The Momentum Northwest Junior Team program is geared toward skiers who love to zoom! Winter practice includes many days on snow, as well as some dry-land practices, including running, trail running, hiking, and strength. When attending races and optional camps, skiers have the opportunity to travel to premiere ski destinations. Our skiers and ski families truly develop an appreciation of nordic skiing and the wonderful natural places we visit as a result. 

The focus of the Junior Team program is to strike a balance between excellent team culture and skiing fundamentals, creating an approachable, fun, and healthy ski team. We believe this formula is the recipe for success on the course and a lifetime of skiing. Our coaches are training to teach young skiers how to set goals and work towards those goals on and off the race course. Ski racing is foundational to our programming and the backdrop for the why we love this sport; however, ski racing is not a requirement for participation.

The Junior Team program meets 4-5 days per week (Tuesday, Wednesday, Saturday, and Sunday, plus occasional Fridays as part of a weekend race). Practices on Wednesday, Saturday, and Sunday occur on snow, mostly at Snoqualmie Pass (van transportation is available). Practices on Tuesday are dryland practices in locations around the Seattle area.

In addition to full-time training, we also offer a 2-day-per-week winter program for skiers who want to stay in the sport but have other obligations throughout the season. This program joins our regular practices on Wednesdays and Saturdays.

We use Spond to manage attendance, workout location and details, and other important, timely communication. Participants and parents need to add the Spond app to their devices in order to be in the loop.  

Flexible pathways to participate

Each pathway allows skiers and families to choose their level of commitment. Both pathways significantly improve access to training skiers and flexibility for families. Our full-time option allows athletes who wish to focus on skiing the opportunity to do so; and a streamlined registration and logistics process.

Can a Full-time Junior Team athlete participate in multiple sports?

Absolutely, cross-country skiing training is inherently multi-modal and participating in other sports is great for the general well being of an athlete. Athletes will always be encouraged to follow their other social, academic and sporting goals. Access to other team dynamics, coaching styles, and friends is important to the development of our skiers as athletes and as people. 

By offering year-round training Momentum Northwest is not expecting young athletes to choose specialization. In fact, we mostly discourage specialization until the latter years of high school. 

Momentum Northwest does believe that cross-country skiing can be a primary focus for an athlete's pursuits throughout their teenage years. Interscholastic sports would be fantastic supplements to ski training that help keep training feeling fresh and fun throughout the year while also keeping student-athletes connected to their schools social and athletic cultures.

With the expanded practice schedules Momentum Northwest will be providing the space for skiers who wish to focus on skiing to do so throughout the year without significantly altering the experience for athletes choosing to take their sports one season at a time

Training Expectations and Philosophy

Our goal is for training to always be fun. Cross-country skiers are lucky to be involved in a sport that prioritizes long, low-intensity training sessions sprinkled with high intensity to get the most bang with the least amount of fatigue. Sessions are always inclusive and there is never a minimum speed or pace requirement to join a session. 

We regularly train for long periods of time 2+ hours of continuous moving through different modes, running, rollerskiing, hiking etc., where it is important to check in with coaches if there is an injury or something else going on that may prevent a skier from fully participating in a planned session. It is far better for training to stay home than it is to train through an injury. Whenever possible we will find ways to integrate skiers into sessions, however, this may not always be achievable. 

At Momentum Northwest every teammate brings something to the group and collectively we are better than the sum of our parts. Our only expectation is that we all come to practice with that knowledge and with desire to prove it to be true every day. It is okay for skiers to have different goals and bring a different set of skills, fitness or ability to training sessions. It is not okay for skiers to get in the way of other skier’s goals. Together we all make each other stronger, and strong team cohesion and culture is a priority at Momentum Northwest. 

Training expectations, planning, and commitment from coaches are the same for full-time and seasonal skiers. All  MNW skiers will have access to our groups training plan, athletes profile, and training log. 

Types of training sessions:

Easy Distance: Approximately 80-85% of the time we will spend together. These are easy skis, adventures in the mountains, and even bike rides.

Intensity: Intensity sessions make up the other ~15% of our training. We ramp up our speed and effort for short periods of time. 

Races/Timetrial: These are where the rubber meets the road and we reap the reward of our hard work. Throughout the year we will find ways to race or do time trials each training block of the year.

Strength: Whether in a gym or at a park we will strive to get the group together once a week for strength training. Skiers should aim to do one session on their own each week.

Programming Tuition and Fees:

Full Time Skiers: $6,000; Tuition does not include food and lodging for MNW Bend and SilverStar training camp or camps fees for non-MNW camps the team will attend.

Seasonal skiers have the opportunity to attend as many camps and races as they would like.

Two seasonal programming options: Regular winter tuition and winter-lite.

Here are two examples on the total cost of participating in Momentum Northwest could look like for your skier.

Offseason training with full-time winter training and racing

Offseason Tuition $1,000

Bend Camp $120*

SilverStar Camp $360*

Winter Tuition $2,500

Race fees for in-region Travel races $1,200

SOHO Super-Q Race Fee $300

$5,480

* Food and Lodging not included in tuition

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