A clear diagnosis of the Polish coach. That’s why we have no successors to Stoch, Żyła or Kubacki
– Now they say that there are no young people, but where are they supposed to gather experience? – Maciej Maciusiak asks rhetorically. The Polish coach clearly answered the question why there is still no worthy successor to the leaders of our national team.
There are many topics regarding Polish ski jumping that are hotly discussed both among fans and among PZN members and coaches. One of them is, of course, the future of our national team in terms of what will happen to this discipline in our country when the current leaders retire. Maciej Maciusiak was asked about this by a journalist from “Przegląd Sportowy”, and his answer is more than eloquent.
Young talents keep failing
The former coach of the B team has been wringing his hands over this topic for a long time, because he believes that raising worthy successors for stars such as Kamil Stoch, Piotr Żyła or Dawid Kubacki is not an easy thing. He admitted that of course there are young talents in Poland who theoretically have everything to fight for the highest awards in the future, but they still fail.
In recent years, such epithets have been thrown around many players. Maciej Kot, from a slightly older generation, was supposed to become a star, but after his first small successes he moved down to the national level. Only recently has he bounced back from it and returned to the first team, where, however, he is not celebrating any spectacular triumphs. Aleksander Zniszczoł never reached the highest level, nor did Jakub Wolny. Both are slowly approaching 30 years of age and it is unlikely that they will suddenly win titles in the near future.
The same applies to Andrzej Stękała and several even younger jumpers, such as Klemens Murańka or Paweł Wąsek. Thomas Thurnbichler consistently focuses on the latter, but again – it does not bring the expected results. The 24-year-old jumps either poorly or decently, but never spectacularly. Will this ever change? It is unknown.
Maciej Maciusiak diagnosed the problem
Nevertheless, it is a big problem that there is no worthy successor for the current leaders of the A team on the horizon. Why? Maciej Maciusiak was looking for the answer to this question.
– Now they say that there are no young people, but where are they supposed to gather experience? – he asked rhetorically. He added that, of course, he would still like Stoch, Żyła and Kubacki to be successful, although he noted that the three mentioned are practically untouchable, and this blocks younger jumpers.
The trainer explained what this problem looks like in practice. When such a young, less experienced competitor gets a chance in the World Cup, he immediately knows that he must take advantage of it, otherwise he will not go to the next competition. Therefore, pressure and stress appear, which do not help in achieving favorable results. – They need more opportunities that they can approach with a clear head without the consequences that if they don’t go out, they won’t go any further – he revealed.
In this thread, Maciej Maciusiak also mentioned the beginnings of Dawid Kubacki, who years ago did not achieve immediate success, but still appeared in World Cup competitions, slowly gained experience and it finally paid off. This is what we should do now towards young talents. “They just need time,” he concluded.
