Coaching Philosophy

Cross country is a sport that demands a long term commitment in order to reach the top levels. There are few rocket rides to the top that don’t level off at the limit of talent and at the beginning of the hard work. There are good lessons all along the way. Almost anyone who participates for a few years will come away a good skier, and more fit. They win.
Those who choose to pursue the competitive side of the sport learn to appreciate small gains, to know the signs one’s body gives about training, and to manage time. They meet athletes from all over the country and much of the world who are doing the same thing. They find limits and push them. A school like Burke gets them started. The experience falls early in the career of a serious skier. During this period of time race results, good or bad, are almost incidental. The goal is to build independence, training intelligence, and self confidence, and to encourage perseverance and endurance and in those things reward comes almost daily. The experience gained at Burke can carry its students down paths far more challenging than any ski trail. If it does we are doing our job.

What is the day-to-day of Burke skiing? We have a lot of fun. There is fun in the conversations, play in the work outs, and humor when things go awry. We train hard and with a long term plan. We train carefully. Goals include learning to eat well and to remain as healthy as we can. Rest and recovery are as important as time on the trails. There are no short cuts, there is no magic wand. As coaches we hope to help kids see the big picture, to be able to identify a goal, and perhaps most importantly to see the changes in daily life that need to be made in order to reach it. Helping athletes to recognize and approach those changes and sacrifices is one of the most significant roles Burke plays in their lives. At each step of the way is an opportunity for them to take more ownership in their participation and to make that participation of the highest quality. Other Burke athletes have shown where that can lead. We want to keep that drive alive and well.

There are and hopefully always will be athletes entering Burke with varied levels of ability in skiing. Sport is a wonderfully versatile vehicle for learning and growth. When people choose Burke they actively accept that premise; teaching and learning at Burke are predicated on hard training and demanding competition. At the same time individual competitive results are a tiny measure of success here. The more important measures are increased physical health and awareness of one’s body and its signals. They are the growing capacity to be honest with oneself about work and level of effort and an increasing ability to coach oneself. They include higher levels of pain tolerance, of perseverance, patience, confidence and independence.

Burke’s Nordic “Credo”  includes the belief that young athletes need to be able to accept more independence sooner. This can happen through encouraging a mature and “equal partner” relationship with a coach which in the end (and that can be long after the Burke years) leaves the athlete in total ownership of participation in the sport.

We encourage that by:

A) Starting simply with a package of some of the tools of athletic independence;
1) A watch, and the habit of using it.
2) A training plan the athlete helps to build.
3) Warm-up routines that include knowing the course, knowing the official time, start times and locations.
4) Basic but adequate knowledge of wax

B) More frequently leaving the ball in the athlete’s court; discussing but not answering questions, disagreement but not prohibition, in short mature exchange about training and racing and daily life.

C) Rarely questioning commitment but behaving in a fashion that assumes it is there. The athlete is given the ability to make the important decisions and to accept the consequences; decisions to take an extra day off, or to change the day’s individual work out to better fit the body’s needs or capabilities.
 
In some armies of the world the foot soldiers are not given maps. On the old sailing ships the practice of determining the day’s position by math and the ritual of “shooting the sun” was made as elaborate and arcane as possible to discourage any thought among the illiterate and superstitious crews of mutiny, of going it alone. We don’t want to do it that way. We want the athletes to have the charts, and to know how to navigate and the sooner the better! If Burke athletes were asked “Are you at Burke to train or to be trained?” our hope is that the resounding answer would be “We’re here to train!”

First year athletes and their parents are sometimes uncomfortable with this approach. They needn’t worry. It isn’t an “immersion” program. We take time. Given that time, and a little faith along the way this course can open in an individual qualities that are essential to a top athletic career and more importantly that are beneficial to an independent and productive life.

Please contact Pete Phillips for more information: pphillips@burkemtnacademy.org