“Requirement, determination, discipline, performance”. “The only person to pass is the one you were yesterday”.
These are the key words, tagged on the white brick wall that the kids discover when they enter Franck Biyamou’s lair. And which summarizes well the man, elegant and muscular, direct and frank. Definitely the look of a sports coach.
It was there, in the indoor football premises NR Soccer 5, in Grasse, that he opened his performance unit last February: TNL Training. Why Grasse? “A coincidence! I came to coach here on a rainy day, I hit it off with Rudy Rodriguez, the owner”.
Along the soccer fields, behind a back door, you don’t know if you’re entering a fitness club, a private gym or a New York loft! Synthetic lawn, reception desk, TV screens (sports obviously), blackboard, professional football shirts framed on the wall… Classy, spacious, warm.
Franck Biyamou, 44, state-certified – football coach for 15 years, specialized educator for 10 and sports coach for a decade – has finally created the tool he has been dreaming of for a long time to offer personalized and individualized physical and mental preparation. for young sportsmen and athletes. And more particularly for young footballers on their way to the top level. Personal pride. A financial investment too.
But it has been a long road to get there.
“I first take care of training the man before the player”
“I especially emphasize mental preparation, insists Franck Biyamou. The important thing is to bring the child back to the center of things, because it is up to him to take his destiny into his own hands”.Photo Ra. Pe.
Originally from the Paris region, he caressed the leather in the midfield at Cascol Oulins (69) before seriously injuring himself at 16 years old. This is Jean-Paul Ancient – “a beautiful person”close to Sabri Lamouchi currently coach of Cardiff City FC- who detected in him this “ability to train”.
So Franck Biyamou passed his coaching diplomas (he notably operated in the Gard and led the 17 nationals at Olympique Alès), as a specialized sports educator for so-called difficult children. “It allowed me to see my job differently. There is a link between a specialist educator and a sports coach: mental preparation. In my pedagogy, I first take care of training the man before the player. And not the reverse”.
In 2010, this father of three children took the plunge and opted to become a physical and mental trainer. And write his story. He went to see elsewhere how young people were trained, in Lille, in England, but also to exchange with other educators and trainers. “The diploma gave legitimacy, but I needed the experience”he confides.
So what does his job actually consist of? “I am the young footballer for a sports season, from September to June. First there is an interview with him and his parents. Then we do physical, technical and mental tests. Then we define an adapted work cycle which is regularly evaluated. He pauses. And insists: “I especially emphasize mental preparation. I accompany the young person to become a man, to have values, principles, to be respectful. The important thing is to bring the child back to the center of things, because it is up to him to take his destiny into his own hands.
For this TNL training has tools: a bodybuilding and cardio platform; a soccer field; a sandbox area; a recovery area with Cryotank cold bath, massage table and Normatec recovery boots. And also skills since Franck Biyamou is surrounded by specialists: Franck Dja Dje Dje, a former pro footballer who notably worked for OGC Nice, focused on attacking work; Lenny Voltier, physical trainer who works on injury prevention and posture; Olivier Curron, former goalkeeper dedicated to the formation of this position. Or Dr. Hichem Chenaitia from the Nice Institute for Sport and Osteoarthritis (INSA).
His ambition? Open two structures in Nice and Monaco
Franck Biyamou aims to open two other identical structures near Nice and Monaco.Photo Ra. Pe.
While individual coaches have been around for a long time in other sports, acceptance is more difficult in the world of football. The clubs view them with suspicion. “It’s still difficult, some clubs refuse to allow children to have a sports coach, admits Franck Biyamou who does not despair of achieving to create links and even partnerships. Because I work with the child on details that cannot be worked on in a club”.
But isn’t there a paradox in carrying out individualized work with children who practice a team sport? “Non, according to him. We take the young person out of the collective to work on the individual, his qualities and his faults, help him manage a situation, then on his mental aspect on living with the other, with the group”.
Confronting others is also the goal of the advanced training courses that TNL Training organizes during school holidays, and which brings together around ten players. This summer, let’s go to Italy!
The following? Franck Biyamou does not lack ambition. Including that of opening two other identical structures near Nice and Monaco. Always keeping in mind what is written on his wall: “The only person to pass is the one you were yesterday”.
