US National Coaches Conference and Coaching Education Summit
Lake Placid, New York September 24, 2005
Event Update: Final Registration Deadline Approaching, Coaches Education Materials Requested
The 2005 US National Cross-Country Ski Coaching Conference and Coaching
Education Summit in Lake Placid, NY is nearly filled and the final
registration deadline is rapidly approaching September 9th. The 3-day
conference will present a wide range of relevant coaching information,
discuss these ideas and find ways for the US XC coaching community to
collaborate on a project to create a National Coaches' Education Resource.
The conference requires registration, but the Summit on Coaches Education
Resources on Saturday, September 24 from 6-9:30PM will be free and open to
anyone.
Registration Deadline
The final registration deadline is September 9, 2005.
Goals and Schedule
The purpose of the conference is to present ideas about training, technique
and athlete development from a wide range of sources while bringing together
coaches from across the country to discuss these ideas and collaborate on
how best to implement a new coaching education resource. Previous attempts
at creating coaches education systems have tended to legislate guidelines on
what coaches should be doing. We hope to bring a new approach where the
function is to create resources for coaches' education where it is
understood that there are many different ways to create capable skiers. To
facilitate this, we will kick off the conference with the US Ski Team
coaches presenting their concept of a National Development System (NDS),
which focuses on athlete competencies rather than specific training methods.
We will then discuss the NDS as a framework for coaches' education.
From there, speakers will present topics on intensity training, strength
training, and technique. Each area will have multiple presentations which
will focus on presenting their ideas, the reasoning and science behind them
and specific ways to implement and test these ideas. Each session will be
followed by time to question the speakers. We will then break into small
working groups to discuss the topics and their relevance to specific age
groups and the development pipeline. Each working group will then make a
short presentation back to the entire conference.
Coaches Education Materials Sought
The goal of the Summit will be to bring together coaches from across the
country to collaborate and evaluate current coaches' education materials and
to establish what is left to be done to build comprehensive and effective
resources for the education of coaches in the US. Leading up to the Summit,
we hope to identify and compile the current resources available within the
USSA/US Ski Team, regions, teams and individual coaches for review and
evaluation.
This is a collaborative effort and we need the help of everyone who can
contribute materials and ideas, as well as review the existing materials or
simply spread the word about this project to other coaches. The US Ski Team
coaches and many of the leading coaches from around the country will be
there to share their experiences and ideas. We are hoping to involve as
many people as possible from every geographical location and every level of
coaching.
Leading up to the summit, Nathan Schultz, the conference coordinator, will
collect educational materials and post them to a web site for review. This
site will accept comments, new ideas and additional materials as well.
These will all be presented at the summit and lead off the discussion as to
what should be done to develop a useful, informative coaches' education
program in the US.
Please contact Nathan for more information about the Summit and the National
Coaches Conference or to contribute ideas and educational materials.
Conference registration, compiled coaches' education materials and
additional information can be found at www.natronnordic.com Materials or
ideas can be emailed to nathan@natronnordic.com
FasterSkier
