Several months ago I wrote an article discussing some of the challenges I was facing with one of my young athletes. I assured you I would keep you posted of this young athlete's progress, so as promised I have written an update to this incredible story. The purpose of the initial article was not to invite pity for my situation, but instead to discuss some of the common issues that athletic development coaches face so that others may learn from my experiences. The article presented the challenges of developing a young athlete with an unsupportive coach, misinformed parents and an inferior governing body. This article aims to recount the incredible results that we have experienced over the past year and the unfortunate problems that success can bring. As per the first article, all names have been changed to protect the identities of the parties involved.

All progress is precarious, and the solution of one problem brings us
face to face with another problem.

~ Martin Luther King Jr. (1929 - 1968)

In July of 2004 Jim and I sat down to plan his annual training program around this year's competitions. I was extremely excited to be embarking on our second year training together as we had achieved such incredible outcomes the year before. Jim and I settled on some pretty lofty goals during this meeting, but I was comfortable with that as I believed we were better positioned now than ever to improve on our past successes. I had gotten the monkey off my back and addressed many of the issues that were stalling our progress. I now had full control over the physical training process and was assured that no physical stimulus would be applied without my permission.

While this sounds like a power struggle, I assure you that was not what it was about. It was about understanding the needs of an athlete and doing everything I can to protect him and ensure his continued development. It was about making sure that randomly applied stimulus that was damaging to his development was discontinued. These athletes spend a tremendous amount of time on the ice in technical training, which leaves us a very small window of opportunity in their off ice work. We must be very careful to maximize this time without compromising their recovery and long term health. We must also remember that we are dealing with children; they must be given the time to get away from the training arena and play like children. It is absolutely critical to their mental and emotional wellbeing, to their multi-lateral development and to avoid the innate risks of burnout.

So, the first thing I did was withdraw him from the ground based classes that Skate Canada recommends for their athletes and increased the focus on his strength and gross movement mechanics training. He continued with one ballet class per week as I felt very strongly that this contributed to his spatial awareness and dynamic posture on the ice. Outside of that, he would see me 2-3 times per week depending on his skating schedule. I also convinced his parents to forego the optional skating times to give Jim more recovery time. I explained to them that we need to be concerned with the quality of the training as opposed to the quantity. Training under the affects of fatigue will ingrain compensatory movement patterns, increase the risk of injury secondary to faulty motor sequencing and significantly decrease performance. Fortunately they were buying in!

We seemed to have everything in place:

The stage was set for an incredible year. Jim would be representing Canada as the Novice Canadian Champion in a competition in Waterloo in late August and skate in the Junior Provincial Championships in late November with a few smaller events interspersed throughout. The junior Provincial Championships was the most important of these events as this would qualify him for Nationals. Jim and spoke about the importance of laying a solid foundation through sound training practices and agreed that we were willing to sacrifice the outcomes in competition for his long term development. When working with young athletes it is not about winning in the moment, it is about laying the groundwork and providing them with the skills to win when it most counts. So, we would aim to peak for late November and while we would prepare him for the other competitions we would not modify the training or concern ourselves too much with them.

Coming into the August competition, we were way ahead of schedule; a pattern I was beginning to recognize. The changes we put in place were paying HUGE dividends in his development. He was well prepared for the competition and the results would show it. He finished first in the short and the long and wowed the crowd with two exceptional performances. Despite the fact that Jim and I were not overly concerned with the outcomes of this competition, we knew his parent's and coach were. It is difficult to sell them on the process as opposed to the outcomes - a battle I had not yet waged. So, this was fantastic news as it would build even more credibility for our direction in the eyes of his parent's and coach.

While still not completely sold on the aspect of physical training, his coach had begun to recommend me to other skaters - well, sort of!? "If you are going to get involved in training at least go see this guy Mark as he seems to understand skating." While not the best referral I have ever received, what can one expect from an old school coach that came up in a system that did not recognize the benefits of strength training to sports performance. This was great headway. His parents had a similar reaction "I really believe Jim has improved so much so fast because of your training and when I watched his five types of clean triples in Minto I know it's the direct benefit from your sound scientific training methods." While I certainly believed that our training was contributing to the process, it is surely an exaggeration to place this outcome squarely on my shoulders.

As I say to all my students, "If you are going to take ownership over the wins, you must be willing to take ownership of the losses!" These outcomes were a direct result of having all the pieces in place; of many variables coming together in idyllic harmony.

Still, I was very proud of Jim for his commitment to the process and for his performance on those days. I had gained such credibility with his parents and coach that it took very little convincing to get Jim a week off following this competition. He would come in and see me so we could revisit the plan as it needed to be modified considerably based on his progress thus far. We met later that week and picked up just shy of where we left off with our goals of improving his mechanical efficiency, strength and athleticism.

The goal for the upcoming competition was to let it all hang out, leaving nothing on the ice during the Provincial Championships. After all, what more can you ask? We did not set the outcome goal of winning the competition as I do not believe in them. There are too many variables that are beyond our control (i.e. judges, ice surface etc...). So, instead we focused on an effort goal that we could control and would ensure our success regardless of the outcomes. It is critically important to demonstrate successes when working with young athletes as it serves to build their confidence and self esteem, increase motivation and most importantly maintain the FUN factor for them.

As usual, our preparation was way ahead of schedule and Jim was even surprising himself with his accomplishments. On several occasions I went down onto the ice with him to teach him how to take the explosive movement patterns he was learning and transfer them onto the ice. Let me be clear, I am not a skating coach and in no way attempted to take on that role. My goal was simply to help him take the strength and explosiveness he had gained and use it on the ice. He was still having some trouble getting his hips through on his jumps and controlling his trunk angle on his lands. So we worked hard to challenge these aspects in training and teach him how to transfer the adaptations on the ice. His parents could not believe the improvements and were now encouraging me to meet with him on the ice whenever I had a few extra minutes. His parents had done a complete 180° and we were all feeling very confident going into the Provincials.

I met with Jim one last time before he left for competition and reiterated the fact that I was very proud of his progress and that regardless of how he places, we had been very successful. These kids have a tremendous amount of pressure on their shoulders going into competition and I wanted him to know that I was proud of his commitment regardless of the outcomes. I wanted to build his self worth based on his person as opposed to his skating and focus on all his accomplishments outside of training so he would understand that he has so much to offer outside of skating. I think he appreciated it and it helped to alleviate some of the pressure, but like any true athlete - he wanted to win!

Unfortunately it was not to be. He had a very difficult short program and finished fourth. His jumps were inconsistent and he just did not seem to have it - to be in the zone! This shattered his confidence going into the long program where he was once again inconsistent with his jumps. He finished 3rd in the long and 4th overall. While we had not won, he qualified for the Nationals with a top 5 finish and we met our effort goal. He left nothing on the ice and gave it everything he had - he just did not have it this time around. Jim was obviously disappointed, so we sat down to analyze what went wrong for him on that day. Was he too nervous? Too much pressure? Too relaxed?

Upon further analysis Jim made a critical observation that I am still kicking myself over. Jim was used to being one of the first skaters in his group to perform. It had just always been this way, when the order was posted he would always be one of the first skaters out. On this day, he was to skate 5th. After his specific warm up on the ice, he would have to sit for approximately 15-20 minutes to wait his turn. While we had discussed the specifics of a dynamic warm up and put together a specific plan for him, I failed to foresee the possibility that he would skate lower in the order and would require a specific strategy to keep himself warm and neurally charged for his performance. On top of not having this strategy in place, his coach had him keep his skates on while he waited his turn; a tactic that I will never understand!?! This was a powerful lesson for me, one that I take full responsibility for and one I will never forget!

While I was not concerned at all about the outcomes, I was worried his coach and parents did not share my thougths and that they would begin to panic. I was presently surprised that this was not the case. Outside of the initial "we have to do's"; his parents and coach's reaction was quite positive. Could it be that I was getting through? Fortunately Jim's family had planned a ski trip to Mont Tremblant shortly after this competition as I was sure it was going to be hard to convince them to give him some time off following this competition. One less battle I had to fight!

I sat down to touch up the training plan to get him ready for the Nationals in late January; a plan I would review with Jim when he returned. This was the first disappointing outcome Jim had experienced since we had started together so I was a little concerned about his state of mind. Once again, I had not given him enough credit. He returned well rested and with renewed enthusiasm and commitment to training. He was not going to let this setback get him down, instead he was going to use it to fuel his fire. He had something to prove to the other competitors that he would be facing in a month and a half and he was prepared to do whatever it took to be ready. We were into a relatively intense strength and power program (based on his developmental age) shortly before he left, and we would now pick up on that plan a carry it through to Nationals in another five weeks.

 

Be sure to check out next months PL News to read about the outcomes at the Canadian Championships..