Too much pressure on top skiers, says coach

Ruapehu Bulletin, 3 August 1990, Page 4

Too much pressure on top skiers, says coach

New Zealanders who think the Kiwi ski team are going to rise up and win the World Cup are putting too much pressure; on their skiers.

That is the view of their new coach, exCzechoslovakian World Cup racer Robert Zallmann. He has been putting the team through their paces at Turoa recently and working them through dry land training at the Waiouru Army Camp. Zallmann said the media pressure is especially great on the team's top skier Simon Wi Rutene but that he will be doing well if he qualifies for the main event. The problem for the Kiwis is not lack of

talent, said Zallmann,1 but' the lack of an effective programme for grooming them for long term success. "The trouble with New Zealand skiing is that they haven't had a good development programme in past years, and it's bad that they haven't been training together due to the federation having no money." He said the appointment of John Ball as Alpine Director is a step in the right direction but that it will take Ball a long time to fix a lot of the damage

from past years. "Lots of things are happening now such as the sponsorship deal with Mitsubishi. At least the team have a training programme here at Turoa." Zallmann is taking the team through a month long training session at Turoa and Mt Hutt leading up to and including the World Cup at Mount Hutt in August, and takes the women for a three week camp following that. He has no idea what will happen after that because the federation cannot promise him anything at this stage. He said there may be a full-time coaching position available and

that he may apply depending on what they can offer. New Zealand will continue to waste her skiing talent, said Zallmann, as long as there is no coherent development programme and that needs the cooperation of mountain clubs, ski areas, suppliers, sponsors and parents. "But they need help from parents in a good way, they don't need a lot of political stuff about whose town is best and which island and which club is best. "A lot of parents try to do their best for their kids when they're 12-13 or 14, but they have to face the reality that to make the top 10 or 20 it is going to be a job to be a skier." He said they have to find the best skiers in their club to go forward to a development team, then work up to the national team. Top Woman "You have got one of the best woman skiers now, she has the potential to be in the Olympics in 1992, but without a programme for development her talent will be wasted." Zallmann has experience behind him, having raced for Czechoslovakia for eight years, four on the World Cup circuit, competing in slalom, giant slalom and downhill and achieving his best results in I downhill. He defected Ifrom his native country lin 1985 to pursue his I skiing career further and was picked up by the \ Australians. He is now an Australian citizen and has coached for their ^national team for two years, after racing on the professional world cup circuit for two years. Last year he coached a Luxembourg ski team racer for 1989 which included time spent at Mt Hutt. Following the end to communism back home Zallmann visited Czechoslovakia in February, a trip that would have seen him in

jail before. But he remains an Australian, having taken a liking to his new home, it's people and the lifestyle. Zallmann sees the aim

for his team at this World Cup event as being to participate and do the best they can, for the younger ones to rub shoulders with the

world's best, and then to look forward to the next three years and the World Championships in Austria next year and the Olympics in 1992.