Coach's Corner - A Look Back

We asked Team Canada coach Keith Simmons if he could give us a little bit of an inside look at the last two FIL World Cup events (look at the athlete's impressions of those races here and here) and he was more than happy to oblige. Keith isn't travelling with the team this year so he asked the Canadians to send along their "track/set-up/performance impressions" after each event so he could read into the final results and give us a coach's perspective on what's been happening and why. Here's what Keith had to say:

Umhausen
From what I remember of the track the bottom section is the deciding factor for fast run times. The top consisting of a slightly technical combination, followed by textbook switchbacks, but the bottom (likely 500+ meters) with very long straights with a really tight 180 in the middle of it all makes or breaks the race. Hometrack advantage goes to Kammerlander with the right set-up to gain enough advantage in the first run to offset mistakes on the second, leaving the rest of the field battling for second.

Our Canucks – Of course Greg was out of this one due to an ankle injury from training. The first run shows good set-up selection and mental space for the tight 180 in the bottom part of the track. The second run, after the track having to endure a lot of racing without as much time to repair left Kaj and John (and others including the bronze winner Robert Batkowski) hoping for good braking and a subsequent decent line through the tight deciding 180 corner. Looks like the track took more advantage of Kaj.

Unterammergau
I don’t remember this being a very technical track, but fast, flowing, longish straights. Weather an issue as training was very slow due to rain, but a least cold on singles day for harder ice.

Pigneter showing once again that his secrets are better than anybody else, so an over view of the rest of the leaders – nothing to see here – move along; having not been there the results indicate the remainder of the top guys had a really rough time adjusting to the track being harder for the race.

Canucks – thanks Kaj, for showing that the program is beginning to pay off. Canada has been in what I call the second tier (ie not competitive with the top Austrians and Italians – YET!) and Kaj posting a finish at the top of some very fast Germans is testament. Greg comes off injury and this track plays to Greg’s strength of being a “natural/visceral” driver – and the results show. Johnny on the other hand likes to take his time in Europe as an opportunity to get his annual cold in – it’s an amazing thing to watch the living dead start a race. If you haven’t experienced this don’t worry there will be more chances – it’s tradition, he does this almost every year – so Johnny should back on form for Deutschnofen.