Calling Out the U.S. Ski Community: Trond Nystad’s Final Thoughts

The senior ranks point to colleges as being bad. College skiers are slow because as high school skiers they came ill prepared to college. And high school skiers are ill prepared because they were ill prepared by their clubs or their parents. We need to start skiing more at a younger age. As athletes, you cannot go from skiing 350 hours to 750 all in one year. You have to build it up. If you start as a serious athlete training twice a day at 22, then you’re seven years behind the Germans. It’ll take seven more years to build up to this early international level… this is a long time to wait. Unfortunately, we have been fooling ourselves, thinking we don’t have to train. And for some reason, we have chosen not to learn from swimming. I don’t know why. Americans are the best swimming country in the world.

Do you take issue then with American coaches?

I take issue with them in that they are too proud to admit something could be done better. Their incompetence comes in insisting their way is the only way. There are a million ways to become a good skier, but every which way requires hard work. American coaches are absolutely horrible at working together. Every coach seems to be fending for their own turf, to be their own chief of their own little tribe. This is the biggest problem, people are too proud to work together. So many people with good ideas; yet so many with an in-ability to listen to others.

Does the U.S. ski community have anything going for it?

Yes. There are many people really excited about skiing. There is a huge group who really want to become great at skiing. They are just misled and misunderstand what it takes to become good. The energy is there. There is lot of discussion and excitement into the sport. I think there’s a lot of talent, too. If the young athletes got a chance to train they would become good. We see a lot good results at junior worlds from people who have trained much less then their European counterparts. They travel for their first ever over the Atlantic, have less preparation, and they still compete well in these races. So, yes, the talent we certainly have. We just leave something to be desired in how we prepare it. This is all we have to change — gaining a more professional approach from an earlier age.

Everyone needs to figure out what it can do better. Colleges should not say 500 hours is enough for a college skier. They need to figure out a way to train 650 hours. High school programs can’t say 350 hours is enough, they need their skiers out there 500 hours a year. If everyone steps up the preparation a notch, and uses the whole year to get better, really good things will happen.

We have presentations from coaches about preparing six weeks for the sport! Skiing demands a twelve month preparation for the sport. We need to see athletics as a full-time commitment, year-round.

So many things are going for American skiing. The talent is there, the excitement is there, people are motivated. So many pieces are there. One is just missing. And that has to do with work.

In a previous interview I asked you what it takes to be a fast, efficient skier you said,
“Really fit. Then you can get away with murder.” You still feel this way?

Yes. That’s the way. It’s like if you have a Ferrari engine. It doesn’t really matter which chassis you put it on, it’s still a V12 Ferrari engine. If you have a Skoda engine, it doesn’t really matter what you do to it, it’ll still a Skoda engine.

I’ve been in the sport for some years now. I have seen high school programs from around the country. All young skiers do in America is ski back and forth in a field, getting technique criticism from their coaches. Why not send them out for two hours of gaining kilometers in the woods? They’ll learn very good technique just by skiing.

Instead, high school skiers today don’t ski, they putz through a field, back-and-forth, back-and-forth. Then they stand and wait for the most part. They’re probably out there for three hours, but they haven’t done anything except probably freeze and get a bunch of useless nonsense from a coach. Get out on the trails. Ski easy. Leave the other stuff out.

You have been around the American collegiate ski scene for years, first as an athlete at U. Vermont, then as an assistant for Sten Fjeldheim at Northern Mighican U, before taking over the Denver U ski program with your brother. What are your impression on NCAA skiing?

Colleges need to take themselves a little more seriously — from coaches, athletes, to the NCAA – all trying to find stipulations to not train. But somehow swimmers are able to figure out a way to train in college. They do so by getting up, training early. We have to find a way to drag the lazy ass skiers out of bed and train twice a day. If they can do that, college skiing could be really good. We need to learn from swimming. If we can do that, it’ll all be good.

When your foreign World Cup friends came to visit you at Denver, what were their impressions on the collegiate sports scene?

The American college athletes have a lot more services at their hand than any World Cup skier. The opportunity to prepare is tremendous. One has school for three hours, then the rest of the time is to train. When Hetland came to visit, he could not believe the setup. Absolutely could not believe it. He told me what I just told you, no European World Cup skier has such easy access to facilities you find at any D-1 college. Bente Skari has seen it. She, too, was blown away. Claudia (Kuentzel)… everyone who has seen it thinks it’s just unbelievable – strength rooms and great training facilities, money, access to doctors and physical therapy, everything. The conditions and infrastructure are there. The link missing is the work ethic to get the job done. If disciplined, a college athlete can find a way to be exceptionally successful in both sport and school.

What about those who’ll say, “Trond, there is more, much more to skiing than just World Cup points and Olympic medals. It’s a great social experience for literally millions of Americans, about the free-air life, living healthy….”

Not everyone wants to be best in the world. That’s fine. That’s great. I’m not trying to take away any of the other experiences to be had in skiing. What I’m asking, though, is that colleges, high schools and club coaches give those who want to be the best the chance to be as good as they can be. For everyone else looking for a social experience, for sure, being on the ski team is great. However, there has to be a possibility of giving the masses what they want — being a part of the ski team- and give those who really want to challenge themselves this opportunity.