Basketball club “Prometey” has finished the first week of preparation for the 2023/2024 season and, on August 31, will play its first control game. The head coach of the team, Ronen Ginzburg, shared with the press service of “Prometey” his thoughts on the beginning of the training camp and news about basketball players recovering from their injuries.

- Coach, first of all, tell us, please, about “Prometey” training camp. What were you doing during the first week of preparations?

- Mostly, we were focused on improving the players’ conditions; we work on physical preparation for the season. We haven’t played basketball so far; today, we have just had our very first basketball pactice. Before that - physical activity, fitness, aerobics. Now, we are starting, actually,basketball.

- What can you say about the players’ conditions? In what shape did they come to the training camp?

- As usually at the very beginning of the season – some of them are in a good shape, some of them are in a worse condition; some players were injured and undergoing rehabilitation. That is absolutely natural at the start of preparations. We have enough time to bring everyone to the best condition.
 

- Andriy Voinalovych went through hard practice with the Ukrainian National team. During the Olympic pre-qualification matches, he played, on average, 37 minutes per match. In what condition is he?

- Andriy is in good shape, of course, in better shape than the rest of the players.

- Could you tell us any news about players recovering from their injuries and surgeries? As I can see, Illia Sydorov is already fully participating in the 5x5 game.

- Yes, Sydorov is already allowed to play. Kulboka has some problems, but he will be back for the training process soon, as well as Caleb Agada. Ivan Tkachenko will be able to practice, roughly, closer to September 15. Slava Petrov needs more time to recover.

- What tasks will be set in front of the team in the first control game on August 31 against Lithuanian “Gargzdai”?

- The first game is always an introductory one, it gives us information that we will work further with. We have a lot of new players. We need time to create a one-piece mechanism from them. So, during these friendly matches, we will search for our game, explain to the players what they are supposed to do, what we want to see from them.

- Coach, what are your goals for the next season after the last season EuroCup semi-finals?

- First of all, I want all of us to be healthy. As for the sports goals, they are the same as last season - to reach as high as we can in the tournaments. For sure, that is our goal. However, we have to move inch by inch and always think, first of all, about the next day’s game, and move steadily step by step.

As a reminder, on August 31, BC "Prometey" is playing a friendly match against Lithuanian BC "Gargzdai". The broadcast of the match will be available on the DIVISPORT YouTube channel.