Imagine that you are world-class alpine skier. Every year you get about sixty days of training on snow, where you fit in up to six runs a day of about 60-90 seconds each. That’s roughly six to ten minutes a day of skiing over sixty days. Doesn’t sound like much, does it?

But when you factor in the logistics, coordination, early wake-ups, travel and endless transporting of gear, those six runs add up to one very big, long day.

According to Matt Jordan, Director of Strength and Conditioning at CSI Calgary, training for alpine skiing is not the same as most other sports. “The days are long with a lot of logistics and travel, which can be very fatiguing. Skiers get tired in a very different way than the average athlete,” he explains.

That is why, when the alpine team centralizes for a month-long training camp every summer at CSI Calgary, they put in incredibly long, challenging and diverse days of training. “With this camp, we are trying to set them up with big, long days of training with a variety of activities to develop their work capacity to handle the demands of the sport,” says Jordan.

This is the sixth camp for Phil Brown, 25, a slalom skier and team veteran. He says he enjoys his time in Calgary every year. “There are long days and it’s very focused. But everybody here has bought in and are really excited about what we have going; there is a positive vibe.”

In addition to a lot of mornings in the gym weightlifting, there are on-ice edge and gliding sessions to practice slalom turns and outdoor field workouts focused on jumping, landing and general strength.

Perhaps the most unusual session is the one in the boxing ring. Every Thursday afternoon the team takes to throwing punches instead of carving turns. The goal is to learn skills that transfer to skiing, like eye-hand coordination, but where fitness improves too. “It’s a layered workout where physiological goals are met and the skill development is tied in,” says Jordan.

Add in aerobic power workouts on track bikes at the velodrome and you have several weeks of some very diverse training. “We are pushing them in different ways,” adds Jordan. For Brown, the training is great but it’s enjoyable too. “It’s not fun to be in the gym all the time so we’ve been incorporating a lot of different activities in the afternoon sessions, which help keep the atmosphere lighter,” he says.

All of these activities develop skills that skiers rely on when they are training and racing on snow. “The idea is to foster their ability to take in environmental information, process it and generate a motor response,” explains Jordan. “This will help them on the hill where conditions are always changing and they have to react appropriately.”

The overriding goal of the camp is to ensure the athletes understand that their performance is triangulated, where the coach, strength team, para-medical team and all other support staff are working together to find as many benefits they can to help the athlete perform. Ultimately this gives the athletes confidence that they are prepared for the season.

Preparation is key, and so is staying healthy. Jordan says that because alpine skiing is such a high-risk sport they also focus on training that will help them be fit, strong and able to move in a safe way to help avoid injury. “After a camp like this they feel like they are better athletes.”

Canadian Sport Institute Calgary: @csicalgary
Written by Kristina Groves: @kngrover
Photo by: Dave Holland @csicalgaryphoto
28/06/17

There is perhaps nothing more frustrating to an athlete than the experience of performing a certain way in training but not being able to find that same level of performance in competition.   For Hamish Black, a Stage 4 speed skater (one stage before national team) who trains at CSI Calgary, this was just the state he found himself in halfway through last season. 

Saddled with what he describes as ‘big expectations’, Black started just his second season in the sport last year hoping to make big gains.  But it didn’t pan out the way he thought it would.  “I realized there was a disconnect between training and racing,” he explains.   “I was skating really well in practice but not racing at the same level. I was at a loss, it was a mental block.” 

After a rink-side chat with Alayne Hing, Mental Performance Consultant at CSI Calgary, Hamish came to the realization that although he had trained his body to reach a high level, he hadn’t trained his mind.  Despite coming from cross country skiing at age 26, Black still had work to do.  “I had very little experience with performance at this level” he says. 

Hing honed in on helping Black figure out his ideal performance state.  This process involved developing self-awareness for his arousal levels.  “Hamish is a positive, excited guy,” says Hing.  “But he needed help to discover what is realistic for him at this point and to figure out how high arousal levels were hindering his performance.” 

Hing took a unique approach by separating out the emotional factor and had Black use a number scale from ‘one’ to ‘ten’ to rate his arousal level.  “A ‘one’ meant totally relaxed and a ‘ten’ was full panic,” says Hing.  She worked with Black to determine what his ideal number was for optimal performance.  This simple technique was a way for Black to check-in with himself and make an accurate self-assessment.  

“We started tracking where he was at in training and competition and were able to chart his arousal state,” says Hing.  At a ‘three’ Black felt focused, ready to go and had a clear head.  The next step for Black was to learn some skills that would help him get to his ideal number.  Hing helped him with breathing exercises, mental imagery and muscular relaxation techniques.

But the strategy that Black, a visual learner, has found the most useful is a simple piece of paper with a tracing of the oval and cues at specific spots on the track. He keeps the paper in his pocket and uses it when he feels the need to stay focused on the right things and regulate his emotions. 

Hamish has seen a big improvement in his ability to rate and regulate his arousal state, which has translated into better performance.  The biggest thing for him has been the change in the way he and his coach, Todd McClements, communicate about how he’s doing.

McClements says that it is essential for him to be using the same language as the athlete and sport psychologist because it allows for clear and concise communication.  “The scale has been really effective and was quickly integrated into the daily training and race plans,” he says.

Black says the best part is that there is now a triangle of trust between Alayne, his coach and him.  “Alayne helped me build the strategies and Todd is supportive and participates in that,” says Black.  “Everybody’s on board.”

Canadian Sport Institute Calgary: @csicalgary
Written by Kristina Groves: @kngrover
Photo by: Dave Holland @csicalgaryphoto
14/06/17

On June 22, the Canadian Sport Institute Calgary is hosting the first ever Game Plan YYC Summit for Alberta athletes with the theme of Side Hustle. The summit is a full day of presentations for athletes on topics covering Effective Communication, Financial Literacy, Entrepreneurship and Positive Self Coaching. It is intended to help athletes acquire new skills and open their mind to potential education and career paths. The Summit also includes a keynote presentation by Jamie Clark, a Calgary-based adventurer, CEO and speaker.

Careers, it can be said, are not what they used to be. It is rare these days to find a lifetime nine-to-five job that pays the bills and fulfills all of life’s big goals. The evolution of the workplace and the workforce has necessitated a whole new approach to work, one that is all about versatility, creativity and adaptability.

Today, without job security or even a job in one’s field, the need for diverse streams of income has made way for what’s known as the ‘side hustle’.

The side hustle is a way to earn extra income outside of one’s main job, but it’s about pursuing life passion’s, too. Catering, dog walking, freelancing, teaching English online – the examples are endless. However, for athletes pursuing Olympic dreams a side hustle might seem like a distraction or hindrance to performance.

Not so, says Russell Reimer, President of Manifesto, a Calgary-based sport management company. “I believe that athletes have more time than they realize, it’s not a 40-hr week with kids,” he quips.

More seriously, he’s concerned about the lack of attention to personal and professional development in athletes that he thinks is systemic in sport, where focus on performance has become omnipotent. “We want to encourage athletes to do the necessary work while in sport so they don’t have moments after sport where they are completely lost, you don’t want to be in a fragile position,” he says.

Game Plan, Canada’s national athlete total wellness program, is the natural, constructive response to that focus on performance. “We need athletes to understand that they can’t defer – start early, you have the time,” adds Reimer. “It’s an ongoing process of discovery. Develop a side hustle, go to university, discover what you really believe in.”

Cara Button, Game Plan Advisor at CSI Calgary, says many athletes are already tackling other pursuits outside of sport, some out of necessity. “Many athletes have a side hustle to support themselves while competing,” she says. “But they are also developing the beginning of something they could pursue further once retired.” It’s a fine balance – be well-rounded but don’t burn out. Athletes need to know what works for them.

The Side Hustle theme fits well with what Reimer calls the ‘parallel path’. “The parallel path is a pillar on which to build an identity outside of sport,” explains Reimer. This path can greatly facilitate transition out of sport and ease the shock of competitive withdrawal. He stresses the importance of pursuing other interests, skills and plans throughout their careers. “Don’t wait for Plan A to expire to start working on Plan B.”

Canadian Sport Institute Calgary: @csicalgary
Written by Kristina Groves: @kngrover
Photo by: Dave Holland @csicalgaryphoto
22/06/17

When the last shot is taken, the last finish line is crossed or the final race is won, athletes have to create new lives for themselves. For some this task comes easily, for others it can be an exercise in despair. Fortunately, with Game Plan, powered by Deloitte, there is now a wealth of resources available to retiring athletes to help them take those first few, sometimes difficult, steps.

However, even though Game Plan is there and ready for the taking, athletes don’t always know about it or have time to engage with the services offered prior to retirement. So, Elise Marcotte, Marketing and Communications Manager for Game Plan, developed a new pilot project to help bridge the gap between athletes and Game Plan.

The idea is to recruit Champions who will act as role models within the Game Plan community by sharing their experience and positively influencing their peers with tangible actions of their own choice. The campaign also aims to raise awareness of the program beyond Game Plan’s current audience through social media.

Six Champions were selected from across Canada, including Monique Sullivan, 2012 & 2016 Olympian in track cycling, who is the Game Plan Champion at CSI Calgary. Her plan is to reach out to newly carded athletes and support or encourage activities outside of sport that will ultimately helped them when they retire.

Sullivan says she recognizes that not all athletes feel supported in their desire to pursue things outside of sport, like education or work opportunities. “I always had a couple of things outside of sport to keep me balanced while I was competing,” she says. “I want to be the voice for those athletes wishing to do the same.”

The pilot program runs from May 1 to July 31 and Marcotte says that each Champion has a different project that will be monitored to ensure they are implemented and then measured for impact. The goal of the program is to involve the athletes and encourage word-of-mouth to engage athletes with what Game Plan offers.

For most athletes, the thought of retirement or pursuing extracurricular activities is completely foreign and Sullivan says Game Plan tends to be one of those things you don’t realize you need until it’s too late. “Sport is pretty full-on and some athletes aren’t able to take on anything else or don’t need to,” she says. “But when sport is suddenly gone you have no idea how you’ll react to that.”

Sullivan says her transition out of sport has gone well – she’ll begin graduate work this fall in the new field of engineering education and is currently working full-time in community outreach for the Schulich School of Engineering at the University of Calgary, where she recruits women into engineering.

She credits her commitment to education while competing, using Game Plan and the relationship she has with CSI Calgary-based Game Plan Advisor, Cara Button, with helping her find her way in a post-sport world. Now as a Game Plan Champion she wants to help others do the same. She sums it up well: “It’s all about planning for the unknown.”

Canadian Sport Institute Calgary: @csicalgary
Written by Kristina Groves: @kngrover
07/06/17