Austrian Thomas Thurnbichler (33) has led Poland’s show jumping team back into the top tier. The hands are filled with black ink, and the ear lobes have large, extended piercing holes. STAND OUT: Thomas Thurnbichler. Photo: Andreas Hagen / news Norway’s national team coach Alexander Stöckl calls him the cool guy on the coaches’ stand, and points out that he could be the son of most of the others on that stand. Perhaps you remember the double jump from Bischofshofen in 2006? It was Poland’s new coach who was behind it, as a 12-year-old. And now Thurnbichler has introduced new, unconventional methods into the coaching profession. – I thought it would kill me if I did it, but we made it happen. It showed that the border is further away than we thought, Dawid Kubacki told news. The Polish jumper is clear on one thing: – He is without a doubt a bit crazy when he gives us exercises like this, says Kubacki. Now the trainer tells about the exercises he presented, and why he did it. Sjå jumped to Poland’s national team coach in Bischofshofen in 2006. He did so as a trial jumper. Breaking the pattern When Thurnbichler was appointed as Poland’s new coach back in May 2022, he specifically wanted the athletes to count out pieces of mats and sing songs out loud while they went down the ski jumping hill. – They were unsure whether this was possible at all, and were a little shocked, but they handled it perfectly, says Thurnbichler to news. SATISFIED: Thurnbichler enjoyed seeing how the athletes solved the tasks. Photo: Frode Søreide / news It went like this: The athletes were given a piece of mat in the upper run, which they had to calculate and give the answer to before they set off from the edge of the jump. In the lower race, they were given a new piece of mat, and the athletes had to shout the answer in the hovering phase before landing. – I wanted to break a bit of the movement pattern that the athletes have developed in recent years, and make them open to new impulses. It was also to see how much they can handle during the jump, and at the same time get back the playful side of ski jumping, he continued. Thurnbichler points out that Kubacki was really good at the rehearsal. – He managed to shout out the solution before landing on a 70-metre hill, so he didn’t have much time to solve it, says the trainer, laughing. In addition, he has got Poland’s jumping team to engage in “freestyle jumping”, which involves changing the V-shape in the air and the position of the head, such as looking from the left to the right. – The coolest thing was when Kamil Stoch, who is a real Liverpool fan, sang “you will never walk alone” quite loudly. I think they heard it in Liverpool, too, he says. BIG FAN: Kamil Stoch is an ardent Liverpool fan. Here from the ski WC in Planica. Photo: Matthias Schrader / AP Given results Even if the exercises sound like just fun and games, it has clearly yielded results. – Your thoughts shift from the task itself to something else, and then I saw really good and natural jumps, explains Thurnbichler. Dawid Kubacki has been Poland’s most superb jumper this season, and is Halvor Granerud’s biggest challenger for the overall winner in the World Cup. – From every odd exercise or task he has given us, we could learn something from it, and that is very good. The main goal of this is that you can change a lot, but you still have to do your job even if a lot is happening around you, says Kubacki. On top of that, Polish Piotr Zyla won the normal downhill competition in the World Cup this year, thus defending the gold from Oberstdorf in 2021. Let yourself be inspired, Norway’s national team coach Alexander Stöckl has also done the training with national team athletes, but it has been many years. BLID: Alexander Stöckl, here outside the hotel in Kranjska Gora. Photo: Heiko Junge / NTB – It was quite funny, actually. We could perhaps try it again, he says. – What do you get out of it? – The athletes have to focus on two things at the same time, and then you notice that you let things go more automatically. What happens if you are too focused on technical tasks and details is that you destroy the flow of the technique, says Stöckl. On Friday, Raw Air starts with qualifying in Holmenkollen. The qualification for men starts at 17.00 and can be followed on NRK1 and on news TV from 16.45, while the qualification for women starts at 20.00 and will be broadcast on NRK2 and on news TV from 19.55.
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