The Finnish team has during history had a lot of champions and winners. Since the first World Championships in Hyvinkää in 1975 it has only happened 2 times that Finnish team has returned without world champion(s) from World Championship.
The national team as of today is a great mix of old farts and young enthusiastic athletes. The young and less experienced can learn from the ones with a lot of experience. And the ones that has “seen it all” can get a lot of energy from the hard fighting youth. ”Lite bättre” is our slogan and we try to live by it.
Since we have more normal days than days together as a national team each year, it’s safe to say that training at home is very important. Before this season we have also had 4 open ski-o weekends during summer and fall. This way we have much more specific training and we have many sessions fighting man-man and woman-woman. What is perhaps more important is that athletes learns to take more ownership of their own development. Also how to make good trainings and to have high quality in these is something to learn.
When we train together it is always someone present with world class skills, this means that all has to do their best at all times. Also the athletes with medals in the drawer must be very focused on at each training.
As a coach I am very proud of the team that they have taken this challenge of organizing open training weekends. Helping athletes being their own coach has never been a goal. The better you get, the more you need someone to help you to take next step. Helping athletes on track and at the same time learning them to have ownership of their life and training is perhaps the most important task you have as coach.
In our team everyone is good at something and it is important to learn from each other, and to learn fast. We have worked with our training philosophy and to do day by day as good as possible. When we come together and train all must do their best and perhaps it’s still not enough to be best. Then you learn to work even harder.
Making your team members better is a way to get better yourself. When you are in a strong team you will enjoy the benefit whenever you are with it. You can learn more from good athletes than from average athletes. Giving something to ten people can give you ten new things back.
