Training updates June/July

Currently, all Nordic Combined teams are busy with their different summer training camps during the month of June and July. Here is a little roundup with training updates from different countries.

Busy week for Nordic combined teams between training sessions in Sweden and Italy

The Italian Nordic Combined A-team travelled to Sweden for a training camp which started on Sunday 5 July and ended on Wednesday 8 July. The Technical Director Federico Rigoni nomined Samuel Costa, Aaron Kostner, Raffaele Buzzi and Alessandro Pittin for the trip, with Giulio Bezzi as an added athlete.  The training was be coordinated by the new head coach Danny Winkelmann and assistant coach Ivan Lunardi.

Together with their male colleagues, Daniela Dejori, Annika Sieff, Veronika Gianmoena and Lena Prinoth of the women's team were selected, who once back in Italy, will move directly to Predazzo until Friday 10 July together with coach Ivo Pertile.

Training camp in Austria for German team

Heinz Kuttin, the newly appointed jumping coach of the German Nordic Combined team has taken his athletes on a training camp to his home country of Austria.

Last week, the entire team came together for a jumping camp in Eisenerz (AUT). Also on schedule: the first experiences on the golf course in nearby Frohnleiten.

For Olympic and World Champion Eric Frenzel, the camp was extended and also included stops at different jumping hills in Planica (SLO) and Velden (AUT). On the K30 hill in Velden, the focal point was on perfecting the 31-year-old’s in-flight feeling.

Heinz Kuttin: “We do stabilisation training for the flight feeling here. The small hill in Velden is perfect for this, you don’t have too much of air drag here, so that you can get the body under control more easily. On top, we are lucky enough to have a new inrun track and new plastic mats covering the hill here.”

Endurance training in the Dolomites for Austrian team

Meanwhile, the Austrian team returned to their cross-country coach Jochen Strobl’s home in Toblach (ITA) for an endurance camp. Seven athletes (Mario Seidl, Thomas Jöbstl, Lukas Klapfer, Franz-Josef Rehrl, Martin Fritz and Philipp Orter) of the first training group arrived together with head coach Christoph Eugen in Toblach.

First up was a mountain bike trip to the Fanes-hut, on the second day the bike was switched for running shoes and the team took to the old pioneer way up to Monte Piano and back across the famous “Drei Zinnen”. After those sunny training sessions, a cool bath in the Toblacher See was just the thing. The third training day will see the athletes on the roller ski track in Toblach.

“The mountains around Toblach are very diverse and offer a lot of chances to change up the endurance training”, Jochen Strobl said. “We had mountain bike and mountain tours, a high ropes course and roller ski training. Our Hotel Santer is offering the perfect accommodation each year, so that we feel really well here. The fantastic mountain panorama and pure sunshine were extra motivating factors this year.”

First joint Polish Czech training camp in Liberec

The new season brought significant changes in the Polish Nordic Combined team. Szczepan Kupczak, as the only representative of the National Team A, will be preparing for the next season together with the Czech Republic. In the first week of June, Kupczak and the Czech National Team were at a joint training camp in Liberec.

After the last season, coach Robert Mateja began working with Czech Nordic Combined team, where he is the coach responsible for the jumping part of Nordic Combined. It was under his supervision that Szczepan Kupczak made his first jumps at the Skalite Complex in Szczyrk in the middle of May. After that, Kupczak organised training session in Wisła under the guidance of Daniel Hankus, where he mainly focused on cross-country training, and also had functional and diagnostic tests. Afterwards, he in Szczyrk jumped together with the Women’s National Team and Łukasz Kruczek.

Then, after all formalities were completed and a coronavirus test was negative, Szczepan Kupczak and Daniel Hankus set off for Liberec for the first joint training camp with the Czech national team. During the camp in Liberec, Kupczak and the Czech team carried out training on the hill and cross-country skiing.