Passion is to go to the library and Photostat everything you can find on volleyball; passion is importing books on the sport; passion is sitting down with international players picking their brains; passion is working on writing a training manual for coaches.
Dina Kladis has been doing all of this since the early nineties, first as a player and then a coach. It should be no surprise that she was instrumental in helping the Tuks women’s team win the USSA Indoor Volleyball Tournament in the nineties. As a coach, she went on to help quite a few teams win tournaments.
The best thing that could have happened to Tuks women’s volleyball was when she re-joined the club in 2013 as a coach. Under her guidance Tuks won the Varsity and USSA beach volleyball tournaments last year. Two weeks ago the Tuks women’s indoor team lost in the final of the National Club Championships in the fifth set by two points against the University of the Western Cape.
This led to Kladis being appointed as assistant coach for the South African women’s under-20 side.
When not coaching Kladis is a maths teacher at St Mary Diocesan School for Girls it is something she is equally as passionate about.
“Coaching or teaching it is all the same to me. It is about imparting knowledge helping people to fulfil their true potential. To me, there is nothing more rewarding.”
Kladis played indoor volleyball for Tuks in the early nineties. As a team, they were quite ambitious setting themselves the goal to win the USSA Tournament in three years. They end up doing so much earlier.
As the team’s setter Kladis was also the playmaker. It was in the time before the internet was as accessible as it is now. The only way she could get any additional information on volleyball was to go to the Hans Merensky Library and read up everything she could about the sport. She remembers sometimes ending up Photostatting near complete books to try and stay abreast of what is happening.
Afterwards, she would sit down and work out a game plan with the coach and captain. It got to a stage where they had a specific set of play for any situation that might arise during a game. The different plans got codenamed.
“For example, somebody would call out ‘Nike’, and everybody would know what to do. We also had an ‘adidas’ and ‘Reebok’ plays. We used all the different sporting brands names to frustrate the opposition teams."
It is the now Doctor Margrit Springer who convinced Kladis to start coaching at Tuks. She sort of demanded that Kladis do so.
“The first thing I did was to sit down with each player getting to know them and find out what their respective aspirations were. I also evaluated them. I told some that they need to lose weight. I also emphasised that fitness is the key to success.
"At first, I was only coaching indoor volleyball, but the Flying Fish and Varsity Volleyball Tournaments changed everything. Because of the prize money on offer in the Flying Fish Tournament players started to switch to beach volleyball.”
Part of Kladis success as a coach has always been that she never pretends to know everything.
“I am an avid reader. If not reading education books I am reading up on volleyball. I even started importing books on volleyball. At times when I am at the gym running on the treadmill, I will be watching some YouTube-video of volleyball coaching. I will also never hesitate to pick the brain of any person involved in the sport.
“During last year’s Varsity Tournament I have asked Vita Nel the former Olympian to help teach the Tuks players the finer intricacies of the sport. This year I met Alex Volkov a former national player of Romania who is currently based in South Africa. I am constantly learning new things from him. We started to work together on a coaching manual for beginner coaches.”
Kladis one big remaining aspiration is to get volleyball in South Africa the recognition it deserves.
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