Dear LRT Membership:
Echoing Dan Axelson's earlier comments, although
it was a little late in coming, this past
weekend's skiing was a pleasant surprise in
terms of snow quality and quantity of space on
the hill to play. This allowed us to get a lot
of positive feedback going between the feet and
the snow. We don't always have control over the
snow variable, but this past weekend was a real
positive in terms of being able to teach.
I've just now come off the hill, having been
skiing on what looks to have been about 4 or 5
inches of new, very wet snow that's pretty well
packed down. It's about 33 degrees outside and
there's not a breath of wind. The inside of the
comp center temperature is "fresh." Because the
weather forecast calls for the temps to drop
starting now and to last for the next few days,
the surface should tighten up considerably and
be ideal for what we like to do. For the
general public... perhaps not so much. Parents,
let's get the edges sharp and smooth! They'll
need it starting now.
Russ and I will host a tuning clinic early
during the Christmas break. Check the club's
social
calendar for updates. Several of the wax
suppliers will also be showing up throughout the
season as well to share the cutting edge of ski
tuning with all of us.
The Race Season Has Begun
Racing starts this weekend for a lot of kids in
the club. These are FUN races. Some of you
have signed up for the Saturday night race GS
for 3's 4' and 5's at Bretton Woods, and some of
you have signed up for the Cannon SL the next
day. Some of you have even signed up for both!
We will have coaching coverage both at Loon and
at the race venues for the coming weekend. As in
the past, please be advised that if a race is
not scheduled on the LRT race calendar, we will
not likely send coaches there.
Coolidge this weekend
There are snow guns lined up all the way down
Coolidge at this very moment. My understanding
is that they will be cranking them up starting
tonight in order to get enough of a base to open
our training hill for this coming weekend.
Please be advised however that we cannot run GS
gates unless and until we have netted the hill
On that count, we could use any available help
from our membership in getting it deployed so
that the hill is safe and secure.
With the mountain's permission (I haven't heard
back yet), we will have both SL training on
Saturday, and GS training to the extent the
above net limitation allows. Those who are
going to the Bretton Woods night race should
only train Saturday's morning session, and head
to Bretton Woods after lunch.
Video Online
New video from this past weekend is now up on
the team website. If you are new to the club or
haven't used this medium before, please start,
and make sure you point your children in the
direction of this very valuable tool. The link
to the team's gallery pages is
here.
Please bookmark the link to your child's gallery
and make it available to them.
The way it works is that every athlete will have
an icon on the
gallery
page with their name under it. Simply click
on the icon of your choice and you should be
taken to a gallery with both photos and videos
of that racer. If you don't see your child's
name yet please let me know, they may not have
any video or pictures (yet). My apologies for
the gallery not being alphabetical. So many
pictures and video, so little time. Athletes'
newest media should be located at the bottom of
their respective galleries. Check back weekly,
as the goal is to have continual updates
throughout the year. Parents, if you send me
pictures or videos throughout the season I
should be able to get them into the galleries.
Beyond the obvious entertainment factor, the web
has enabled us to develop this very powerful
training tool that everyone in ski coaching
acknowledges is useful and important, but about
which few are willing to put the effort required
to maintain it. We feel it gives us an
advantage in the process of learning technique
and tactics, as well as empowering the kids with
a sense of self determinism, hence, motivation.
It should help your kids get to know their
skiing selves more quickly and more objectively.
The results are almost always good, PROVIDED
they also look at the World Cup videos handily
located near the top of the gallery page and/or
those located at
www.universalsports.com.
After you show them, please let them discover
it on their own a bit, if possible. We can
coerce them later on if they don't pick it up on
their own first.
Thanks to everyone who attended to our annual
board meeting this past Saturday. I enjoyed
meeting some of the new families and look
forward to your continued input throughout the
season. The staff and I are really excited
about what we've seen on the hill so far.
