Poland coach Nikola Grbic urged his team to tune out pressure and negativity as the world no. 1 sharpens its form heading into the 2025 FIVB Men's World Championship quarterfinals.
As world no. 1, Poland carries not just the hopes of a nation but also the burden of lofty expectations.
Head coach Nikola Grbic acknowledged that while the support is overwhelming, it also brings constant pressure—something he reminds his players to manage carefully.
“Honestly, we know how much people are following us, how much people support us, and that’s amazing,” Grbic said.
“Poland is one of the best countries to practice and be a volleyball player or coach. But with that also comes a lot of pressure, a lot of expectations.”
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Living with high expectations
For Grbic, the solution is to keep his players locked in on the game itself and ignore outside distractions.
“My advice to them, especially if some of them are not playing good and they are changed—we win, but they don’t play good—is not to read the articles in the newspapers, and especially not to go to the comment section,” he explained.
“They don’t understand what sacrifices these guys are doing, how hard these guys are working, how much they want to succeed, and how much they are giving everything they have, away from their families, while their bodies are aching all the time. Nothing good will come out of reading those comments.”
Still, he admitted with a smile: “I don’t have much success with that because they always go there to read. But I keep trying to tell them to stay focused on the things we are doing on the court—because everything else is not important at all.”
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Staying at the top
In the ongoing FIVB Men's World Championship, Poland is living up to its lofty billing.
By overpowering Canada in the Round of 16, the reigning VNL champions have blazed through to the quarterfinals where they will next face Turkiye.
Grbic believes his squad is beginning to sharpen at just the right time.
“Step by step, we are going, in my opinion, with better shape—physically and in other ways,” he said. “The more the time passes, the stronger the opponents will be. It will be more difficult because the wind is strongest at the top.”
With a battle-tested core, the Serbian mentor trusts his players to handle the grind.
“We’ve been there many times. They have been there many times,” he said. “They know how important it is to keep that level and push themselves to get better every single game. I just hope we will do that every game from now on.”
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Kiko Demigillo’s journey in sports storytelling began with a deep passion for games and athletes, which eventually grew into a full-fledged career.
Now a dedicated sportswriter, Kiko covers a wide range of beats for One Sports, including the PVL, UAAP, PBA, and various international tournaments.