Erik Bartlett Kulstad is a biathlon coach from Norway. He was an assistant coach with the Chinese team for three years but has recently been appointed as the new head coach of Finland.
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What is your background in biathlon?
I was a biathlete for Oslo Skiskytterlag and NTG Lillehammer until I was 19 years old and got a couple of junior national championship medals.
Why did you decide you wanted to be a coach?
After I stopped competing, I had to take some time away from biathlon. After a couple of years, I found out that sports were such a big part of my life, and I began studying Sport Science. While studying I tried coaching kids on the side. It gave me back my love for biathlon and I became more and more interested in the details of the sport. Since then I have just tried to learn more and more.
You worked with Bjoerndalen and Domracheva in the Chinese team. What was that experience like?
Yes, it was very cool. I did not know them personally before, so to come to work and see them there was a little bit of a starstruck moment. I had some years of coaching then, but no experience with that level, so for me to feel like my ideas and thoughts were important was very cool and says something about their willingness to learn. It was interesting to see their coaching develop through the years as they gained that experience on top of their enormous personal experience.
Our time in China was marked by some extreme situations in how long we stayed with the team, and how we had to adapt to teach and understand athletes from a very different culture. This might be the most important lesson for me, to see how they work to find the best solution in every situation, and never ever give up on the job. Seeing the way they work I can understand that they are as successful as they are.
Is it true you used to play American football? If so, does any of it translate to coaching biathlon?
Yes, while I was studying, I wanted to try something different, and I had been watching American Football for some years. So, I joined the Vålerenga Trolls in Oslo, and I was able to play three years on the Elite level in Norway. Two of those years I also played together with Tobias Torgersen (the coach of the Polish women).
I would say yes. Both sports require you to regulate/change your mental stress and focus very quickly. Even though biathlon is an individual sport, we are still a team who need to function together for almost the whole year. And the attention to details is something that both sports have a lot of, so for me it was fun to draw inspiration from those coaches, and the sport and see that many of the things that were talked about were the same, but in a different context.
What training have you done so far with the Finnish team and what is the plan up to the start of the season?
So far, we are done with 4/7 camps. We have been in Vuokatti, Otepää, Kontiolahti and Ruhpolding. And I am very happy with the way the team has been able to get to know each other and work together. We are trying to establish stricter routines for threshold training and get more training with high intensity shooting. Our goal was to test this work in Ruhpolding, and for me we got the perfect amount of top performances and reality checks so that we feel good about what we are doing, but all have things to improve in the next months.
We went to Antholz in September to get a small dose of altitude and we want to get some more uphills than we can have in Finland. When October comes, we are going to transition to snow, so that will be very interesting for me to see how they take what we have been working on, and are able to do it on skis.
What are your ambitions for the Finnish team this season?
I hope to lift their performance to a more stable level this year. It seems to me that there is a lot of potential, and a high max performance as a team, but that they have not been able to put it together. If we can go in and have the mindset that your normal is good enough, I think we can do some good things with this team.
Do you enjoy training and thinking of new drills and ways to train? Do you use a lot of statistics and data?
I do use some statistics and I think it is a great way to get the “truth” when you see something but can’t be sure, or an athlete and a coach might see things differently. In China my job was to give Ole and Darya the best information possible with video and statistics to guide their decisions. But now in Finland I can’t use as much time on it, since we are a smaller team. But I think it is critical to base your decisions on something, and not your feeling as a coach or athlete.
I did want to create a lot of new ways to train when I was younger, and I think it is great when working with kids or younger athletes. As an elite coach it is more about maximising the time, we are doing work that makes the athlete better, and it’s not always the most creative and “fun”. But yes, it is fun to figure out how to optimize the plan or schedule to try and get an edge on others.
What do you do before, during and after a race as a coach?
Before: Make sure we have all the equipment, bibs, personnel where we are supposed to. Read the wind so that I can put the athletes in the best situation before the race. Do the zeroing and remind athletes what their focus is for the race.
During: Be on the shooting range and see the prone shootings through the scope. This is both for evaluating after, and to give adjustments if there is a second prone shooting. Standing shooting I like to see how the athletes are doing with my own eyes to evaluate their performance that way.
After: See the athletes in the cabin, and approach them differently based on their performance. Some need to be alone for some time, others want to evaluate immediately, and some wish to celebrate. Give them some evaluation. But not too much before we have seen the statistics and video so we know what we are talking about.
I wish I could give you some rituals or something, but I’m not very superstitious.
If you could pick any of the other biathlon coaches to be your coach, who would you choose and why?
Physical: Ole Einar Bjørndalen because he knows so much, would be painfully honest with me, and work his ass of to help me.
Shooting: Jean Pierre Amat because he knows so much, he makes shooting simple, but can go deep into the details if he needs to.
Describe yourself in three words.
Curious, Childish, Happy
What are your Top 10 favourite things?
Not in ranked order; my girlfriend,surfing, American football, biathlon, Randone skiing, biking, cooking, trying new stuff, playing games, my life.
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