It was long overdue for a new blog. Our race season was very intense and our ski team is becoming bigger and stronger because of our vision that athletics and academics have to go hand to hand. It’s a clear objective and a good way to keep graduated high schoolers still racing while in the school.

This season we(coaches) learned that race preparation is the key to better performance. The assumption was that 16 years old athletes should have established pre-race and race preparation.  Seven years in organized club programs is more than enough to educate athletes on what proper pre-race preparation looks like.

We learned that we have a variety of athletes who are well trained and some not trained at all. We found a lack of knowledge when comes down to ski preparation, mental readiness,  visualization, nutrition, and race tactics.

We waited too long to make the changes.  We assumed that athletes already have knowledge and experience in how to get ready for regional and national level races. We also assumed they will learn from each other and adopt new skills to perform better. We also assumed that weak results will send the message to athletes to change their approach and get better prepared for the races.

It came down to the last race series to make the change. It was a good decision as most of the athletes improved their points and were keen to continue ski racing next year. Two athletes were accepted to University of Calgary Dinos ski team and 4 athletes made it to the top 30 in Canada.

Good start despite late changes and innovative practice worked. Our next step is to implement a “Quiet eye” into our race line and tactics.