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Snowboard team gets organized with help from Whistler Sports Centre

For years Canada has been churning out A-list snowboarders almost effortlessly, as kids from coast to coast converge on ski hills and in terrain parks to push each other to go bigger and faster.

For years Canada has been churning out A-list snowboarders almost effortlessly, as kids from coast to coast converge on ski hills and in terrain parks to push each other to go bigger and faster. For the past two years, Quebec’s Jasey-Jay Anderson has been crowned as the overall World Cup champion. Ross Rebagliati won the first ever snowboard Olympic gold medal in alpine. In the World Cup halfpipe and big air events, you can usually find at least one Canadian in the top 10.

But while the scene may be healthy now, the Canadian Snowboard Federation is determined to make sure that Canada puts athletes on the podium internationally in the future.

With strong national programs in the U.S., Europe and Japan to compete against, Canada needed to boost support for its own programs, especially at the development level – up to now, the CSF has focused almost entirely on the management of the High Performance Program.

As a result, the Canadian Snowboard Federation and the Telus Whistler Sports Centre have teamed up to create a Sport Development Model that extends down to the provincial, regional and club levels.

"In the past, snowboarding in Canada could have been compared to going on a trip without a map," says Tim O’Brien, a member of the CSF’s executive committee. "This project is the creation of a map for all stakeholders in our sport."

At the 2002 Pizza Pops Canadian National and Junior National Snowboard Championships in Tremblant, Quebec, the CSF organized a meeting of the provincial team coaches and provincial sport organizations to discuss the need for a clearly identified structure for the development of athletes, coaches and officials from the grassroots level through the highest international level.

The CSF and Telus Whistler Sports Centre, under the direction of Todd Allison, will design the Sport Development Model with the assistance of Istvan Balyi, a renowned sports planner and author of the AIM (Athlete Integration Management) document for alpine skiing.

"What we’re doing is bringing in people from alpine skiing and freestyle skiing from around the country, the coaches, physios, team doctors, the strength and conditioning people, and adapting that knowledge to snowboarding at every level," says Allison, the manager of the Sports Centre. "We’re bringing it right down to the club structure, so they can put more athletes on the podium."

There is currently only one snowboard club in B.C., the Whistler Valley Snowboard Club. The club has been successful in producing athletes that can compete and win at the provincial, national and international levels, and based on their example Allison would like to see more clubs around the province and Canada.

The clubs would then use the Sport Development Model to expose younger members to training regimens and skills development in such a way that they improve faster, compete more, and have a solid foundation they can build on.

"It could mean that a 12-year-old snowboarder starts an exercise routine, or spends some time on acrobatic skills, and on the trampoline," says Allison. "The idea is to expose them to the right things at the right age rather than having them try to catch up later."

The alpine program has to compete against countries that have already adapted ski development programs to snowboard racing. While the freestyle athletes and coaches are considerably less structured, the model will evaluate what works to tailor programs for these athletes as well.

According to Allison, the CSF has wanted a development model for some time now, but has been too busy organizing the national program with its limited resources.

"That’s where the Sports Centre comes in, giving them the tools, bringing in representatives from other sports, helping to develop coaching and club models around the province." says Allison. The Telus Whistler Sports Centre is part of the 2010 Olympic bid’s Legacies Now program, and divides its time between supporting our existing high performance athletes and developing programs for the next generation of winter athletes.

"Snowboarding is very much a community of various individuals that have knowledge in many essential fields. The goal is to receive input and feedback from these sources and prepare our athletes, coaches and officials for competitive snowboarding ranging from local competitions to the Olympics of 2006, 2010 and beyond," O’Brien says.

A workgroup session has been scheduled in Whistler on Aug. 12 and 13 in which the CSF and stakeholders will develop a working model for the development of athletes, coaches and officials in Canada. After this session, the CSF will work out the logistics with stakeholders to ensure that the Sport Development Model is in place for the 2003-2004 season. Some of the elements may be incorporated right away.

In announcing its programs for the 2002-2003 season, the CSF has already expanded its focus beyond the national and development teams.

Tom Hutchinson, often referred to as the Yoda of Canadian snowboarding, has been named head coach for the National Freestyle Team this year. Whistler’s Christian Hrab will coach the National Alpine Team.

At the National Development Team level, where athletes compete in Continental Cup and NorAm competitions, the coaches are Whistler's Greg Salmon (alpine) and Joe McAdoo (freestyle).

The CSF will also assume responsibility for the National Snowboard Training Centre, the primary goal of which is to identify top provincial team and club athletes that have the potential to compete with the national and development teams.

Furthermore, the CSF will manage a National Junior Team, which is a departure from the past practice of assembling teams at the last minute based on results. The National Junior Team will compete at the ISF and FIS World Junior Championships and the Topolino Junior Event under the direction of national team and development team coaches. The junior team will also participate in selected training opportunities related to those events.

The CSF will also announce new elements as the 2002-2003 season progresses, including programs to help with training and competitive needs of snowboarders.