NENSA is excited to have a robust schedule planned for our Eastern Coaches Conference in Dublin on September 30th! Anyone from a 1st year parent volunteer to a BKL club leader or district chair is welcome to attend. This ongoing educational experience is open to all. NENSA membership provides registration for the conference (including 2 meals, presentations, a film debut, and Nordic Team Solutions coach membership raffle) and a significant subsidy for the clinics, reducing the overall cost of attendance. Whether you are new to coaching or a veteran we hope you will join us. Please fill out this application if you are in need of a scholarship, as we don’t want cost to be a barrier for attendance.
Our BKL Leader Education schedule is as follows:
11:30am Lunch provided by the Dublin School
12:15pm Drew Gelinas (US Nordic Product Director) – Swix Sport
1:00pm Classroom Presentation
2:20pm Grass Skiing
4:30pm Zach Caldwell – Ski selection for juniors, and fleet management through growth and development
5:00pm Forum
6:15pm Dinner
7:00pm Film Debut, “Why We Ski” Art Copoulos; Continued forum discussion
The BKL Coaches Training will include a presentation covering a variety of topics including an introduction to the Bill Koch League; BKL Philosophy; a case study on youth sports today; models, methods, and best practices for coaching; and coaching for long term development and success. Following the presentation we will switch gears to the soccer field where we hop on real skis and “ski” around on the grass. We will cover some basic drills and exercises with the focus on building comfort on skis and go over an assortment of games to further develop those skills. Throughout the day we have smaller group presentations by industry experts Zach Caldwell and Drew Gelinas.
The Forum Discussion will include Zach Caldwell (Caldwell Sport), Bryan Fish (US Ski and Snowboard), Drew Gelinas (Swix), Kathy Maddock of DublinXC and Sam Benzing – The Paul J. Finnegan Family Head Coach for Men’s & Women’s Nordic Skiing Harvard University. Participants are encouraged to provide and bring questions – topics that will be discussed include: the potential of further wax protocols in the future, optimizing training for a High School team, engaging your team and motivating them to train in the off- season, and how all levels of development share common themes.
