Alex Jospe

We have our athletes set goals in the form of a "goal pyramid" where their outcome goal is at the top and process goals are at the bottom. The process goals are things they can do to achieve their outcome goal, such as extra workouts, lifestyle goals like sleep and nutrition, and mental health maintenance.
 
Transcript: "I could go a lot longer than 90 seconds about goal setting, but it is super important. And we have all of our athletes set goals. We make what we call goal pyramids, or as one ninth grader called it, like, I have a goal triangle. And the idea there is that at the top of the goal pyramid, tippy top little thing, that is your outcome goal for, can be for the season. That's kind of tangible for the athletes that are in high school. And the bottom of the pyramid is much wider, right? And that those are more of your process goals. And the idea is that we try and teach our athletes the difference between an outcome goal, which is usually results oriented, and you have no control over it, and a process goal, which is the stuff that you do have control over. These are the things you can actually do to try and achieve your outcome goals. And so we'll start with usually one outcome goal, and then a couple more like testing goals underneath this race goal. So for example, I want to be able to do my double pull test in a certain amount of time based on past knowledge. And usually that's where the coach comes in, or I got to be able to do 50 pushups without stopping. And then you go below that and you're like, all right, what do I need to do to improve that double pull score? And that's where it's like, hey, I'm going to do an extra double pull workout every week, or I'm going to make sure to get in the gym all summer, do the plan that my coach sent me. And then at the bottom, you've got sort of lifestyle goals, sleeping, eating, drinking, all that good stuff, mental health, things that matter for every single day."

To prep your skis for a new day, start by brushing them off to remove any dust. Then put 4-6 layers of warm wax, like Swix CH8 Toko Red, and iron it in. Next put one layer of cold wax, like Start Green or Swix CH4/CH5, again ironing tip to tail. Finally scrape off the wax and brush out the base for a good finish.
 
Transcript: "So, new ski day, super exciting, but you gotta prep the bases first. So the first thing to do is brush them out. You want to get off, doesn't matter what kind of brush, copper, nylon, whatever, you just want to get all the dust off from travel and sitting in the shop or wherever they came from. Then you're going to start ironing in some warm wax, and it used to be that people would say, oh put in like eight layers of warm wax, but you can get away with not scraping that off, you can just iron it in, let it cool, and then iron it again, that's your second layer. So I would do somewhere between four to six ironing cools of something like a Swix CH8, Toco Red, any kind of warm wax will work. Then when you've done the last of that, scrape it off. Now you want to put in a hardening layer, and that's going to be one of the really cold waxes. Something like Stark Green or Swix CH5 or CH4 would be great. Toco Blue isn't quite cold enough, you want something a little colder than that. Iron that in, and it's really important, only go tip to tail with the iron, don't go back and forth, because if you're going back and forth, every time the iron stops, or changes direction, it's stopping, and especially when it's a really hot iron on a new ski, that you could end up building some hot spots in the ski base and you don't want to do that. So after you've done your hard layer, scrape it off, brush it out, and you are good to go, put it on the wax of the day, and go skiing. Enjoy!"

Coaching at a ski school has its pros and cons, such as being able to work with athletes on a daily basis as well as having to deal with logistics and disciplinary issues.
 
Transcript: "What is it like coaching at a ski school? Well, in many ways, it is amazing. But let's go through the pros and cons here. So some of the pros, probably the biggest pro is that I get to work with my athletes every single day and they all show up, right? There's no like, oh, I had to go to hockey practice instead or like too much traffic. I couldn't make it. Like, they're all there every day. And that's amazing for getting to know them as people and humans just makes it a lot easier from that coaching front. And it also makes it easier to monitor kind of how they're absorbing training load. Outside of just a training log, I get to see them every day. And so if in their training log, they write, I feel great. But then when it comes to like looking at them, and they're just dragging, you can start the conversation there, right? Like that's a little easier. Some of the other advantages is just like traveling all together as a team. That part's great. And actually, some of the disadvantages also fall around the logistical side of things. Like a lot of the club coaches don't have to deal with shuttling their athletes to and from the venue on race day, they can just focus on making skis and then coaching them there. Whereas we need to have somebody who can go get the athletes from the hotel and bring them back and to try and avoid having them on their feet all day. There's also the downside of discipline, which you have to deal with because you're much more of a parent than just a coach. So yeah, that's one."

Young athletes should ski with at least one other person and with a coach if they are young. Wear hi-vis clothing and blinky lights when roller skiing. Make sure to skate on roads they are familiar with and not in busy areas with car traffic. Stay warm and be aware of mousse if living in Alaska.
 
Transcript: "Safety tips for young athletes cross-country skiing. If we're talking winter, most of what you're worried about is cold exposure. They should probably make sure they're skiing always with at least one other person. Depending on how young they are, a coach should be with the group just to make sure if something happens you can manage it. Also, in that case, you're dealing with appropriate layering and making sure they don't get too cold. Other safety stuff... In the summer, roller skiing is a big one. Making sure that athletes are wearing high-vis clothing, blinky lights are preferable, and roller skiing on roads that they have skied before and that they know the hills on so that they're not going down any hill that is out of their ability to stop or slow down or whatever. Also, making sure that you're not roller skiing in a really busy area where car traffic is going to be a problem. Roller skiing is probably the most dangerous thing that we do as cross-country skiers. Otherwise, there's not much that we're looking at that is a danger. There's no big animals or whatever. There's some moose. If you live in Alaska, that's an issue. But if you don't live in Alaska, moose are not that much of an issue. Stay warm!"

Ski Academies are great, but you don't need to go to one if you have access to a good club that can provide the resources and support to help you become an elite skier. The advantage of a ski Academy is that it takes care of all the logistics, travel and lodging for races, so you can focus on training.
 
Transcript: "So this is going to sound counterintuitive because I work at a ski school and I think it's great. But you do not need to go to a ski academy in order to be an elite skier. If you think about what makes somebody a good cross-country skier, there's sort of four pillars of training, progress, whatever. There's fitness, technique, strength, and mental performance. And if you can address all of those, you're going to improve. You're going to get good. Now, the importance of your pace group, your training group, is... it's big. And so you want to surround yourself by fast people. If you were training in a silo or you are the best skier on your team, it's really hard to improve if you're already at the top. And that's where the advantage of either going to a ski academy or a really high-level club can help you out. So, don't train alone. It's not worth it. You aren't going to get as good as you possibly could get surrounded by good people. So, what's the advantage of a ski academy? Everything is provided for you. All the logistics, all of the ski support at races, travel, lodging. And remember, stress is stress. And so if you're spending stress you could be spending on training, organizing all of that, it's going to be detrimental to your career. And so that's sort of the advantage of a ski academy. But you can absolutely get it done at a good club. And there's a lot of those."

I learned the importance of perseverance from a sprint race where I ended up on the podium despite feeling tired and outmatched.
 
Transcript: "So my ski career is obviously less storied than a lot of the people who are on this app, but one of the things that was instrumental to actually wanting me to be a coach was one of, it was a sprint race in the early days of sprinting when they did heats of four, and it was when I learned that perseverance really matters. And I just remember my coach saying, Hey, it's a sprint race, anything can happen. And I was like, I don't know, I'm tired. I've done a bunch of races already in the day, you know, you had to do the qualification and what not. And like, it's like, I'm tired, who knows what's gonna happen, but I don't think I can race against these girls. They're faster than me. And then in the final, like this girl tripped. And I mean, I was almost off the back, but I was like, I gotta try. And she tripped in front of me. And so I ended up on a podium in an oram. And I was like, Hey, that's cool. It's always worth it to keep trying. And I'd like to pass that on."