Season Thoughts

As always, I've spent a lot of time this spring thinking about the season and trying to draw lessons from what went well and what didn't.  The skiers have given their usual helpful feedback, and I've had some good conversations with others as well.  Here are a few of the things that are on my mind:

First-years:  We're going to dial back the training for our first-years in the future.  The transition to college is tough, and even first-years with a strong training base from high school often struggle to recover from all the training and post good results.  At this point, I'm willing to have them take a step back in terms of training volume in exchange for easier recovery and better energy as they make the transition.

Body weight strength:  I'm more convinced than ever that general strength training for skiers should be about moving and controlling your own body.  We already do a lot of body weight strength work, but I'd like to add more challenging and productive exercises to our routine - I'm looking at sports like gymnastics and parkour to get some ideas.  We won't be able to get into the more advanced stuff that these guys do, but playing around with some basics should be helpful.

Running vs. rollerskiing:  A few years ago, we started moving toward more running and less rollerskiing.  After watching several of our skiers have great seasons with little or no rollerskiing due to injury or study abroad, I'm ready to nudge that balance a little further in the direction of running and other on-foot training.  Rollerskiing is essential for speed, specific strength, and technique, but nothing gets you fit like running and bounding.  We'll still do plenty of both, but running/bounding will take over just a little more of the space that was previously occupied by rollerskiing.

Recovery:  As usual, some of our skiers got bogged down this season with the heavy load of training and schoolwork, and in many cases this hurt people's racing.  Our seniors handled this challenge as well as anyone, and I don't think it was a coincidence that they both had their best results ever.  As a coach, it's easy to look at performances and link everything back to the training plan.  Good results = good plan, and vice versa.  But more and more I'm starting to realize that what happens outside of practice has as much of an effect on racing as anything we do for training.  This is nothing new.  Every coach knows this in an abstract sense, but since we don't see what goes on when an athlete leaves practice, we tend to focus on what we can see and control - the training plan.  This isn't good enough.  Our skiers need to do a better job at recovery and time management, and I need to do a better job of helping them learn how to do these things.  Can we accelerate the learning process for younger skiers so that everyone can manage time and handle the pressures like our veterans?  I guess we'll find out.