National Development Centres »

National Development Centres (NDC)

Mission of Training Centre System

The mission of Cross Country Canada’s (CCC’s) training centre system is to produce successful skiers at the World Cup level.

Roles of CCC and CCC-Affiliated National Development Centres

  • to deliver CCC’s National Ski Team (NST) program to selected athletes;
  • to facilitate the optimal development of other selected athletes to the Senior NST level; and
  • to assist divisions with the development of future generations of high performance (HP) athletes and coaches by supporting divisions’ HP development programs through specific outreach initiatives and other various levels of collaboration.

General Concept

  • Training centres are defined as follows: “Entities operating on a nationally or regionally-centralized basis that provide HP services and infrastructure to establish an appropriate environment for selected athletes in the L2C and above stages of LTAD to prepare and/or develop optimally.”
  • The essence of CCC’s HP program structure will be an updated training centre system that complements and assists with the delivery of the NST program. This system is an athlete development and support vehicle that consists of a National Training Centre operated by CCC in Canmore and up to four additional self-governing national development centres (NDCs) that are formally affiliated with CCC.
  • The structure will have the advantages of centralization (concentrating athletes, coaches and resources), while still respecting Canada’s geographical and regional imperatives. The NDCs will have both a responsibility and the ability to execute both outreach and inreach, thus enhancing the full HP system down to and including club level.
  • NDCs must be mandated and supported by the divisions (i.e. PSOs) in which they are located, with provincial governments being an important source of funding. The ability of NDCs to leverage local/regional support in this way is an important advantage of this strategy.
  • There may also be training centres that operate in affiliation with a club or division but not CCC. However, only training centres which are formally affiliated with CCC - through the signing of an agreement respecting role and operating philosophy - will be eligible to function as part of the CCC training centre system.

CCC Training Centre Policy - click here to view the strategy that defines the current Training Centre structure and sets out the criteria for establishing new Centres.