads to optimal sports result. The part that interested us, and that is the importance and ways of motivation in sports, is realized through the fourth element which, according to our interlocutor Zlatko Olić, an expert in human resources development, is crucial for the first three to show in full force. Specifically, in coaching work or in team play on the field.

His methodology of working with sports coaches and athletes and almost lifelong practice that is inextricably linked to football and sports in general found its expression through the author’s program “Just Flow”, through which every coach and every athlete can encourage and acquire skills and knowledge needed for mental potentials in sports to be fully discovered, developed, and then continuously used in achieving top results:

Being in the zone of motivation, is a well-assessed relationship of skills and challenges. That balance is an umbrella item with which we can then count on excellent results. Having great value and a small challenge will result in boredom. Conversely, major challenges and inadequate skills to achieve them will also result in appropriate nervousness that will not be helpful. However, if the coach as a central figure correctly assesses his players, the level of their skills, that is, puts them in front of an appropriate challenge, then we can talk about a combination that is a winning combination, said Olić.

Michael Jordan and motivation

Olić himself went through all the phases of his football career as a player at the HNK Rijeka Football School, so that his later life and work path is naturally related to sports:

– I have always been interested in knowledge related to the functioning of the human mind. How it works, by what patterns, consciously and subconsciously. In the process of gathering valuable business and life experience, he was lucky to meet Domagoj Matijević, his later mentor and complete his School for the training of professional trainers in human resources development, which includes a range of interdisciplinary knowledge in the field of human mind, neurolinguistics, applied communication. which was the starting point for Olić in the development of methods by which today he helps athletes and their coaches to better connect and create sports effects of higher levels:

– When it comes to motivation, the coach is crucial for her, if he can “read” his players and assess their optimal positions, but also the opposing team will be easier to happen and the necessary balance between skills and challenges, which is easier to achieve. and results. And not only that, but the satisfaction during the performance will be higher, and that should be one of the goals of every game, says Olić.

– Sometimes, admittedly, motivation can be achieved through a communication approach with a strong charge, but the development of psychology 30 years ago offered new knowledge with which it is possible to achieve motivation to be a continuous state. Some of the best athletes like Michael Jordan often talked about it from their own experience where the best sports performances happened to them, just when they were extremely motivated. What brings optimal results is: motivational and mental stability, relieved of expectations and with the aim of enjoying the game, Olić told us.

Jurgen Klopp and Zinedine Zidane

Jurgen Klopp and Zinedine Zidane are the coaches that Olić singled out in terms of motivational approaches, where he gave Klopp a slight advantage because he is a coach who lost some important games with Liverpool that they have already called him a losing coach.

However, Klopp himself did not perceive it as such, Olić emphasized, but he understood every final defeat exclusively as an opportunity to correct the perceived shortcomings. And so little by little he became not only the winner of the finals, but also one of the most successful coaches of today.

In our, Rijeka’s football, Olić concluded that he has all the prerequisites for successful football, where only a stronger synergy and more frequent revival of the slogan “Together we are Rijeka” would be necessary, which will not be just an item on paper, but Rijeka football and consists of: all players, fans and sympathizers, but also throughout the city where the HNK Rijeka is one of the most important tangible and intangible symbols of the community.