These are my expectations for athletes for practice.

1. Come to practice having eaten a nutritious snack/meal at least 45 minutes prior to practice. This will allow you to have enough energy to sustain a quality workout. Do not eat too much or to soon before practice as you will not be able to properly digest the food and you will have bloating, cramps and pain. We all have busy lives so you will have to be organized so that you have a snack with you before the start of practice. Remember this is your job not your parents they are busy enough driving you from place to place.

2. Come to practice well hydrated. Have a water bottle, full at the beginning of practice and empty at the end of practice.This means having drunk 2-3 litres ( more if it is hot and you are active) of water continuously throughout the day plus drinking your water bottle during practice and continuing to hydrate after practice. Do not drink a litre of water 10 minutes before practice this will not hydrate you properly and you will experience bloating, cramps and pain.  Being well hydrated at the beginning, middle and end of practice reduces the amount of recovery time (time where your body is tired). For early morning practice you should drink 2 cups of water as soon as you wake up to allow your body to be hydrated for practice.This should be a part of your morning routine everyday. if you are well hydrated it is easier to wake up. 

3. Come to practice prepared with all of the equipment,  in working order, that you need for the day (running shoes, skis, roller skis, helmets, gloves, boots, poles, clothing, watch etc,) Having the wrong equipment sucks because you will miss out on practice.

4. Mentally prepare yourself for practice. Sit for a moment and center, slow your breathing, breathing in through your nose and out through your mouth. Make sure that you are breathing to your stomach, you should feel your stomach going in and out with every breath. Take ten breaths like this. Focus on being positive, having good technique, excellent focus and willingness to listen and have fun through out the work out. When you focus on positive outcomes you release endorphins into your body which help you feel happy, stronger, and less pain. This is similar to the runners high that people talk about.

5. Be confident and motivated for the days training. The most damaging thing to your performance and training is low confidence, low motivation and low self esteem. If you do not believe that you can be faster, stronger and better then your progress will be very slow and if you do not want these things than it will not happen at all. You need to believe in your self and your ability. It is you who wants to do intervals, volume, technique work and get stronger, faster smarter, this is why you come to practice. Do your best in every practice. Your best is different every week as you get stronger or as you respond to stress in your life. Sometimes your best is amazing and sometimes your best is not very impressive. There are usually good reasons for this you are tired, sick, stressed but this is still your best given the situation. If you focus on doing your best you will show improvement over the long run.  

6. Support your team mates. Practice is always more fun when you are supported and having fun with your team mates. Being able to train with others makes training easier as there are others to push and motivate you. Make sure that you support the people who are faster than you and the people that are slower than you. Life is always like this, there are always people faster and slower than you and performance is about your personal best. Sometimes this is difficult but remember that it feels good to be supported and encouraged no matter how fast you are.

7. Listen to your body, and push to an appropriate level of intensity. If we are doing Long Slow Distance keep your heart rate low, if we are doing intervals push hard. Always remember that pushing too hard or too hard while you are tired, sick or injured could mean getting over tired, sicker or more injured. Talk to your coaches if you are feeling tired, sick or injured. Remember that there is no training benefit to being over tired, sick or injured.

8. Eat a snack right after practice and a meal within an hour of practice. After practice your heart rate stays high for a certain amount of time, 20 to 60 minutes. This depends on the practice intensity and how tired you are. If you eat while your heart is high you are replacing sugars/energy, protiens and nutrients in your body faster because your heart is moving your blood around your body faster.  

9. Make sure that you have extra clothes so that you are warm and dry after practice, change your clothes, shower as soon as you get home. If you are clean, dry and warm soon after practice you will feel better and be happier about practice. If you are sweaty, stinking and cold then you will not feel as good about your self and your practice. 

1. Record your training on sport log. It is a way for me to see what is happening with you and how you are responding to training. When you record your training leave good comments and ask good questions. This means that you are thinking about your practice and training.

These are my expectations for Parents

1. Chelsea Nordiq uses a Long Term Athletic Development Model. Results at midgets means very little to the long term.  Results, good training and a fun safe social setting are all good reasons to be on this team. If your child trains with Chelsea Nordiq for three years we believe that they will be in the 1% fittest people in Canada. The longer than they spend on the team the more that they are going to want to push them selves and discover their own potential. I know this because this is the culture that we are creating at Chelsea Nordiq. We are inclusive, patient and we are good at having high expectations and we enjoy training hard and racing fast. 
2. Benefits of Competition. Competition is a fact of life! Competition means to strive together meaning that we all push each other to be our best. Competition can be a positive, fun and character-building experience. It provides one of the best opportunities for children to come in contact with rules and social values. It defines the need to get along well with others and be accepted as part of a team. It plays a prime role in promoting values such as tolerance, fairness and responsibility. In cross country skiing the skiers that you race with are often your friends pushing each other to be better, faster stronger.  

      Competition is not a problem for young children; in fact it can be very positive. Problems only arise when someone else - usually a poorly informed coach or an overly enthusiastic parent - distorts competition by overemphasizing the value of winning.

Many people comment about competition stress and that they are concerned about this for their child. There is stress in competition, I do not deny this and handled improperly it can have a negative impact with to much focus on winning. With careful training we have an opportunity to teach our athletes how do deal with stress in a balanced manor as stress is a fact of life. Imagine an accountant at tax time, a doctor or dentist having to do a difficult surgery, a teacher that has to teach math to a difficult class, there is a lot of stress in each of these situations. We all live with stress in our lives, some of us deal with it better than others. 

There are two types of stress ustress and distress. Ustress is positive, it is a positive motivator that allows us and our bodies to get things done. Distress is negative and can cause lots of grief and illness in people. There is a lot of distress in Candian culture because people do not know how to center, be balanced and enjoy the work and the business of their lives. In racing we have the opportunity to teach athletes how to see the stress of competition as ustress something that motivates rather than so thing that debilitates. 

Below is a list of other benifits of competition. 

Competitive sports help participants to:

• Learn to work as part of a team 
• Ustress (positive) and Distress (negative)
• Learn to manage stress
• Learn to manage success and disappointment 
• Learn patience and perseverance, particularly when pursuing goals 
• Learn responsibility and time management: by balancing training and other activities; and by managing race day activities 
• Learn to manage stress 
• Learn to interact and relate with a variety of other people in a variety of situations: team mates on trips; officials at competitions; coaches; other competitors….. 
• Learn to set and achieve goals and perform long term planning 
• Learn respect for others 
• Gain physical fitness and develop body awareness 
• Gain confidence in their abilities and improve their self esteem 
• See different parts of the country and world and learn about new cultures 
• Learn about nutrition, physiology, psychology, biomechanics, health and in particular how these fields of science relate to skiing 
• Learn skills in public speaking and speaking to the media 

Competition is not a problem for young children; in fact it can be very positive. Problems only arise when someone else - usually a poorly informed coach or an overly enthusiastic parent - distorts competition by overemphasizing the value of winning.

3.Race procedures. Remember that races are run by volunteers and sometimes things go wrong. If you suspect that something has not gone correctly the procedure is to talk to your coach who will then talk to the officials as a parent you do not go to the officials with your concern. Please remember the feelings of other athletes, parents coaches and officials when you are making comments about races and performances. Your words and actions have a lot of impact on our team and in our ski community.