Interview mit Sara Wickström, Cheftrainerin des deutschen Damen Ultimate-Nationalteams, Goldmedaillengewinnerinnen bei der EM 2011 in Maribor

Geschrieben von: Jörg Benner Dienstag, den 09. August 2011 um 08:33 Uhr

DFV: Sara, Gratulation zum Titelgewinn bei der EM in Maribor! Bist Du alles in allem mit den gezeigten Leistungen des deutschen Damen-Teams zufrieden?

Sara: Thanks! I am of course extremely happy about the title and the overall performance of the team. We played consistently on a very high level throughout the tournament. This was one of the best teams I have ever coached and played with. I am very proud of the team and thankful that I could be part of it.

DFV: Eure Vorstellung war sensationell, makellos, mit "weißer Weste" - wo siehst Du die stärksten Verbesserungen zu den vergangenen internationalen Turnieren?

Sara: Of course the quality of the individual players is important and we had a good combination of experience and new blood in the team this year. The players that were on the national team already in the previous years have still become better and our new players are very talented, they integrated well into the team and handled the pressure of international games with incredible maturity.

But our greatest strength was that we were mentally very strong as a team, stronger than in the previous years. We believed in ourselves from the very beginning. In addition, our defense was very strong, I would say the strongest in the women's division, and with this we were able to put a lot of pressure on the offence of our opponents and force them to make errors. This can be attributed to the improved fitness and skills of the individual players as well as our defense tactics that I think worked out very well. This year we spent a lot of preparation time on implementing a general concept of play and less time on particular offence or defense plays, which made us more flexible to respond to changes in the game our opponents or the wind conditions.

DFV: Höhepunkte des Turniers waren sicher beide Siege gegen Großbritannien (14:11 und im Finale 17:11), sowie gegen Dein Heimatland Finnland (17:13 und 17:7) - beide Male habt Ihr Euch vom Ergebnis her noch gesteigert! Seid Ihr aus deiner Sicht tatsächlich immer noch besser geworden?

Sara: I think it is safe to say that we constantly improved throughout the tournament. This was due to increased self confidence that we gained through our series of wins. We also had a wonderful team spirit and we really grew together as a team during the week. This allowed us to perform better and better as the stakes got higher, we simply enjoyed the challenge and the pressure.

DFV: Habt Ihr in diesem Team stärkere Einzelspielerinnen, oder war und ist die mannschaftliche Geschlossenheit dieses Mal stärker gewesen?

Sara: We of course had a lot of good players whose individual skills are absolute top level in Europe. But more importantly our entire roster was very competitive and we did not have to reduce the roster during most of the games since all of the players were able to perform on a very high level. As we did not rely on only a few individuals we were able to maintain a high tempo throughout each game.  Importantly, we also did not get tired towards the end of the tournament. This one could also see in the final where we dominated the second half.

DFV: Würdest Du sagen, dass taktische Disziplin ein Großteil der Siege mit bestimmt hat?

Sara: As I mentioned before, I had developed a general concept of play for the team and the players were very committed to this and played with great discipline. A big compliment for the team for this! Our defense tactics was based on constant variation of tight man-to-man and two different zone defenses with a zone to man transition. With these we were able to be unpredictable and to break the offence routine of our opponents. Our offence was based on fast handling of the disc along the sidelines in combination with various isolation plays to generate 1-on-1 situations. Both our offence and defense tactics require that the players have both physical strength and a very good understanding of the game and space. I was lucky to have a team full of players that fulfill these requirements and this was decisive for our success.

DFV: Zum Finale: Bis zum 6:7 gab es immer nur Ein-Punkte-Vorsprünge, nach der Halbzeit seid Ihr davon gezogen (s. http://scores.wucc2010.com/?view=gameplay&Game=2070). Was hast Du in der Halbzeit angesagt?

Sara: I told the team that I am convinced we will win. I said that we should simply keep putting pressure on GB offence, not give them any space and force them to make mistakes. In the offence we should just keep cool, play as a team, stand compact, and work the disc through the field with simple fast passes and hucks. This is exactly what we did.

DFV: Zu Deiner eigenen Leistung: Soweit ich live beim Finale gesehen habe, hast Du nur wenige Punkte ausgesetzt. Du warst der Dreh- und Angelpunkt, nicht nur im Finale, mit einer herausragenden Scorer-Bilanz (vgl. http://scores.wucc2010.com/?view=teamcard&Team=1331). Wie soll das einmal ohne Dich weitergehen? ;-) Anders gefragt: Welche Perspektive hat das Team Deiner Meinung nach für die WM im kommenden Jahr?

Sara: Actually, the final gave an over exaggerated picture of my role on the field. In most of the games we played with 2 lineups and all players had more or less equal playing time. In the final where the pressure is high and there is a lot of excitement, experienced players have to step up and take more responsibility. The conditions were tough also because of the wind, and we had some difficulties in our offence, particularly against the wind. We had to play with short, fast passes rather than an open swing-and-flow offence that we usually played, and hence midfield players such as myself get more disc contacts.

But I believe that there is a group of very talented, physically strong young players that now gathered a lot of experience and will play an important role in German ultimate in the next years. First time national team players such as Kyo Hosokawa, Wiebke Dittmer, Sophia Wagner, and Bettina Kieser played an outstanding tournament and I am sure we will hear more from them and others in the future. In addition, I have tried to teach the players how tactics are designed and implemented as well as how to train individual skills as well as team skills. My hope is that the players will implement some of this in their club teams so that German women's ultimate will continue to develop in the future.

DFV: Soeben wurde bekannt, dass die WM vom 7.-14. Juli 2012 in Sakai, Japan stattfinden wird: Glaubst Du, mit dem Titel im Rücken wird kommendes Jahr auch mit den deutschen Damen zu rechnen sein?

Sara: My feeling is that the team is very motivated to develop further in order to be competitive also in the World Championships. In addition I hope that our success inspires more young players to train harder and try out for the national team. Of course there is still some work to do but if we manage to keep the core of this team together, recruit a couple of young talents and keep on improving our athleticism I think we are ready to challenge countries such as USA, Japan and Australia.

DFV: Wie sieht der ungefähre weitere Fahrplan aus in der Vorbereitung zu diesem Mega-Event (das auch über die Zulassung zu den World Games 2013 in Kali, Kolumbien entscheidet)?

Sara: The plan looks more or less like in the previous years. There will be a training camp in the autumn, which is open for all women that have a serious interest in playing the World Championships. From here candidates will be selected to absolve the winter fitness training and the spring preparation that consists of monthly training camps and a couple of international preparation tournaments.

DFV: Was steht für Dich in diesem Jahr sportlich weiter an? Spielst Du noch ein paar Turniere, wirst Du auch bei der Beach Ultimate-WM in Lignano Sabbadoro, Italien, sein?

Sara: Unfortunately I am not able to play the Beach WM due to work reasons, but I am sure the women's NT will do a great job there without me as well. I will, however, still play the DM as well as the EUCR/EUCF with Woodchicas.