When you first started working with XC skiers two years ago, what did you see they could best get out of strength training.
That’s a good question. I don’t know. I’m still working on that. I couldn’t then, nor can I now pinpoint any specifics. Early on, it’s important to build rapport and trust in one another. The way I approach strength with skiing is that in the whole scheme of things, strength is a low priority. But this low priority needs to be consistent throughout the year, and from year-to-year. Some individuals have specific things to work on over the next couple years leading up to Vancouver in 2010. Other individuals, I see already have great physical characteristics. They just need to maintain. For the most part, there is no immediate concern that we need to fix an area of strength training or our athletes will not be successful. I just don’t feel that’s the case.
The Continental Cup team is a little different. But that’s a big picture, eight years down the road kind of scenario. Their physical characteristics will come as they develop.
From a sport science perspective, what are the unique characteristics of skiing?
I look for athleticism in all the athletes I work with. When I say athleticism, I mean bodily kinesthetic awareness. With cross-country skiers I am extremely impressed with their ability to pick up new skills. Especially considering the volume of endurance skiers do, it’s impressive how fast skiers move while keeping good body awareness. I’ve strapped skis on and it’s a tough, technical sport that takes a lot of athleticism to pick it up. Having athletes with high athleticism makes my life much easier.
Before coming to the U.S. Ski Team, what was it like to work with American athletes winning Olympic medals and World Championship titles?
I had an opportunity to work with many different athletes from a lot of sports that ended up being very successful. What I saw in my four years with the Olympic Committee was three different sets of athletes, all at different stages of their career. You saw the very development level athlete. You saw an athlete that was very high-end, winning medals already. Then you saw those athletes in between, making that transition from development to the elite, meaning their stepping onto the podium. The critical part is development — it always is going to be development. But I think to some extent the support system and development of athletes trying to transition to the elite level is huge. The athlete needs to have some confidence in what they’re doing. They look to their support system — whether it’s their coach, their family, or their NGB — and all these different groups need to be working to help that particular athlete or team. What I saw was as some of these athletes developed, they became more autonomous. It’s not that they did their own thing, because I would associate that with being independent. But they take responsibility for all aspects of their training. So what I strive for is not so much as a strength coach is to get you strong or faster — yeah, that’s what I use — but what I’m striving for is for you to understand why we’re doing what we’re doing, to believe in what you do, take that program and cater it to yourself, then be at the point where you know what you need to do, day in and day out. You always refer back to your support system in guidance saying, ‘Hey, what do you think about this?’ Maybe you tweak it here or there. At that point a person reaches that pinnacle is where I see someone reaching his or her potential.
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<p><b>It’s all about reaching that stage of autonomy…</b></p>
<p>Yes. To a large extent. You’ll always have those certain individuals, those phenoms, who find success right off the bat. But those are few and far between. It’s the individuals that, one, have talent. It’s not so much the talent, but rather how someone maximizes that potential. You could have that one individual with a huge amount of talent but is never able to maximize that potential. The support staff can be thought of as a small dot that gets bigger and bigger over time. I won’t pinpoint what it was like to work with one particular athlete. But what I will say is what its like to work with the athletes that made that transition to that elite level and found success. That’s what I got out of those years. That’s what I saw. It’s not so much what (successful people) were doing — yeah, they were doing some phenomenal workouts, but it’s how they approached their sport and how they were able to maximize their potential.</p>
<p><b>So what is this approach?</b></p>
<p>It’s how they approached their sport, in the sense that they were professional, took the sport seriously. At the same time, though, they had balance in their life. They had other things they could rely on as well. I would just see people where sport was what they did. But it didn’t define their life. It was a means for some to make money. For others, and more importantly, competing in sports was to follow a passion. The ones that are continually successful are truly passionate about their sport, and had more than one thing going on. But when they had to focus, to get centered onto what they needed do in their sport, they were able to do that. That’s what I got from successful athletes.</p>
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