Summertraining in Flims, Switzerland

The Summer Training Camp in Flims , Switzerland is a well known and well established camp in the skating world. Swiss coach Daniel Fürer and his team organize this camp since 1993 in the sports center “Prau La Silva”, situated in a beautiful mountain area. There is not just an ice rink, but a tennis court, an inline skating park, a miniature golf course and running track offer the athletes everything they need for training and relaxation. The camp attracts each year international skaters from all over the world, from adult beginners up to champions.

Since a lot of interesting skaters gathered there this year again, I decided to pay the camp a visit. The camp lasts from July 9 to August 18 this year, and I went on July 19.

When I arrived after a difficult and long trip – it was not so easy to find the way as I didn’t use the highway – I had missed the first Men’s practice of the day, but I went to watch the Ladies. I met Kristoffer Berntsson and Gheorge Chiper and set up a time for an interview with them.

Then I was warmly welcomed by Daniel Fürer, who explained the history of the camp and gave me a lot of other information (all the interviews see below).  Right on time at 3 pm Gheorghe showed up and told me about his impressions. Mr. Fürer then introduced me to another friendly coach, Marius Negrea, and afterwards I also spoke to Jacqueline Kiefer, who is coaching Jamal Othman. Jamal unfortunately wasn’t there as he had to go to his obligatory military service just this week.

When I went back to the ice rink I met Alexander Uspenski for the first time. So far, I only had seen him on a video. He was very nice and we had a little chat. He told me how far he has to travel in Moscow by metro from his home to the ice rink every day.

Then I watched the Men’s practice and took some pictures. Mr. Fürer came and showed me the ballet training in a tent. A group of young girls from several countries was working with ballet coach Judith Simon from Hungary , a former solo dancer at the Opera of Budapest. She is the wife of Istvan Simon and has coached well known Hungarian skaters Viktoria Pavuk and Szabolcs Vidrai.

There were a lot of different coaches from different countries working with the skaters, and the atmosphere was very international.

Finally I did the interviews with Alexander and then with Kristoffer and Sarah Meier.

I want to thank again Daniel Fürer for his time and generous help with setting up the interviews and showing me around.

Translation of the interviews in Flims
Photos you find here.

Daniel Fürer, director of the training camp

“This year we have skaters from 22 nations, the strongest skaters coming from the Swiss National team including Sarah Meier. They did a training camp with Viktor Kudriavtsev in the first week. Starting with the second week, the camp was open for the public on different levels. We got international ladies aside from Sarah Meier such as Valentina Marchei, Idora Hegel, next week Teodara Postic and Isabelle Piemann will join us. The men are Kristoffer Berntsson, Michael Chrolenko, Moris Pfeifhofer, Daniil Gleichenhaus from Russia , Artem Grigoriev, who won the Youth Olympics this year, Vladimir and Alexander Uspenski, Pavel Kaska. We got junior and novice skaters from Sweden , Finland , the Czech Republic , Katarina Orlova from Canada as well as Nastassja and Xenia Lobatchesvskaja. Later Junior World competitor Sara Twete from Denmark and other Danish and Swedish junior level skaters are scheduled to arrive. Jamal Othman will come back next week after finishing his military class. He was here for the first week with the Swiss National team as well. There will be a junior skater from the USA , Alex Finn as well as other Swiss skaters, who will train under Viktor Kudriavtsev.

Ekaterina Gordeeva and Ilia Kulik will be here from August 5. Ekaterina Gordeeva will work on the programs of the Swiss junior pairs team Anais Morand/Antoine Dorsaz. We have this cooperation with Ekaterina since three years to help this Swiss couple.

Besides the practice on ice, we offer off-ice training. Each second day we have an off-ice athletic training with Evgenia Petrova from Moscow and the dance practice is conducted by a professional dancer, Galina Ischenko, also from Moscow . Everybody can benefit from this experience, not just the international top skaters but also the beginners.

(on the reason for the popularity of the camp) The fresh air here in Flims at a 1000 meters and the whole environment and the recreational value certainly play a role. People from Viktor Kudriavtsev’s group repeatedly told me that it’s a dream here compared to Moscow at this time of the year, especially when the weather is nice here, although it can be really cold up here in the Swiss  mountains as it was during the first days of the camp this year.

(on the history of the camp) We’ve been organizing this camp since 1993 and we’ll celebrate our 15th anniversary next year. We have some plans already for the anniversary. Probably we’ll do something special at the exhibition gala, but we don’t know yet for sure. We’ve grown constantly in quality and quantity by offering more training hours. Meanwhile the six weeks are practically fully booked, from the first through the last week. Obviously, this is the result of many years of work.

Basically in the higher categories the bookings are based on last year’s bookings. Who is here this year has an option for next year to come here at the same time in a group of the same level. We can sign on additional skaters only if additional places become available. World Championships skater Gregor Urbas asked if he can come back here after he preferred a training camp in the USA last year, but unfortunately it was impossible for us to give him a place as we had more than enough men this year. Karel Zelenka was here last year, but this year the Olympic Committee reduced spaces as they were focusing on summer sports, but he is on the list for next year, because as a participant who has come here for many years, he should get a spot next year. I think that Kristoffer Berntsson has been coming here for six or seven years. He is a constant guest, as is Sarah Meier. I think she even was here in 1993 as a young girl with her coach Mark Pepperday and her aunt Evi Fehr. Sarah has been with us for the longest time. Concerning the international skaters, for sure it’s Kristoffer Berntsson.

We obviously also have many participants from Germany and Austria , among them skaters from the German team C envelope who medalled at German Nationals. They have been coming for many years. Unfortunately Manuel Koll from Austria has to miss out this year due to his military service. We have 10 to 15 young skaters from Austria .

(On the exhibition) The exhibition gala will take place on July 28. It is a skating show of the Swiss Federation together with the campaign “Cool & Clean” that is working against the abuse of drugs and alcohol in sports. Athletes from the Swiss team will sell beverages to support the campaign.

(On the beginnings of the camp) We started the camp together with Dr. Sepp Schönmetzler from Cologne . The camp was founded in Pfronten in Bavaria (Germany), but we left when the ice rink was closed due to reconstruction and two years later we ended up here in Flims, in 1993. My basic idea was that we have to offer the best possible training conditions in Switzerland so that the Swiss skaters don’t have to go abroad to train with skaters at the same level. We basically need the best skaters here to benefit from them. Our concept is based on offering skaters of the same level, if possible the top skaters, a summer training in a pleasant atmosphere where you also can play tennis together and have a barbecue together. We offer high level sports and recreation together with the families. Our concept has grown up to

15.000 to 18.000 nights that the skaters, their coaches and their relatives spend here in Flims this year.”

Marius Negrea, former Olympic level skater and now coach

“I started out here as a skater in 1993. I participated in 1992 in the camp in Feldkirch ( Austria ) and then I came here. We came here as we had good practice conditions. I was a skater at this time and I was coaching children for a few hours in between. After finishing my career I came here as a coach in 1997. More and more countries have been coming each year. Whoever had skaters at a competition was promoting the camp. I first brought my National team from Romania here. I became National head coach in 1997 and took children here. Next Sunday the current Romanian Champion Roxana Luca will arrive. She’ll be here for the 10 th time. She is one of the oldest participants although she is only 24 years old. We have promoted the camp as well in Germany and Austria .

(On the concept) We introduced the footwork hour in the morning and two technique practices at noon and in the afternoon. Then, when Mr. Kudriavtsev came, we changed it a little bit. International top skaters started to come with multiple European bronze medallist Viktoria Volchkova, Ilia Klimkin, Elena Sokolova, skaters from Sweden, Finland, Germany – Andrejs Vlascenko was here in his last competitive season. Stefan Lindemann came here as well for two, three years. Mr. Kudriavtsev introduced longer practice sessions for the children and the top skaters. Instead of three times 50 minutes a day he practiced twice for 75 minutes with his skaters. That’s better for the older skaters. Apart from that we have endurance practice, general endurance and specific endurance for figure skating. Mr. Kudriavtsev organized additional endurance practice with his off ice coach Viktor Kozlov from Moscow . In the morning we also have ballet and dance practices. Actually each skater from the normal classes has five practices a day, three on the ice and two off ice, one of which is endurance and one is dance practice. This was the concept. The first week of July we have an easy practice as a warm up. Most of the skaters arrive with new skates and were on vacation, some of them didn’t skate for one or two months maybe. Then the intensity and quality of the practice increased week by week. The skaters who were here for several weeks benefited the most. We recommended that skaters should come here for at least two weeks. One week serves as a warm up and one week is for the real training. We had skaters who come here for four weeks or five, before we even spent the whole time, up to six weeks, here. My skaters from Romania always used to come here for a long time and Mr. Fürer offered us good practice conditions as we don’t have ice in summer in our country.

This camp lays the foundation for the winter. Who trains well in summer is well prepared in winter. We have a stadium outside for running and jumping, a room for weight training, a fitness centre and the gym. Mr. Fürer built up the tent that’s good for ballet, you are in the shadow when it’s hot and it’s dry when it’s raining. The ice here is very good, the quality has increased year by year. The first years the ice was very thin like for ice hockey and they served energy. That wasn’t so good for the figure skaters, but they made the ice thicker year by year which was better for the toe pick jumps such as Lutz and Flip and helped us to use the resilience of the ice.

The cooperation among the coaches is really good here. We are basically working in the same style and each skater can train for example with Elena Romanova, with me or with Daniel Fürer. We have almost the same technique and we work like Mr. Kudriavtsev who is demonstrating everything. There are no problems that the skaters work with different coaches. So we are switching often, each group is working with one coach and then with another coach.”

Jacqueline Kiefer, coach of Jamal Othman

Jamal came here for the training camp of the Swiss Federation (in early July). Now he had to go back (to the military), but it’s the last week and then he is finished with the military service. He will come back on Sunday to train with me and Viktor (Kudriavtsev).

We decided to train here, to go home and to come back again for two weeks as the whole schedule is very convenient for us. We’ll have ice in Bern only starting in September and we don’t have any opportunity to practice in Bern from March to September. We still have some time as his university classes will start only in September. So we come back with him and Cindy Carquillat to prepare everything for next season. We didn’t do a lot from April to June due to his military service, and Cindy also went to school. The programs aren’t completely ready yet. We were in Moscow and worked with Marina Kudriavtseva (on the short program), but it’s not done yet. We are now building up, also technically and we’ll focus on the technique, Jamal focuses on the triple Axel, and we’ll work on the programs. We’ll use the last two weeks, because now with Viktor the practice is in a group and we don’t have so much time for individual practice. Now we’re in the group and benefit from that. Later I’ll be alone with the two of them (Jamal and Cindy) and we’ll focus on the details of the programs and on the technique before going back to Bern in September. Both are scheduled to compete at the Nebelhorn Trophy. This is the first test for us to see where we are. It’s close to us and we know Oberstdorf well. Jamal will also go to Finland (Finlandia Trophy). As of now, he has one Grand Prix in China.

This camp is great for us because there are many men. He is the only one in Bern and generally the boys and men in Switzerland are training in different rinks and don’t have the direct contact and competition. This is very good here with the boys from Russia and other countries. We have been to several places, in France , but it never was so focused on men as it is here. That’s an important reason for us to come back and he can benefit from that. They have a group here almost exclusively for men which I haven’t seen elsewhere. This is much more intense than training even with strong girls. The speed, the intensity in this group is much, much stronger.

I think I have been coming here for six, seven years. It’s good for the top skaters as they can train with the “better ones”, and I also can come with my younger skaters and coach them in the remaining time. This is very important for me as well. I try to find something from which all my skaters can benefit. The surroundings are beautiful, especially when the weather is nice. I went to many places, also in America and Canada , an overall this here is the best place, and so I keep coming back each year. I’ll be here for five weeks this year.

The atmosphere here is very pleasant for me. The coaches here have been the same for many years and we know each other well and we work together. The atmosphere, the whole package is helping. It’s not a competition, but we work together, with each other and not against each other. That’s helping a lot and it’s nice. Although we are working hard it is still kind of relaxed. It is hard work, but not grim. We get along well. I don’t see the coaches from Germany and Russia often, just sometimes at competitions, but now we are here together and it is going well.“

Gheorge Chiper, former Olympic level skater and now coach

Concerning the infrastructure, Flims is a really good place for training in my opinion. It’s good for the coaches and skaters to work. It is very important as well that the atmosphere is nice. The skaters are friendly with each other and the practice atmosphere is very positive. Everybody is very motivated. There are a lot of young skaters here, mostly from Russia , and that’s a different level. It is very pleasant for us coaches as well. Having a good working atmosphere is influencing your work. Together with the quality, which is very important, this is a very good place for training. We got Viktor and Marina Kudriavtsev here, they come with good skaters and that’s good input. We can’t fly to Russia once a month and to see how we should work or to get new input. I think it’s good to receive new input during the summer training and to become sensitized for different problems and aspects of skating.

(On what he focuses) Everything is important now. The new judging system demands to develop all aspects of skating. It’s not just about the technical aspects or the presentation, so I don’t think you can speak of a certain focus. Everything has to be right, you have to work on everything and I think this is done. My skaters are very young. I can’t work on one point, I have to work on the whole basics of skating and then I obviously have to concentrate on each individual skaters and to work on their strengths and weaknesses. Now, when both Viktor and Marina are here, some of my skaters were able to work with Marina . Four eyes see more than two and you get new input. Maybe you can improve something and pay more attention. This is very important for me as a coach. I am still young, I am only at the beginning of my career. I think I still have to learn a lot. For sure, no coach knows everything, but I just try to gather as much information as possible and to use it for my skaters. Everything is fine for me here.

I started coaching in Switzerland , in Zürich, when I was still a skater. Now I’m coaching full-time in Zürich-Erlikon. At this moment, my plans are to improve my skaters.

I’m for three weeks in Flims and I’ll go for one week to Jaca ( Spain ) and afterwards back to Zürich for a week, and then the summer will be over. The season will start, the competitions will come, the winter, and the year will be over! That happens so fast. The plans for next year are too far away in the future.”

Alexander Uspenskij, Russia

„My first impression from this trip to Flims was the beautiful landscape, the mountains that I like so much. I like being here. This is my first trip to this training camp. It is very well organized. All the practice conditions are on a very high level, the fitness centre, the quality of the ice, also the running track is professional, so everything necessary for the training. This training camp is interesting for me as not only skaters from my training base in Moscow are here but also athletes from other countries. That is good as it makes it possible for me to compare my own preparation with the preparation of athletes from other countries and I can take something positive from it. The weather here has been very nice for the 12 days that I have been taking part in this camp. I got only positive impressions and emotions from this camp, because I have expected less. I expected less, but I realized that this camp probably is positive for my preparation for this season, including the psychological side. It was just nice to be here and to begin the season with positive feelings. It was hard as I had new skating boots and I had to break into them, and breaking into new boots always costs time, sometimes even a month, but towards the end of my stay here my coach and I got back all the jump elements and I broke into the boots. That was the main goal of my trip here. Additionally I went through a special conditioning program, however, unfortunately without my (off ice) coach Leonid Moissevitch Raitsin, who gave me some exercises which I did during the camp, and so my preparation was complete.

I am not only in Flims for the first time but for the first time in Switzerland . I really liked it and I probably can say that the mountains are my favourite landscape of the world and I feel very comfortable here. I got a lot of new impressions and feelings and only positive memories remain of this training camp.”

Kristoffer Berntsson , Sweden

“First I came here for Viktor Kudriavtsev and he has been coming here every year and I’ also coming here every year. It’s a good place, good for training, that’s why I come back. It’s beautiful. (On spending the spare time) In between practices I’m anyway so tired, I don’t want to do anything, just relax and lay down. I’m here for three weeks, then I come home. I’ll have a little vacation for a week, and then we’ll start (training) at home in my rink. They’ll open up in August. The plan is to go to Nebelhorn Trophy, Finlandia and then Skate America, Cup of Russia, Nationals.”

Sarah Meier, Switzerland

Unfortunately something went wrong with my tape recorder and I didn’t tape this interview! Sarah also had only praise for the training camp. She told me that she doesn’t want to start her season early with Nebelhorn Trophy as she thinks she would be too tired at the end of the season then.