Karl Geiger also has to find the good flight again.
Foto: imago/thomas bachun
The German ski jumpers have started in the winter, but since the disappointing four -hill tour in the crisis. What are the reasons?
The reasons are diverse. A precise analysis of why we cannot keep the performance over the season must take place in spring. The current status is absolutely not satisfactory for us coaches as well as for the athletes. We are on to edit things. Karl Geiger and Philipp Raimund have not flown to the World Cup in Japan and made good progress in training, their jumps are getting much better. And we hope that the training course in Oberstdorf has also brought a lot.
Are the problems more due to the training state or the material?
The technical process at the jumper is the first where we look. The second is the material. We are currently trying to further develop the material through the technicians and the suit tailoring. But the majority of the misery is already in the technical area: it depends a lot on how I put the ski into the wind in flight, so we have a big deficit.
Interview
imago/Beautiful Sports
Stefan Horngacher has been a national coach of the German ski jumper for six years. Despite the greatest crisis of his term in office, the 55-year-old Austrian hopes for German medals on the Norwegian ski jumps at the Nordic World Ski Championships, which will open in Trondheim this Wednesday.
There are always problems with individual jumps. But why do the problems occur in the entire team this winter?
This is definitely a topic that we think about. Actually, everyone is physically topped. There are a few technical errors, but the situation suggests that something in the material area does not fit 100 %. We are still the fastest when driving down on track, but we just don’t have this flight support or the flight feeling that others show here. As I said, this can be due to the material, but also because the cramp is too large for the athletes.
What amazes the most is the development of Pius Paschke after the grandiose start of the season. It appears increasingly desperatet.
The Pius is unfortunately a jumper that is a bit head -controlled if his sensitivity does not necessarily fit. If he then cramps, it can also get very wild. He went through that often enough, but he also came out of the situation often enough. As a trainer, we need a clear plan and a simple, implementable correction for him. That doesn’t help if you now tell him five things. It generally applies to us coaches in this situation that we just don’t become complicated.
How can you flip the lever with the athletes?
Whether Andreas Wellinger, Paschke or Geiger – they are still the same athletes who were very, very successful. It is now on the entire team, coaches, supervisors and the athletes to get back to the top of the world. The World Cup begins on the small ski jump in Trondheim, which is an important point for us that can help us. We are traditionally always very strong on the small ski jump and also only trained on the small ski jump in preparation.
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How can you convey confidence in a team in the crisis?
Most self -confidence is still getting yourself when the feeling fits at the end of the day. When the athlete goes out of the training and says: “Today it was cool, today I really felt how the skis pushed how my body flew.” This strengthens self -confidence. The athletes jump ski because it is a cool thing because you can fly. Good results also help. And if you last see the World Cup in Lake Placid, where Andi Wellinger is the last up and shows that he can keep up with the best, then of course hope.
So do you have medal hopes for the World Cup in Trondheim?
If you are in a minus spiral, it always goes down for a very long time. Now I hope that we have arrived at the bottom and can spiral ourselves up relatively quickly. We are certainly not favorites, but we want to use our outsider chance. We certainly not only drive with the goal that we may be doing a medal with luck in the team. The starting situation is not incredibly good, but if we can get into the flow and turn off one or two technical errors, it can also be relatively quick. There are also own laws at World Championships. We are working that we can jump in front of the first competition in Trondheim.