Train To Train

Girls 11-15 years old
Boys 12-16 years old

Coach Training

Competition Introduction

Athlete Program

CanFree Team

Train To Train

Goals

  • This is the stage for more discipline specific skiing and acrobatic skills refinement and the beginning of the specialization. 
  • A collaborative, coherent approach among coaches, organizations and system stakeholders is needed to support the Train to Train athlete’s continued development toward excellence or transfer into ongoing activity for life. 
  • Keep in mind that the physical, mental and emotional maturity of individuals will develop at different rates. 

Key points

  • Girls: Around 11-15 years old / Boys: Around 12-16 years old
  • It is at the Train to Train stage—which often starts in early adolescence—where the individuals make the decision to:  
    • strive for excellence and commit for being an athlete—in the full sense of the word;  
    • decide to no longer commit the time, energy and resources to achieving excellence in their sport and enter the Competitive for Life or Fit for life stage 
    • drop out of sport 
  • Train to Train also marks entry into the excellence stages of Long-Term Development and as athletes achieve success, they will transition in the Podium Pathway. 

Athlete Skills

Athlete Development Matrix 

During this period of rapid growth:  

  • Focusing on maintaining a good technical in acrobatic and skiing is a required component of the athlete training program. 
  • The physical fitness needs to be prioritized.  
  • Perfect time to take advantage of the sensitive periods.  
  • This can be a very challenging time, resulting in poor coordination and skill execution. 
  • It is essential to maintain fundamental movement skill development in a variety of environments 

Physical  

  • The onset of the adolescent growth spurt is the time for the Peak Height Velocity (PHV). 
  • Develop all round athleticism and general fitness before sport-specific fitness. 
  • The spatial awareness should be well developed.  
  • Work with the athletes on (depending on the maturation level):  
    • Aerobic  
    • Strength:  
      • Introduce free weights with emphasis on correct technique 
    • Flexibility 
  • The warm-up (activation) and proper movement preparation between 5 – 15 minutes before starting any training activity should become part of the normal routine.  
  • Introduce fitness testing (beep test, vertical jump, box jump). 

Aerials and Moguls 

Athlete Development Matrix

  • Skiing:
    • Stable body position 
    • Ski in line in the rollers with correct turn initiation (timing and edging)
    • Proper range of motion with the lower body 
    • Introduce methods of speed control
    • Variety of the mogul line
    • Complete mogul run 
  • Floor skills: 
    • The work on floor skills is still useful for the body tightness and refine the technical part of the extension and the landing. 
    • Work more specifically with the individual:  
      • Progression toward back flip, Front tuck, Standing back tuck 
  • Trampoline:   
    • At this stage, athlete should be very comfortable to train on a trampoline and increase their difficulty. 
    • Focus on:  
      • Strong take off and core
      • Creating rotation from the feet 
      • Good vision 
    • Work on progression towards:  
      • Porpoise, 3/4 front, Barani, Barani ball-out, Rudi 
      • Cork 7 
      • 3/4 back, Back full, Back double full, Double back tuck 
      • Connecting backs and barani ++ 
    • Use the bungee to push the degree of difficulty while working on the proper twist timing. 
  • Water ramp:  
    • Girls:  
      • 360, Front tuck, Back (t,p,l), Back full,  
      • Double tuck on the single, Lay-Tuck 
    • Boys:  
      • 360°, 720°
      • Back (t, p, l), Back full, Back double full 
      • Cork 7
      •  Lay-Tuck, Lay-Full, Full-Full
  • Snow Aerials jumps:
    • The idea is usually to have the athlete do a jump on snow that he/she has been practicing for 2 summers on water ramp. 
    • Girls:  
      • 360°, Front tuck, Back (t, p, l), Back full 
      • Lay-Tuck
    • Boys:  
      • Back (t, p, l),Back full 
      • Lay-Tuck, Lay-Full 
  • Snow Mogul jumps: 
    • Girls:  
      • 2 airs in the moguls run 
      • 360° 
      • Front tuck, Back tuck 
    • Boys:  
      • 2 airs in the moguls run, 
      • 360°, 720°, Back tuck, grabs 

Halfpipe and Slopestyle & Big Air 

Athlete Development Matrix 

  • Skiing:   
    • Parallel switch skiing looking over both shoulders. 
    • Efficient carving. 
    • Pressure control skills. 
    • Holding edge effectively.
  • Pipe skiing:  
    • Effective line in pipe. 
    • Edging and carving. 
    • Pumping acceleration. 
  • Floor skills: 
    • The work on floor skills is still useful for the body tightness and refine the technical part of the extension and the landing. 
    • Work more specifically with the individual:  
      • Progression toward back flip, Front tuck, Standing back tuck, Misty 5, Side flip 
  • Trampoline: 
    • At this stage, athlete should be very comfortable to train on a trampoline and increase their difficulty. 
    • Focus on:  
      • Strong take off 
      • Create rotation from the feet 
      • Train with forward and switch bounce 
      • Good vision and feeling
    • Work on progression towards:  
      • Cork (7,9,10)
      • Misty (7, 9, 10)
      • Rodeo (7, 9)
      • Bio (7,9)
      • Flare 
      • Rudi, 1 ¼ back, Back full 
  • Halfpipe: 
    • Girls:  
      • Strong take offs & landings 
      • Drop in perfected
      • Spin both directions
      • 540° down the pipe
      • Grabs on every spins
      • Flare one direction
      • Allyoop both directions and switch allyoop
    • Boys:  
      • Strong take offs & landings 
      • Spins down the pipe both ways 540°, 900°
      • Grabs every spin or flip
      • Flare both directions
      • Allyoop 360° and 540° both directions
      • Switch 540° down the pipe both directions
    • *Keep working on pumping skills on in-line skate or bmx on pump track.
  • Jumps: 
    • Girls: 
      • Carve on the jumps
      • 360° both directions 
      • 540° both directions
      • 720° mute and tail ++
    • Boys:
      • 9’s foward 
      • Switch 10’s
      • All different axis 3-5-7-9’s
      • Initiation to big jumps
      • Start doubles only when all above are completed
  • Features: 
    • Girls:
      • Slide Rail both ways, 
      • 270° off L/R foot forward
      • Lip slide, switch lip and switch tails on urban tube
    • Boys
      • Switch 270°on and both 270° on,
      • All 450° off,
      • F/B swaps combos  

Tactical  

  • Skiers are encouraged to develop their course inspection skills during training and competition.
  • Learn to strategize good line in a park.
  • Self-awareness on readiness to take different size of jumps, rails and other features. 

Psychological  

  • Ensure environment promotes fun and friendship. 
  • Develop ethical approach to sport including respect for opponents and fair play and commitment to doping free sport. 
  • This is a critical stage to understand the rules of sport, values and consequences of one’s actions. 
  • Failure is part of the learning process if the athletes are pushing their limits in training, they will fail, but can learn from their mistakes with the proper mindset.   
  • Mental training plans – planning comp runs weeks prior to events, relaxation skills, anxiety control. 

Training Structure

  • Get involved in the Canfree program of the freestyle ski club and by the end of this stage, some athletes will be on a provincial team.  
  • We also encourage to participate in the sport-school programs for freestyle skiing which provide a year-round training program. 
  • Training, recovery and meaningful competition are critical components. 
  • It is important to increase progressively the training volume and intensity. This cannot be achieved in a limited time period. 
  • Careful monitoring of athlete growth and response to training will enhance the development of a plan. 
  • Freestyle ski activities recommendations, aim for:  
    • Ski 60 + days per year. 
    • Trampoline approximately 150 hours per year (structured and unstructured)
    • About 500 to jumps on the water ramp/air bag. 
    • Other structured and unstructured sports and activities. 
    • By the end of this stage, athletes can participate in an off-season ski camp.  

Example of the programming for this stage: 

  • December to March:  
    • Ski 2-3 days/week with the ski club 
    • Trampoline 2x 2h/ week organized by the ski club or a gymnastic club 
    • Physical conditioning programs 1h/week should be included in the ski or trampoline session  
  • April:  
    • Ski with friends in unstructured environment 
    • Do other activities 
  • May and June:  
    • Trampoline 2x 2h/week organized by the ski club or a gymnastic club 
    • Physical conditioning programs 1h/week should be added to the trampoline sessions. 
  • July & August:  
    • Water ramp 3-4 days/week or in more intensive training camps 
    • Trampoline 2h/week 
    • Physical conditioning programs 1h/week should be included in the water ramp or trampoline session  
  • September:  
    • Do other activities 
  • October and November:  
    • Trampoline 2x 2h/week organized by the ski club or a gymnastic club 
    • Physical conditioning programs 1h/week should be added to the trampoline sessions. 

Coaches  

Coach pathway. 

  • Coaches need  to keep on taking those following coaches’ courses:  
    • Skiing skills 
    • Moguls skills 
    • Park & Pipe 
    • Air 1 to 4 
    • Basic Mental Skills 
    • Nutrition 
    • Design a Basic Sport Program 

Terrains  

Terrain guides for MO, HP, SS 

Events & Competitions

Canada Cup guidelines

  • At the beginning of this stage, athletes participate to 3 to 5 formal regional and/or provincial events. 
  • By the end of this stage, athletes participate to 3 or 4 provincial events and 2 or 3 national events (Canada Cups, JR National) 
  • Formalized rankings are starting to be used. 
  • Competitions should:  
    • Offer equal competition opportunities by keeping participants in events rather than eliminating them. 
    • Focuses on the process of competing, not on results. 
    • Be in the “challenge zone”, resulting in close competition without blowouts or humiliating defeats. 
    • Be design for fundamental technique and basic tactical skills transfer from training. 

Judges and officials 

Judges pathway

Official pathway

  • For the regional event, judges will need a license E and D.  
  • For the provincial events, judges will need a license C for the MO and AE events and AFP Bronze for the SS, BA and HP.  
  • Officials are trained at the provincial level. 
  • They have their official level from 1 to 3. 
  • National events are organized by clubs that are part of Freestyle Canada.  
  • For the Canada Cup events, judges will need a license B for MO and AE and AFP silver for SS, BA and HP.  

Other Influences

To come

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