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Return to Sport... any other kids ski race clubs developing SOPs on what things should look like next season?

crazycanuck

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I am one of the U10 parent reps at my son's race club, and am serving on a committee this summer looking at creating standard operating procedures for the club and guidance documents for parents as to how we might operate next season during likely COVID19 restrictions. As I told the club president, I am for optimistically working under the assumption that the hill will be open in some form, and we need to proactively figure out how we would operate the race training program in that context. Admittedly the worst case scenario is that there is no race training at all, but I think at this point it is in best interests to assume there will be skiing in some modified form and we need to be plan how to make that happen.

Clearly a part of that plan will be subject to national and provincial/state bodies like Alpine Canada, etc. That is in particular true when it comes to how we might operate races (although my bet is that we all have to adapt and just stay within province/state for races next year, but hopefully I am wrong).

I am wondering though if other clubs have started looking at the day-to-day practical side of actually running training days. We have a meeting on this in two weeks, and I will be happy to share our discussions with others if they are interested, and equally I am keen to learn other club's thoughts as well. We are trying to think through lots of things like whether we should decrease training group sizes (i.e. decrease ratio) or not, if so can/should we hire more coaches or simply decrease allowable registrations, only allow the kids to use the t-bar (one at a time) and not a quad lift, should we not allow kids access to the race club shack, etc etc etc

My bet is that in order to operate at all we will need a waiver from public health, and as part of that I would bet we will need a well thought out (and approved) SOP for operating the club during COVID19. Happy to hear other clubs thoughts and to share our own!
 

Jilly

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I would think that Alpine Canada and SOD would be producing something. I know that Dragon Boat Canada already has some info out. But the social distancing this is stopping us. We can take out OC-1's.

Much will depend on what local hills have for lifts, capacity etc...
 

S.H.

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Not sure for CAN, but I'd take a look at how summer camps at Mt Hood are being run, look for any instances of COVID spread over the summer associated with camps at Hood, and go from there. Are any camps running over at Blackcomb this summer?

Depending on the size of your home mountain/training venue and the number of athletes ... this could either be really tricky or not that hard. Does your club have its own lift? Does the club have a dedicated training venue? How crowded is the lift that serves that venue?

In general, I think that each club will need to operate in accordance with how the resort is operating generally. My guess is Alpine Canada and USSA will both come out with guidance documents. I think it's too early to know what's appropriate. Let's see how summer goes and make a plan in the fall.

My guess is you'll have a decent number of folks self-select out. The hardest part will be how to have appropriate distancing on lifts and inside. And that's a problem resorts will have to solve. On the hill stuff should be fairly easy.
 
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crazycanuck

crazycanuck

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Does your club have its own lift? Does the club have a dedicated training venue? How crowded is the lift that serves that venue?

In general, I think that each club will need to operate in accordance with how the resort is operating generally. My guess is Alpine Canada and USSA will both come out with guidance documents. I think it's too early to know what's appropriate. Let's see how summer goes and make a plan in the fall.

My guess is you'll have a decent number of folks self-select out. The hardest part will be how to have appropriate distancing on lifts and inside. And that's a problem resorts will have to solve. On the hill stuff should be fairly easy.

Good idea to look at Mt. Hood and learn from it.

For our club we have the kids start the minute the lifts start spinning (9am), and the hill is pretty quiet at that point. They then do drills for 2 hours, and then come off the hill at 11am for lunch. 11 is often when the hill slowly starts to get busier in part because the group ski schools start at 10:30. Then at noon, when everyone else is coming off the hill for lunch they go back out and do 2 hours of gates. Largely that schedule helps them avoid crowded lift lines. As far as distancing while in the line... totally agree that how that happens will be up to the hill to solve. We do have a dedicated training building, and in past years that was used in part for off-snow coaching, but we will have to look at that closely in terms of the numbers of kids and whether we can still do that.

But while I agree that Alpine Canada and USSA will certainly weigh in at some point, but I don't think we can wait until the fall to make a plan. We launch registration in September, and we want to be able to communicate at that time the plan that will be put in place so that parents can make an informed choice about what to do.

How does insurance factor into these decisions?

Likely. Insurance purely for athletes and anything that happens to them on the hill is part of they Alpine Canada fee that every club athlete has to have. But I am not sure what the situation is with liability insurance for the club itself. I certainly intend to ask that at our meeting in a couple of weeks.
 

S.H.

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But while I agree that Alpine Canada and USSA will certainly weigh in at some point, but I don't think we can wait until the fall to make a plan. We launch registration in September, and we want to be able to communicate at that time the plan that will be put in place so that parents can make an informed choice about what to do.

IMO, it's all about how you handle inside space. The powers that be at the club I've coached with for the last many years have a plan to basically never be inside with athletes in 2020-21 if necessary. Boot up in the lot is an option, and we have the infrastructure to do video outside on iPads vs. in one of our structures (coaches room/timing building/etc.) We don't have a dedicated gym, but we do share a facility with a few other groups at the mountain. Depending on how things shake out as we get closer to the fall, we will probably avoid the gym as a club and leave that up to parents.

If you have to create something now, depending on your club's risk tolerance, the sensible thing to do would be to avoid indoor meeting spaces, or to take a cue from how businesses and offices are reopening now. For example, requiring masks, limiting gatherings to <10 people, and allowing common spaces to "air out" and be unoccupied for >30-min or 1 hr after meetings take place. Probably also would want some sort of checklist/check-in to document all participants' (athletes, coaches, volunteers, etc.) symptoms and assurances (from adults, not minors) that the participants do not have symptoms. Require that any symptomatic people absolutely cannot participate, and cannot return to participation unless they meet [CRITERIA]. Criteria will probably come from federal/state/provincial/local guidelines, but for now, say, no symptoms for 10 days or two negative test results (not antibody tests) - I'm not a public health expert by any means, but off the top of my head these seem to be the guidelines. You may also want to make sure you have backup/assistant coaches you have that you feel are capable of leading a group, should any of your head coaches become symptomatic. Redundancy is great, but club coaches are not that easy to find.

Depending on how the world is in the fall, you may also want to require that everyone have some sort of face covering, and mandate wearing in lift lines, on the lift if with others, and when in groups on the hill (and when inside).

An issue will be that it's winter, and feeling "a little sick" may be reason to force athletes to sit out, possibly for weeks. Getting parent buy-in may be difficult. And enforcement may be difficult (depends on your club's culture).

Depending on your club's insurance (again, not sure how it works in CAN, but in the states, many clubs get their insurance through USSA), you may have to adopt the governing body's guidelines.

As far as on the hill, we can keep the same (low) ratios and spread out 10-ft apart. Lifts will be up to the hill - but we're so rarely crowded I don't think that will be an issue. On a typical training day, everyone can have their own lift and it barely slows things down. We have about 5 days with lift lines every year - those days will be trickier, but again, up to the hill, not us.
 
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Wilhelmson

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In other sports many parents are concerned with how clubs handled the abrupt end to the 2020 season and how possible refunds for next year will be handled.
 

hbear

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Whistler/Blackcomb is closed this summer.
I suspect next season is going to be very dependent upon what the school situation is.
Hard to make a case programs should be fully running if kids are not back in school.

That being said we are working on the assumption of small coach/athlete ratios. Sadly being Alberta based this might happen regardless given the financial difficulty a lot of people are facing. It wouldn’t surprise me if registration is WAY down next season (specifically for the U14 and up ages) where racing comes with a hefty price tag (After tax dollars to boot).

It also would not surprise me to see races cancelled or heavily modified. 150 athletes plus parents and coaches in relatively close proximity might be a big ask given how cautious politicians are in respect to gatherings. (lodge is going to be a big issue).

That being said, winter is a long time from now so a lot can happen/change between now and then.

As a parent we are planning for limited club training, limited to no racing, and spending the greater majority of snow time with the academy she trains with. Of course hoping for the best and hopefully see limited disruption to the season.....however hope is not plan A.
 

sparty

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IMO, it's all about how you handle inside space. The powers that be at the club I've coached with for the last many years have a plan to basically never be inside with athletes in 2020-21 if necessary. Boot up in the lot is an option, and we have the infrastructure to do video outside on iPads vs. in one of our structures (coaches room/timing building/etc.) We don't have a dedicated gym, but we do share a facility with a few other groups at the mountain. Depending on how things shake out as we get closer to the fall, we will probably avoid the gym as a club and leave that up to parents.

So, do you cancel training when it's 0 deg. F and windy or 40 deg F and raining (i.e. days when not taking breaks isn't a feasible option)?

I'm not being facetious or glib—while I'm not involved in any decision-making on this front, that strikes me as one of the biggest problems to solve. On maybe 60% of the days we operate, we could tell kids "bring a backpack and plan to be outside for the two-hour gate training block" without much issue (well, aside from failure to follow directions and/or dress appropriately, both of which I'm hopeful we could solve with parental support). On the other 40%, we'd need to either shorten the session or can it entirely because we can't expect them to stay out for the two-hour block, and given how fickle weather can be in the mountains, it's often going to be very challenging to know at 7 a.m. which type of day you've got coming.

So with good weather, I could see a two-hour gate-training block, an off-site/unmonitored lunch break, and then a freeskiing block with constant reminders to adhere to social-distancing guidelines, again without an indoors break. But I don't see that working particularly well for younger kids, nor I do see it being workable on yuckier weather days. I'd expect—although I may be proven wrong—that the expectation will be that programs supervise athletes during break times too, including making sure that they follow directions regarding social-distancing guidelines.
 

S.H.

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So, do you cancel training when it's 0 deg. F and windy or 40 deg F and raining (i.e. days when not taking breaks isn't a feasible option)?

I'm not being facetious or glib—while I'm not involved in any decision-making on this front, that strikes me as one of the biggest problems to solve. On maybe 60% of the days we operate, we could tell kids "bring a backpack and plan to be outside for the two-hour gate training block" without much issue (well, aside from failure to follow directions and/or dress appropriately, both of which I'm hopeful we could solve with parental support). On the other 40%, we'd need to either shorten the session or can it entirely because we can't expect them to stay out for the two-hour block, and given how fickle weather can be in the mountains, it's often going to be very challenging to know at 7 a.m. which type of day you've got coming.

So with good weather, I could see a two-hour gate-training block, an off-site/unmonitored lunch break, and then a freeskiing block with constant reminders to adhere to social-distancing guidelines, again without an indoors break. But I don't see that working particularly well for younger kids, nor I do see it being workable on yuckier weather days. I'd expect—although I may be proven wrong—that the expectation will be that programs supervise athletes during break times too, including making sure that they follow directions regarding social-distancing guidelines.
I don't know. It's a great question.

Personally, I'd say no to canceling under those options. We routinely run full sessions in those conditions now - come prepared. If you can't stay outside, go home.

But ... in those circumstances, maybe you have a half-day only (i.e., don't come back after lunch). But I work with older athletes ... agree, this may not work well for younger ones ... maybe they have to cancel. Or knock down to a single session in a day.

In those situations, you can also require that breaks be taken in family cars. Yes, it's a bigger onus to put on parents, but ... it's either do that or don't take a break. In the case of 40 and rain, you can probably adequately distance inside if you absolutely need to (or in shifts) - not a lot of gen public out on those days.

In academy situations, you're probably all in it together anyway, so this may be less of a problem ...

Just spitballing ideas above. They're not well thought out. But I think it's doable ... clubs will need to be creative based on the nature of the members of the club (all locals, people who drive many hours every weekend to get to the mountain, etc.), the type of club (academy vs. weekend only vs. something in between), the indoor infrastructure available, the relatively open-air temp structures that could be available, hill space, resort policies, etc. I doubt any two clubs will have the exact same strategies or plans - no two training venues/resort homes are the same, and so our solutions cannot be one-size-fits-all.

This is not a club-only problem - it likely needs to be worked out with your home resort as well unless your club has sufficient space of its own that your athletes, coaches, and parents rarely use the same space as the "general public".
 
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crazycanuck

crazycanuck

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BC Alpine just posted some good stuff on how they will be working to put things in place for next year.


This weekend is a brainstorming session that a sub-committee of us from my son's race club are doing, trying to start laying out our own plans.
 

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