KIL has been in a very good period, and recent results have taken the team to the top of the table.

The weekend before there was no match, and before the team was due to go out again – away to Moss on Sunday – the club received good confirmation that the physical form in the squad is where it should and should be.

For the Italian team from Mapei Sport, led by Dr. Ermanno Rampinini, has again visited the club and Kongsvinger to carry out their tests.

Mats Haakenstad took part in his first test with Mapei Sport. The player, who has a long career in both Norwegian and foreign clubs, liked the arrangement very much.

– I have been to a couple of tests before in other places, and this was really very professional. I am excited to see the results and what it means. This was cool, says Haakenstad.

Super professionals

He believes KIL’s scheme differs from similar measurements he has made elsewhere.

– It is of course something completely different to what I have been involved in previously. We’ve only had such simple running tests. I have tested such a power plate before, but this with lasers and sensors and the type of exercises is completely new to me. So it was fun to be part of, and it will be exciting to see what the result is and what it can be used for, said the full-back after the tests had been completed and before the squad had been presented with the figures.

Dr. Rampinini and his team are recognized as some of the world’s leading professionals in football physical training. Mapei Sport has previously worked with clubs such as Juventus, Roma and Marseille, while this season they are collaborating with, among others, Sassoulo, Inter Milan and Monaco, in addition to KIL.

– They seemed super professional and had full control of everything. There we see where the level is, and it’s cool that we have it in Kongsvinger, says Haakenstad.

– A good tool?

– Yes, I would say that. I haven’t been here long enough to know how actively we use it, but this is definitely something we can use to plan the training week and how to avoid injuries and not least improve, so it’s cool.

Correction and adjustment

And the results are something KIL uses carefully in the training process. After a hard run-up period this winter, the results at the year’s second test in April were somewhat weaker. This led to the club actively taking action immediately.

– We had an incredibly good process until we were in Marbella, and then we actually fell asleep a little in the hour after that. When Mapei Sport was here and tested us in April, we got some answers, that we had missed a bit. This allowed us to make corrections, and we have done so based on the expertise we have built up in the club over many years. It has meant that we have trained in a different way, and much more intensively and harder after the tests for Mapei Sport, says sporting director Espen Nystuen and continues:

– It also meant that we knew that at the start of the season we weren’t quite at our best, and we had to start a proper training process between games to get back to the physical level that we should have when we’re going to be at our best .

This round of tests gave confirmation that the measures have produced the desired results.

– Now we are there, and the tests now show it. We have corrected and adjusted, and in the last six or seven weeks we have been good. The physical aspect is very important there. We can take more. We can handle more sprints, which is important in football today. Being able to sprint many times, repetitively, is the most important physical aspect.

Short and long term

This development and correction gives a good picture of what a resource Mapei Sport is for KIL Toppfotball.

– We are very lucky to have the test battery that Mapei Sport comes with and that they follow us up with reports weekly. At the same time, it is important for us to put this into a Norwegian context, and that is what we have built up expertise on over the past six years and since the collaboration started in 2018. 

And although the process must be developed gradually and with patience in the long term, this was also a good example of the value KIL has from the Mapei collaboration in everyday life and in the shorter term.