⭐⚽ Upside Team Profile: AS Nancy Lorraine (France) & Chat with Nicolas Baup, Head Athletic Trainer

Apr 14, 2023

Dear colleagues,

This week we are profiling and interviewing the AS Nancy Lorraine (National), a French soccer team renowned as a club with a good training center. One of the club's most notable players is Michel Platini, the former president of UEFA.

Sports team: AS Nancy Lorraine

League: National

Headquartered: Nancy (France)

Founded: 1910

Website: AS Nancy Lorraine

Sports team background: Association Sportive Nancy Lorraine, commonly known as AS Nancy Lorraine, or simply Nancy, is a French association football club founded in 1967 in Nancy, Grand Est and located in Tomblaine, in the inner suburbs of Nancy. The club currently plays in the Championnat National, for the first time in the club’s history.

The club was founded in 1910 by Maurice de Vienne under the name of Union sportive Frontière, then was later renamed Association sportive Lorraine in 1928. In 1967, following the collapse of FC Nancy, the club created a professional section and as such changed its name to become Association Sportive Nancy Lorraine. The club currently plays at the stade Marcel-Picot, a 20,000 seats capacity stadium located in the town of Tomblaine, where its head office is also located. The infrastructures of the training center are located within the forest of Haye business park, in Bois-de-Haye.

The club has won 7 titles until this day: the Coupe de France (1978), the Coupe de la Ligue (2006) and five Ligue 2 champion titles (1975, 1990, 1998, 2005 and 2016). The club also has three participations in European competitions to its credit: one participation in the UEFA Cup Winners' Cup in 1979 and two participations in the UEFA Europa League in 2007 and 2008.

In December 2020, Chien Lee, PMG, Partners Path Capital and Krishen Sud acquired AS Nancy Lorraine and Chien Lee became the chairman of the board,replacing Jacques Rousselot who had been in charge since 1995 and Gauthier Ganaye became the CEO of AS Nancy.

ASNL is renowned as a club with a good training center. One of the club's most notable players is Michel Platini, the former president of UEFA. Platini began his career at the club in 1972, playing eight seasons with Nancy. He scored the only goal in the aforementioned Coupe de France final and won two French Player of the Year awards whilst playing with the club. Platini also established himself as a French international while at the club and went on to achieve numerous team and individual accolades after his departure from Nancy. He is considered to be, arguably, the club's greatest player ever and, upon entering the section of the club's official website showing Nancy's greats, a picture of a young Platini is displayed.Can also be cited great players such as Mustapha Hadji, African Ballon d'Or in 1998, his brother Youssouf Hadji, counting more than 300 matches under the colors of the club, Olivier Rouyer and Tony Vairelles. Other players have emerged or illustrated at the club, such as Tony Cascarino, Jean-Michel Moutier, Roger Lemerre, Aleksandr Zavarov, Bernard Zénier, Clément Lenglet and Michaël Cuisance.

AS Nancy Lorraine’s favorite technologies used:

GPS vendor: McLloyd
Velocity based training vendor: The Linear encoder (Vitruvius)
Strength assessment vendor: ValdPerf
Photoelectric cell vendor: Brower
Body composition analyzer vendor: InBody
Training platform vendor: VertiMax
Functional trainer vendor: Keiser

This week, we interviewed Nicolas Baup, the athletic trainer at AS Nancy Lorraine (National). Here is the full Q&A with Nicolas below:

Q1. Can you tell us about your background?

Nicolas Baup (NB): I grew up from a very young age in the world of football. I made my classes of footballer at the Girondins de Bordeaux club from 13 to 18 years old where I was able to evolve at the highest National level of each category. Not having become a professional player, I quickly switched to studies universities on training and sports performance, with the objective of becoming a physical trainer. I obtained a university degree (Master 1 STAPS) and the Football Coaching Certificate (UEFA A License) issued by the French Football Federation.

These diplomas as well as my career allowed me to integrate in 2011, the club of Arles Avignon who played in the French Ligue 2. At 23, I was in charge of preparing the professional team. The story with this club lasted 4 seasons. Working with players professionals allowed me to gain experience and a lot of confidence quickly. During these 4 years, I set up the GPS system (GPEXE) for the professional team in order to evaluate and quantify the training load week after week, I also set up the recovery part in collaboration with the medical staff. This part included, Cold Baths and Nutrition.

My journey then led me to travel with an experience abroad in Tunisia, in one of the biggest clubs on the African continent, Espérance Sportive de Tunis. During 2 seasons, I participated in the African Champions League and I was able to win the National title. Being responsible for physical preparation, one of my missions in this club was to put in place a routine in terms of physical preparation for the Pro team but also for the youth teams, as well as all the work in terms of prophylaxis, athletic recovery and nutrition.

In 2018, I went back to the French Ligue 2, at GFC AJACCIO, with as role of physical trainer for the Professional team. During 2 seasons I worked there so that team could perform as well as possible. Then in 2021, I left France again for Algeria where I joined the USM ALGER club where I spent 8 months there, before continuing my career with the Algerian Selection of Football until June 2022.

I am now currently working for AS Nancy Lorraine since July 2022 as the physical trainer for the first team.

Q2. What is your role at your club?

NB: I have different responsibilities as part of my role:

- First I have to manage and control the physical preparation of the Pro team, planning, content, Animation in collaboration with the technical staff.

- Secondly I have to set up an individualized preventive follow-up with the staff medical, each player has a reinforcement program to be carried out 2 to 3 times a week in order to improve the physical condition and to overcome the various muscular deficits.

- Thirdly I have to analyze the athletes’ performance data via a GPS system (McLoyd) from each session and each match, this will allow us to control the load training of each player, but also for the team. From the data collected we regulate where we increase the intensity of training. I have also set up integrated reference exercises that we carry out throughout the year in order to monitor the physical condition of the players. To this I associated a Wellness questionnaire to get subjective feedback on the state of form of the athletes.

Q3. How important are technologies to help reduce players’ injuries and improve players’ performance?

NB: Today we are fortunate to have a multitude of technological tools to analyze, develop, control and make some progress, still it is not necessary to get lost in the middle from the multitude of data and stay efficient.

The use of technology in sport has become essential to enable the athlete to perform better. It also plays a very important role in anticipating potential injury.

The GPS system we use gives us some control over the different training content. Indeed, in the training to integrate the quantification of the races, intensities, accelerations, decelerations, high intensity races do not wouldn't be known if we didn't have the Trackers. The data collected gives us indications on the athletic state of the players, on their ability to repeat efforts intensity, stroke volume and athletic recovery.

The important thing for the staff is to manage not to work too much and fall into the overtraining or undertraining and falling into undertraining, but working as much as possible just the physical condition of the player

We also use Linear encoders (VITRUVE) which allow us to evaluate the strength maximum on different movements, then to set up a work protocol individualized to develop the athletic strength of each athlete throughout the season.

Q4. Can you tell us about your favorite technologies? Why?

NB: My favorite technologies are useful technologies. I can cite, a Tracker system (GPS), the Linear encoder (Vitruvius), the platforms of strength (ValdPerf), Photoelectric cells (Brower), Body composition analyzer (InBody), Training platform (VertiMax), Functional trainer (Keiser). The GPS Tracker system, to quantify, analyze and orient the different loads training on the field of the Football discipline. Force measuring devices (Vitruve and ValdPerf), to accurately assess the athletic strength of the players and make them progress to make them even more efficient. The Brower brand photoelectric cells that I have been using for several years to test players on their speed quality

The body composition analyzer (InBody) allows us to have an internal image of the athlete, on the composition of his different masses and his different fluids, we We use it throughout the year for individualized follow-up. The training platform (Vertimax) and the functional trainer (keiser) allow us to improve the athlete in a functional way with a more or less important constraint. I use it 2 to 3 times a week, the precision of these devices brings us results fast, particularly in the work of rehabilitation and re-athletics. The possibility of varying the exercises is not negligible.

Q5. When deciding to adopt a new technology, what are the most important factors (e.g. research driven product, product quality, reliability, affordability…)?

NB: The first factor relates to the performance of the athlete and the team. The question that I usually ask first is: Will this device make the athlete more efficient and more performing the team? Then I look at the reliability of the product, the research that has been carried out on it and feedback from colleagues who are already using it. And finally I look at the cost.

The Upside Newsletter

Discussion about this post