Ski Racing - January 30, 2012

The very best coaches in any sport are motivators,
teachers and great communicators. Sasha Rearick,
the current head men’s coach for the U.S. Ski Team, is
an example, as is former men’s head speed coach Bill
Egan. They are great communicators with athletes, and
return thoughtful feedback that motivates people inter-
nally. Rearick routinely references the importance of his
time spent earning his French teaching certification as
key in his teaching skill set; Egan, his many years spent
coaching high school football.
Coaches need to ask themselves: what motivates my
athletes? Chances are, most of the answers to this
question will fall into one of four categories:
achievement (wanting to win)
affiliation (liking being part of the team)
feelings (loving to ski and ski race)

All of these answers are acceptable, especially when
considered in light of biological age — your athletes are
participating and gaining in highly varied ways.
But when we’re focusing on older athletes in the “train-
ing to train” and “training to compete” stages, we should
seek to build their motivation internally (self-driven) in
order to give them the best chance of long-term suc-
cess. (See “Resources” at right.) A few strategies:
Point out similarities to top athletes in a video ses-
sion instead of deficiencies.

Give them a clear pathway to successfully reach those goals.

Create and manage the athlete’s training environment to build internal drive.

Three coaches stand out from my experiences. After a short ski racing career about as glamorous as burnt toast, I began teaching skiing. For three seasons, I was mentored by a terrific coach, Jim Cardenali, who helped me make incredible technical gains in my skiing, largely because of his teaching skill and enthusiasm.

Many years later, I skied a few hours every morning with an amazingly skilled skier, but an even more intelligent student of the sport — Jim Taylor, Ph.D. While absorbing all I could in the realm of sports psychology, I was also learning how to coax even more performance out of my skiing with mental skills training.

Lastly, I’ve only ever taken two runs with Dick Dorworth, the writer, speed skier, former USST coach, climber, and counter-culture hero. On our first run on Aspen Mountain, my skiing was solid, technically, but I learned from him in one run that technique is only half of the equation. The joy and motivation to ski have nothing to do with arcs, angles, pressure, pole plants or stance. On our second run, we skied in the sunshine in perfect corn snow until we came upon an older gentleman who had suffered a heart attack, fallen and broken his neck. It was tragic. After giving assistance, we regrouped and skied the rest of the way down, and in that run I learned that a great coach is able to handle anything that happens, now matter how unexpected, and keep going. A great coach-athlete relationship can do more than create a winning day or season — it can be the foundation of a career for both parties.