According to Matti Liimatainen, one of Saga Vanninen’s great strengths is that he has not dived deep into the world of social media, which is risky for a young athlete.
Long-time athletics coach Matti Liimatainen got an interesting female athlete in her group at Pirkkahalli in Tampere in 2017.
Played football as his main sport Saga Vanninen started going to the junior match schools run by Liimatainen once a week, where techniques were taught and sports tried out. Soon, 14-year-old Vanninen already came to ask if he could start training in Liimatainen’s group regularly. The rest is history.
– A unique case as a blank. Saw it right away. The ability to produce rapid volitional force was absolutely extraordinary. And luckily, Saga and her friends Vilma Itälinna got excited about athletics and to stay with the sport, remembers Liimatainen, who eventually coached Vanni until the end of the 2022 season.
Even last year, Liimatainen visited the current coach Jesse Jokinen on request, supervising Vanninen’s training a few times, but now definitely emphasized in the interview that he is not taking any credit for himself from the historic 5-match World Cup silver medal.
Liimatainen also coached the country’s top contenders at the time, who have already retired, until the end of the 2021 season Maria Huntington and Miia Sillman.
– Of course, I am satisfied with the medal, but at the same time, of course, I wonder what Saga could have done even better. He definitely thinks so, Liimatainen laughs.
A rare diamond
Vanninen is a downright rare diamond in Finnish individual sports, such as these, even among girls, often end up in team sports.
The obvious super talent disturbed the coach’s peace of mind to the extent that there were enough advisers. In particular, Liimatainen received a consultation to develop Vanninen’s weakness, i.e. the 800-meter run.
– They didn’t realize such a simple thing that I could have brought 280 trainers to the hall and each of them would have made Saga a 2.10 runner. It’s not a trick or anything.
– But the trick is that at the same time you should push the ball 15.50, jump height 180 and length 650. If you consciously start to develop that kick through lactate and speed endurance, then maybe you will get 100 more points from it and lose 350 from elsewhere at the same time. That would not be very intelligent coaching.
According to Liimatainen, Jokinen and Vanninen have approached the dilemma more through the economics of running than through the slog of endurance training and speed endurance. In this way, they have protected Vanninen’s greatest strength, i.e. the characteristics of power generation.
– Wise action. Match coaching is always a compromise.
Liimatainen admits that she is particularly satisfied that Vanninen has not dived into the world of social media and visibility hunting nearly as deeply as many other Finnish female athletes.
– That’s good. You can get a little more money for sports from there, but you will definitely get quite a bit of time crunch and terrible pressure from there.
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