Former coach of the Russian women’s biathlon team Wolfgang Picher how approaches to coaching have changed over the past 30 years.
Biathlon has changed so much over the past 30 years. Just amazing. Biathlon was a very small sport, and in that we were lucky. We never moved our noses so as not to try to change something. Second, at IBU, each country has only one voice, so we always work together. By cooperating, we have built a great sport. If we didn’t work together, we would never have mixed relays. This gave teams that weren’t at the top a chance to be competitive in the relays. Right now, winning the mixed relay is a big deal, but it’s the hardest part to win. And all these other sports like athletics and swimming have followed suit with these mixed competitions.
After 30 years, we have made so much progress. Biathlon was lucky enough to obtain these telecontracts. All races are televised, which has helped to earn money and promote new races such as mass starts and mixed relays. Biathlon is the only sport in which coaches have had an impact on its development, Pichler told the IBU website.
According to him, coaching 30 years ago “was a little easier”.
— In 1992-1993, we did not have all this (technical) assistance. We had a video camera and lactate tests. The overall World Cup score was introduced and it became very important, so the whole training plan had to be changed. Before that, you were just preparing for the World Championships, but with the new organization, the IBU and the TV deal, the whole World Cup season suddenly became an important competition.
Young coaches must learn to say the right things at the right time. For example, on the last lap, you can say to the athlete that he is 5 seconds behind, which is good, or you can say negatively: “You are in 70th position”. Being able to send a positive mental signal is important because sometimes the difference between a good result and a great result is as little as five seconds, Pichler said.
Pichler led the Swedish national team from 1995 to 2011, worked with the Russian national team in 2011-2014, after which he returned to the Swedish team. Winners and medalists of the Olympic Games and World Championships Magdalena Forsberg, Anna-Karin Zidek (Olofsson), Helena Eckholm, Bjorn Ferry, Hanna Oeberg, Sebastian Samuelsson worked under his direction.
Source : MatchTV
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