U16 Men's Athletics Camp
The U16 men's national team gathered in Frankfurt am Main on Saturday, May 31, 2025, for a two-day athletics camp. Under the direction of U16 national coach Robin Beckers, National Coach Education & Science Karl Schwarzenbrunner, Head Coach Talent/ Club Support Florian Ondruschka and athletic trainer Philipp Frank, the 36 young talent players completed various coaching sessions. The goal was to convey to the young athletes how essential it is to use the summer to optimally prepare for the season athletically. They should learn to analyze their weak points independently and to plan and carry out training content themselves. Both general athletic topics and barbell training in particular were part of the content of the camp. In addition, the topics of regeneration and nutrition were discussed in personal discussions with the athletes. In the concluding team event, the players were pushed to their limits with a challenging training program based on an ice hockey game. The goal of the tests was to obtain individual information about the areas in which the players had potential. Mental, cognitive, physiological, and health-related areas were examined.
U16 national coach Robin Beckers: "We are very pleased with how the camp went and were able to discuss many relevant athletic and performance-enhancing topics with the players within a very short period of time. The players trained hard and demonstrated excellent resilience and great team spirit in the final team event. The young talent athletes already have a wealth of knowledge. Now they need to learn how to further deepen this knowledge and apply it independently. We have developed goals together, and the players will now work on their potential and goals at home so that they are ready to play ice hockey at the international level."
In:prove networking event
Following the U16 athletics camp, the DEB-Trainer Karl Schwarzenbrunner, Robin Beckers, Florian Ondruschka, Andreas Becherer, Sebastian Jones and Jenny Harss was a guest at the in:prove networking event (sponsored by the Federal Institute of Sport Science) on the campus of Goethe University in Frankfurt. The aim of the conference was to present the findings from the first project phase for the "target group of trainers," provide an outlook on the extended in:prove 2.0 project phase, and gather concrete feedback on how the second project phase can be made even more practical. Furthermore, perspectives were presented on how key project results can be secured and utilized in the long term—for example, by integrating the existing database structure into the structures of the sports associations.
Photo: in:prove network conference
National coach for science and education Karl Schwarzenbrunner: "The in:prove conference gave us valuable input. The analysis of the test data allows us to manage the athletic development of young players even more specifically. The exchange with other sports broadens our perspective on training processes and helps set standards for young German ice hockey talent. The prospect of how we can anchor the findings and structures from the project in the associations in the long term is particularly exciting."
Photo: in:prove network conference