The last pre-season week with jumping on the Bergisel
hill in Innsbruck and roller-skiing in Seefeld is
over, as well as ski testing in the ski tunnel in
Oberhof and before the team takes off for the first
snow jumps in Lillehammer from the 16th of November
onwards, head coach Christoph Eugen and his athletes
Mario Seidl, Bernhard Gruber, Tomaz Druml and Chistoph
Bieler met up for a weekend of a different kind:
two days of relaxing at refueling at Hotel Schick
in Walchsee/Tyrol which specialises in Indian Ayurveda.
"For many of them, it is a completely new experience
and a good way of completely focussing on themselves
before the season starts. I was fascinated by the
diversity of this Indian art of healing, uniting
movement, relaxation and also a certain way of preparing
food. We were able to copy some things for our training
routines, for sure", head coach Christoph Eugen
about the motivation behind this weekend.
Next to traditional treatments like body and foot
massages and the avurvedic forehead oil anointment,
the athletes took part in some yoga sessions, prepared
their food with Indian chefs and saw a film about
the history and development of Ayurveda.
Mario Seidl was hooked: "It was interesting
to see that there are that many other forms of massage
next the the sports massage we're receiving after
the training. It was ideal to relax and focus on
the upcoming season."
Teammate Bernhard Gruber, for whom relaxation and
rest is very important in his daily work, agreed:
"Who trains hard and well also has to rest.
I usually do yoga and relaxation exercises anyway,
so I had some knowledge already but this specialisation
has been new to me. I really liked the food and
am sure I'll try it again at home!"