The Avalon Nordic Ski Club's Challenge Group is a cross country ski training program for youth 10 to 18 years of age. The goal of the Challenge Group is to provide the opportunity for the participants to develop fitness, ski technique and competitive skills in a fun but challenging environment.  

The group meets in the fall for dryland training (running , hiking, rollerskiing, strength training etc) before moving onto classic and skate skiing in the winter. No prior skiing experience is necessary.

Due to the wide range in the age of participants and in order to meet their various skill and ability levels, the club has developed a modular approach to lessons and training. A total of four weekly Challenge Group sessions will be offered of varying difficulty, but an individual skier will only be expected to attend 1-3 of these sessions depending on their ability level and goals. Each session will be given difficulty ratings based on its intended target audience:

·       Challenge 4: recreational, new, and younger skiers.

·       Challenge 3: intermediate skiers competing at the club level.

·       Challenge 2: intermediate to advanced skiers competing provincially.

·       Challenge 1: advanced skiers competing at a regional or national level.

 Fall weekly schedule *1 :

Sun	M	Tue	W	Thu	F	Sat *2
8:30-10:30 C-1/2 Long Dist - R-Ski Intervals - R-Ski Strength - R-Ski DP Technique - R-Ski Race – R-Ski		17:30-18:30 C-1/2 Med Dist - Run Intervals - Run Intervals – Ski Stride		17:30-18:30 C-1/2/3 Strength Speed Spenst Stretching		11:00-12:30 C-2/3/4 Long Dist - Hike Technique - R-Ski Special Events

*1 - Schedule updates will be posted on the Avalon Nordic Newsgroup (see www.avalonnordic.ca)

*2 - Saturday sessions will be held at the Confederation Building Parking Lot unless notified otherwise.

The head coach of the Challenge Group, Erik Charron, is a NCCP certified coach to the Learning to Train level. Many of the assistant coaches also have NCCP and CANSI certification. We are also fortunate to have the provincial coach, Will Fitzgerald, as a member of our club. Will provides advice in the development of our program as well additional support to the provincial level athletes.

Please note that the Racing Rabbits Dryland training group has now been merged with the Challenge Group as described above. Children ages 10 to 12 are expected to register with the Track Attack portion of the skill development program. With this registration there is no additional fee to join the Challenge Group. Youth aged 13 to 18 will register directly with the Challenge Group. Club Membership is a prerequisite. Registration and membership forms can be found on the Club website.

For additional detail please contact  erik.charron@shadnet.ca