Designing a Training Plan for an Exam
by Terry McLeod PSIA-NW Tech Team, Schweitzer MLC Director

I often hear people talk about “training for exam”, but have you ever considered applying the methods that elite athletes in other sports use in their preparation? I don’t mean a strict regimen of self-discipline, grueling workouts, and suffering, I just mean having a clear understanding of how, when, and what needs to be trained. The following is a description of how to put together a season long exam preparation plan that will help focus and clarify your training process. This is similar to topics that were presented at Fall Seminar, so it may either refresh what you heard there, or make you realize what you missed.

The two main concepts that I’ll borrow from athletic training are periodization and system specific training. We’ll mainly focus on what we mean by system specific training. For example, in cycling (which is my background) some of the physical “systems” we train include endurance, power, and anaerobic threshold. If I only went on long rides I would have great endurance, but would quickly get dropped from the pack when things got hard, and wouldn’t have any sprint at the end. If I only did sprints I might be blazing fast but never make it to the end of the race. If I chose to focus on my anaerobic threshold and capacity I may actually do pretty well, but couldn’t reach my full potential for longer races or in top end sprints.

For certification our three main systems could be skiing, teaching, and professional knowledge, and each of these have sub-systems within them to be trained. In skiing we recognize that all four skills must be well developed in order to be able to vary the blend and arrive at different outcomes (tasks). We can easily point out the problem of a student who has a strong rotary movement that turns the skis but overpowers a weak edging skill to tip and hold them up on edge. It’s also useful to practice the exam tasks so that you’re familiar and coordinated with the blend of skills that each requires. But, our skiing will still be incomplete unless we work on that hard to define area of versatility or “real skiing” sometimes referred to as “touch”. This means going down different runs at different speeds using different tactics and making it all look easy.

As we train for the teaching portion we often spend a lot of time honing in on our progressions to be sure that one step builds on another and that we’re appropriately addressing important student needs. While this is important, if we neglect to deliver information in ways that address different learning styles we won’t connect well with all of our class. It’s also easy to overlook the importance of practicing teaching to our peers in order to be comfortable presenting to them and also to insure that our pacing is right so that we accomplish what we need to in the timeframes given.

Some of the training needs in the professional knowledge section include accurate movement analysis, good assessment of what will best meet the students needs, and the ability to be coherent when involved in group discussions.

So if these are the basic things we need to train, how do we go about organizing our plan plan? The first step is making an honest assessment of our strengths and weaknesses. You can start by listing what first comes to mind, but then be certain to specifically analyze each of the three areas above so that your list is balanced across all the test material. Then you need to look at your available time, money, and energy. Of these three things, time may be the most important as you build your program. Do you have one day every week that you can devote to on snow training? One evening each week that you know you can focus on indoor reading, videos, classes, etc? If you have the time, then do you have the dollars to spend on frequent divisional clinics, the Professional Development Series, or private coaching? Often overlooked is the question of how much energy you’re willing to devote to the cause. Another way of asking this is, how much are you willing to sacrifice? Certainly we recognize that professional athletes and Olympians give up many things in their quest to be the best in their field. Generally speaking, the more single minded your focus, the more likely success will be. However, the next certification level probably isn’t worth sacrificing your marriage, savings account, career, friendships, etc., so you need to figure out where your idea to involve other people in the process of assessing these things. Your coach or TD can provide some insight into strengths and weaknesses, while family members or close friends can help you be realistic with the time, money and energy you can put into it. Also as you go through this evaluation, you may realize that the training plan needs to cover more than one season to accomplish your goal. Or, if you were already thinking that you were on a two or three year plan, you may realize that you’re capable of pulling it off in less time. Either way, it helps to clarify the process you’re undertaking.

Ok, so now we’ve looked at what will be tested and we’ve determined our personal abilities and commitments. Now let’s look at what tools we can use to help us along the way. Write down who you know and what their contribution could be. Your ski school trainer, gym trainer, ski buddies, and your personal coach/mentor are obvious choices, but what about college professors, business people or even the car salesman? People outside the industry can have valuable insights on things like learning/teaching styles, group dynamics, presentation skills and methods, and positive self-talk. Also, research what Divisional events are available and where they will be and when. Is your ski school planning a member school clinic for the coming season? What books or videos do you own or can you borrow? Will you need to buy some new ones?

Now we’re ready to put it all together. First, get a calendar or make one so that you have the entire time period between now and when you’re event is. Then write everything relevant down that has already been scheduled. This obviously includes clinic and exam dates, but don’t forget things like when you need to have prerequisites done (written tests, dues paid) and the deadline for getting your TD’s signature and the registration form in. Less obvious but equally important are non-skiing dates: little Johnny’s Christmas program, business trips, family vacations, etc. Some of these may conflict with on-snow dates, but they can also contribute to your overall stress load and ability to focus on training. This brings up the concept of periodization that I mentioned earlier.

Athletes and their trainers know that the best training isn’t accomplished by a long steady slog of effort up to the goal. They try to plan training with specific periods of stress, followed by adequate time for recovery. It’s important to remember that this means all accumulated stress (physical, mental, and emotional) from all different sources, training specific and otherwise. In cycling there’s a certain order that is necessary for good development, and to some degree that’s also true for skiing. Definitely for the skiing portion of your training you will want to solidify fundamental movements before training complex and difficult tasks. For teaching you will need to know your progressions before you try to polish your presentations and pacing. And if you don’t have a reasonable level of professional knowledge you won’t have the judgment necessary to build good progression in the first place. Since everyone has different needs, abilities, and constraints each plan will look different, but here are some things to keep in mind. Like I just mentioned, make sure you start with important foundation skills. Consider the benefits of grouping your training of one system into a specific time frame (i.e. spending a straight month focused mainly on teaching skills), versus mixing your training time between systems. If you’re particularly weak in one area it may be wise to devote a lot of time to it early on, but be sure to plan when and how you will add in the other areas. This is closely related to how long it will take you to really “own” or master a new skill or thought concept. Particularly with teaching methods and technical understanding it’s very valuable to have real classes to be able to try out and use what you’re learning. Also be sure to build in recovery time. Some athletes use what’s called micro- cycles and macro-cycles. A micro- cycle for a bike racer is typically one week where each day or two is devoted to training a different physiological system. A macro-cycle could be 8-10 weeks, after which a week or 10 days are taken “off”, with greatly reduced training loads. If you’re on snow 4-5 days a week this same time format may work for you, but if you’re a weekend warrior you’ll need to vary it to fit your needs. This may mean four or five focused weekends followed by a “free” weekend where you remove yourself from the pressure of “preparing” and just ski around like a kid again. Remember to take time away from book work and tech talks during your off time as well. By building in rest periods your desire and energy for training will stay high the whole season, which allows you to train harder when it’s work time. This is exactly why athletes do it; better rest means better training (harder and smarter). 

So now we know what’s going to be tested, what we bring to the table, what tools and resources are available to assist us, when we’re working on what, plus we know when we have breaks in the process. This means we’re done with the planning stage and ready to start the actual training. We’ve gone to a lot of work and the season hasn’t even started yet. Is it worth it? To answer that, let’s skip to the end of the process and look at what happens after you get your scorecard. Naturally the plan is for success, but unfortunately a well thought out and executed training plan doesn’t guarantee a passing grade. It does make it easier to see where you went right and where you didn’t do so well. Whatever the result, take some time to write down what you learned and what your next step is. Most athletes keep a training log or journal to help them in this process of looking back which is also the first step in moving forward with future plans. Weeks or months later as you review this log or look back on the training plan, some things will seem so obvious as to why they did or didn’t work as you hoped. Whether you pass or not you’ll definitely be a better all around instructor.

This process can be as long and complicated as you want to make it and most sports stars have one or more people that they pay to help them in this planning. Whether you choose to follow this outline step by step or if you just borrow one or two elements from it, the goal is to make your training more efficient and productive. So get out your pens and paper, start making lists and filling in dates so that you know exactly when and where the best training of the season will be because you planned it that way.