First and second Austrian training groups meet in Eisenerz

A joint camp of the first and second training group of the Austrian Ski Association met for a ski jumping camp in Eisenerz (AUT) last weekend. Next to head coach Christoph Eugen’s first group, the second group which is in the capable hands of Willi Denifl and Thomas Baumann was present from Tuesday until Friday. The focus of the camp was on long and intense jumping sessions, strength training and roller ski sessions.

“We had a camp with the focus on ski jumping,” head coach Eugen said. “We are fully on course with our preparation and you can feel that the boys are training much at the moment. The conditions in Eisenerz were great, we had all opportunities with the ski jumps, gym, the mountains around Eisenerz and the roller ski course. It is very important to bring the training groups together, so that we can exchange information, we do have the same structure to our training after all. The athletes can compete with each other and see where they stand. And of course it is also about having fun together. For me, it is important to see how the athletes in the second training group develop as well.

Local hero Lukas Klapfer had the shortest trip to the camp, as he only lives a few kilometres away from Eisenerz. “It is very cool to have only a half-hour drive to get to a camp and finally, everybody is coming to my home in Eisenerz again. I was able to move things along in the ski jumping part, jumping really feels good at the moment. It was interesting to see where we stand, also compared to the second training group. Our youngsters are definitely stepping on the gas, this is cool to see. In general, we had a really good team spirit and the most important thing: a common goal.”