New urheilulehti has a very interesting interview with Matti Pulli. He talks how Finnish top ski jumping is too much focused to moot points and forgets the most important things. National team's interest is in bindings, suits, aerodynamics etc, while there was recent Finnish study, how jumper can influence to his acceleration in the two last meters in the table 1-2 % by using his centre of gravity right and that means 10 to 20 meters more length in large hill. This is something Pulli has strongly believed before and what he sees as a reason for Matti NykÀnen's success, but now professor Lauri Kettunen's team in Tampere University of technology has been able to prove this.
Pulli says that after NykÀnen, only Finn who has really understood and been able to use this advantage same way is Harri Olli. Also Janne happonen has some grasp of this. Other examples of jumpers who are good at this are Schlieri, Morgi, Ammann and Malysz. In Finnish jumping it has lately been a trend to emphasize physical strength and effort being directed up instead of forward. Interest in aerodynamics has also been Kojonkoski's inheritance (he has never believed that this acceleration on the table is something jumper can influence on.) Pulli is for the low sliding position that makes it possible to use gravity so that there is this acceleration. It's not possible to do from high sliding position and short and upward effort. But lately National team coaches are even tried to correct some jumpers sliding positions higher, which Pulli can not understand.
Pulli also talks how Larinto should really think this hard. He is best in the world in physical tests, he also jumps far in certain type of hills (but also comes down high, that can be a big problem in landings), but if he thought more in what direction he steers all that strength and effort at the table, he could do even better.
To really learn to do this, jumper has to jump a lot as a kid and from the small hills. Pulli criticizes Finnish system for letting kids to big hills too early, because on them they do not learn the technique right and they will not get enough jumps. Also many small hills around Finland are not in use any more so many juniors have no possibility to get enough to the hill and jump as many jumps as would be needed.
This was very interesting article (these kind of stories are the reason I buy Urheilulehti, they really talk also other things than who won and who not, and who is in shape and who not. Trying to get behind the things is interesting. Usually Finnish media just goes with 'he is physically stong and does well in normal hills' or ' he has trained well and his self confidence is high.')
There was also Pulli's comment about case Harri Olli. He doesn't understand how Finland could afford to kick out the most talented kid after NykÀnen even if he is difficult to handle. He reminds that he knows and understands perfectly how it feels to be a head coach when you have a athlete with a challenging character in your team and empathies coach being tired with that, but also reminds that also he could have chosen perfectly nice, hard-working, positive and social jumpers to his team at eighties, but the results would have been radically different. He thinks it is big part in good coaches skill set to be able to handle difficult characters. And even though he does understand how Hapa blew his career all by himself, he thinks it is a great shame that Finland's most talented ski jumper drifts around somewhere in Rovaniemi. He thinks National team coaches/Finnjumping should contact one more time to those people who have some authority over Hapa, arrange crisis meeting and try one more time to get him back in order or at least have a few good and calm chats with Hapa's dad about all this. One lost year would not mean anything in Hapa's ability to get back to the top.