"I'm actually a summer person," admits Christian Schwaiger openly. That wouldn't be worth mentioning if it weren't in stark contrast to his profession. He has been head coach of the men's alpine team of the German Ski Association (DSV) since 2019 - and has actually dedicated his entire professional life to skiing. Despite his passion for winter sports, he loves to take a short ride on his racing bike and complete challenging laps around Saalfelden in his home region at a remarkable pace.
Alpine skiing: affinity for racing cycling
The fact that there is a noticeable affinity for racing cycling among the DSV's coaching staff and squad may therefore be due - at least in part - to their boss. "Skiing alone is no longer enough," Christian Schwaiger realises. In order to be a world-class ski racer, many factors are important, all of which have to work together perfectly.
The national coach realises that it is sometimes difficult to communicate what a ski racer actually needs stamina for. "Many people believe that you don't really need it for two minutes at race pace," he says. In the ski circus, however, the racing bike - alongside skis, of course - has long been one of the most important pieces of training equipment. And it plays a very special role in Christian Schwaiger's training philosophy.
"I've been a trainer for 30 years and have always consistently pursued this philosophy," he says and is happy that he is on the same wavelength with his five-strong team of trainers in this regard. In concrete terms, this means that without the perfect physical fitness of his athletes, nothing is possible, says Schwaiger, as this is the cornerstone of detailed and professional training management. That's why his motto is: "There is no excuse for a lack of fitness."
When the athletes of the DSV alpine skiing speed team, which is made up of the downhill and super-G disciplines, gather in midsummer for a conditioning course at the Jäger barracks in Berchtesgaden, the foundations for the new season have long since been laid. The eight squad athletes - including international top-class athletes Thomas Dreßen, Romed Baumann, Josef Ferstl and Andreas Sander - are about to travel to a training camp in Chile, where they will focus on training in the snow. What they have been working on since the start of preparations at the beginning of May should now pay off.
Alpine skiing: Racing is an endurance sport
"Skiers strain their endurance muscles and not their speed muscles," explains the national coach - even if it looks different to the layman. And that is precisely why it is important to train not only strength but also endurance when building up fitness. Not just to master the races with maximum concentration, but to be able to prepare perfectly for those two minutes. "When we train in the snow," explains Schwaiger, "we basically do high-intensity interval training with our specific load - and often at an altitude of over 3,000 metres." In concrete terms, this means eight to ten training runs per day, each lasting around 40 seconds with an extreme lactate level - and 15 minutes of recovery in the lift in between until the next run.
"To get through this, we have to work on the basics," explains Schwaiger. Slow and long units are therefore on the programme at the start of the preparation. "This creates the basis for everything we have to work on before the start of the World Cup season - this year on 28 October in Sölden," explains Reinhard Ronacher, an experienced top expert in endurance sports who supports the DSV athletes in the summer with sophisticated training plans and analyses. "Of course, we train differently to cyclists," explains Ronacher. The skiers don't do the really big distances on the bike: "We don't do more than four hours," he says.
Alpine skiing: knee injuries are a problem
In theory, Ronacher believes it would even be desirable to incorporate endurance runs into fitness training - however, in practice, working with ski racers leads to limitations. Firstly, because most athletes weigh around 100 kilos and secondly, because almost every skier who competes has to deal with a serious knee injury at some point.
Thomas Dreßen, for example, who sensationally won the legendary Hahnenkamm downhill race in Kitzbühel in 2018 and suffered a cruciate ligament injury the following winter, now has to build up his endurance exclusively on his racing bike. "I grew up with racing bikes," he says of the great sporting passion in his family - alongside skiing. Like most of the DSV squad, he wants to get out into the fresh air to cycle whenever possible. For him, basic training in a group means riding on flat terrain as much as possible and making sure that the strong cyclists ride in the wind. Of course, each individual has their own precisely defined performance zones, which should be adhered to as precisely as possible.
Precise ergometer intervals
For interval training, the athletes usually switch to the ergometer. "This allows us to train much more precisely," explains Dreßen. A look behind the scenes at the training course in Berchtesgaden shows just how complex this can be. If it hadn't suddenly started raining cats and dogs, the regenerative 90-minute ride after breakfast followed by a stretching programme would probably have felt almost like wellness. The afternoon, however, turned out to be a sweaty affair.
After a warm-up programme led by Reinhard Ronacher with many exercises that train coordination and reaction, the athletes switch to the weight bench, the ergometer and the bidirectional leg press - with high resistance during both extension and flexion of the leg. Each athlete has his or her own individualised requirements. The coaching team of Andreas Evers, Tobias Lux and Tobias Mayrhofer documents exactly how lactate levels change with increasing intensity - in an atmosphere characterised by maximum concentration. Everyone knows exactly what they have to do. The DSV training machinery runs as precisely as clockwork.
Alpine skiing: Equipment and training methodology
It is always important for the training team to find the right balance. On the one hand, intensive training stimuli should be set, while on the other, overloading should be avoided. "Neither strength nor endurance training is focussed on maximum performance," explains head coach Christian Schwaiger. The aim is to improve speed strength, speed endurance and strength endurance and to shift the thresholds for endurance training. "Maximum peaks dramatically increase the risk of injury in a sport that is already very susceptible to injury," he explains. In addition, too high intensities over the entire season in alpine skiing would lead to too high an overall load.
Nevertheless, most amateur cyclists would probably bite their teeth out at Thomas Dreßen and Co. "Of course, we can't compete with professional cyclists," says Schwaiger, but adds with a grin: "We already have really good racing cyclists in the squad who can pedal at five watts per kilogramme of body weight - and at 100 kilos, that's quite a number."
For Christian Schwaiger and the entire coaching team at the DSV, exchanging ideas, cultivating the network and continuing professional development are a matter of course. Schwaiger is in contact with endurance sport luminary Dan Lorang, for example, who moulds the professional cyclists from Team Bora-Hansgrohe or triathlon star Jan Frodeno into absolute world-class athletes. The DSV is therefore acutely aware that not only the material but also the training methodology must constantly evolve. "The set-up of a ski today is not possible without top athletics," says Schwaiger. "Of course, you can't win races without the right equipment, but you can't win races without athletes who can master every hundredth of a second."
All details at a glance
When the eight athletes set off for the training camp in Chile, they have to take around four and a half tonnes of equipment with them - around 60 pairs of skis for each racer. And to ensure that this material battle is not fought in vain, they want to be sure that they have paid attention to every possible detail in their preparations. The closer the World Cup season gets, the more the racing bike naturally takes a back seat due to the weather.
The ergometer is then primarily used for regeneration, and training stimuli are used in much smaller doses during the racing season than in preparation. But when the boys are once again on the podium or win medals at world championships or the Olympic Games - then all cycling fans can be sure: without preparation on the racing bike, such successes are not possible.
