Nine important aspects to racing effectively. Written by legendary Nordic Coach Cory Schwartz, at University of New Hampshire for 40 years with 22 top NCAA finishes. During his tenure, Schwartz led the Wildcats to 28 Top-10 NCAA placements, including ninth place most recently at the 2021 NCAA Championships
How you think is very important
Thinking positive can go a long way in helping you succeed. If you are in a team atmosphere, positive thinking is contagious and will improve the environment for everyone. If you find yourself in a negative environment, work with others to change how people think. For example, on interval day, instead of complaining about how many intervals are planned, approach each one like it’s your favorite thing to do. An ‘I Love Intervals!’ attitude not only makes the workout go faster but it is much more enjoyable and successful! Make sure you and your team communicate these attitude goals with each other. A team is only as strong as the weakest link so getting everyone on the same page is important from day one of practice. Every spring, the UNH team gets together and we talk about what we did well during the year, both in training and in racing, and what we need to improve to be better individually and as a team.
Make Goals in Writing
You need to write down your goals and be specific in how you will achieve them. Plan out daily, weekly and monthly workouts, keeping your goals in mind. Your workouts should be driven by your goals, not just blindly racking up hours. (Remember that goals without plans are just wishes). Include in your training log how you felt during each workout i.e. strong, tired, what worked or what didn’t. Looking back on your notes, you may see trends of when you got in particularly productive training weeks or when you got tired, then sick.
Take Action
The goals you set mean nothing unless you take action. An example would be if one of your goals is to improve your double pole. If you continue to just go out for a ski and not plan a workout to work on your double pole technique, your technique will not improve. You need to take time to plan out what you are going to accomplish for each workout.
Never Stop Learning
You can learn in so many different ways. Reading books on technique and on successful ski racers, watching videos, talking to different coaches for different points of view, and talking to teammates are just some of the ways you can build your training and racing schema. Sharing technique and racing strategies are two of the best ways you can learn from your teammates and coaches. Take the time to think about the details you want to improve and use your communication skills to gather information.
Work Hard and Be Persistent
For most people, it takes time to succeed, so be patient and have fun in the moment. Many of your goals may take years of preparation to achieve. Through may successes and failures, you will develop a game plan by looking back at your training, building on your successes and learning from your failures. Loving the sport and the time it takes to succeed is vital if you are going to put in the long workouts that are necessary in ski racing. This is also where your positive attitude will come in handy!
Analyze Details
Learning how to analyze your mistakes and setting new pathways, if necessary, is important. A simple log can help you figure out things you did well and what did not work. I hear from athletes after a long ski that they did not do a good job fueling up for the workout. We have a discussion then about what they need to do to be better prepared, such as get up earlier or buy some energy food for the dorm room so they are better fueled.
Focus your Energy
Whether you are in high school, college, or out of college, you will have distractions. To achieve your goals, you can not let other people or things distract you for long. If you have trouble focusing on your training, you have not decided how important your goals are to you.
Take Responsibility
You are in charge of what you do, how you think and how you deal with adversities that you come up against. Take responsibility for your actions.
Communicate Effectively
You need to communicate with your coach and others involved in your training. This communication should include how you are feeling physically and mentally to determine if you need to take a day or two off to recover or if you need to have harder workouts. Developing a rapport with your coaching staff makes everyone feel more comfortable in conversation and will help you, the athlete, become more in tune with your body. This ability will not only help you evaluate yourself but you can also develop the ability to motivate others and help them achieve personal or team goals.