Sport in world

Coaches Around the Country: Chad Salmela

March 6, 2008 on 8:40 pm | In Biathlon, Sports |

Published: Wed Mar 05, 2008 2:00 AM MST

Chad is head ski coach for the College of St. Scholastica in Duluth, Minnesota.

1. Skiing Background?

I grew up on the Iron Range of Minnesota, and as a 100% Finnish kid, we obviously skied. I was chubby and didnt like it all that much, but my older brother Cory ate it up. When I was 13, the State of Minnesota used tax money from the decades of iron mining to build a world class ski area to boost tourism. It was Giants Ridge. My immediate access to guys like Peter Graves, Gary Larson, and the US Ski and Biathlon Teams training and racing there regularly, got me into ski racing. I began to train, trim down, and got better every year.

I didnt race high school. My high school wouldnt allow me to compete even as an individual, but I was competitive with the best kids in the state and Peter Graves introduced us to USSA races. I was decent, but never did better than 11th at JOs. I might have as a JI when JOs were at Giants Ridge and I was busting out a great season, but I got a little flu going into the JOs and my dreams of being a JOs star pretty much got dashed that year. I committed to training with the U.S. Biathlon Team the next season so I never went back. I just remember Kevin Brockman (on the USST at the time) telling me that he wasnt all that great in high school and dont let one missed opportunity to kick ass at JOs bring you down. I doubt Kevin realizes it, but that has stuck with me through the years, and while state meets and JOs are great, fun, and exciting, I think its important for kids to realize that it is not the end-all, both if youve done well there or poorly.

I went on to do biathlon when the sport really took a professional direction in this country. The USBA hired on some successful European coaches with Walter Pichler (West Germany) and Algis Shalna (Soviet Union/Lithuania), who were both medalists in the 1984 Olympics. I was kind of just off the radar of the top skiers my age in the country like Pete Vordenberg, Marcus Nash, and that generation. I really realized that I wasnt going to get a look at international competition in straight skiing, and even though I skied classic technically well, I was a way stronger skater. When I got access to coaches like Walter and Algis, it was a no-brainer for me to go when I got the invitation to Colorado Springs that year. I even skipped my high school graduation to go to that camp.

I thought I was more talented than I probably was, which tells you something about the power of belief in yourself. Knowing what I know today, I have to say I was marginally talented to expect to get on the world stage. I worked really, really hard, but was careful, got some great coaching at a critical time in my own developmentthough I have to say it pales by comparison to whats going on today in skiing in this countryand I think I maximized what I had with what I had access to in support and knowledge and timing. I competed at the World Championships in biathlon once and on the World Cup for three seasons. I was not a natural shot, but I loved the challenge of the sport. After a very disappointing final race at the 1998 Olympic Trials, I finished out the season and quit at age 26. I still think about whether I should have gone on to try for Salt Lake because my shooting was just getting consistent, but I think I saw some writing on the wall, and I saw a huge amount of talent coming up the pipeline with Jay Hakkinen, Jeremy Teela, and Sam Cordell, and I just decided to get out of the way and get them the resources they needed to go to the real-deal level I knew they could reach. I helped coach the national team the following year, working on the teams skating technique and improving the access to quality equipment through better relationships with the ski industry. I also went to finish my degree at Middlebury College and semi-skied for the team. I have continued to be involved with the US Biathlon program at some level ever since, including coaching a junior development crew of skiers trying to become biathletes in 2000, working as sport manager at the 2002 Olympics for the biathlon competitions, and serving as the athlete representative at the USBA Board of Directors and at the U.S. Olympic Committee for the last 8 years.

2. You've been involved in both biathlon and regular nordic skiing for quite some time. What differences, similarities, or trends have you noticed in the last few years?

What excites me about both sports in this countryand Id include Nordic Combined in here as wellis that for the first time in my life, we are seeing a concerted effort. We still see blogs and chat rooms going off about how skiing is dysfunctional, and this and that, but it is really quite good these days. I coach distance running too (at St. Scholastica), and have for a number of years, and Ive got to say that across the board, the wealth of training information has improved a ton in the last decade in skiing by comparison, and it makes distance running look backwater in use of exercise physiology knowledge and application to training. I think across the board, its an exciting time for Nordic ski sport in this country.

Nationally, the clear fundamental difference between cross country and biathlon is the organization. The USBA is and always has been a small, agile organization. It has been known to be equally as political, if not more so, than the USSA cross country scene, but the size of the USBA allows greater mobility to change quickly. I was at my wits end with the organization two years ago and ready to turn awaynot because of the athletes, but because of clear barriers to international success at the bureaucratic level. I felt I was wasting my time, and I thought the organization was snuffing out the efforts of the best people involved. But some key changes that those of us still working in the organization fought to make happen over the past couple of years have finally come to fruition, and Ive never been more excited nor proud of the organization than I am right now. The USBA still has some challenges in infrastructure, just like the USSA, but we have an incredibly strong board of directors, an incredible staff in place, and weve got world class talent on our roster. I see the same thing happening with the USSA and USST, but I think with an organization this size, it has been even harder and taken longer to make it happen, so to see what the USST is doing is simply amazing and inspiring considering the size and the numbers of the cross country constituency. I think the coaching community in skiing has never been more positive and pulling in the same direction. I dont know the inner workings of how it came about, but I think that you have to applaud Luke Bodensteiner at the helm because hes making it happen, and it has to start with him. Hes the conduit up and down the organization and it takes time, but hes done it and continues to do it. I think the organizations are doing similar things to have created a trend of success on the international stage, and both sports are intertwined by nature, despite having different national governing bodies. The US Biathlon Team will only ever be as good as the US skiing community is strong.

Internationally, biathlon is simply a phenomenon, and the trend continues. I just came back from the Biathlon World Championships in Oestersund, Sweden, where the daily crowd totals, even on weekdays, exceeded 20,000. TV viewership is still through the roof. I dont think anyone in the late 80s to mid 90s could have predicted how biathlon would grow in Europe, but it is really awesome to go see that environment. I believe the fundamental differences from a 1000-foot view of the two sports on the European continent where both are inarguably seated culturally, competitively, and financially, is that the IBU made a few critical and lucky changes to formats in 1996, that have changed the sport forever for the better. The head-to-head formats, which got their impetus from the Gunderson starts in Nordic Combined, made the sport not only more exciting for the athletes, but infinitely more user friendly for television viewers.

The FIS has clearly tried to follow biathlon down the format road with running pursuits, mass starts, and sprints, but still struggle for the kind of presence biathlon has. Regardless of how you feel about those events, they are quite critical to the cultural, and by proxy, the financial success of the sport in the marketplace. Unfortunately for skiing, it is just not by nature as dramatic on television as biathlon inherently is. Biathlon is a stadium sport, in reality, and the centralized shooting range within the story line makes it extremely spectator-friendly while creating a non-linear storyline that keeps you on the edge of your seat. It is quite literally the equivalent of NASCAR because of NASCARs unpredictable nature. If you look at the fan base of biathlon, it is not a particularly active or Nordic skiing crowd. These are sports fans getting into biathlon, not skiers. I think the draw to cross country is simply harder to make for the sports fan. What the FIS has to do for equal footing? I dont know. It may not be able to. But from my experience I feel the IBU is better organized and more forward thinking than FIS on the whole. They are much more media savvy. Just compare their websites and you can see the difference. I think FIS can improve on how it packages and markets the sport for the masses.

3. You are in your 2nd year as head coach of College of St. Scholastica. Can you bring us up to speed with the new program?

My program has incredible support from the college and were in a town that simply SHOULD have a collegiate ski program. Duluth is a great place to live if your active in the outdoors, and it is a huge Nordic skiing center in numbers of skiers and ski trails. The school is really going for it in trying to become a nationally viable NCAA Division III intercollegiate athletics program. We have a strong budget and a great group of kids. Our program is a place where kids who want to ski race in college can ski race in college, while our focus is still to be nationally competitive. I have an incredible staff with Brad Nelson, an NCSA standout in the early 90s at Northern Michigan, and Scott and Sara Kylander-Johnson. Sara went to junior worlds in cross country in 1992 and was an NCAA All-American for NMU that same year, while Scott is an outstanding mountain biker with a decade of coaching high school kids at both running and skiing. We also get some volunteer help from Andre Watt from the CXC team. We have a varsity travelling team that is fully funded for CCSA competitions, and a development team for those beyond the varsity spots. Weve been really competitive in our second year, and Bjorn Bakken will be representing us at the NCAA Championships in Bozeman. We also narrowly missed a second qualifier in Tyler Kjorstad. Both are Duluth boys, and its really fun to be mixing it up with guys from right here in Northern Minnesota. Bjorn, who is trying to buff out his classic coming from biathlon, is skiing really fast in freestyle and its fun to see him skiing faster than he ever has. Im continuing to talk to more kids around the Midwest and across the country about the program, and I think weve got a great head of steam going into next season. Anyone interested in researching our program can go to www.csssaints.com

4. Announcing! Your voice is pretty common at big skis races, the Mora, olympics ski races, etc. Why not make a career out of announcing?

Yeah, thats a good one! I like announcing. I think it is critical to bringing excitement to the sport, but you really cant make a living at it. I think ski races need announcing to make them more excitingespecially sprint races in cities. But between doing PA announcing at events and TV on cable, I simply cant scratch enough of a living out of it. I think if I was a native German speaker living in Germany, I could for sure. I have been encouraged by the producer of most of our domestic biathlon broadcasts to seek more off-season employment in other sports to cross over, and with WCSN now broadcasting a lot of the sports I know and follow, thats a possibility, but its also a really tough lifestyle. Lots of travel. I announced with Bob Papa for 3 seasons on OLN, and he is the New York Giants radio voice and did a lot of work with ESPN and now more and more with NBC, makes a very good living, but he has worked for many years to get there, and he is GOOD! But he has been known to be on the road 40+ weekends a year. I just dont know if Im cut out for that. Ive also always seen myself as a coach for some reason. I like my current job and my boss has been very flexible in allowing me to do some announcing when it doesnt affect my teams, so it a nice balance right now.

5. You are an ideas kind of person. (a good thing!). What's been digging at you this recent ski season? Or, any wild ideas?

Well, the block intensity training that is going on is interesting. I dont think there is any doubt it is workingfor some very talented, tough athletes. I look at Kalla, Bjoergen, Scott, Demong, Burketheyve all raised their level, reportedly from the block intensity programs. I know Pete and Matt are doing this at the USST, or at least working towards it. The one thing that seems consistent to me is that it is working to varied degrees on individuals within teams trying to make it work. One thing I wonder, however, is the longevity of it, and if it works, is longevity beyond age 25 even something to worry about? From what I can piece together 2nd and 3rd hand is that Becky Scott cranked on it at the twilight of her career, and I doubt shed ever reconsider what she did. Bjoergen is an interesting case. You have to wonder about the bouts of sickness after several years of this type of training. I know its working for Tim Burke. No doubt. Hes in his second year and had an exhaustion phase in December and January, but when he rested and came back, he was still at the same level in Oestersund.

What these skiers are doing now makes the training from my day look like childs play. But what has been digging at me as a coach is the when, the how, and the how much, especially at different levels of athletes. Hard training is nothing new, and I think you can look at a lot of successful high school or college distance running programs and see some seriously hard training regimens. But the aftermath of them clearly something we tend not to address enough. I think of Adam Goucher (talented US runner) post Univ. Colorado for example. He has struggled. Theres no doubt what he did as a college athlete was massively intense, and it probably worked for those college years, but was it the right thing at 20, 21, 22 for international success post-college? Was it structured and monitored enough to ensure world class competitiveness after college? I think these are interesting things to ponder for which I have no concrete answers, but I have thought a lot about and have some hunches.

I believe the block training is the future for world class skiers, because it is so clearly working, and it is working in the current fashion because of scientific study, greater experiences of coaches, and more means to monitoring training adaptations. It is not gut feel training anymore. It is planned; WELL-planned, well-executed, and well-monitored training. As a coach of college skiers with college schedules and stresses, the spinning going on in my mind is how to effectively use these Max VO2-increasing techniques without destroying the overall physical health of young athletes, developing them into healthy post-collegiate ski racers. I think it can be done, but for someone with world class talent, I dont know if you can keep up with what non-college skiers are doing across the pond. It really doesnt affect me right now at St. Scholastica and it may never, but I think it is a question burning a hole in the role of college skiing as an international development tool for the United States. Winning internationallycan we keep up in college? I think it is a burning hole that affects very few, highly talented individuals though. Overall, I think college skiing is awesome and one of the best circuits of supported ski racing for this age group in the world, and I love coaching at this level. Im just trying to get a handle on what I can do with this block intensity training model with my athletes. Im spinning on it

Regardless, many of us in the coaching community need to be having more conversations with the coaches who are doing the training and having success, or who hare having problems so we can learn from their experiences. We will likely never get a scientific breakdown of long-term training effect over the course of athletes careers, so its all experience and hunches anyway peppered with studies done in a flash of what is reality. Regardless, I think I could use more coaches education, probably like many of us out there working with athletes.

I think I have a handle on my role as a college coach, and I like it, but I still think about it on a greater scale beyond my job. Other than that and block training, I dont have a lot of wild ideas beyond starting a rock band at the end of the season.

6. Predictions for nordic overall World Cup champion, men and women.

Honestly, I wish I was tighter on the data on this question, but I like Lukas Bauer, and I think hell do it on the mens side. I think Petter Northug is cool and good for the sport. I like his brash style and the way he races with abandon. I think hell be the next big star. I also like Anders Soedergren. Skis kind of funny-looking with his head cocked back, but I think hes fun to watch ski. Newell is good for the sport, not just the US. I like how he is skiing classic sprints so technically sound and looking towards the future. I watched the classic sprint from Otepaa while in Oestersund, and while it wasnt Andys best race, you could see that the USST is on the cutting edge of sprint training, so I predict more success for the US in sprinting.

On the womens side, I sincerely hope Kalla takes down Kuitunen. My wife is Finnish and we spent Christmas in Finland, and I can tell you the nation is embarrassed by their cross country skiers, yet Kuitunen still was Finnish Sportswoman of the Year last year. Go figure? Whether clean or not, Kuitunen hasnt been before, and thats enough to have me rooting for Kalla.

7. You just recently were married! Congrats!

Yeah, its been a long time coming! Happened quickly. We have lived semi parallel lives but in different sports. Shes a hockey player, but skis really pretty well because she spent time on skis as a kid in Finland. Im trying to get her to ski the Korteloppet this weekend and truly indoctrinate her with the Birkie Fever (I like to say it with a deadpan, monotone Finnish accent that really drives her crazy).

8. How 'bout this recent surge in biathlon results in the last few years? (especially men's results?..burke, lowell, teela, jay, etc….)

I think the US mens team is very strong with talent. Burke has really come on and I think its the training. My brother coached both Tim and Lowell as juniors, and he always saw these guys eventually at the top. Jay and Jeremy have both had solid international results, and we have a team that I think has the potential to go toe-to-toe with the best in the world, and theyve been showing it already. They are a bit of a buzz over on the scene in Europe, which is really fun to see. I think they will be dialed for Vancouver.

9. Anything else you'd like to add?

I think we are all experiencing a true Renaissance in Nordic skiing in this country. Kikkan won this year. Newell number one last year on the FIS sprint points. Demong is one of the best in the world. Burke and Hakkinen have both been in the top ten multiple times this season in biathlon. This stuff doesnt just happen. Its too hard for it to just happen. It comes from planning, serious, professional approaches to success on the international level that bleeds across the community with each effort each of us makes. Looking at the results from US Nationals, the womens field is incredibly stronger than just a few years ago, and regardless of some views, the USST quite simply is performing consistently better than almost any time in its history. Im excited to be a part of this community. I think it is a great group of people and there is no reason for us to be divided. Its good to be competitive with our programs within the US community, but not to the detriment of the national good. I think we are as close to that spirit as weve ever been in my lifetime, and I hope cynics will get on board and be part of the excitement rather than try to punch holes in it.

Thanks Chad!
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