ARTICLE
Master Leader Max Gartner mentors international coaches navigating the Canadian sport system

Negotiating the dizzying byways through unfamiliar sport cultures and federal bodies can run the gamut from mildly perplexing to downright vexing for incoming out-of-country coaches.
 
“For me,’’ confesses Italian-born-and-trained Hannes Mutschlechner, now in his fifth season in charge of the Canada’s snowboard alpine team, “it was a huge difference. “And the challenges are ongoing. It’s like being thrown into cold water. A bit of a shock to the system.
 
“I mean, I was aware it would be a challenge. The structure in Canada is a lot difference than in Europe. There, all nations and federations basically work the same way. The law system (there) is very different. That’s huge. I believe now I have to spend way more time in being really accurate in what I say and how I communicate.”
 
To act as cartographer through unfamiliar terrain for the recruits outside of the country, the Canadian sport system has enlisted the ideal one-on-one guide - Masters Leader mentor Max Gartner.
 
“There’s real attention paid now to the importance of bringing people in, properly, and giving them a good picture of how the Canadian system works and how the culture works,” Gartner explains. “I basically support them when questions come up because a lot of times they arrive and wonder ‘How come we the coach cannot make this call alone?’ Or ‘How come we can’t select these people if we want to and have to follow these policies, this process, that I’m not used to?’ These ‘How come?’ or ‘I don't understand’ questions pop up all the time. The beauty of mentorship is that you can sort of answer those questions right away.”
 
When Gartner arrived in Canada from his homeland, Austria, in 1982 it was in an assistant alpine ski coach role. So, he dealt mainly with athletes. Many of the outside hires today are head coaches, requiring a much quicker get-up-to-speed indoctrination.
 
“They need to understand the big picture,’’ Gartner explains. “I didn’t have to. But, still, at that time there was nobody to show me the ropes, so I just kinda learned along the way. I wish at times that someone had been there to help me.
 
“Canada was a big opportunity for me.”
 
The competition to add coveted international coaches is fierce, naturally, so the more reputation the Canadian sport system can build in aiding acclimatization, the better chance of landing its primary targets.
 
“There’s the on-boarding itself,’’ explains Gartner, “where you give them knowledge of how it works over here. But then there’s an ongoing process because you’re beside them on their journey and these questions keep arising.
 
“We don’t want to allow confusion and frustration to fester and create negative energy.”
Gartner’s mentoring skills also go long distance, as in the unique situation of the national ski jumpers. Because of a lack of jump facilities in Canada, the team is based in Slovenia. All coaches are born outside of Canada.
 
“Regarding our special situation … that is something that we try to adapt as much as possible to fit their lifestyle,’’ said women’s national coach Janko Zwitter, from Austria. “There’s a lot of small stuff to get used to - when are grocery stores open, how to get from A to B. Stuff like that. That’s something the girls have been really flexible with from Day One and it’s been a big advantage.
 
“Right now, they all live separately because they need their private space. The first year, they lived together and that was on the one hand challenging, but on the other hand they were helping each other get over tricky situations. Not having that much contact with their families, for example.
 
“It was necessary to start like this. But now they feel free enough to stand on their own feet; have made a big step forward in becoming independent young women.”
 
The athletes have also made tremendous competitive strides: Most notably capturing bronze in mixed team event at the 2022 Beijing Games and Calgary’s Alexandria Loutitt became the first Canadian woman to stand atop a World Cup ski jumping podium, at Zao, Japan, early in 2023 – prior to winning both the senior and junior World Championships at just 19 years old.
 
Gartner and Zwitter have a tie other than their origin of birth - both attended the famous Stams Ski Academy, albeit more than a decade apart.
 
“Of course, I knew of him. they mentioned him a lot on Austrian TV, said that he was really successful in Canada,’’ said Zwitter. “But I’d never met him.
 
“Max has helped me a lot getting familiar with the Canadian lifestyle, all that stuff. There was a lot of really important information on how to approach certain special, challenging situations … Europe is slightly different in this area. Even the U.S.A. is different than Canada. And Japan, where I’ve been working as well, is totally different, the way they do things.
 
“To understand the people, what kind of approach they have to sports, especially top sports, was very important for me.”
 
The sort of counselling that Max Gartner excels at.
 
“Coming from outside and not knowing anything can be frustrating, no question,’’ Mutschlechner acknowledges. “But Max has been the guy who’s helped with that. I’ll say to him: ‘Max, I believe we need this, but I don’t see any way to get it’ and he’ll go: ‘Oh, wait a moment. You have to do this, and you have to do that.’ And, guess what?
 
“So, he showed me, opened up to a lot of options that I was able to use.”
 
While Sport Canada prioritizes development and advancement of Canadian coaches, the varied experiences and insights that their peers born outside of the country inject into the fabric of the system is, in an intensely competitive international sporting world, vital.
 
“You want innovation, you want new perspectives,’’ emphasizes Gartner. “How come you’re doing it this way, a different way?’ isn’t a bad question. It can energize a whole system. That’s how you learn; how you advance.
 
“I mean, with my old sport, alpine skiing, the game is essentially played in Europe. So having a total detach from them is not necessarily good. You’re better off with some sort of that influence in the system.
 
“It’s something we definitely have to be aware of; something that’s always going to be in the system, for some sports more than others.”
 
 After helping guide the Italian team to a series of World Cup podium finishes, in 2018 the San Vigilio di Marebbe-born Mutschlechner, an entrepreneur as well as a snowboard tactician, decided to take a break from coaching and devote himself full-time to business interests.
 
As fate would have it, though, only a week after resigning he received an out-of-the-blue phone call from Jan Weneglin, Canadian snowboard coach at the time, unaware of Mutschlechner’s situation.
 
 “So, he said to me: ‘Hey, Hannes, when are you starting to train? Maybe we’ll meet somewhere.’ And I said: ‘Jan, I’m super fine. But I quit and I’m home.’” That, basically, ended the conversation. And only an hour later, a contract proposal popped into Mutschlechner’s e-mail in-box. In short order, offers from the Swiss and Austrian federations also arrived.
 
“But I decided for myself that I wanted to grow and learn something. (Canada) was the weakest team at the time. I was eager to do something challenging again.”
 
There have been speed bumps in the road since signing on, admittedly, but through the past year and a half, the calming influence of Max Gartner has been there to help fill in the potholes.
 
“Hannes had a very set way of doing things, and had to learn that Canadians are different,’’ says Gartner. “He is really adaptable, but it was a process, not an overnight thing. Lots of questions. But I can see now that he’s grown a ton and really embracing working with Canadians.”
 
For middle/long-distance speedskating coach Remmelt Elderling, there was no Max-like mentor when he first arrived in Canada in 2012 to take on the role of provincial coach for the Manitoba Speed Skating Association. After returning to The Netherlands for three years, he joined the Canadian National Team in 2018 following the PyeongChang Olympics.
 
A major component in the evolutions of both multi-Olympic medallists, Ivanie Blondin and Isabelle Widemann, Elderling has been using Gartner as an information source/sounding board for a little over a year now.
 
“I’m in a little different situation because I knew what to expect when I came back. But it would’ve been great if I came here the first time as a foreign coach and somebody said to me: ‘Hey, Remmelt, this is your mentor Max’,’’ says Enderling. “That would’ve been … on point; to have a person like that to lean on right away. Then you build a bond. When I first came over, new country, new city, all alone. You do figure stuff out but that would’ve happened quicker if I’d had someone there to help me.
 
“Max is a wiser guy, with a lot of experience. Sometimes you can make a huge issue or a big problem of something that isn’t really that bad. You need perspective. I can do perspective myself, too, of course, but it’s good when there’s someone to give you confirmation on ‘you’re doing good’ or ‘you’re being hard on yourself.’ That kind of stuff. Especially when that someone has credentials to his name, like Max.”
 
The most important ingredients in adding a coach, any nationality, adds Gartner, are character and values.
 
“Everyone tends to get blinded by results. If someone had great results in another country and we hire them solely because of those results doesn’t necessarily mean they’ll be a good fit.
 
“It always comes down to hiring the right person; a person who is open to growth. Somebody who doesn’t have the ‘This is the only way to do it!’ mindset.”
 
Remmelt Enderling being one such example.
 
“Intelligence,’’ Enderling says, “comes with doing what is needed. Bottom line. You have to adjust wherever you go and take whatever route is required. In the end, no one asks how you get from Point A to Point B. They just say ‘Wow! Good job!’ when you get there.
 
“If you do today and tomorrow and next week what you did you yesterday, just because, I’m not sure that’s progress. It’s probably going a little backwards.”
 
The way forward, adds Gartner, is in setting the foreign recruits up for success.
 
“I have a soft spot for these people. They worked for a different country, and I want to make sure that we give them the best opportunity to succeed here. And in some instances, that they stay here forever and contribute long-term.
 
“For me, that happened. I got a chance to live in Canada, ended up loving it and got so many opportunities.”
 
To that end, a little mentoring goes a long way to speeding up the initial acclimatization process, and beyond.
 
 “The decision (to join Snowboard Canada)? I haven’t regretted it at all,’’ emphasizes Hannes Mutschlechner. “Constantly new situations. I believe that we have to be global to be good at what we do, and this opened up my point of view, too.
 
 “The system in Canada is amazing.” A small laugh of experience, as well as an invisible pat on the back of Max Gartner.
 
“Once you know how to use it.”