USSA's club conference focuses on issues, solutions

Two days of presentations — highlighted by a panel discussion that will focus on the key issues and potential solutions faced by ski clubs across the country — comprise USSA’s inaugural “Excellence 2008: An Elite Performance Conference for USSA Clubs” that begins Tuesday afternoon in Park City.
    USSA Director of Alpine Education Finn Gundersen said he expects more than 60 participants in the conference, many of whom are program directors from clubs across the country. A total of 13 sessions are on the program spread out over Tuesday afternoon and evening and Wednesday morning. Topics include sport science (strength training, women-specific athletic training, recovery techniques and more), optimizing training plans for cross-country and nordic combined, and the physics of edging and turning for alpine coaches.
     The cost of the conference is $50. Registration is from noon to 1 p.m. Tuesday at The Yarrow Hotel, 1800 Park Ave. in Park City. Gundersen said walk-ins are welcome to register and attend.
TWO DAYS of presentations — highlighted by a panel discussion that will focus on the key issues and potential solutions faced by ski clubs across the country — comprise USSA’s inaugural “Excellence 2008: An Elite Performance Conference for USSA Clubs” that begins Tuesday afternoon in Park City.
    USSA Director of Alpine Education Finn Gundersen said the club conference is a “beta test” for an educational component he hopes will be part of the organization’s spring congress every year. The 2008 USSA Congress begins Wednesday.
    Gundersen said he expects more than 60 participants in the conference, many of whom are program directors from clubs across the country. A total of 13 sessions are on the program spread out over Tuesday afternoon and evening and Wednesday morning. Topics include sport science (strength training, women-specific athletic training, recovery techniques and more), optimizing training plans for cross-country and nordic combined, and the physics of edging and turning for alpine coaches.
    “We have a pretty good cross-section [of attendees] … and the programs that are coming, a lot are bringing full staffs,” Gundersen said. “Alpine will dominate [the agenda] but there will be some other sports.”
    Gundersen is hopeful that a panel discussion scheduled for Tuesday afternoon from 2:25 to 4 p.m. will generate a lot of chatter not just among the panelists but the whole audience.
    “The panel, I put that together urging people from across the country in a variety of sports to bring in anywhere from two to five issues that they feel are big ones in their programs — whether it’s recruiting, whether it’s parents, whether it’s resort relations — and how they’ve either solved them or are seeking solutions and to hear some of the avenues they have taken,” he said.
    Herwig Demschar is scheduled to give a presentation on some of the issues and solutions facing clubs. Now the COO of the Powdr Corp., Demschar is the former head coach of the U.S. women’s ski team, he coached the Austrian national team for nine years, and he served as the Director of Sports for the 2006 Olympics and the Director of Alpine Sports for the 2002 Olympics.
    “He should have a real interesting perspective on where racing fits into resorts, whether they have a good rap or a bad rap. We can all guess at it, we all have our opinions, but here is a guy at the source,” Gundersen said.
    The cost of the conference is $50. Registration is from noon to 1 p.m. Tuesday at The Yarrow Hotel, 1800 Park Ave. in Park City. Gundersen said walk-ins are welcome to register and attend.