All You can Hope For Is a Little Somthin
by Kate Morrell
PSIA-NW Tech Team
Coach - White Pass Ski Team

For some time now, I have wanted to write something groovy on how one can benefit the most from clinics. What can a person do to maximize the potential for a breakthrough clinic session? How can we line up the planets, create the perfect snow conditions, and Vulcon mind meld for absolute mutual understanding of all topic material? Since that is what it would take for clinics to be all encompassing, mind blowing, earth shattering events. I’ve been coached and have coached others on some level or another for the past 25 years and I’ve come to the conclusion that…………..drum roll please………… all any of us can hope for is to walk away from these clinic sessions with a little something to take home. The mind blowing stuff will happen accidentally but for the most part, clinics should be looked at as an avenue to gain a small piece of the preverbal puzzle. In order to pick up this piece of the puzzle our mental outlook is critical. A little humility and the correct amount of confidence on the part of clinician and clinicee (cool word for person being cliniced), will help ensure a positive experience………….mind blowing or not.

As a young ski racer I often showed very little humility and perhaps too much confidence. I can recall one instance where I had disagreed with my coach. To say we had a disagreement is an understatement to say the least. I was very confident in the fact that he was wrong and I was right. I had no problem letting him know how I felt. As a result we accomplished nothing and butted heads for the remainder of our time together. It was not until a few years later that I had the opportunity to reflect upon my relationship with this coach. As it turned out I could have learned a lot from him and perhaps, just perhaps he may have been right after all. If I had shown even the slightest bit of humility I believe we could have both benefited from our time together.

As clinicians, our humility needs to let us understand that we are not better in all areas than those in our clinics. Rest assured, we will be out skied, out talked, and outdone, in different situations. By being mentally ready for those situations, we can use them to our advantage. Do not be afraid to use your “clinicees” as an example for yourself and your other “clincees”. As clinicians, that humility needs to be tempered with healthy confidence. We are confident in clinic situations for good reason. We have been training for this and it is our job. We may not be dominant in all facets out there, but we are expert in most areas and dominate in others. The simple fact that we are in the position of clinician means we have something valuable to offer. That’s what we are trained to do, so trust it.

As skiers in a clinic, our humility helps us be open to learning. Since we are the ones being “cliniced” and not the clinician, that should tell us something right from the start. Although we may in fact be stronger in one or more areas than the clinician…so what. We have a job as professionals to be open to learning. Find out what we can learn from this person. They are in this position because they have earned it and they will have something to offer. Let’s remember to be confident, but not stubborn. We need to realize we can learn something from these clinics and walk away better than we were before. Let’s be confident that we have the skills physically and mentally that will allow the clinician to guide us to a better understanding of what it is we’re doing out there.

What inspired me to write this was looking back at some very winning relationships throughout the years between coaches and athletes as well as the relationships between clinicians and those being “cliniced” in PSIA. In the majority of instances, humility and confidence on the part of teacher and student created an atmosphere for people to get the most out of given learning situations. Trust me little bit and keep this in the back of your mind during your next clinic situation. You may just look at life a little differently out there.

by Kate Morrell PSIA-NW Tech Team Coach—White Pass Ski Team