Good Morning Everyone!!

As you hopefully have noticed, over the past couple of years we have been upgrading the quality of our MN Biathlon races especially at Elk River where we have new mats and bibs, and have been putting on a variety of race formats to familiarize the athletes with formats they are likely to encounter at Regional or National events. In addition, we have some new timing protocols utilizing spreadsheets done by Zean Baker to simplify and formalize that effort. 

Our largest source of help at the events is our Biathlon families. Line coaches, target resetting, timers etc are all volunteers and most are parents/relatives of the athletes..and we are trying hard to stay within the IBU rules with only slight adaptations to match our participants and facilities. Like any sport, Biathlon has Rules and organization, in our case as an Olympic sport, starting at the International level! 

With that in mind, we would like to invite you to a Basic Official’s education class on Sunday morning the 6th of Nov at a location in Elk River, followed by a MN Parent/Coach’s ed program in the pm. We anticipate the morning to be devoted to Officials’ roles, ending with a take-home test you can do at your leisure, perusing the Rules, and mail in to me. The subject matter will deal with the IBU Rules and formal race organization. Where to find the information and situations where the Rules need to be applied rapidly during an event.  

In the pm, for those who are interested, we will switch to the role of a Parent/Coach..roles currently filled by folks like Marcus and Tara Landrum, Jeff Bosek, Chad and Lynda Bouley, David Hudrlik, or Coaches like Holly, Carl and John. Here we will discuss coaching the development of a Biathlete. So, physiology, shooting skills, skiing skills and putting it all together. The goal would be to finish at the range. 

The Basic Officials course is the first step in a progression leading to an International Referee and then to a Technical Delegate. This is Level 1, and the goal of USBA is to develop a number of Level 2 Officials to run higher level—Regional and National—races. At National events, there is normally a Technical Delegate [TD] heading up the Officials group and overseeing the races. 

We are considering Sunday, the 6th of November as our first choice of dates. Other, less desirable dates would be Saturday the 19th or Sunday the 20th. We are anticipating a cost of $10 per family to cover printing costs. 

So, please let me know by Friday if you are interested, whether in just the am or at both sessions, and which date works the best for you. We need to get a handle on numbers for finding a meeting site. 

Thanks!

Bill Meyer, Coach
MNBiathlon