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#1
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How Should the U S Fix Their Nordic Ski Team?
It seems to me that the tried and true method of developing skiers in
North America and having them race in North America is not working... I mean, France beat us! How do we fix the problem? Some ideas; 1) Have our athletes stay, train and race in Europe during the ski season. If this is too much of a burden for our athletes, then they probably aren't committed to being the best anyway. Then, have the National Championships in March when they come home from Europe. Nationals should set the team for the following year except for those who are in the Red Group and automatically qualify for expenses paid etc. 2) Identify athletes who have no chance of placing better than 50th, even 40th and leave them home. We can't waste valuable monetary resources on skiers who just don't have it. 3) Focus on Sprint racing and Marathons. France had a guy named Herve Balland who would ski Worldloppets and then join the French Team to ski the 50K at the Olympics and World Championships. He won medals... A skier like Carl Swenson fits that mold. Certain skiers would fit that category. Sprinters like Christian Zorzi have proven very effective at going 10K in a Relay. Lets develop speed first. Skiers like Andy Newell and Torin Koos should ski everything up to 10K in distance. 4) Identify skiers with huge talent like Kris Freeman and devote those limited resources to developing them. Any comments or ideas? J Tegeder "Keep training, lycra never lies!" JT |
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#3
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Touche. France has better skiers than traditional nordic powers like
Finland. Scott placed no better than the 40's at Nagano. |
#4
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No, there isn't much difference between being 50th out of 54 or 50th
out of 75. Both results are bad either way you slice it. Those between 50 and 75 aren't Norwegians, Swedes, Finns, Germans, Italians etc. They're Croatians, Slovenians, Turkish and so on. In other words, nations with far less monetary resources than we have. We've had a couple of decades of skiers placing in the 50s and a couple of decades of sending skiers to the Olympoics or World Championships that have no business being there. We can't waste resources on skiers like that. In the U S, we have more distractions than in Canada. Football, Baseball, Basketball and Hockey are big draws in the U S. Canada has Hockey. How about the idea of focusing on speed? J Tegeder "Keep training, lycra never lies!" JT |
#6
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Quote:
Also, an excellent example to contradict your statement is about Chandra Crawford. In the pursuit she came 60th out of 64! That's horrible according to you and she "has no business being there", yet a mere 10 days later she wins the gold medal in the sprints. She even was beaten by athletes from such ski power houses such as China, Romania, Korea, Lithuania, Belarus, and even the USA!!! The average skier peaks in their late 20's. We have to allow the athletes to gain experience and if they are restricted to only national races how can they prepare for the World Cup.? The odds of the US producing a Petter Northug is very slim. Therefore you must have them race in the Olympics and World Cups. Sure some might find the results embarassing but it will be worth it in the long run. Look no further than Beckie's and Sara's results in Nagano. Need I say more? Cheers, Adam Smithers,BC Last edited by doogiski : February 25th 06 at 03:45 AM. |
#7
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I don't like this whole idea of limiting ourselves. the skiing
community is becoming cynical because they have too many preconceived notions. USST officials said they wanted the points system to eliminate subjectivity, i think that's weak. there's such a thing as intuition, coaches rely on it all the time. Sure, the point's system is precise, but intuition is also precise. They are taking the easy way out, trying too hard to impose order on what should be an organic, growing process. Every coach knows you can be systematic, but at the same time you have to go with your feelings. You build the system as you go. Dave Inferra, Boulder |
#8
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#9
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I believe you are looking at the wrong end of the problem.
All your suggestions deal with the existing elite racers and how to improve their performance. These are short term solutions since eventually these athletes will retire and you haven't developed a system to replace them. In my opinion, the key to long term success is to start with programs that recruit lots of very young children, get them involved in the pure enjoyment of the sport and perfect their technique. From that point there should be a progression of development from fun, to fun racing, to fun training, to serious racing, to serious training and so on until you have successful elite racers and a stream of replacements following them. At all stages skiers must have competent coaching with coaches who have received adequate training for the level of skiers they are working with. Skiers should be encouraged to participate to their level of ability and commitment. If they don't progress to the elite level they should be encouraged to stay in the system as recreational skiers or racers and ideally to help with coaching and pass on the skills that they have learned. It takes a community to produce elite competitors. Very few of them spring fully developed out of nowhere. Scott wrote in message oups.com... It seems to me that the tried and true method of developing skiers in North America and having them race in North America is not working... I mean, France beat us! How do we fix the problem? Some ideas; 1) Have our athletes stay, train and race in Europe during the ski season. If this is too much of a burden for our athletes, then they probably aren't committed to being the best anyway. Then, have the National Championships in March when they come home from Europe. Nationals should set the team for the following year except for those who are in the Red Group and automatically qualify for expenses paid etc. 2) Identify athletes who have no chance of placing better than 50th, even 40th and leave them home. We can't waste valuable monetary resources on skiers who just don't have it. 3) Focus on Sprint racing and Marathons. France had a guy named Herve Balland who would ski Worldloppets and then join the French Team to ski the 50K at the Olympics and World Championships. He won medals... A skier like Carl Swenson fits that mold. Certain skiers would fit that category. Sprinters like Christian Zorzi have proven very effective at going 10K in a Relay. Lets develop speed first. Skiers like Andy Newell and Torin Koos should ski everything up to 10K in distance. 4) Identify skiers with huge talent like Kris Freeman and devote those limited resources to developing them. Any comments or ideas? J Tegeder "Keep training, lycra never lies!" JT |
#10
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Scott Elliot wrote: I believe you are looking at the wrong end of the problem. All your suggestions deal with the existing elite racers and how to improve their performance. These are short term solutions since eventually these athletes will retire and you haven't developed a system to replace them. In my opinion, the key to long term success is to start with programs that recruit lots of very young children, get them involved in the pure enjoyment of the sport and perfect their technique. From that point there should be a progression of development from fun, to fun racing, to fun training, to serious racing, to serious training and so on until you have successful elite racers and a stream of replacements following them. At all stages skiers must have competent coaching with coaches who have received adequate training for the level of skiers they are working with. Skiers should be encouraged to participate to their level of ability and commitment. If they don't progress to the elite level they should be encouraged to stay in the system as recreational skiers or racers and ideally to help with coaching and pass on the skills that they have learned. It takes a community to produce elite competitors. Very few of them spring fully developed out of nowhere. Scott I agree. Last Wednsday I went to a local club race. There are at least 5 other ski clubs in the area, with a population of about 50,000. There were at least 25 kids there. The other clubs are the same. With a little creative extrapolation, that means that here in Norway on Wednesdays which are popular for club races there are 10,000 kids doing a ski race. How many kids participated in an XC race in the US last week? Even if my estimate is off by an order of magnitude, it still shows the huge number of kids to tap into. That's the secret. Once you get the raw material, the rest is almost easy! Joseph |
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