Ungdoms- og talentarbejdei Schweiz

Agenda

• Some facts about Switzerland

• Orienteering in Switzerland

• History of the youth and talent training

• Evolution of the concept till today

• Pillars of today‘s concept– The athlete path

– The athlete potential

– Team structures

• What we achieved

• Lesson learned

• Q & A

Some facts about Switzerland

• Population of 8,211,700 inhabitants

• Area of 41,285 km2

• Forest area about 32% of the territory

• 71% of the forest public owned

• About 60% covered by alps

• 48 mountains over 4000mas

• Highest point 4634mas

• Lowest point 193mas

Orienteering in Switzerland

• Orienteering in Switzerland since the 1930ies

• One of the founding nations of IOF in Copenhagen

• Swiss orienteering founded 1978

• Today:– more than 70 clubs

– more than 1’500 active runners

– about 200 competitions per year• National Championships (long, middle, sprint, night, relay, team)

• 8-10 national competitions

• World Cup Final (started as Postfinance sprint after WOC 2003)

• Swiss O Week every 2-3 years with around 3000 participants

• WOC, JWOC, EOC each about every 10 years

History of the youth and talent training

Until the 1990ies structure with 3 more or less independent pillars:

• Clubs to learn orienteering

• Regional squads for first training

• National squads for junior elite and elite

This system provided from time to time good athletes and medals on a regular basis, but...

• success was quite random

• always based on golden generations

• or special constellations

• and orienteering was anyhow a Nordic sport…

Evolution of the concept until today

Once upon a time, there was a WOC relay in Hungary

• all a sudden the Swiss men team was in the lead

• at the change over of the last leg

• in the finish 1. SWE, 2. CZE, 3. SWE, 4. SUI

What happened?

• lack of training?

• lack of skills?

• or self fulfilling prophecy?

In the 90ies some of the runners of this very relay became coaches, analysed events like this and started to develop concepts to avoid them…

Evolution of the concept until today

The birth of OLMU, or why orienteering is more than just running with a map:

• O – Orientieren

• L – Laufen - Run

• M - Mentales

• U - Umfeld

Once upon a time, there was a WOC relay in Czeck republic, and in the USA, and in Germany

• and the Swiss men team won gold

• even if they did not have the best 4 individuals

Evolution of the concept until today

Sustainability, or how to pass the success to the next athlete generation:

• Requirement profiles for all 4 OLMU areas– Elite

– Junior Elite

– Regional Teams

• Education of coaches

• Long term planning of coaches

• TPAK – Standardised training diary

• Active “recycling” of drop outs

• Scool

Over the last 20 years to concept moved top down to a common and stringent understanding of youth and talent training.

Education of coaches

The athlete path

The concept defines the possible athlete path from being a beginner to become a world champion. A lateral entry into as well as a drop out from elite sport is possible any time

The athlete path is defined in different steps:

•Main focus and development steps

•Content and training steps

•In detail frame training plans for O, L and M

The athlete path

The age groups are based on the System of the Canadian Sport for Live. The LTAD (Long Term Athlet Development) defines sports development steps for the „entire“ live.

For orienteering this means:

•<12 years: FUNdamentals

•12-15 years: Learning to Train

•15-17 years: Training to Train

•17-21 years: Training to Compete

•21-25 years: Training to Win

•>25 years: be World Class

•13-: Active for Life

The athlete pathMain focus and development steps

The athlete pathMain focus and development steps

The athlete pathContent and training steps

The athlete pathFrame trainings plan

Trainings squads

Trainings squads

Ausbildungsklubs:

• Responsible for FUNdamentals, Learning to Train

• One physical training an a weekly basis (Indoor circuit, Running, etc.)

• 1-2 O-trainings per month

• 1 training camp per year

• Athletes 11 years and older

• OL-PISTE based selection of athletes

• One trainer employed (Verbandstrainer Swiss Orienteering/J+S Trainer)

Trainings squads

Ausbildungsklubs – as we do it the Aargau:

• Historically club trainings are split in east and west– Every week a map training in east and west

– Clubs of east and west split responsibilites

– Just for fun, no underlying planning

• First each Club tried with own Ausbildungsklub– Did not scale (Athletes & Coaches)

• Today 1 Ausbildungsklub for the region– All 8 clubs work close together

– Physical training once a week in east and west

– Map training in parallel to normal training, but with underlying planning and direct coaching

� Personal engagement made it possible

� “Fun-Kids” and “Elite-Kids” share the same training

� There is no longer a gap, they change group without even being aware… ;-)

Trainings squads

Regional squad:

• Training to Train and Training to Compete

• January until may monthly trainings weekends, august until october two weekends

• Participation at Jugendcup

• Training camps

• Participation at selection races

• Athletes 14 years and older

• OL-PISTE based selection of athletes

• One trainer employed (Berufstrainer Swiss Olympic)

What we achieved

Since 1995

•regular medals at WOC, EOC, JWOC

•at least 2-3 world class athlete in each generation

•there was always a next one, even after Simone

Probably even more important

•there is a common knowledge and understanding

•the different pillars work close together

•but we kept the underlying structure and strength

Orienteering is known in Switzerland with a very positive image. The amount of runners is stable with more new runners coming from outside of the community.

The future looks bright, new talents are already at the horizon…

Lesson learned

• It’s not about the stars

• It’s not about the money

• It’s about everybody

• Know your strengths and your resources and use them smart

• Work close together

• Hand in hand we bring the talents to the top

Q & A