The German ski cross team has worked through an intense and complex three-day training camp in the indoor ski hall based at Neuss.

The roster especially concentrated on the start routine which has always been crucial to success over the past World Cup seasons.

In order to better the performance, the crew measured different start positions.

Two start gates were built in the most steep parts of the indoor run from where the athletes skied towards a roller sections.

Besides measuring the strength of the arm stroke, analysts also took the load on the soles as well as the time skiers needed to pass the rollers into account.

All seven athletes at site were able to take twelve runs per training unit every day – a workload every one participating called 'pretty tough'.

New Head Coach Peter Stemmer said: “We had perfect conditions for our research which is pretty new for us. We hope that we can use our acquired knowledge for our next training units.”

Daniel Bohnacker, who finished third in last season's Ski Cross World Cup, added: “Repetitions are always kind of monotonous. But we all know it's important.”

Especially as the camp in Rhineland was a very good preparation kick off to a World Championships season.

“The summer training is definitely an advantage, which we have to capitalize on against the strong Austrians” said Bohnacker, who is looking forward to the next season.

Source: the official FIS