DON’T GET HAPPY*

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@usfreeskiing, @usfreestyle, @usskiteam, @ussnowboarding

When I first gathered with the new members of US Ski and Snowboard Teams, I opened with: “Don’t Get Happy.” Their success on the junior level and on the national level have put them on a USSA national team, but as I told them, “If this were halftime of a soccer game, the score would be 0-0.” We brought some great athletes together last week for our “Rookie Camp” to begin their journey as international athletes, but I thought it important to emphasize how much more growth is ahead of them.

The Rookie Camp has existed for ten years now, and this article is a chance to look under the hood at how we aim to orientate new USSA athletes. The schedule had four main parts: athletics, health and safety, team building and the importance of making a professional athlete development plans.

USSA CEO Tiger Shaw opened up the camp, and he highlighted how he worked under a dozen or more coaches during his very successful US Ski Team career.   “You need to learn how to work effectively with all the different coaches,” he said, and “in the end, you have to be your own best coach.” Then, the Executive VP of Athletics, Luke Bodensteiner, emphasized that everyone at USSA “is here to support you,” and to become best in the world requires focus and work on all the little details of training and sport. As he spoke these words of wisdom, I could hear @slalomtokyodrift whispering “hundredths matter.”

The most enjoyable moments of Rookie Camp occurred during the introductions to the athletic program. Of course, the athletes loved playing basketball in the gym and jumping on the tramps. Some had their first taste of the strength and conditioning program with fitness testing and workouts. Sport science here at the Center of Excellence is impressive, and the athletes also enjoyed the first tastes of Allen Tran’s knowledge of nutrition, not to mention his endless healthy snacks in the kitchen area. Kyle Wilkens introduced the medical, sports psychology and wellness programs based out of the Center of Excellence. Finally, the athletes ate one lunch with their sport directors and team managers to meet their support team and to better understand the opportunities and responsibilities of the athletic program.

A key part of the program was to encourage and guide the athletes to make their own professional athlete development plan. As rookies, many of them are looking ahead to careers of ten years or more.   The camp began the process of creating an education and career track. On the school front, a dozen of the athletes still need to finish high school and we push all of our older athletes to take one to three college courses per year.   Preliminary research has shown that athletes who continue part-time education move up the A-B-C-D team pipeline more often than the athletes who don’t continue their schooling.

On the career front, we had programs on financial management, media skills, personal branding, networking and fundraising. We teach the athletes to consider themselves a small business; and successful businesses have clear business plans. The mock interviews with Tom Kelly and the crew from Communications brought out a lot of questions and a lot of laughs.

As in any orientation, we had programs around health and wellness. USADA gave an informative and entertaining presentation on the current anti-doping policies. (Ask the athletes about the mock testing slides!) Finally, they heard presentations on SafeSport and substance abuse.

In addition to all the information, the rookies engaged in some team-building exercises on the ropes course at the National Ability Center and in an avalanche training session. The best moment, however, might have been the impromptu “team-building exercise” that emerged unplanned at the Peaks Hotel when different groups worked on their “tidal wave building skills” in the hotel swimming pool one night after dinner.

The dinners were a hit. We had one formal dinner at the Goldener Hirsch where a trustee and the Military Mentorship folks explained some of the basics of fancy fundraising functions. The Friday night BBQ with USSA staff outside of Tiger’s office brought Olympic champion Hannah Kearney on deck to talk about: the importance of taking care of the small and important decisions, using routines to achieve goals, and treasuring teammates. Hannah was awesome!

At the end, Tiger also talked about how “no matter how well they do, athletes are never happy; and that feeling is what pushes them to be better and better.” Don’t Get Happy was an ironic theme for Rookie Camp; but it was nice to see that the athlete did have some happy moments, too. These smile shone brightly after our last lunch on Saturday when most of the athletes lingered with each other well after the last official program. It was nice to see that all these athletes from very different sports did not want to leave each other. Friendships have been kindled, and we hope they stick around for a long time!

2015 Rookie Camp
Photo: USSA

*I first heard the term “Don’t Get Happy” from Norm Walker, the legendary high school football coach.

USSA Athletic Grants

Tags

@usfreeskiing, @usfreestyle, @usskiteam, @ussnowboarding

A letter from Luke Bodensteiner, Executive VP Athletics, USSA

 

Dear Team:

     The USSA Athletic Grant (funded by the Marolt Endowment) provides financial support to offset travel costs (airfare, lodging and meals) associated with participation in USSA elite team projects, which are not otherwise funded by the USSA.

     Additionally, athletes training at the Center of Excellence between May 1 and Nov. 1 are eligible to apply for a housing subsidy by indicating the number of months they will be residing in Park City to train at the Center.  All USSA elite team and full-time alpine NTG athletes are eligible to apply, and the application deadline is June 1, 2015. The USSA Athletic Grants are financial needs-based, and all athletes are required to submit a SSS application to determine financial need (instructions are found in the application).

     The USSA Athletic Grant provides a level of support for athletes on our team who are not fully funded for elite team projects, and who have demonstrated financial need.  I encourage all athletes who feel that they could benefit from this grant to take the time to apply.

     Julie Glusker (jglusker@ussa.org) is available to provide any assistance you may need with the application process.

Luke

*********************************************************************

 

USSA Athletic Grant Application 2015

The USSA Athletic Grant (funded by the Marolt Endowment) provides financial support to offset travel costs (airfare, lodging and meals) associated with participation in USSA elite team projects, which are not otherwise funded by the USSA. Application Timeline

• May 15 – Application available
• June 1 – Applications and SSS submissions DUE
• June 12 – Awards announced

  Application Process  

1. Applicants must log in to http://sssbynais.org/to enter financial information: USSA SSS code is #191966.  

 

2. Applicants must email Julie Glusker (jglusker@ussa.org) to communicate which team they represent and confirm the completion of their application – only when an applicant has contacted her by email will she be able to waive the SSS application fee as the system administrator. Only national team athletes get SSS fees waived.

3. Applicants who plan to reside and train in Park City between May1-November 1 and are named national team members are eligible to have an amount added to their team expense to augment financial aid. These athletes must indicate by email the specific months they will spend in Park City.

4. Applicants must EITHER fill out the application below and return it by email to Julie Glusker (written answers to the brief essay questions) OR create a 2-minute Youtube video to answer the application questions (a link to the Youtube video must be sent to Julie Glusker).

Selection Process & Committee   Salesforces’ NAIS/School and Student Services Site (SSS) are used to assess financial need. A selection committee will be responsible for evaluating the applications and determining the amount of aid awarded to each candidate. Evaluation for award is based on the assets and income of the prospective athlete and his/her family and is calculated as a percentage of funds based on an athlete’s ability to pay. Members of the selection committee include Jory Macomber (VP of Athlete Career & Education, USSA), Luke Bodensteiner (VP of Athletics, USSA), Julie Glusker (Assistant Head of TEAM Academy, USSA).             USSA Athletic Grant Application 2015 This application requests citizenship information, but this information will not be used to influence amount granted; rather, we gather this information to better understand athletes’ citizenship goals and needs. Applicant Name: ___________________________ Birthdate: _____/_____/____ Age: ­­­­­______ Address:  ____________________________ ____________________________ Contact Information:     Cell: (____)________________ Email: ______________________ USSA #:   _________________________ Team standing (if applicable): ____________________________   Please provide answers to the questions below in one of the following formats:  

1. 2 minute video* – create via Youtube and submit the link by email to Julie Glusker

OR

1. Written responses – email answers to Julie Glusker

  What have you learned or gained from your athletic pursuits? (150-200 words) ________________________________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________How have you given back to your community? (150-200 words) _______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ How will this financial aid assist you? (200-300 words) ________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ Do you plan to reside and train in Park City? If so, which months will you be here in PC? ________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________   *A video could be used for RallyMe or other social media fundraising efforts as well. If you select to create a video, please do so via YouTube and submit the link in a Word doc. Please attach a resume if you have one available.   Please email or mail your application to Julie Glusker. Email: jglusker@ussa.org Mail:    Julie Glusker USSA TEAM Academy 1 Victory Lane, Box 100 Park City, Utah 84060 For questions about the application process, please call Julie Glusker at (435) 714-8581. Thank you for your application!

WHAT CAN WE LEARN FROM AUSTRIAN SKI ACADEMIES?

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@usskiteam

Opening Day at Schigymnasium Stamsh

This past month the world experienced a wonderful Alpine World Championships at Vail/Beaver Creek. U.S. Ski Team athletes won five medals, a good showing, but also short of the Austrian haul of nine medals. In January, I had the chance to visit Schigymansium Stams, one of the leading ski academies in Austria. Their alumni won three medals at Vail/Beaver Creek, and twenty of their alumni have won over forty Olympic medals since 1980. I visited Stams with the question: what can we learn from one of the best? Schedule, facilities, coaching, and funding emerged as leading themes.

Like all ski academies, Stams wrestles with the scheduling challenges of schoolwork and elite sport. They have two academic tracks: a college prep track and a commercial or trade school track. The college prep track is similar to what most US students study in high school, but at Stams the students take five years to cover the typical four-year program. This extra year helps create space for the increased athletic time of an elite sport. Most US athletes complete high school in four years and then do a gap year of skiing. Putting aside NCAA clearing-house rules, one could argue that a five-year program could help time management of an elite academic/athletic program.

The Austrians also handle the monthly schedule differently. Essentially, they alternate athletic weeks with academic weeks. The bulk of the day in academic weeks is in the classroom with a few hours for physical training, and the bulk of the day in athletic weeks is on snow or at competition with a few hours for schoolwork. This academic schedule also lines up with the competition schedule throughout the country in an effort to reduce lost school days for training and competition. They try to schedule enough time for each activity in a month without jamming too much into one day.   This model also requires much more integration between academies and the regional/national bodies.

The academy/regional integration in Austria is even more prevalent in one of the major differences: the coaching structure. The head coach at Stams is also the head coach of the Tirol region. This “job-sharing” if you will leads to more cooperation between clubs and regional teams. In addition, coaches in Europe graduate from an extensive coaches education program, what we would call a trade school or at technical school. Their system puts a lot of value on coach’s education and coach’s integration.

While they put more emphasis on coaching, they put less emphasis on facilities. The school and sport facilities at Stams are good, but not exceptional. When I asked about their facilities, they said that they want good facilities but that they felt that good coaching and on-snow time was more important. Because the schools are regionally-based they were not caught up in a facilities arms race to help compete for students. This point raises the question: if an academy was given an open $1MM: where should they invest it: facilities, coaches, other?

The fitness room at Stams

The final key point about money is tuition. The annual tuition for Stams is 5,500 Euros. It is interesting to note that some of coaches in Austria lamented how they are losing athletes because of the cost of the sport, when this tuition is about 1/8 of the tuition to many ski academies in the United States. The tuition for Stams is about 20% of the total cost. The rest of the money comes from the regional and national governments. That kind of government support keeps the sport open to a broader range of families. It also kicks into how one the most recent innovations in US ski programs is to partner with the local, state and county public school systems.

Finally, I got to watch a few of the U16 Austrians compete in some international competitions. They send a different set of athletes to three major youth competitions: the Hahnenkamn Juniors, the Seven Nations Cup, and Topolino. They believe in exposing U16s to international competition and by sending different athletes to each competition, they expose more U16s to that level of competition. International markers are important to them.

Clearly, there is more of a government role (both in financing and oversight) of their ski academies. In some ways that’s a tough model for the USA to model. Most Americans tend to distrust national governing bodies and champion independent, private enterprise.   The US is a different culture and cannot “copy” another countries model, but the question remains: what can we learn from their programs. Let us know what you think.

COLLEGE COURSEWORK CONTRIBUTES TO ALPINE RACING SUCCESS?

Tags

@usskiteam, @westminstercollege

Anna Marno

The news out of Westminster College in Salt Lake City was loud and clear after the Sochi Olympics. 23 of the US Olympians were also enrolled at Westminster, including five medalists. The question arises: is their any connection between academic pursuits and athletic success? The two activities appear disparate, but I have looked at some of the data and it appears a positive relationship could exist.

I started in the alpine racing world and compared the 2013-2014 US Ski Team B, C and D team rosters with the 2014-2015 B, C and D team rosters. I worked to compare team members that stayed on or moved up from their team level with those team members that moved down a level or dropped from the team.   (I didn’t include A team member as that group only has one athlete younger than 24 years old.)

Here are the numbers:

• 19 B/C/D alpine team members took at least one college class last year.
  • 11 or 58% of those 19 athletes moved up or stayed on their team level.
• 22 B/C/D alpine team members did not take a college class last year.
  • 9 or 41% of those 22 athletes moved up or stayed on their team level.

Let’s repeat: 58% of those taking college classes moved up or at least stayed on their team level, whereas only 41% of those not taking college classes moved up or stayed on their team level.

This one look would not stand up to scientific scrutiny and is just a one-year sample, BUT the numbers are a good conversation starter. In addition to the data those medalists talk anecdotally about how college classes bring important balance to their life. Is taking a college class a positive factor in athletic performance? Chime in and let us know what you think.

I will report on the other disciplines in the next post.

ROLE MODELS 2.O or “Stick the Landing”

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@classroomchampions, @emilycook, @usskiteam

Recently, I was visiting with a long-time Trustee of USSA, and I asked him what he enjoyed about working with USSA.  His immediate response was: “role models.  Those athletes strive for excellence on a world stage, and we can learn so much from their unique drive and character.” Let me share one extraordinary story of how competitive skiers are role models in the sport and beyond the sport.

Emily Cook, a Freestyle Aerialist, was a three-time Olympian and is now in charge of Sports Performance and Human Potential for Skull Candy.  We can look at her Olympic achievements to learn from her as a role model, but understanding her whole story illustrates another set of lessons about all of our role models.

Emily moved to Park City at age 17 and qualified for the 2002 Salt Lake City Games.  Unfortunately, she broke both of her feet in a bad crash landing during training and was knocked out of the Olympics.  That kind of blow is clearly devastating, but what made her a three-time Olympian was how she responded.  First, she still felt part of the team, and she said the only way to get over the disappointment was to stay involved with her team even when she could not compete herself. (Alex Diebold dealt with his 2010 disappointment the same way.  He worked as a coach for his teammates in Vancouver.  Then in 2014 he reached the podium at Sochi.)  The lesson here: skiing is an individual sport, but “team” pulls athletes to the highest levels.

2002 was a year of recovery for Emily.  But instead of hiding away, she teamed up with VISA to create Champions Creating Champions, an organization that matched up 34 Olympic and national team athletes with Park City and Salt Lake City youth in a mentoring program.  Just as “team” kept Emily growing in the sport, “giving back” gave more purpose to her recovery.  Everyone knows that any ski career is full of disappointments.  How to effectively deal with those disappointments is one of the longest lasting lessons of the sport.  Team and giving back kept Emily in the sport as she dealt with setbacks.

As all of this was going on, Emily also worked away on her degree at the University of Utah.  I am not sure how she did that, too, but she stayed committed to learning.

After Emily recovered from injuries, she went on to compete in three Olympics and step on a World Cup podium 9 times.  During all of this success, she didn’t forget the lessons learned while hurt; she stayed involved in many organizations focused on giving back.  One of the organizations, Classroom Champions, allowed her to connect with school children but also helped her grow on a personal level. The experience taught her “succinct and effective communication” and how to be “responsible for something outside myself.” Emily retired from competition this spring and her new job puts her in charge of Sports Performance and Human Potential for Skull Candy. She says “I never would have gotten that job without learning the communication skills that Classroom Champions taught me.” Now she looks forward to making an impact on how music affects performance.

Back in 2012 Luke Bodensteiner (Executive Vice-President of Athletics, USSA) chaired a USSA task force on athlete career, education and life skills that concluded: “The USOC should lead by establishing a culture that values athlete career, education and life skills development as a performance enhancer, and that values successful athlete transition away from elite sport.”  Emily’s journey epitomizes that goal. Team, giving back and education helped her grow in the sport during the unavoidably ups and downs of competition.

Which brings me back to our trustee.  He also said, “we have been Best in the World, so we have to ask ‘So what?’  What will be the impact of those Olympians?”  Emily Cook’s story helps us answer that question: there are many parts to sticking the landing.

Shaped Skis, Snow Sports, and High School: How to compete and go to school?

Tags

Andrea Mead Lawrence, Burke Mountain Academy, Holderness School, Vail Ski and Snowboard Academy, Winter Sports School

Bode Miller and the K2 Four

The over 30-something crowd can remember the emergence of shaped skis. When I first took a run on a shaped ski, I shouted to myself, “this is a different sport!” When my former college teammate said, “I am all set with my 203cm slalom skis,” I immediately responded: “No you’re not. You have to try these.” We all ski and race differently now.

The world of high school study and high level ski racing could be on the edge of a similar radical change in the online learning landscape. But first, let me give you a bit of school and skiing history as background.

Early Olympic medalists such as Andrea Mead Lawrence and Jimmy Heuga lived in ski towns and thus had the advantage of lots of on-snow miles. In 1951, Don Henderson built a slalom hill, jump and nordic loop on the Holderness School property giving kids who didn’t live in ski towns an opportunity to ski every day. Not coincidentally, from the 1956 Olympics through the 1980 Olympics there was a Henderson-coached athlete on every Winter Olympic team. In 1970, Martha Coughlin, from Massachusetts, asked Warren Witherell to start a school where she could focus on ski racing. Burke Mountain Academy has since educated 33 Olympians and two gold medalists. Martha’s initiative spawned the era of U.S. ski academies; almost all of the Sochi alpine Olympians attended a ski academy. Then in 1994, the Winter Sports School in Park City decided to flip the academic schedule so that elite snowsport athletes could focus on competition and training in the winter. Three of the Sochi medalists were Winter Sports School graduates. Recently in 2007, the Vail Ski and Snowboard Academy was created as the first public winter sports academy in the United States, providing high level academic and sport training without a tuition. VSSA presents a bold attempt to reduce the cost of high-level snowsports without sacrificing a vigorous academic program.

The common question in all of these initiatives was: “How do I ski every day and also get a vigorous high school education?” This query is the relentless challenge of all high-level snowsport athletes. Which brings us to 2014.

The US Ski and Snowboard Teams include approximately 30 high school age athletes in five different disciplines. These athletes spend close to 200 days on snow in the United States, in Chile and New Zealand, in Japan and Quebec, and in Alberta and Austria (to name a few). Their most intense competition season is right in the middle of the traditional school season. The student-athletes need a high school program that is mobile (can go anywhere), flexible (the work done on their schedule), and vigorous (to keep learning!) In today’s educational world, that is what online platforms want to provide. The USSA TEAM Academy’s online academic programs allow students to begin classes at any time of the year, work from anywhere, and complete a course in as little as six weeks or as long as 52 weeks. The curriculum is based on lessons learned and skills acquired, not on time served in a classroom. Coupled with face-to-face support, it’s a dynamic program that many schools are implementing around the world. On the results page, three TEAM Academy athletes competed in the Sochi Olympics and all of its graduates are enrolled in college.

Concurrently, hundreds of millions of dollars of research is being put into online learning at prestigious academic institutions such as Stanford Online High School, MITx, Johns Hopkins Center for Talented Youth, and Kahn Academy. Ironically, these high-end athletes are so busy in competition that they have to work in the cutting edge of educational research. I believe the big impact of the TEAM Academy program will be when we can develop and share mobile, flexible, vigorous and affordable academic paths for all students at all schools competing in high-level snowsports. The opportunity exists. Kahn Academy wants to “provide a free world-class education for anyone everywhere.” Let’s ride that high-speed quad.

It should be noted that I was born and bred in the traditional face-to-face teaching world. I was trained as a teacher under Ted Sizer and the Coalition of Essential Schools, and I spent over fifteen years teaching AP Modern European history to classrooms of fifteen students. I get the value of this teaching, but I also see its limits. Classroom teaching is great … when a student is with a great teacher and everyone learns at the same pace. Moving forward as an educator I am fascinated by the potential of these new programs as new models of more effective and less expensive education for all schools. I will share more in future posts.

I feel as if we are at edge of the shaped ski era of high school education. The value of online learning is coming, and it won’t be long until I say to a former teaching colleague: “You have to try this…”

–Please share your thoughts or questions. gmacomber@ussa.org

Elite Athletes and College?

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Ski Racing, Westminster College

This summer I had dinner with some U.S. Ski Team Development Team athletes. As 18-20 year olds, they were excited about pursuing the Olympic dream. But they also asked me few times: “what should I do about college.” I could feel the conflict in their voices. They were living the perpetual tension between living the life of an elite athlete and balancing what do with the rest of their life.

My new job as Vice President, Athlete Career and Education was created to help alleviate that tension, promote athlete success and eventually lead to success as an athlete and in their careers. Let’s look back a bit to address this perpetual tension.

Five years ago, in an initiative led by the USSA’s Executive Vice President, Athletics Luke Bodensteiner, the USSA began to grow its athlete career and education program. Luke chaired a USOC committee that recommended: “The USOC should lead by establishing a culture that values athlete career, education and life skills development as a performance enhancer, and that values successful athlete transition away from elite sport.”

The key premise is that if USSA takes care of the whole athlete and improves their confidence in their personal future, an elite athlete’s performance will improve and the athlete’s will have longer careers. Secondly, the USSA’s mission is to “provide strong leadership” and we want our athletes to initiate successful careers so that they can take the leaderships skills developed as national team athletes and play leadership roles in the next step of their careers. Ultimately these athletes will stay connected to the USSA and help the organization grow over the years.

The athlete career and education initiative has been part of an impressive run as USSA athletes won a record number of medals at Vancouver 2010 and Sochi 2014. Interestingly enough, very few of those successful athletes have retired. In fact, none of the 17 2014 Sochi medalists retired after the Olympics!

Westminster College – Salt Lake City, Utah

The USSA’s partnership with Westminster College is one of the great products of this initiative. Westminster is “the official partner of traditional university education” of the U.S. Ski Team, U.S. Snowboarding and U.S. Freesking. The partnership began in 2005 with a handful of athletes completing just over 50 credits. Just last year, over 30 athletes were enrolled at Westminster completing over 800 credits – with 23 of those students making the Sochi Team and five of them winning medals!

Westminster Olympic medalists Maddie Bowman, Devin Logan and Kaitlyn Farrington

One of USSA’s four cornerstones of success is “education.” Both Westminster and the USSA are committed to innovation in learning and creating a community of exceptional learners.

I was fortunate enough to have lunch with two of these success stories. Jess Kelley just began as an associate editor of Ski Racing. The Westminster program allowed her to chip away at her college education during her ten years on the ski team. Then the partnership allowed her to reach graduation two years after she retired. “I would not have gotten that job without the Westminster program,” she said. The small classes and talented professors at Westminster taught her the academic skills to match her athletic drive and grit and lead to her next job. Grete Eliassen, a multiple free-skiing medalist in the X-Games and now director of marketing for Wickr told me “I would never have continued my college career without the help of Lauren Loberg and the athlete career and education program at USSA. She pushed me take classes and helped me through the process throughout my career.” Now Grete has a leadership position for a leading social media company and is involved in Ernst & Young’s Women’s Elite Athlete Business Network. Jess and Grete were leaders in skiing and are now leaders in business. Good stuff.

Back to the development team boys: elite athlete development requires tremendous effort. It is full-time job to become an Olympic champion. But part of that job is feeling confident in one’s life path. The stories of Jess and Grete show that we can build that confidence. I look forward to sharing more of what USSA is learning and doing in this field.