Changing the Landscape of Youth Cross Country Skiing...

shaking it up...

 

 



 

 

Its pretty cool to see an idea turn into reality.  That happened yesterday.  It started with some conversations with friends and colleagues about how to engage more kids and more clubs in ski racing - to make ski racing more accessible for more kids.  There is alot of inertia moving against this.  It takes a shift in thinking to think beyond your own club and the kids you coach.  But its been that kind of leadership that created an event yesterday where almost every kid there was pretty new to ski racing. 

 

Refreshing.  Inspiring.  Fun. 

 

Casual conversations turned into more formal discussion about what was important to all of the stakeholders.  This allowed some shared values to be discussed.  The conversation focused on creating a shared vision about the future of skiing in our region.  Everyone agreed that more clubs and more kids engaged with racing would be a good thing.

 

Next came some conversation about what it would take for clubs currently not engaged with racing to join in.  From this, we learned about the diverse needs of clubs of different sizes and stages of maturity.  What was remarkable in our process was the willingness of big established clubs to accommodate the needs of younger, start up clubs in our region.  We decided on two types of events for our new regional development series - 'open' events that would accommodate any child and 'development' events that targeted kids in their first year or two of racing.  Our provincial sport organization, Cross Country Alberta, was quick to pick up the event series and support it with the idea that this type of regional series would be good for any region in our province to roll with.

 

Yesterday was a pretty amazing day.  A young, start up club, Crystal Ridge Nordic Ski Club from a small town in the greater Calgary area, Okotoks, hosted the Built for Speed (B4S) Event Series first 'development' event.  I'll tell you it was awesome.  Almost 80 kids from 5 different greater Calgary ski clubs, almost all of whom would be too intimidated to line up in a provincial level race, were there lining up at this development race. 

 

Its where it starts.  Racing needs nurturing.  Outside of small pockets of highly motivated parents and a small percentage of ski clubs, the reality is, racing is new.  Taking the high rollers out of the equation meant that kids who might usually finish 20th in an Alberta Cup race, were there winning their event.  Every kid needs a chance to step on the podium.  In our highly competitive region where a few clubs are large with professional coaching staff, but where most of the clubs are run by volunteers and keen parents who want to do something good for their children, we created a valid interclub regional race where the needs of kids starting up can compete with others who are about the same place as they are.

 

My own personal children didn't race (I have three of my own offspring, who are all pretty keen on racing).  Most of the kids I coach didn't race.  Some of the kids I coach competed, because in every club there are kids who are just getting started.  For a group of ski clubs to agree to create something to foster and engender positive racing experiences for those kids on the edge, for kids who don't have parents who competed at some high level, the event yesterday was incredible.  Bravo to the leadership of southern Alberta ski clubs for creating a space for this type of event in our regional event series for children.  Not one kid finished 10 minutes behind the winner - every kid had a chance to see themselves as a contender. 

 

Hats off to the Crystal Ridge Nordic Ski Club for hosting B4S2.  It was an unqualified success. 

Wrapping up a season - ideas for working with adolescents

Finishing off your season...setting the stage for the next one

As we know, having a good finish is a huge piece of having a good ski race.  It can make a huge difference in the outcome.  You see it all the time - somewhere from inside a skier's psyche, they say to themselves 'I am not going to let you get to the finish line before me'.  Sometimes it results in a dramatic and exciting ending, one that everyone who's there says 'wow, that was impressive'.  I just returned yesterday from cross country ski nationals in Whistler.  There were many of these kinds of moments - strong finishes made a difference to many athletes.  For these athletes, nationals represented their culminating activity of their season - what they had worked towards and set their sights on.  For our athletes from Canmore, end of nationals meant end of the season.  A wrap up - some closure - the big show.  I am sure it was this way for everyone.  As a coach, its just as important to finish up your year well - to sprint for the finish line as if it was really important - especially with adolescents, who have a lot going on.  

For my group of adolescent skiers, here is what I did to wrap up the season.  Earlier in the season, I did a goal setting session with the group of 12-13 year olds I worked with.  We did this in October.  We had just had a couple of sessions on frozen thunder...just enough to get us thinking about skiing, why we were here, and what we wanted to get out of the year.  I am not sure that the kids I was working with were dialed in to thinking about goals, but I wanted them to start thinking about it and so pulled out some sticky notes and sharpies, and a couple of pieces of flip chart paper stuck to a wall.  I asked them to write down a performance goal and a process goal.  Performance goals could be anything related to their performance in a race.  Process goals could be anything that would help them get to their performance goal.  Surprisingly, my group was really into doing this - really thought about what they wanted to do, to learn, to experience, to improve on, to accomplish.  I asked them to go out on a limb and identify something that they really wanted to accomplish, even if they had some doubts about whether they could or not.

In the middle of the season, my group took a look at their goals and updated them.  Then towards the end of the season, I created a new chart on a piece of flip chart paper I'll call 'wrapping it up'.  On it I created three sections.  One was titled 'I have definitely accomplished this', another titled 'Almost there', and the third titled 'Still working on this one'.  I asked the athletes to move their sticky notes from the 'performance goals' and 'process goals' charts to the 'wrapping it up' chart.  Here kids could self determine their level of learning and improvement.  It was pretty cool to see what happened.  We then took a few minutes to recognize each athlete in their accomplishment of their performance goals and process goals.  I was pretty happy with how the exercise turned out.  I think the kids were as well - happy to be recognized in front of their peers for things they have accomplished.  Everyone getting an equal amount of recognition.  This is important in a sport like cross country skiing.  Our sport aims to create athletes who enjoy the lifestyle of ski racing and being their best.  But in a race type event, only the fastest get regular recognition from their peers.  As coaches of adolescents its critical we are intentional about ensuring that other types of recognition are available.  Otherwise, kids move on to other places where recognition is found.

In addition to these things we did our regular year end pizza party where individual recognition awards were presented.  We also do a year end club wrap up party where other types of recognition are provided.  Recognition is important - important to each kid - particularly at early adolescence where peers become much more important, and affiliating with a team is sought by many young skiers.  For young racers, what you do to recognize their effort in a meaningful way can get them back at the beginning of the next season.

Plan on a strong finish - one that has a dramatic ending - a finish that your group will talk up through to next season.  Effort is everything...particularly when you get to the end of something you have put large amounts of energy into achieving and creating.  Have a great ending and a super beginning.

Enjoy the rest of snow season.

Roy  :)

Creating a Team - some ideas for working with 12-13 year olds

Taking the Time to frame 'Team' with T1/2 athletes

Kids are so ready to take an active part in sharing their ideas, in creating a team, in owning what its going to be about - when you give them the chance to contribute and put their ideas at the centre, they really run with it.   When building a team, there are lots of things to consider - helping kids to own their own experience, to buy in, to do something because its important to them - these are important roles of a coach of adolescent cross country skiers.

Framing what 'team' means is a balance of many things in an individual sport like cross country skiing.  Focusing on social norms is important in creating a culture where kids strive to learn and to be their best. Creating some expectations around what coaches expect of kids is important, and giving kids a voice to express what they expect from coaches helps to create boundaries and helps to paint a picture in kids' minds about what is important when they are at practice.

I am the lead coach with the T1/2 group at Canmore Nordic Ski Club. We recently engaged in such a session - 20 minutes well spent where kids answered four questions to help them create some group norms about expectations of each other, of coaches, and of themselves.  These young athletes were asked to write individual responses on sticky notes and then stick them to the questions which were posted on the wall.  Here are the questions and the responses from the athletes:

What is important to our T1/2 team?

- strength and fitness and racing
- have fun, be positive, no bragging about races, dont distract team mates when coach is talking
- having fun, being nice to each other
- being a good team mate
- dont complain (too much)
- work together
- no bragging, be encouraging, dont put other people down, be nice, have fun, be awesome
- have fun, get along, be helpful with each other
- always have fun, be a good team mate
- support each other
- be kind to your friends, be a good sport, be supportive to others
- make new friends, make new memories
- have fun
- work hard

What part of your 'game' do you want to work on the most this season?

- do more races
- offset technique
- skate skiing
- 1 skate and offset
- i want to work on my technique and race strategy, also learn some warm ups for races
- my technique
- work on endurance
- I want to work on my technique
- to help me get better at skate skiing and long distance
- getting back into the skiing habit
- my 1 skate technique
- 1 skate
- skate technique, double poling
- technique in classic skiing
- 1 skate and 2 skate


What do you expect of coaches?

- be super ultra fun and nice, coach really well, tell us what our mistakes are (if we have any)
- to encourage us and give us good strategies
- tell me how to improve my technique, be nice, be encouraging, always smile
- to give us tips
- lots of feedback, good comments
- making skiing fun
- tell us how to improve our technique
- to teach us well
- give us good tips for technique
- to be helpful, encouraging, but not pressuring to do things they are uncomfortable with
- to listen to us, help us, and be encouraging, be AWESOME!
- dont have too much core, more games with core involved
- to help us to have good tactics
- making skiing fun!

What should coaches expect from you (athletes)?

- be cooperative
- focus, fun, fastness, try our best, be a good sport
- to work hard and focus and to pay attention and to have fun
- listening and participating
- good sportsmanship, work hard, courage
- try our best
- to have a smile
- listening and participating
- not talk while coaches are talking, pay attention, focus on drills, SMILE
- be a good sport
- to listen
- 100% effort
- to always listen

What is interesting about taking the time for this sort of exercise, is the level of engagement.  Doing this sort of thing, gives a chance for athletes to voice their hopes and in doing so helps to create a culture where their hopes can be realized.

The challenge with doing this sort of activity is being ok with not being out on the trail doing physical training or technical training.  As a coach, I really want the kids I work with to be fit and to ski technically well.  But more importantly, I want the adolescent athletes in the group of kids I work with to develop a love of the lifestyle of being an athlete, to enjoy the time they spend at ski practice, and to really own their experience.

The next steps - well at some point in the next while, it will be important to reinforce the ideas that these young people have shared with each other.  The important work of engaging adolescent athletes in seeing themselves as part of a team, of seeing themselves as athletes who strive to be their best, of these young skiers saying to themselves 'I really love this stuff' is I think the goal of all coaches of 12-13 year olds. And the role of coaches creating expectations is vitally important to the building of a positive culture of excellence appropriate to a group of 12-13 year olds.

All of these ideas aren't new or novel or even leading edge - but they are a good thing to do - building a solid foundation for kids, a positive space, and ownership of their own experience.  Ultimately, when they are out on the trail ski racing they are on their own - they need to be motivated to doing the work themselves.