Since the autumn, as a result of the cooperation with Szent István SE, the women's team in the first division (NB I) is assisted by a highly qualified professional staff, including coaches, therapists, physiotherapists and sports scientific experts. Martin Szücs, the fitness coach of NEKA, is responsible for the right physical state of the players. He has been asked about the preparations for the championships and the tasks ahead.

- The team will start in the first NB I round against Békéscsaba on 4 September. What has been done so far, and what fitness preparations are still awaiting the girls?

- In the spring, during the quarantine period, everyone was working from home, the players performed basic tasks. When we could return to Balatonboglár in June, weight training and repetitions of basic exercises were on the agenda. We prescribed non-mandatory workouts for the team for the upcoming week, so whoever wanted did the tasks, and who did not want to, did not. I would like to emphasize that everyone completed all the exercises with an attitude worthy of a professional athlete, with maximum effort. Previously, in the eccentric strength development phase, the girls also had worked in an impressive manner, which did surprise even me. We are currently in the isometric phase, later we are moving towards explosiveness development, then as we approach the match against Békéscsaba, the focus will be on speed, by then the girls need to reach their best shape. Summarizing it, we now in the preparation period need to lay the foundations, on which we can rely on and build upon during the season. We also try to add running work so that running and strength development do not conflict with each other and all parts complement each other to form one unit in the end.

- The youngsters will have to do well against much stronger and more experienced opponents in the first division. How will it be possible to adapt to this situation?

- Indeed, the girls will often meet opponent players much larger in size and weighing more than themselves. A young athlete is better able to compensate for these things physically, with speed. Then, as a handball player gets older, experience is becoming more and more of a key factor to keep up the level. Also in the second division (NB I/B), the team led by Kiss Szilárd, jr. was characterized by fast handball, keeping that feature can lead to good results. I am just an additional person besides the head coach, I can tell him what I see, and by analyzing the data we try to discuss everything.

- As the fitness coach of the youth national team, you have been working with several NEKA players for a long time, who will be squad members in the younger age group national team as well as in the NB I team. How does this simplify the situation?

- With the majority of the team, we are now starting our third year together. It is often said that the work of a fitness coach should be accounted for after three years, by which time the results and the state of development should be visible. Of course, it is of significant help that we are in almost daily contact with most of the players, we already know each other. The excellent professional staff, adding a sports scientific background, with subjective and objective measurements, is trying to reach something with this young team, that no one has done so far, so the expectations are high and everyone wants to live up to them.