The Danish Talent Development System�- 72 discipline medals from junior and U23 Europeans and Worlds

Agenda

• Medals from 2012 – 2021

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• The Danish talent development centers

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• Club Culture in Denmark

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• Setup of the youth National Teams

Medals for the Danish Junior & U23 Team

Highlights

• Winning at least one crew boat medal every year since 2012

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• Winning European Junior Men K1 1000m 4 years in a row

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• K1 medals won by 17 different athletes

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• K2 medals won by 20 different athletes

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• K4 medals won by 21 different athletes

Denmark In Numbers

• Population 5.8 millions
• Around 6 hours drive from one end to the other
• 25.000 paddle kayak or canoe at a club
• Around 1000 of them compete
• Danish sprint championships has 400 athletes

The Danish Talent Development Centers ” Kraftcenter”

• Since 2001
• Athletes from 14 to 23
• 3 large centers and 3 small
• Located and run by local clubs
• Funded by the federation and locale cities.
• Larger funding since 2012

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A Large Kraftcenter

• 25-45 athletes
• 1 full time coach
• 1-3 part time coaches
• Board and administration volunteer
• Collaboration between 1 – 10 clubs
• Funding from the federation €20.000 - €27.000
• Total budget €40.000 - €80.000

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Training Groups

• Groups typically 5-15 athletes

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• Coach typically has 2-3 groups

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• Not much one-on-one time

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• Lots of internal competition

Education

• All athletes at the kraftcenters are studying or working

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• High School (Gymnasium) 3 – 4 years

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• Boarding school for 9.th and 10.th grade

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• Universities

Club culture and community

• All Members can use the club 24/7, many young athletes come after school, before training.

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• Club race every week

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• Club championships

• One working day in the club

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• Boys and girls training together

The beginning

• We only have competition groups

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• After 8 weeks as a beginner you start on a talent team

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• A child can not be a recreational paddler

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Attracting new athletes

• Getting Famous in the city
• Articles in the locale paper
• Training where people see you
• Invite locale schools to come and try
• Summer schools
• Facebook campaigns

Identification of talents

What we look for in talents:

• Wanting to go to competitions
• Development and results
• Participation at training
• Wanting to learn new things, not afraid of the new
• Participation at running, strength and swimming
• Participation all year around

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Setup of the Youth National Teams

• One full time Head Coach
• U16, U18 and U23

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• Three assistants
• One for each age group

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• One Team Leader and Assistant Coach
• U16, U18 and U23

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Selection

• First observation in April
• Afterwards we selected a long list of athletes
• One crew boat weekend, with training

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• Selection for Europeans in start June (National Regatta)
• Possibility of a test weekend for crew boats the weekend after

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• Selection for Worlds after Europeans results
• Possibility of a test weekend for crew changes

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National team training

• Two weekends doing offseason
• Moved away from testing
• Only crew boats

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• Camps building towards championships
• 2 x 2 days
• 1 x 6 days

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Q & A