Barak Peleg, coach of Hapoel Galil Elyon and one of the special people in Israeli basketball, celebrates his 50th birthday today. "It is symbolic, brings new insights, maturity, daring. "It has an impact on the field of training," he says in a special and open interview with "Israel Today."
"Looking back, I stopped myself in the past in many ways. Now I understand that you must not get stuck, and the motto is: 'Security, release and acceptance'. Over the years I flirt with training, I was not always sure it was my direction. "Training is not all or nothing. I have more things to do," explains the coach, who made a great debut season in the Premier League with the Northern team, which led him to fifth place in the table and the playoffs.
Early in his coaching career Peleg ran into difficulties.
He was fired twice - in his debut season as head coach of the Premier League in Gilboa / Galil, and for the second time at Maccabi Haifa, right before the start of the playoffs for promotion to the Premier League.
He thinks he has only benefited from all this, and describes the two dismissals as the best things that happened to him in his coaching career: "Today I train a thousand times better. After the first dismissals it was the first time since the army that I was free, that I was not part of the framework. "And I used the time both times to develop myself. I was not really afraid to get off the wheel."
Peleg talks about the most important thing for him in coaching, which is promoting young people, and he is even willing to pay for it: "I like to see the players progress and fly up. There is no greater pride than that. It matters less to me whether I finish in fourth, fifth or sixth place, than to develop players Nimrod Levy was chosen as the Israeli player of the season, Gabi Chachashvili for the discovery - Do you know what it did to me? Do you understand how exciting it is? Personal so that players can progress. "
Levy and Chachashvili.
Excited their coach, Photo: Maor Alexelsi
"The most important junction in my life"
Peleg admits that he became a professional player quite by chance, after devoting four years to the army: "As a child I was a player in teams on the kibbutz and in the area. I was very talented, a scorer, one who also scored 40 points. However, I had no doubt There were plans to become a security guard abroad, but then Moshe Gershon took me to train at Hapoel Safed.
For me it was like a circle, and it was clear to me that I was going soon.
So two of the top players on the team came to me and said, 'The only one who will make money from basketball is you.'
I thought they were just kidding.
A season later I was already an integral part of the team and we were promoted to the Premier League.
From here (at the age of 23) the path to a career opened. "
faction.
"For me, training is not all or nothing. I have more things," Photo: Gil Eliyahu-Ginny
You served in one of the most prestigious places - the General Staff patrol.
"Of course you can not say much. Sometimes we want to be proud of things, but can not. First of all - it built my personality. It is the most important junction in my life. It is a special unit - first of all because of the character of the people. Along with all the aura, mystery and secrecy "There is a lot of modesty around the unit. There are obviously dangers, that's part of the thing. What I take away from there is that we are a family. The connection between us is total."
What to take from the military for a coaching career?
"In the unit I come from, it all comes down to teamwork and teamwork. There are a lot of things that overlap between the worlds. In the military you struggle to be the best you can so as not to be fired, and on the other hand you have to be an excellent team member. Building a team I do a 'coffee party' for the unit. Everyone has a role. The same types of people I want in the group: the stars, those who know how to work for others, those with the flight and daring, the one who will go on the edge and of course - the ones who will put in a good atmosphere ".
"I wish to continue to dare"
Peleg still makes reserves, including in the middle of last season's National League final series: "As long as I can contribute, I will donate. I'm not the only one - CEOs and MKs are also leaving everything and coming.
"Prime Minister Naftali Bennett is a year above me, I have a good relationship with Minister Kahana. The reserve is really not a burden."
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"When I build a team, I make a 'coffee party' for the unit," Photo: Maor Elkelsi
What can I wish you for your 50th birthday?
"First of all good health to my family and friends. I will get along with mine. I wish I would continue to know how to influence people, to continue teaching and learning, to break more boundaries of myself, to continue to dare. Not to be afraid that it might not work. I am grateful for the 50 years I have "And there will be more of them."
At age 60 are you still training?
"Good question. Don't commit to it. I've already said that basketball is not my whole world. If that happens it will be great, because if I coach up to the age of 60 it's a sign that I did something very good."
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