Wondering what the current thought is and how you manage this.
Given ski racing is a late development specilization sport, there are critical windows for development throughout an athlete's maturation. Where an athlete missing a foundation skill or ability by a certain development phase almost guarentees their inability to overcome the deficit as they progress further.
Our challange (and likely a common theme) is how does one manage the challange of grouping athletes based on their developmental age/phase (which is best practice, national recommendations and ensures a more optimal training environment) vs. the typical grouping by chronological age (due to ease and logistics when it comes to actual races as well)? There are always going to be athletes that excel and develop more quickly, and those that take longer; however neither benefits when put in the wrong training group and suboptimal training enviornment. (we see this as the greatest challange in the 8-12 year old age ranges)
Perhaps this is one of the reasons we see a trend for parents to seek out private coaching, or create small boutique groups which hire their own coaches? And the reason this works likely is the individualized and athlete centered approach which optimizes athlete development.
Now although I don't beleive most parents are trying to build WC skiers, likely a function of many factors (training enviorment and availablity as big factors) which then lead to WC opportunities. It is certainly interesting to see a disproportiationately large number of WC athletes who have a parent that was/is a coach, or decent level racer themselves which very likely had influence on the above.
Thoughts?
Given ski racing is a late development specilization sport, there are critical windows for development throughout an athlete's maturation. Where an athlete missing a foundation skill or ability by a certain development phase almost guarentees their inability to overcome the deficit as they progress further.
Our challange (and likely a common theme) is how does one manage the challange of grouping athletes based on their developmental age/phase (which is best practice, national recommendations and ensures a more optimal training environment) vs. the typical grouping by chronological age (due to ease and logistics when it comes to actual races as well)? There are always going to be athletes that excel and develop more quickly, and those that take longer; however neither benefits when put in the wrong training group and suboptimal training enviornment. (we see this as the greatest challange in the 8-12 year old age ranges)
Perhaps this is one of the reasons we see a trend for parents to seek out private coaching, or create small boutique groups which hire their own coaches? And the reason this works likely is the individualized and athlete centered approach which optimizes athlete development.
Now although I don't beleive most parents are trying to build WC skiers, likely a function of many factors (training enviorment and availablity as big factors) which then lead to WC opportunities. It is certainly interesting to see a disproportiationately large number of WC athletes who have a parent that was/is a coach, or decent level racer themselves which very likely had influence on the above.
Thoughts?