 |
 Member Login » Browse Articles By Date » |
Coaches Around the Country: Trond Flagstad
Updated: Sat Apr 12, 2008 10:30 PM MDT Trond Flagstad has been coaching for the University of Alaska-Anchorage (UAA) since 2001. He and his wife Lindsey, 8 month old VeBjorn, and dog Burra live in the hills above Anchorage.  The ever-changin Soldier Hollow whop-job wax combination Tell us about yourself, background, etc. I grew up in Norway in a small town 3km outside Hamar it’s about 45 minutes south of Lillehammer. All the kids in the neighborhood were around the same age and we basically grew up outside being very active in all sports of skiing (xc, alpine, jumping) We also played hockey and in the summer it was soccer and track & field. I started ski racing when I was about 8 years old. During High School I had to choose one sport because the training load on one sport became to much to handle two sports simultaneously. Soccer also became a year around sport with games in the winter which didn’t help much with trying to fit in all the skiing! After High School I spent one year in the military were I was in a special unit for athletes. We had half the day off to train and in the winter we could travel to most of the races with our home club. After the year in military I decided not to go to college but train and race full time instead, and one of the reasons for not going to school was that I was burned out on combining school and training. I managed to be a “full time skier” by living at home and working part time, while the rest of the support came from my home club and the regional team I was on at my hometown. The two teams provided coaching, training camps, travel, and lodging support at races as well as entry fees and training clothes etc. The clubs and regional teams in Norway get money from sponsors and volunteer work. The athletes had to do a fair share of work to raise money for their club and their regional teams. At age 25 I went back to school and got my degree in sport science from the University of Trondheim in Norway. I continued to pursue skiing while at the University and ironically enough I had my best years as a skier while studying full time at the University in Trondheim from 1995 to 1999. My connection to US skiing came about in 1992 when three Middlebury Ski Team skiers fresh out of college and decided to move to Norway and Hamar to train for the 1994 Olympic trials in Anchorage Alaska. Chris “Flash” Clark, Barney Hodges and John Cooley (the Middlebury gang) joined the Hamar Ski Club and for two years trained and lived among Norwegian skiers to follow their dream to race in the Olympics. Later, when I visited them in Vermont I met my American wife Lindsey. After I finished my degree in Trondheim we decided to move to Alaska for no other reason than pure adventure. Anchorage is at sea-level. Most of the western NCAA schools are at elevation. What's it like coaching a sea-level team that races up at elevation? It is a challenge for sure but the most important thing for the athletes is to not think about it in negative terms – not let it be a mental barrier. We focus on it as a challenge that we can master if we take the right approach. It also helps that we have a good record of racing fast at all altitudes even at 10,000 feet in New Mexico. After you have been to New Mexico everything else seems like a piece of cake……. It is very interesting to see how altitude affects people and how different people react to it. We have tried everything from altitude tents to coming up the day before races and the effect is always different from person to person. Because of our long travel our racing season looks like blocks of altitude training camps. Our standard plan the last few years has been to spend two to three weeks at altitude during the first trip of the the January college circuit of races. Then we go home for 10 days, and then we go back to altitude for 12 days and so on. The kids miss an awful lot of school but they are remarkable good students and our professors at UAA are very accommodating and helpful. My experience the last 7 years is that during the season it gets easier and easier to come back to altitude, and every year it seems like the body acclimates faster and faster. Here are some of the things we do to help acclimation, training and racing when we go to altitude: We make sure we stay well hydrated, ski slow the first few days, eat the right foods, take iron supplements (this is especially important for women) Our women check their iron levels regularly, if they are under the normal limits they take liquid iron supplements well in advance of racing season (2 months) When you race at altitude you have to race differently than at sea level, mostly it’s a pacing issue. When we come home we train easy for the first 3-4 days, we make sure the pace is easy because everybody feels great and want’s to race each other at practice.  Racing at Senior Nat'ls in Soldier Hollow (Krista Radar photo) Do you think being a coach that 'races and trains' with your athletes makes you a better coach? Not necessarily, but I do believe that if you as a coach can show or demonstrate good technique you can get the point across a little easier. A lot of time kids have a hard time with pacing at easy-distance, L3 and L4, so sometimes it helps to be out there to set the pace whether it’s a slower pace or a faster pace. I also like to coach a lot one-on-one and skiing with somebody for 2 hours working on technique, pacing, transition, downhills, etc is very effective because you get to see what the athletes is doing out on the course and give instant feed back. Racing with athletes can go both ways, if you beat them and they say – “hey this sucks, we need to train more and better so we can beat this old guy” – if they beat you, you know you’re getting older and feel like retiring on the spot – unless of course you are Frode Lillefjell. It’s another good way to get a point across! Frode and I always talk about why this is and the answer is always the same…. the ability to ski relaxed and efficient (using as little energy as possible while skiing fast) because it clearly isn’t fitness. You built a beautiful timber frame house in the mountains in Anchorage a year ago. How's it coming along? The house is coming along slowly. We are living in it while we are building so it’s a work in progress. I was inspired by two friends of mine that built timber frame houses; Chris “Flash” Clark and Barney Hodges whom both skied for Middlebury. Flash is a great builder and he helped us get started. We have 2.5 acres in the woods so it feels like living in the wilderness. We have moose, bear and lynx walking through our yard on a regular base. The best part about the whole thing is that I use my neighbors and skiers to do all the hard labor work! Can you address NCAA skiing and its effectiveness in athlete development? NCAA skiing can be both good and bad for a skiers development, it depends a lot on where you go to school and if you have the opportunity to do a lot of quality ski training and racing. In addition you need to have a coach that cares about your long term development. For college coaches that can be a dilemma because we are paid to field the best possible team at the NCAAs in March. Most of all it depends on the skier, if you want to be good you can be good whether you go and ski in college or you decide not to ski in college. I believe a skier can develop either way. Whether you go to college or not at age 18 should depend more on where you’re at in your development at age 18. If you are in the top 10 at WJ’s and place in the top 30 in world cup races, you might be better off going for it right out of high school. If you are not at that level yet and need some more development, college skiing might be the right place for you to develop. It takes a long time to develop as a skier and most skiers will not reach their full potential until their late twenties or early thirties. Most skiers in this country quit long before they get to that stage and the reason for that has of course to do with the financial aspect of it but there is also a cultural aspect. The financial aspect is huge and is lacking all the way from the top to the bottom, from National teams to private teams and clubs. There is good support for a few on the National team and there are some excellent clubs and private sponsored teams out there, but across the board it’s not great. With the cultural aspect, I mean the acceptance in this country to be a ski bum for 15 years out of high school or to be ski bum for 10-15 years after college. In the light of this I think college skiing has a place in development. Most colleges provide excellent support in everything from coaching, waxing, clothing, housing, food and travel to races and training. Back to the skier. It’s all in the skiers hands whether you go to college or not. You need to train a lot and a lot of good training over many years – it is that simple! I totally agree with US Team Coach Pete Vordenberg, that we as a ski nation need to train more and train more quality. I have seen more underdeveloped kids coming from high school than I have seen skiers being on track in their development, and ours skiers need to be on the track from a younger age so that when they come to high school and college they can focus on training hours and training quality instead of coming to college to learn basic technique skills and how to ski efficiently. From my experience at UAA, I have seen that it is possible to train between 700 and 800 hours in college, but it means that you have to be ready for it when you come to college and you need to be efficient, determined, and disciplined, and have a great work ethic, goals, and focus. Your life needs to evolve around skiing, school, eating and sleeping. The most important part of the training season for college athletes is the summer: you need to train a lot in May, June, July and August so that you can train a little less during the school year and still be on track for the 700 to 800 hours. Personally I think it’s too much talk about hours, what you do in those hours is a lot more important than how many hours you get in your training log. Being efficient is about quality in the workouts!  Racing in West Yellowstone (Krista Radar photo) What's the best thing about being a skier at UAA? The academic programs are getting real good at UAA and the ski coaches are committed and all-in when it comes to developing young skiers! The best thing about being a skier at UAA is that you can ski from campus to Kincaid or from campus to Hillside. The annual ski marathon race, The Tour of Anchorage goes right through the APU/UAA campus. The next best thing is that we have snow from mid October until May, six days ago we got 16 inches on the hillside (april 5th!) – spring skiing is in the bank! Living in Anchorage and training at sea level enables our skiers to train with higher quality than those living at altitude, personally I think this is an advantage and I know people will disagree with me. Historically Anchorage skiers have done really well at altitude so I never look at going to altitude to race is a disadvantage. The UAA campus is next to the Alaska Pacific University (APU) campus so we have a great connection to the APU Nordic Ski Center. The coaches share information and knowledge with each other, our athletes train together when their not with their teams and we send skiers to each others teams pre and post College depending on where they are at in their development and what the best fit is for the athlete. All-in-all, UAA and Anchorage has a small town feel with and awesome ski community that supports their teams and clubs.  (Krista Radar photo)  Thanks Trond!
|
|
