USA Curling COACHING Development Conference

I spent the
last three days at the US Olympic Training Center in Colorado Springs both
speaking at and attending an Elite Curling Coaches Development Seminar. The
conference was superbly
organized by Scott Higgins, a good friend, who is now
the Coaching Development Coordinator for US Curling. The focus of the
conference was coaching and developing an elite performance model. This sport of
Curling demands a high degree of athleticism and development of many key physical
qualities and a high degree of skill. Culturally it has been a recreational
sport, so a big task is changing the culture to compete and excel at the elite level. The coaches were a great group of
people, eager to learn and very intent on making themselves better and raising
the level of their sport. I presented on Athletic Development and did another
talk on Coaching Excellence. Jesse Hunt from US Skiing presented their model.
Bill Sands from the USOC did a great presentation on “Evaluation in Sport – Why
and What.” Bill is one of the best applied sport scientists that I know, his presentation
really got my motor running. Cathy Sellers presented on Coaching Education and
Development. Riggs Klika presented on National/Coach development Systems – A World
Perspective. Warren Pretorious from Dartfish did a great presentation on using video analysis effectively. We even did a 6:30 AM mini “Burn with
Vern” session
to let them feel multi-plane and multidimensional mindful movements.

During the whole
conference I could not help but reflect on the NSCA Conference where I had just
come from. These are the type of presentations and presenters they should have across
the board, if they do this they will define the field of Athletic development/ Strength
and Conditioning. I left this conference feeling very excited and hopeful because
I got to spend three days with coaches and applied sport scientists who are
trying to solve real world problems. The curling coaches have a whole vista
ahead of them, in essence they can define the future of their sport, which is
very exciting to me. I had the same feeling from this group as I did after my
apprentorship program. There is life beyond the NSCA and the weight room.

There is
nothing like waking up in the morning to this view of Pikes Peak!