1-17 Ski Practice/Race Review

Hi All!

It was a great week for all the kids! Thrills & Spills gave all the kids some new learning and successes! We literally had 'personal bests' for each kid in our group in the races this weekend - awesome job to all of them!

There were many great moments this weekend, but one that meant a ton to us was how the kids rallied around Eily after she fell...she was made to feel like it was a 'hero' fall caused by too much speed! What a great moment of sportsmanship!

One of the other really neat things was how all the kids played so well together with the other kids from other clubs...they were having a ball after the race!

Additionally today, we borrowed a drill another coach is using and the kids loved it...it was called the 'falling' or 'crashing' drill. Basically, in a really controlled, one-turn drill, we asked the kids to get as much angulation as they could. It lead to most of them wiping out as they tested the limits of how much angle they could create! They kept asking if we could do it again and again!

Here are couple other things we learned this week:

LINE
When we inspected the course, we talked a lot about 'Line'...QUESTION OF THE WEEK: see if your kids can describe what we discussed. Basically, we talked about where the 'high-line' is, especially on a steep section of the course. The simple way to explain it is...When we race (vs. train) GS they set the outside gate. When standing right under the turning gate, they should be pointed towards the OUTSIDE pole of the next gate. This is roughly the 'high line'.

TURN TIMING
If they stay on the highline, they then should start their next turn when they are above the next gate. At the HH GS on the steep, they would have been ideally starting their turn about 7 to 9 ft above the turning gate. Have your child try to draw it out and see what they come up with!

STARTING
We worked on our start a little as well. We really want the kids to push hard out of the gate while skating...it's coming along!

COURSE INTERFERENCE
One thing we learned was that if there is interfence, the skier much immediately leave the course. If they do, they will be granted a rerun. If they do not, they will not be granted a rerun.


I've updated the videos on YouTube - please go check them out. There is video of all the kids either in training or in the race.