Elitekader: Year end Weekend

This weekend saw the national team get together on the Hebalm for the annual "end of year" weekend getaway. Besides the 2 national coaches Ulu Aeschlimann and Markus Buchtele, there were 12 team members there. Additionally Richard Gathercole was invited, in his capacity as elite head and trainer and he was joined by 3 other personal trainers (and Andreas Pölzl) on this weekend.

Friday saw a discussion about the previous year (2006) and analysis and conclusions were drawn. Saturday morning was set aside for training (athletes) and for the personal trainers to have a question and answer session with Markus and Ulu. Unfortunately only 1 trainer decided to use this opportunity and we hope that in years to come this valuable exercise will be taken on by more trainers. In this way, the trainer gains valuable and decisive information that can only benefit their athletes in the future. Saturday afternoon was set aside for the athletes to have personal discussions with the trainers, which went very well and provided very valuable feedback, in both directions.

Saturday evening saw the highlight of the weekend, as 3 personal trainers were invited to share their methodologies on training. Before this we had a short presentation about selection and team criteria, after which Richard Gathercole (Trainer of Christian Wartbichler), followed by Thomas Krejci (Trainer of Tobias Killmann) and lastly Walter Kraus (Trainer of Jan Zazgornik) presented their views. This was followed by an extremely interesting podium debate between the three trainers.

Sunday saw the final presentation of the 2007 calendar and some of the finer points for next year were discussed, after which the athletes were free to pack, train or whatever until lunch time.

The accommodation was tip top, the weather was perfect, the food was excellent and a great time was had by all. Thank you to Markus and Ulu for organizing this informative and interesting weekend. We will certainly be back next year.

Greetings from Henndorf
Richard Gathercole