Athletes and Parents,
I hope everyone is having a great week! Coaches are looking forward to getting back to work this weekend at Okemo. It looks like we have some weather coming in overnight Friday night into Saturday and it may be a bit wet, so please bring appropriate outerwear for training. Remember to show up on time, ready to work hard and focus while you’re training. See below for weekend details and look for a WhatsApp tomorrow evening. See everyone Saturday.
Saturday 1/13 – SL training at Okemo
Sunday 1/14 – GS Training at Okemo
Training Plan for 1/13 & 1/14/24 – SL/GS
Theme – Edge angle/Weight transfer
11:00AM- Meet U16/U18 coaches at the Yurt at the base of the Black ridge chair
11:15AM- Warm up runs/Drill progressions
12:30PM- Water/snack break
12:45 – 3:30 PM- Back to work with drills, free skiing and environments. Get feedback from coaches … apply it.
Drill List: Edge sets, single leg edge sets, hop turns, one ski skiing (with both skis on), J turns (trail must be closed), fore/aft traverses, javelin turns. Please don’t hesitate to ask a coach if you don’t understand a drill or are confused.
Some example videos below:
- Hop Turns
- One Ski Skiing
- Garlands
- Javelin Turns
- Norwegian Turns
- Pivot Slips
- Thumper Drill
- Stacking Drill
VARA/USSS – U16/U18 National (USSA) Race List 2023/24 Season
January
1/20 – VC SL S6 (M/W)
1/21- VC GS Okemo (M/W)
1/28 – VC SL Bromley (M/W)
1/29 – GS SMS (M/W)
February
2/3 – VC SL Cochrans (M/W)
2/4 – VC GS Stowe (M/W)
2/10 – Harry Chapin Memorial SL Pico (M/W)
2/11 – VT Cup FINAL GS Stowe (M/W)
2/19 – GTS Karl Acker Memorial SL Pico (M/W)
2/27 – State SG Okemo (M/W)
2/28 – State GS Okemo (M/W)
3/1 – State SL Okemo (M/W)
Athletic Focus:
Fixed mindset / Growth mindset
Understand the difference between fixed mindset and growth mindset. Someone with a fixed mindset views intelligence, abilities, and talents as inherently stable and unchangeable over time. Someone with a growth mindset views those same traits as learnable and capable of improvement through effort.
Think about failure and success.
What defines either of these ideas for you? In a fixed mindset, failure is the antithesis to success and is regarded as a negative thing and something to avoid. Conversely, in a growth mindset failure is not only part of, but is essential to the process to attain success. In a growth mindset failure needs to be valued and in some way celebrated because it is one step closer to your goal.
“I’ve missed more than 9000 shots in my career. I’ve lost almost 300 games. 26 times, I’ve been trusted to take the game winning shot and missed. I’ve failed over and over and over again in my life. And that is why I succeed.” ~Michael Jordan.
Think about how you conduct yourself on and off the hill. Do you give yourself the opportunity to make mistakes? Are you afraid of doing things because you think you will fail? Do you get back up and learn from a mistake or do you get upset with yourself because of it? Understand how powerful adopting a growth mindset over a fixed mindset can be in skiing and in life. It’s an important lesson to allow yourself to learn!
Keep in mind you can never guarantee winning a race, achieving your goals or having your best day. However, you can always guarantee that you can learn from every day to make positive steps forward as long as you adopt the right perspective and attitude.
Great athletes are always trying to learn more and understand new aspects of their sport. Take time to expand your skiing IQ!
3 Skiing Fundamentals-
- Balance-
Noun- an even distribution of weight enabling someone or something to remain upright and steady.
Verb- keep or put (something) in a steady position so that it does not fall.
Similar: stability, equilibrium, steadiness, footing, equilibrium, evenness, symmetry, uniformity, equality, levelness, parallelism, steady, stabilize.
Simply put, if you are in balance you can move, you can be athletic. Can you move at any time? Being out of balance makes things difficult, heavy, and cumbersome. Being in balance makes you strong, fast, agile and makes things feel light, simple, easy.
- Adaptability-
Noun- an ability or willingness to change in order to suit different conditions.
Similar: compliant, flexible, malleable, resilient, versatile, adjustable, alterable, changeable, conformable, convertible, modifiable, moldable, pliable, pliant, supple,variable.
Alpine skiing is an ever changing sport. You will ski and race in rain, sun, freezing cold, wind, bulletproof ice, slush, crud, powder, bumps, ruts and hero snow with different course sets by different coaches on different trails at different mountains. The ability to adapt athletically and technically to this variety of potential situations is the sign of a great skier. The athletes that complain about a course not being set correctly or the conditions not being good in essence are making excuses for not being a well-rounded skier. There is an old, tried and true saying- “The fastest ski racer on the mountain is the best skier on the mountain.” Be patient with yourself to learn to ski anything on the mountain and the speed will come.
- Rhythm / Timing / Tempo-
Rhythm, noun- a strong, regular, repeated pattern of movement or sound.
Similar: pattern, flow, tempo, regular features, recurrent nature, beat, cadence, time, pace, pulse, swing, periodicity.
Timing, noun- a particular point or period of time when something happens.
Similar: adjust, average, calibrate, fit, limit, mark, quantify, regulate, align.
Tempo, noun- the rate or speed of motion or activity; pace.
Similar: cadence, speed, rhythm, beat, time, pulse, measure, meter, pace, rate, speed, velocity.
Everything that we do requires rhythm, timing and tempo. Notably, in the performing arts and athletics these concepts are a large part of skill development and mastery. Think of a ballerina like Misty Copland on stage, or Eddie Van Halen playing guitar (big fan). Think of Sabrina Williams striking an ace serve, Tom Brady connecting with a receiver for a touchdown pass or Mikaela Shiffrin rolling her ankle at just the right time to put the turn right where she needs it. Understanding and using rhythm, timing and tempo is essential to becoming a great skier.
3 Primary Skills
- Edging
How do you edge the ski? How do you activate the ski and make the ski turn? How do you create a platform from the ski to balance on? What is the apex position and what does that look like? What does it feel like?
- Outside ski to outside ski
The outside ski is the dominant ski to stand on in the turn. Being balanced over the outside ski (while it’s on edge) is paramount to turn shape control as well as building acceleration and momentum. Direction change of the center of mass should happen (ideally / generally) when the outside ski is in the fall line. How do you transition from outside ski to outside ski? Understand the 5 basic types of transitions or weight transfers: Stem, Up unweight, Down unweight, Performance and Norwegian.
- Pole plant
Why is pole planting so important? What does it do for your skiing to make you a better skier? Understand the 4 basic types of pole plants: Double, Tap, Touch and Blocking. How do you hold the pole? How do you move the tip forward to plant? Where do you plant the pole tip? What is the timing of the plant in relation to the turn shape? How do the poles move relative to each other in single pole plants? How about in double pole plants? When you watch a great skier watch how they pole plant and imitate it.
3 Pillars of Fast Ski Racing-
- Direction of the Center of Mass
Generally speaking, the fastest way down (a course) is the shortest line of the center of mass of the skier (think about a big heavy ball just above your hips centered in your midsection). Turn placement in the course is an important concept to understand and has a big effect on decreasing the distance traveled down the course. Riseline, dropline, impulse point, release point, attack angle, turn apex, and 50 / 50 turns are all concepts that give location of the turn in the course and will be discussed this season.
- Pressure in the Fall Line
Ideally, direction change of the center of mass happens with the skier’s weight on the outside ski when that ski is moving into and through the fall line. Pressure is created by the direction change of the center of mass during that part of the turn. We would classify pressure in the fall line as happening in the middle third or the apex of the turn.
- Reducing Drag
The term “drag” can be thought of in two main ways. The first way drag is created is by friction of the ski sliding over the snow. Is the ski sliding or carving in the turn? When skiing in a straight line is the athlete able to glide with the skis flat on the snow or are they riding the inside or outside edges? Drag can also mean air resistance to the athlete. Is the skier finding an aerodynamic position as they move down the hill? Is the athlete able to move in and out of a tuck in an aerodynamic way?
US Ski and Snowboard Memberships: Please remember that since US Ski and Snowboard provides our on-hill liability insurance policy, all OMS student-athletes, regardless of discipline, must be current members with Okemo Mountain School as their club affiliation (not Okemo Mountain Ski Club). Please visit my.usskiandsnowboard.org to register today if you haven’t already. This is in addition to other memberships such as VARA, USASA, and FIS that may be necessary depending on age and discipline. The deadline for renewing all memberships without a late fee has passed, but a late fee should not apply to new members.
Other Information
Please make sure you’re current with VARA and USSS
Coach contacts:
Matilda Gutke: OMS/OKEMO U16/U18 Coach
Cam Washburn: OMS/OKEMO U16/U18 Coach
Nate Bedell: OMS/OKEMO U16/U18 Coach
Chris Hurka: OMS/OKEMO Alpine Director/U16/U18 Men’s Coach
Marc Stuart: OMS/OKEMO U16/U18 Coach
George Frick: OKEMO U16/U18 Coach
Okemo Competition Center Contacts
Robin Tracy
Admin Assistant Okemo Comp Center
(802) 228-1483
[email protected]<mailto:[email protected]
Simeon Payne
Competition Services Assistant Manager
(802) 228-1479
[email protected]<mailto:[email protected]
Wayne Conn
Competition Center Program Director
Okemo Mountain Resort
[email protected]<mailto:[email protected]
Don’t hesitate to reach out with any questions or concerns!
—
Robert (Bobby) Jones
Head U16/U18 Alpine Coach
Golf Program Director
Okemo Mountain School
P. 413-281-2043
