Matt Salm is used to training for speedskating. But training off-ice is equally important.
"When this opportunity with IEWC popped up, yeah I was extremely excited and so far couldn't be happier, with how it's worked out," Matt Salm says. "In terms of them understanding what it takes for me as an athlete to succeed in skating. And accommodating that when it comes to my schedule and training and travel for competitions and all of that."
Salm works at the Industrial Electric Wire and Cable Company in New Berlin, learning future skills with the help of Milwaukee-based NexTeam.
"So NexTeam is an organization that helps former college and professional athletes find careers after they're done playing sports," NexTeam Founder/CEO Chase Scharnek says. "You know, we help with DASH. We'll help with resume building. LinkedIn navigation. Ultimately finding them a career that's going to be fulfilling for them after they're done playing sports."
Salm puts plenty of sweat equity hours in with his DASH skating team. But like most high-level athletes, you have to have balance.
"For one to two years. Maybe three? You can be singularly focused on speedskating and be really successful," Salm says. "But they all advocate that for basically any period longer than two years, you have to have something else in your life."
So Salm puts in around 20 hours per week as a data analyst - preparing for his second act, during, and after sports.
"So an athlete has resiliency. They're coachable," Scharnek says. "They're able to work on a team. They have a lot of discipline. And that's what companies like to hire when they come in and work with us. So we like to say we hire the mindset, and then you train the skill."
Chase Scharnek says it's very much an overlooked problem, when athletes' careers usually end in their 30s. Salm says yes he trains 4 to 5 hours per day, which can tire him out. But he's reinvigorated by these new life skills that help both on, and off the ice.
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