For the second time since 2021 a “Small Nations Camp” for ski jumpers between the age of 13 – 19 years was held in Planica (SLO). These camps shall offer athletes and coaches of so-called “smaller Ski Jumping nations”, like e.g. Romania, Hungary, and Sweden, the chance to expand their knowledge regarding modern training methods, equipment, technique, and so on, as well as give impulses and create new networks.
110 athletes and coaches (Ski Jumping and Nordic Combined) from various nations participated in this one-week camp. The schedule was remarkable: Besides jumping and technique training sessions, various top athletes, among them Ski Flying champion Ziga Jelar (SLO), Gregor Deschwanden of Switzerland and Japan’s Naoki Nakamura, top coach Alex Stoeckl of Norway and the two FIS Race Directors Sandro Pertile (Ski Jumping) and Lasse Ottesen (Nordic Combined) answered questions of the participants. The professionals granted everyone insight into the secrets of the World Cup per video chat.
“I’m happy about the great cooperation and the fact that we were able to carry out this camp for the second time and were even able to further improve it compared to last year. We are also very grateful to everyone who took the time to visit us or give a lecture. It means a lot to the athletes that Jelar, Deschwanden, Nakamura, and Reisenauer, took the time and it was fantastic that Stoeckl shared his huge knowledge with the coaches and told them about his training philosophy”, said Marit Stub Nybelius, who organized the camp with the support of Adrian Kapustnik, Zahari Sotirov, Rex Bell, Joel Bieri, nd Remi Santiago.
The participants themselves can talk best about the camp and the outcomes:
Andra Gheorghe (ROM): “This camp was a lot of fun for me. I was training on the hill and also had some hard and intense physical training, but I enjoyed it. I had the feeling that I could make progress on many levels. The days went by so fast. Compared to other camps, this was special because I got to know many new people and found new friends.”
Larisa Avram (SWE): “The best thing was meeting all these people from different countries, connecting with them and hearing how they training and that I could make a huge step forward in my development in Ski Jumping.”
Rickard Nystroem (SWE): “The hills are a lot of fun. It’s also great to meet other people and get to know their training methods for the physical training as well as the Ski Jumping specific exercises.”
Lean Niederberger (SUI): “All in all this camp is a great opportunity for the small, less developed Ski Jumping nations to get together and improve. The smaller nations benefit from the exchange regarding the training methods and find new ideas to make progress. In addition, friendships were built and interesting contacts were made during this week in Slovenia. The Small Nations Camp 2022 in Slovenia was a huge success.”
Christian Raimund (SUI): It’s extremely helpful to learn from equipment experts, World Cup athletes and World Cup coaches from other nations for a week. The athletes and coaches get to know each other better and find out what they have to work on in their countries and where there still are problems. Everyone shares experiences and looks for solutions. It was a very effective week of training.
FIS Race Director Sandro Pertile also expressed his positive opinion about the camp: “As FIS, we are happy to see that the Ski Jumping community is active and ready to strike new paths when it comes to developing the discipline further. The cooperation of the nations will help every national association to share experiences and knowledge and create new possibilities for the Ski Jumping family.”
