Grover outlines U.S. Ski Team Vision 2011

Thu, Apr  29, 2010 - By Chris Grover, Head Coach, USST

Every since the 2010 season came to an end, we have been hard at work creating our annual strategic plan and detailed plans regarding competition calendars, training camps, Team nominations, etc, as well as having discussions with coaches and athletes around the country.   I thought it would be appropriate to share the vision the staff and I have for the coming season. I hope it sheds some light on what we are up to and why we are excited about our overall progress and outlook for future progress.

Team Nominations

Recently we published our list of seven athletes that we have nominated to the U.S. Ski Team.  This is smaller than in previous years, but I will explain why this works at this point in our development as a ski nation.  2010 nominations

We acknowledge that there are many very talented ski racers in this country that have not been nominated to the Team this spring.  Beyond that, there are many talented ski racers that are not being re-nominated to the U.S. Ski Team this spring.  Just because an athlete is not nominated or re-nominated to the U.S. Ski Team for a given season does not mean that any of the staff has any less respect for their abilities.  Making some teams some years and not making these teams on other years is part of the athlete development process.  It is a natural process that reflects the very nature of development.  There will be big improvements during some seasons and big disappointments during other seasons.  Given this process of development, the key is to provide a structure that allows athletes to move on and off teams depending on how they are performing and what their needs are at a given moment.  This is why we are maintaining the nature of our teams and, more importantly, the structure of our athlete development pipeline.

The Small Team

Every athlete who is being nominated to the U.S. Ski Team this year has something in common.  They are on the path to winning a medal.  This medal could from the World Cup, World Championship or Olympic Winter Games, but they are on this path.  If we graph these athletes' ages versus their FIS points and plot those graphs against the progress of the best cross country skiers in the world, we can see that they are on the path.  Will all seven of these athletes still be on this path at the end of this coming season?  Hopefully, but the chances are not good.  Will there be other athletes that will  emerge and show they are on path?  Most likely.  For this reason alone, we must keep U.S. Ski Team funding more fluid.  We need to be able to get the fastest U.S. skiers at a given moment in the season to the right races.  We have done a pretty good job of this in the past, but we can do better.

Beyond this, our U.S. Ski Team athletes need to have something else in common.  They need to be "All In".  If we are going to support them with valuable resources, they need to demonstrate that they are fully committed to reaching their potential.  These athletes need to take advantage of every camp and appropriate competition that is offered to them.  They need to have strong ties to their club programs.  They need to be working on a daily basis with their club coach and/or a U.S. Ski Team coach.  This is the only way to keep them developing as quickly as their European counterparts.  This is the best way that we know to keep them on the path.

Our athletes need to be talented, they need to be racing fast, and they need to be committed to doing everything possible to be the best cross country ski racers they can be.  Of course we recognize that there are many other talented cross country ski racers in this country that do not fit into this model.  There are many great developing skiers that are still in high school.  We have many high-quality skiers currently attending college and participating in NCAA ski racing.  And we have many mature athletes that are excelling within the club structure in their home communities.  This is healthy.  Together, all of these athletes, as well as those named to the U.S. Ski Team, comprise the overall Athlete Development Pipeline.

The number of athletes on the U.S. World Cup Team and the U.S. Continental Cup Team in 2010-11 is small, but it will grow in the coming years as more and more athletes fit the above criteria.  But most importantly, the number of the athletes that make up our current Athlete Development Pipeline is significant.

The Role of the U.S. Ski Team

What is the role of the U.S. Ski Team and the USSA?  Our role is to provide a service to the community.  We need to run quality competitions that are refereed by trained professionals; properly insured, timed, and scored.  We need to provide excellent coaches' and officials' education at a national level.  We need to provide a national Athlete Development Pipeline.  We need to run well conceived and implemented national level training camps that give our best athletes, whether on the U.S. Ski Team or not a chance to push each other and to learn from each other.  We need to field teams at high-level international competitions and we need to provide world-class support to the athletes at these competitions.  In a nutshell, you could say that the role of the U.S. Ski Team is to do the things the clubs cannot do.

The Role of the Clubs

What is the role of the clubs?  The clubs identify, attract, and retain talented athletes.  This is where coaching and grass-roots sport education happens.  The clubs support developing athletes in every way: financially, physically, mentally, and emotionally.  The clubs prepare athletes for a national stage, and hopefully for an international stage.  The clubs prop the athletes up when they are ready to race at the next level and they pick the athletes up when they have fallen.  Clubs are the support networks that the athlete depends on.

Building a Bridge – More Europa Cup Competitions = Improved Competition Pipeline

In the past, the responsibilities of the U.S. Ski Team and the clubs have overlapped quite a bit.  This overlap can be attributed to the fact that we did not have very many strong clubs in this country that were in a position to support the best athletes at these competitions.  This is no longer the case.  We have some very strong clubs now.  We have more and more clubs providing support to athletes that are graduating high school and college and want to investigate their potential in the sport of ski racing.  There are more strong clubs and more clubs in general.  It is an exciting time to be involved in U.S. cross country ski racing.

Now these clubs and coaches have asked the U.S. Ski Team to stop competing with them at national-level competitions.  We have listened.  The U.S. Ski Team staff will no longer be providing waxing support to Team athletes at U.S. Championships (January or March) or at USSA SuperTour events.  This is the territory of the clubs and we want to support their efforts.  (One of the best by-products of this policy is that Team athletes will be further encouraged to keep a connection with their Club program when they come home to race in the U.S. in order to benefit from race support and coaching.)  Instead, we will be building-out a Europa Cup infrastructure.  We will provide coaching, waxing and logistical support for our top athletes at the Europa Cup level: a level of competition that creates a bridge between USSA SuperTour racing and World Cup racing in the competition pipeline.  We will cooperate with club coaches who wish to bring teams to these competitions in order to provide the best possible atmosphere and support for U.S. athletes.  Instead of offering two weeks of Europa Cup racing as we did last year, we are planning on running seven weeks of racing during the 2010-11 season.

In short, we will let the clubs do what they do best while the U.S. Ski Team staff takes care of the things the clubs can not do.  Instead of competing with the clubs, we will collaborate with them.  We will work together to build the Athlete Development Pipeline and the Competition Pipeline.  This is the only way that the U.S. will ever compete with the big skiing nations with big budgets and big staffs.  We have to use the resources that we already have in our possession: passionate, educated coaches and strong clubs.  After all, we are on the same team.

The Athlete Development Pipeline

Over the past few years, the U.S. Ski Team, the USSA Cross Country Committee, the regions, and the clubs have worked together to build a world-class Athlete Development Pipeline.  This Pipeline began with the Regional Elite Group (REG) camps where U.S. Ski Team coaches go to each region to work with top regional athletes and coaches.  Last year, with the help of some talented club coaches, a National Elite Group (NEG) camp was added to the calendar.  This camp included the best athletes from each of the REG camps and brought them together at the 2010 Olympic Venue to train and to compete in a head-to-head environment with the athletes of the U.S. Ski Team.  The 2010 NEG is planned alongside the U.S. Ski Team Camp at the Olympic Training Center in Lake Placid in early October.   This year we are pleased to be adding two more pieces to the Development Pipeline: a National J2 Elite Camp and naming a National Training Group (NTG).

The National J2 Elite camp is the vision of our USSA Cross Country Coaches' Sub-Committee Chairman, Rick Kapala, and is intended to identify developing talent and to educate and encourage these young athletes to start down the path of international excellence.  It is a new point of entry to the athlete development pipeline and an important one.  It is an early opportunity to "hook" talented young athletes on our sport.  It is a chance to tell these athletes and their parents about the Pipeline and to show them a concrete path leading them from entry into the sport to realizing their dreams.

Shortly, we will be naming a U.S. Ski Team National Training Group.  This NTG will be comprised of the best 20-25 junior and U23-aged men and women in the country.  This group will be made up of high school-aged athletes, collegiate athletes, and those currently taking time off from school.  These athletes and their coaches will be invited to a camp in Park City in June.  The camp will be run by the U.S. Ski Team staff, with critical help from involved club coaches.  It will take advantage of the excellent roller-skiing at Soldier Hollow, as well as the state-of-the-art strength and recovery facilities at the USSA Center of Excellence.  There will be many quality head-to-head training sessions complimented by evening sport education sessions.  It will be an opportunity for our best athletes and coaches to work together and learn from each other.   This is considered a very important initiative for us so we will be funding housing and ground transport costs for these athletes and their coaches.

The Athlete Development Pipeline is being filled out.  J2 Elite camp – REG camps – NEG camp – NTG – CC Team – WC Team.  As a community, we are building this.  It has already begun to work and it will work even better now that there are more steps along the way and now that the steps along the path are smaller.

The Coaches' Education Pipeline

One more crucial pipeline for our community is the Coaches Education Pipeline.  All of these strong Clubs require well-educated, experienced, inspirational coaches.  The USSA needs to continue to provide more service to these clubs in the way of a national coaches' education program.

Three years ago the USSA introduced its Technique Fundamentals CD.  Last year, we introduced the Level 100 coaches' education and certification program, and ran an excellent coaches' education symposium in Minneapolis, which was attended by over 100 Coaches from around the country.  We created a National Training System (NTS) and sent posters of it to each member club so they could post at their club venues.  This season, we will complete the Level 200 coaches' certification program.  We also plan to create a cross country Winning Runs CD with quality World Cup footage from this year.  We will add more content (cross country technique footage and instruction) to the new Center of Excellence TV site.  We keep pushing to improve the resources that will help improve the education of the nation's coaches.

Summary

We will have a small U.S. Ski Team this coming season, but as I pointed out, we are only one piece of this community-wide endeavor to create a world-class cross country ski racing nation.  If we focus only on the role that the U.S. Ski Team can play in this endeavor, we will miss the bigger picture that is being created by the athletes, coaches, officials, parents, and clubs.  We have a lot going for us.  We have a strong competition calendar that now will be more complete than ever.  We have a clear Athlete Development Pipeline which can take a J2 skier from a national camp to an Olympic podium, and we are continuing to build our Coaches' Education program.

In all of these tasks, we need your input and your help. The only way we can be successful and realize our vision is if we work together.  We are more confident than ever that we can do this.