USSA refocuses on development

By Published On: May 16th, 2010Comments Off on USSA refocuses on development

As the U.S. Ski Association convened for its annual Congress at Park City, Utah, May 12 – 16 the organization celebrated the most successful season in national team history by refocusing on development and taking a long look ahead. The change of thinking was radical enough to rattle some cages.

With more than 50 meetings overlapping on a schedule that brought together multiple components of ski competition’s officialdom and a directive to effect change, there was no shortage of discussion. The short summation is that national teams will be smaller and development groups larger with fewer competitions and more skills evaluation, but that’s all in theory. The problems of implementation of this change in strategy overrode much of the meeting time.

Saying and doing are different things and make no mistake this is a dramatic change in thinking. Key in much of the alpine thought process is a research project undertaken by head men’s coach Sasha Rearick that clearly showed previous team selection criteria was missing athletes with world class potential. His “Performance Band” graphic, showed to a number of alpine committees, is based on specific performance markers (Nor Am results being one example) and the ages those markers are reached.  He proposes a revamped set of selection criteria for all national teams, including entry into the National Development System.

“We are basing alpine program on a new foundation,”  explained National Development Director Walt Evans. The concept, he said, is not new, its design was spearheaded by former alpine director Jesse Hunt over the past four seasons.  The strategy is reinforced by Rearick’s  reevaluatation of how to better recognize top end talent earlier and then establishing what is appropriate training at a variety of ages to reach the highest levels of the sport.

“Clearly we have a challenge in reforming competition nationally, regionally, at the state level and even at the club,” Evans said, adding he expected the organization to “start to implement skills assessment at the Junior Olympic level.” He said development team skiers would selected “more on peer group competition with less emphasis on world rank.”

These shifts do not come without concerns. Club leaders and regional chiefs universally applauded an increased emphasis on development, but reversing thinking is not easy. Some equated the process to stopping a oil tanker.

Jon Nolting, the relatively newly appointed education director told a seminar of club leaders the education of parents will take a program-wide focus to sell. “There is  no question you can take a 10 year old and put him in a lot of gates and make him a faster racer by the end of the year.” But he also said that process will “insure that athlete won’t be as successful at age 16.”

Coaches can get kudos for the ten year old’s results, but, Nolting said, the program philosophy needs to clearly state the object is to develop “the proper skills and love of the sport,” if that athlete is to excel at the World Cup level.

“I call it pipeline envy,” said western regional coordinator Lester Keller. “J5 coaches want to do what J3 coaches are doing, and J3 coaches what JI coaches are doing, and those guys want to do what the national team coaches are doing.”

In other words, it can be a hard sell, particularly at the lower levels where parents – and the coaches they pay for – expect to see their young athletes racing, not working on skill sets. Chief among the implementation process is to find a measurable way to advance young racers based on something, anything, other than race results. – Hank McKee

– Nolting addresses club seminar (SR photo).

Ski Racing will examine the impact this shift in thinking is having across the nation, and the difficulties of implementation in future issues.

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About the Author: Hank McKee

In memoriam: The veteran of the staff, McKee started with Ski Racing in 1980. Over the seasons, he covered virtually every aspect of the sport, from the pro tours to junior racing, freestyle and World Cup alpine competition. He wrote the first national stories for many U.S. team stars, and was still around to report on their retirements. “Longevity has its rewards,” he said, “but it’s a slow process.”