“Far too many want to excel at everything immediately,” says Geir Endre Rogn, former junior national team coach for Norway.

Geir Endre Rogn, who has several years of experience coaching the Norwegian junior national team, observes that increasingly more young athletes are copying the training regimes of the elite, neglecting the training they need the most, thus hindering their own development.

“They see what the best in the world are doing, and they see that it works for them. But what we’re seeing is that this leads younger athletes to prioritize incorrectly,” says Rogn to Langrenn.com.

This is a trend that concerns the experienced coach, who now provides training guidance through his own enterprise, Topptrent.com, and serves as a training expert on Langrenn.com.

Rogn emphasizes that it’s easy to forget that World Cup athletes are chasing the margins that separate victory from fourth place, and they can make the training adjustments they do because of the foundation they’ve built.

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Cleaning up is necessary

“There’s a lot of buzz on social media and elsewhere about what top athletes are doing, athletes who train extremely high volume and threshold sessions, athletes who’ve abandoned strength training and improved, or downplayed capacity training,” Rogn tells Langrenn.com, and continues:

“Older athletes are good at showcasing what they do, but not as good at explaining what they did to lay the groundwork and what they did when they were younger.”

Therefore, Rogn believes it’s time “to clean up a bit.”

“I think it’s wise to have a clear plan on what to prioritize at each stage of your career. I was a junior national team coach for several years and at NTG Geilo for eight years before that, and I can see which athletes I coached then have made it to the highest senior level: It’s those who prioritized capacity and technique over overtraining with too much volume and threshold workouts at a young age,” he says.

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The best trained the fewest hours and least extremely

Rogn highlights Harald Østberg Amundsen as a prime example of an athlete who has prioritized wisely.

The 25-year-old from Asker was strong as a young senior, winning gold and multiple medals in both junior and U23 World Championships but has continued to improve each year. Last year, Amundsen claimed his first World Cup victory, and this year he won the overall World Cup.

It’s not by chance, according to former junior national team coach Rogn.

“Harald trained probably the fewest hours and least extremely of everyone on the junior national team, but he’s gradually introduced more volume and still has plenty of tools and strategies left to continue developing,” he says.

“Many of the best juniors in Norway over the past decade, those who prioritized a lot of threshold and volume early in their careers, became good early because they quickly reached a good level. But they’ve struggled to excel as seniors because they don’t have more strategies to employ. It’s difficult to improve significantly just by training even more hours,” says Rogn.

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So specifically, what elements should young skiers prioritize in their training?

“The absolutely most important thing for younger athletes is capacity and technique. They should focus on building a strong engine and becoming technically proficient. That’s what we prioritized intensely, almost to the exclusion of everything else, especially when I worked at NTG.”

Why is that?

“The earlier you learn and establish good technique, the easier it is to absorb almost everything else. And it’s easier to acquire technique when you’re young,” says former junior national team coach Rogn, adding:

“The trend of focusing heavily on specific volume, long endurance sessions, and lengthy threshold workouts becomes too one-sided. At this age, it’s important to train broadly and avoid too much specialization so that they become thoroughly trained and can handle more volume and specificity as they get older.”

How should younger athletes structure their training?

“They should train shorter sessions with varying tempo, and technical elements should be included in every session. And they should avoid training day after day with long sessions and threshold intensity. Young athletes tolerate that much worse,” he explains.

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Speed and strength

Furthermore, Rogn emphasizes speed and strength as crucial elements, especially for young skiers.

“You should train for speed to become faster, because of the technique and to introduce muscular variation in training. So, there should be elements of speed in almost all types of sessions, such as intermittent increases in speed during long endurance sessions,” he says.

Regarding strength, Rogn points out that younger skiers are particularly receptive to strength training.

“When senior athletes say they’re deprioritizing strength, it’s often because they’ve reached a level where they have the strength they need and have little to gain from getting stronger,” he says, continuing:

“But for younger athletes, it’s different.”

“Especially boys build a lot of strength towards the end of puberty and the latter part of their junior years. And for girls, who often struggle to become significantly faster in uphill sections during this period, strength training might be the simplest way to increase speed,” says Rogn, explaining:

“More strength helps develop more power and higher speed on flat terrain. So, for girls, it could be a good idea and motivating to conduct some tests on roller ski tracks instead of just uphill, allowing them to see progress and overall improvement.”

For former junior national team coach Geir Endre Rogn, the message is clear: “Ensure you build a strong engine and solid technique now, don’t forget speed and strength, and postpone the longest endurance sessions and excessive threshold training, so that you still have some tricks up your sleeve later in your senior career.”

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