When it comes to our MNC team atmosphere and energy levels, the two toughest times of year for me are the week after Thanksgiving Camp and the weeks during which school begins in the fall.
What’s different about these weeks? Separation. These are the two times of the year when we go from the easiest scheduling and most flexible options for participation to weeks that are much more varied depending on the skier.
We talk a lot about building a team culture and maintaining a strong climate within our groups. Entire sections of bookstores are devoted to these kinds of leadership skills and teambuilding aspirations.
Early on in my MNC coaching career I sought ways to not only have our team engage during training, but outside of the traditional practice structure as well. Swimming after a hard summer workout, going out for pizza whenever we went skiing in Stowe, or turning a run in the suburbs into a scavenger hunt all come to mind. This kind of mentality also is the reason a lot of our training camps are structured in the manner they are: we don’t seek out huge numbers, or directly recruit skiers from other clubs to attend our camps (not that anyone isn’t welcome!)…instead, these camps are our most coveted “team time” of the year because everyone is not only training, but also living together.
Team sunset time in Utah
Depending on how you look at it (or depending on my mood?) I have become either increasingly envious of, or jaded by, the ease with which other programs and coaches “have it easy” when it comes to building a team. I write “have it easy” in quotation marks because when it comes to human emotions, group climate, and athlete development nobody really has it easy. I don’t mean to belittle what it takes to grow and maintain a great team: everyone, and every team, is dealing with its own struggles and growth.
That said, take a look at a collegiate ski team or a ski academy. Students make a commitment to an institution well before the school year begins, and coaches know right from day 1 which skiers are on their team. When a training session happens, you can reasonably expect everyone to be there barring various class schedules here and there. Planning a camp? An activity? A dinner? You can make these arrangements easily, because the team is the team. A group at an institution like this begins the year fully formed, from which coaches and team members alike can shape the group’s direction and vibe.
How about a high school sports team? These groups coalesce differently, for a couple of reasons. A shared goal is a common theme, and performance at a State Championship is often a rallying point for coaches and athletes alike. A high school sports team has a relatively short season, and a lot of games or competitions crammed into that timeframe. “Winning States” becomes a goal for everyone to coalesce around. Even if you aren’t on the states roster or varsity squad, those performance-based accomplishments at the state level and beyond become the logical target.
Skiers with MNC come from lots of backgrounds, and I’ve tried more and more to separate results-based accomplishments from personal growth accomplishments. We don’t post on social media to list the medals and podiums of every Eastern Cup weekend. We work really hard to dispel myths and stress around Junior Nationals as the only goal for skiers in the 14-18 age group. Does the culture make this an uphill battle? Of course. But I’ll keep trying to share a balanced message.
Skiers with MNC also engage with the club in all sorts of ways. We offer 1-day/week programming, all the way up to a full-time experience. This spring Sara and I sat down and talked through this…after some philosophical discussions with Hilary, the Ford Sayre coach, I was put onto another way of thinking. Hilary mentioned that they had really wanted skiers to commit to the club, specifically to have a good group environment and culture. “We offered a high school option for some skiers this year, but I’m not sure if I want to keep doing it” for a paraphrased version of what Hilary told me. Avid blog readers may also remember a post I wrote this spring discussing the athlete contract and values system Ford Sayre explicitly spells out (p. 19). Commitment to the team, and to each other, is a key component.
I was envious of this system and buy-in, and honestly I still am! This is going into year 10 of my time with MNC, and for each of these past 9+ years the biggest psychological and emotional hurdle is creating and galvanizing a sense of team. Some skiers join only in the summer, and others only in the winter. Many skiers never attend training camps, and don’t get to experience our group beyond training. There’s limited chances to become a more decisive piece of the bigger pie.
Some skiers are permitted to ski only one day per week with MNC in the winter, and they can’t choose that day…so if we aren’t doing something particularly unique/memorable on that day (spoiler alert: success and growth is often the result of many non-special days stacked together) I feel like I have shortchanged those skiers’ time. Likewise, skiers who are fully committed to MNC don’t really get to know skiers who are only participating sporadically. A sense of belonging can be hard to come by, and nothing embodies a team more than a sense of belonging.
As we talked it over this spring, I told Sara that I wanted what Ford Sayre had. I wanted skiers to be committed to this club. Skiers willing to work together, succeed together, fail together, and learn together. I wanted some (ANY) sense of togetherness greater than what our current structure led to.
I was reminded by Sara that many of our skiers who were/are full-time, fully-committed MNC athletes didn’t necessarily start out that way. If it weren’t for offering those one- and two-day packages, many would’ve been either priced-out or scheduled-out of access to the club at all. Because of the nature of our skiing and athletic landscape in Chittenden County, maybe this had to be the path we took.
Fun team, fun day!
I don’t have the best answer. In fact, I am more nervous than ever for this upcoming season. I worry that skiers choosing to commit fully to the club will have only a small handful of like-minded peers, and a very small training group. I worry that athletes who leave fall sports teams because of poor training decisions and cultures in those groups will regret not having a bigger team of their own peers, despite the obvious difficulties in that previous landscape. If I required more commitment instead of a full slate of “choose your interest level” options, would we have a larger core team, but a smaller overall club? Is one better than the other? Can MNC even financially survive if we change our model? How do you balance all of this without cutting skiers and families out? Is there something that I can do differently, on a personal level, to foster the right sense of “team” among our group?
It feels odd to not have a resolution here, as the MNC blog is often a place to tell a story or recap an event with a beginning/middle/end. But right now we are in the middle, and I don’t exactly know the right direction to go in. If nothing else maybe listing out some of my worries, fears, and negativity is a bit of resolution in itself.
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