Coach's Tip of the Week |
Coaches tip of the week:
Parent Roles & Responsibilities
Parent "Do's" …
• Provide love and support regardless of the sport outcome.
• Make your child responsible for his/her sport preparation (e.g., equipment ready, practice time, etc.)
• Have realistic expectations and keep success in perspective
• Expose child to many different sports and activities
• Hold your child accountable for poor behaviors during sporting events
• Provide an appropriate push when your child is reluctant or unmotivated
• Emphasize the importance of hard work.
• Provide transportation, financial, & logistical support
• Recognize and encourage your child when he or she does something right
• Show interest, enthusiasm, and support for your child and team
• Be in control of your emotions
• Thank the coaches, officials, and other volunteers who conducted the event
• Remain in the spectator area during competitions
• Help make sport fun
Parent "Don'ts"…
• Criticize your child for his or her sport performance
• Critique your child immediately following the sporting event or during the car ride home
• Allow sport to dominate your child's life
• Exert pressure to win
• Treat your child differently dependent upon whether he or she won or lost
• Put your interests ahead of your child's in sport
• Get too "caught up" in sport and make it over-important
• Belittle the opponent's talent or preparation
• Make all the decisions for your child
• Advise the coach on how to do the job
• Make insulting comments to athletes, parents, officials, or coaches of other teams
• Drink alcohol at sports events or come to one having drunk too much
A quote from the US Ski Coaches Association training manual.
"Free Ski, Free Ski, Free Ski!
In regard to the development of young ski racers, free skiing may be one of the most important elements. It is the opinion of the US Ski Team staff that time spent free skiing is one of great value for international level racers, and even more important for developing racers.
Of the many skills tested in any given race, the skills that can be learned and refined through free skiing are of great importance. Possibly the most important is the ability of the racer to adapt to continually changing conditions: snow, terrain, weather, light, etc. We cannot think of a better way to enhance this skill than through free skiing in all possible conditions. Skiing adaptability is not something that is learned quickly. It requires years of practice, beginning at an early age.
Another aspect of learning available through free skiing is that the technique required for skiing all conditions often develops (with proper coaching) into a very solid foundation for gate skiing. The opposite is seldom true.
The national "A" and "B" teams ratio of free skiing to gate training is very close to 50/50.
It is our opinion that each progressively younger age group should have the opportunity to free ski an even greater proportion of the time that they spend on the mountain. This means skiing every available snow condition, on every conceivable type of terrain, in every unbelievable weather condition.
In other words, FREE SKI, FREE SKI, FREE SKI! It may not necessarily make the parents happy, until they see the results."
Please complete a Permission Form for each racer and mail them to:
Race Program Administrator
5 Village Lodge Road
Stratton Mountain, VT 05155
