Feels extra special to see your players do well: Bengaluru Torpedoes coach David Lee

Hyderabad (Telangana) [India], February 18 (ANI): After losing their first two games in the second season of Prime Volleyball League, Bengaluru Torepedoes led by Head Coach David Lee has found a way to get wins under their column. Torpedoes, after defeating Chennai Blitz 3-2 on Thursday at the Gachibowli Indoor Stadium, earned their second win in a row.
Lee, a three-time Olympian, who is regarded as one of the best volleyball players of the modern generation, has donned the coaching hat for the first time in his career. The former USA international won the Olympic gold medal in 2006 and followed it up with an Olympic Bronze medal in 2016. But despite earning several big wins as a player in his stellar career, the 40-year-old believes that winning as a coach feels extra special.
"I think it's better winning as a coach, to be honest. It feels extra special to see your players do well and can compete. It feels like I have a family of kids. They are here to win games, and when they do, I am happy and proud for them," Lee said, after the match.
Despite dealing with a group of talented individuals, communication can be expected to be a bit of an issue for David, as several players in the team are not particularly good with speaking and understanding English. To solve the issue, Lee has hired an assistant coach Edelli Anil Kumar, who speaks in multiple languages.
"We have an assistant coach who knows five different languages. We also do a lot of videos, so we show them as much as we can. It is definitely not easy when you are in the game and it's so loud," Lee said.
One of the early struggles the Torpedoes faced in the season was making too many serve errors. While Lee believes his side committed mistakes in their aggressive style of play, he thinks the players are now starting to get an understanding of how to execute attacking serves properly.
"We were definitely erroring on the side of being very aggressive on the serve. It has not worked out in the first two games, but now the guys are understanding how to be aggressive but how to pinpoint on execution," he said.
The former middle blocker David Lee believes that a lot of focus gets put on him which might overwhelm certain players. To avoid the same, he maintains a soft approach with his players, especially the middle-blockers.
"Never. Lot of focus gets put on me as such a great player, but I do not want to overwhelm them. I want to teach them as much as I can - but I never tell them I am the greatest, you have to listen to me. I try to give them the tools and hope they implement those tools and hopefully, be successful," he said. (ANI)