Our athletes are on the clock on the hill and off!
Our blog lacks content tonight because our schedules have been rammed. As mentioned before We are skiing super G and slalom combined days until the shoot-out. Boys have a blog post on the way. We have a lot of time on snow and the mountain essentially to ourselves - we are maximizing this opportunity!
DAILY GRIND:
6:30 - wakeup
6:45 - warm up exercises
7:45 - on snow warm up
8:30 - SG inspection 8:45 - Begin SG runs
10:30 - mid morning break
10:45 - continue SG runs
12:00 - LUNCH
12:45 - Begin slalom training on show-off
3:00 - End slalom training
4:00 - Dry-land, Marty attends coaches meeting
5:00 - dinner preparation/ continue athlete meetings
6:30 - DINNER w/ Trivia (Girls won tonight!)
7:00 - dishes and video
7:30 - Athletes tune/wax and athlete/coach meetings continue
9:00 - Electronics in for the evening
9:30 - Room checks, doors closed, lights OUT!
The definition of ski in, ski out! With all the snow that has
accumulated our trek to the bottom of Pano is much easier.
The last little while the U16s have been in a GS block. We hammered out 3 more days of great GS training (Wednesday through Friday last week - which has the athletes on snow 7 days in a row with a significant level of intensity). We are extremely pleased with the changes that are being made GS'ing. Yesterday was a planned day off. We trekked into Invermere for a team breakfast at Huckleberries. Huckleberries fried up about 50 flapjacks for the team. Pancakes seemed to be the breakfast order of choice on Saturday. A HUGE weekend in ski racing for Ottawa this weekend (This has made trivia a lot easier for us). Quebec team member Patrick Lynott and Raphael Quenneville racing in Norquay, AB. Our big brothers and sisters, the U18 gang racing in Sunday River, MA. And, the story of the week - Dustin Cook competing in Beaver Creek World Cup SG speeding to another top 15 finish in Super G and a 21st in GS (with a top 10 2nd run!).
Pancakes are on... I believe Lake got out-pancaked by Hunter. Funny how everything with these boys is a competition.
I guess you don't have to be a boy to have competitiveness (we already knew this). Michael takes his colouring contests to another level - he had to be put in place. I think It's clear which Superman is mine. His effort and creativity should still be commended.
Today we skied slalom and our plan is to transition into SG & SL combined sessions until the coveted "NCO shootout" on Thursday before we depart. Our dinner trivia went to solo responses; for the last little while the gang has moved to answering questions based on their individual knowledge. The last 3 athletes to answer a question correctly have been stuck in the kitchen. To round out the battle of the sexes we will return to the team format for the last week here.
We are not without our battle wounds while here. I am battling a serious cold virus. I spared everyone by keeping Lake's frost bitten toe off the blog. Sophie is learning that tuning cuts are a right of passage. A few back injuries have been treated and a couple of freak sore ankles sprains as well. It's not easy but these athletes are grinding.
We talked to the athletes today about making sure that they check all the boxes for success. That they do everything in their power to ensure that they are prepared for the day. And that any little bit extra that they might have then their opponent is the difference. It might be sleep, it might be warm up, it might be diet and it may be on their individual will alone that boosts them ahead. Everyone is motivated differently and the grind has begun (checkout the nike Ad for a little bit of 'rise and grind' motivation).
Look forward to a blog post from the boys tomorrow! Goodnight followers.
Meet the ladies of the NCOST U16 team: Sophia (Calabogie), Jillian (MSM), Nicole (Camp Fortune) &, Sophie (Vorlage)
My name is Sophie Thomas and I am a rookie U16 that comes from Mont Vorlage. Although this is my first camp with the team it's awesome that I have made new friendships and share inside jokes with my teammates. The girls have already bonded so much that we break out into dance jam sessions when we need to expel some energy. I idolize local world cup skier Mikaela Tommy because for such a young alpine star she is an amazing competitor. My main goal for the season is to finish in the top 3 or top 5 locally when I obtain a race result.
Hi! I'm Sophia Tan and I am also a U16 rookie. I come from Calabogie. I am really excited to be around such a competitive, concentrated and creative learning environment. I really relate well to Marie-Michele Gangnon because like her I am confident in my skiing because I work hard, but I have yet to achieve a result that affirms this competitiveness. That being said, my goal for this season is to qualify for both mid-winter CanAm's and CanAm Finals in Stowe, VT. We bought so much food at Costco before coming to Panorama That I accidentally demolished 21 eggs. We all laughed about it because we had 70 or so more left over.
My name is Nicole Clarke and I am on the NCOST for the 2nd year as a U16. My home club is Camp Fortune. I have great relationship with both my coaches and they have helped me so much to improve my racing. My World Cup inspiration is Mikaela Shiffrin because like her, I love slalom and she absolutely dominated last season. My goal has recently become a little more challenging as I am battling a few injuries right now but I am holding myself to qualifying for the Canada Games to be held in BC later on this season. "The squad" is awesome to hang with - when we got to Panorama we totally re-arranged our room to meet our spacial requirements. My name is Jillian Lynott, I come from Mont Ste. Marie and it is my 2nd year on the NCOST as a U16. The best part about the NCO experience has been travelling to various ski areas within Quebec and Ontario and even training internationally. When I am skiing I try to emulate Kathrin Zettel. One of my tactical goals this year is to allow myself to ski freely, and when I watch Kathrin compete she "just goes". When this happens I will be able to achieve all my result oriented goals. I really miss my teammates from last year but this years group of girls is shaping up to be equally as awesome. *Jillian: "Remember that time Kat asked to come up with something funny to post on the blog..." girls break out laughing.*
4 - 4
The title "Comeback Queens" is fitting because the ladies are convinced they are on a roll back to the top of their trivia game. Tonight we asked questions about the NorAm Races in Aspen and Copper where local icon Mikaela Tommy competed and topped the Junior podium. We also themed World Cup questions about the history of the Super Combined event. MArty and I have noticed that the rookies (+ Hunter, the only time we've known him to be coy) are very shy when it comes to answering these questions so tomorrow night we are having a battle of the rookies + Hunter within the battle of the genders.
The rain and clouds from week one have cleared, the power has been restored, snow gun mist is lifting and we found blue bird :) This photo was taken at the finish of our GS today.
3 - 4
The last two days have been very cold. The kind of cold that we are accustomed to when in Pano, however the kind of cold that no one ever really gets acclimatized to. It's just something as ski racers we do because the feeling of carving an energy rich turn in hard packed powder is completely worth the frost bite scars, the blue toes, and the chill you have for hours after the day is done. As planned we have extended our days here in Pano. Because a lot of teams have vacated for the week we have access to more terrain and for a longer period of time, making the training spectacular. We will very quickly catch up on what we missed.
We are very pleased with the improvement that the group is making. Athletes are responding very positively to feedback they are receiving and it is evident that their understanding of what we need them to accomplish is favourable. Fortunately for us the weather is on a constant increase in temperature through the remainder of the week with sunshine and negative single digits coming our way.
The boys have pulled ahead of the ladies answering questions pertaining to tuning last night, and the Winter Olympics tonight. I think our athletes have pulled some inspiration for their improvements from our local talent on the World Cup. Congratulations Dustin Cook on all your hard work in achieving a result that makes you smile when you cross the finish line!!
Both these photos were pulled from Alpine Canada's instagram account. Thank you for capturing such amazing moments!
We woke up this morning with no electricity. This is not the first time we've lost power through the night in our stay here. It is however, the first time that power remained out from the evening through the day. Our power was restored around 1pm (MST) the operations administration decided not to run the lift for the day. Thankfully York had a deck of cards because we lost charge on electronic devices quickly through the morning. Some lost cell service, once power was restored our cable was down for a while so we all gathered around a laptop monitor and watched our Canadians race in both the Lake Louise DH and the GS in Aspen.
We put the athletes through the yoga ringer with a 90 minute session of P90X yoga with Tony Horton. The video [a 90 min time laps reduced to 23seconds] was uploaded earlier onto the NCOST FACEBOOK PAGE (If you are a Facebook user you can click the hyperlink and it should direct you to our page). And to keep our trivia tally going the ladies were back in the kitchen tonight. The boys took the "W"
The weather is very cold here, we have a later start tomorrow and will be skiing GS on old timer (the NorAM run).
Skiers are known for their beautiful feet (everyone can relate) - there was a lot of this
reaction today when I told the athletes you don't use socks in yoga.
There are a variety of things that can challenge a ski racer. There is weather, (which we encountered today - and everyday that it is not bluebird and hero snow). There is injury, which many of our racers are learning is inherent with the risk associated in our sport. There is fear, in many forms; fear of failure, fear of injury, fear of disappointment etc.. Everyday we go out on snow all we ask of our athletes is to challenge themselves to make a change - in this undertaking some challenges may be overcome and for others another obstacle may be established. This requires focus, it requires energy it requires patience and most importantly this process requires a lot of support.
"In order to succeed, your desire for success should be greater then your fear of failure"
3 - 1
Today the rain challenged our GS conditions, today injury plagued some athletes, today some demonstrated their weaknesses and others established new strengths and this is what makes working everyday with this group of athletes an exciting experience.
We watched a video tonight from youtube - many would think this video would intimidate viewers. It was cool to see our athletes associate with some of the world cup stars it was also refreshing to have their vulnerabilities exposed. If you wish to watch the video check it out hit the link: THE THIN LINE .
Boys were back in the kitchen tonight after a tough set of questions asking the athletes about powerhouse Nations and digging deep into some ski racing history.
Panorama was hit with a power outage around 815am this morning. Fortunately Kat, Marty and York who were hauling gates for our training session got off the lift before the outage happened. Mike, Jillian, Sophia, Sophie, Hunter, and Zac were stuck on the chairlift for about 40 minutes and Nicole and Lake were at the bottom having not got on the lift before the outage.
As it turned out the snow conditions were very challenging to begin with so our session with red & blues was already in question. It had snowed about 10-15cm of fresh stuff and was starting to rain so the fluffy white powder we love was quickly turning into concrete for our quads. When you have 40 minutes to spare, no where to go and no one to have a snowball fight with - BUILD A SNOWMAN! We were highly entertaining for a group of coaches and onlookers stuck on the chair. This handsome fellow was constructed in approximately 10minutes "With a pine cone grin and a basket nose and 2 eyes made out of gate tops?!"... (that's how our version of the song goes)
opening up the upper back with partners
The power came back on at 930am. Athletes have been doing homework since then and took a break between 1130 & 1230 for lunch. We had a PNF [proprioceptive neuromuscular facilitation] session at 1:30 and the athletes continued on with their studies through the remainder of the day. With teams vacating at the end of the week the potential exists to have longer training sessions. We have assured the athletes this is the direction we want to go in confidently, but this confidence will only come if their homework efficiency is maxed on days like today.
We had a meeting through dinner and the later part of the afternoon where we talked to the athletes about our expectations for the season and some team rules to make the season run smoothly :)
proprioceptive neuromuscular facilitation (PNF) stretching, is a type of stretching technique that is used to improve active and passive ranges of motion in an attempt to increase motor performance and flexibility.
We stumbled upon these gems just outside our door the other
day - there will be a lot more coming off the BBQ in the future.....
So we decided to throw some steaks with baked
potatoes and roasted peppers on the BBQ.
2 - 1
Stay tuned for more from the gang after our GS training session tomorrow. The weather is suppose to get colder and with all the moisture from today that should provide for a solid base moving forward. And for those keeping score (check out our ongoing tally to the right) - the boys demolished the girls in trivia tonight 3-0. It's official they are on the board!
This is the terrain we have to work with for the next few days. The U16 athletes have been skiing slalom on the bottom portion of 'show off". Our lane allows us to set approx. 80 slalom turns if we so desired.
2 - 0
Tonight we had a great chat with the athletes about understanding the process of ski racing and the importance of communication between coaches and athletes. We wanted them to understand a few things about being a U16 ski racer. We engaged this conversation in a very creative format that we like to call dinner trivia. For those who are new to the team: dinner trivia is where we ask the athletes a variety of ski related questions in a competitive format [girls versus boys]. The first group to 3 correct responses to our questions gets out of doing the dishes, our current score can be viewed on the right. You are reading that correctly, the boys are enjoying their time in the kitchen.
We like to have themes to the questions so tonight we asked the athletes a variety of questions involving the rules of the game (ski racing being the game) and the qualification process for different events for both Ontario and Quebec affiliated athletes. Lets just say we had to dig deep into the rule book of items they should understand in order to get to a very tight score of 3-2. Lets just say that this may be one of the many circumstances where loosing is fun and the learning is quite evident.
We skied in sessions 1 & 3 today in stubbies. The athletes completed a circuit in the weight room after skiing today and they re-fuelled with pulled pork sandwiches on ciabatta buns with some broccoli slaw and raw veggies with hummus. We will move to full gates tomorrow if mother nature decides to let up on the accumulation out here. If not - we ski pow! In our books thats a win/win :)
There is certainly never a dull moment on the road with the NCO U16 gang. Even flights get exciting when we have a registered nurse, and EMR and a 'medlink' telephone line when athletes are sick mid flight. I feel its necessary to publicly thank WestJet for doing absolutely everything they could to make our sick athlete comfortable. She was moved to the front of the plane, given her own bathroom, they moved passengers so she could sleep across three seats, they moved a coach immediately across, so we could be close by, they paged the plane for any medical practitioners aboard. They made our on the road first aid kit look elementary with their injectable anti-nauseant serum (that happened) and they had our athlete(s) - yes, thats plural. We had another sick athlete during landing and they were both evaluated at the gate to make sure they were safe to continue travelling.
Thank you WestJet for doing your diligence in securing the safety and health of our athletes.
If you look back to last years post, I'm sure our arrival says something about highway 93... again we were in and out of snow storms as the provincial parks in the area got dumped on through the evening. We checked in at 6pm so the athletes had plenty of time to rest up for our 745am start.
The athletes skied slalom today on showoff (the main run under the lift) from 8am-12pm. We had stubbies and brushes setup so that the athletes could challenge themselves to maximize their edge angle staying in forward active position. The athletes are already working hard on homework and completing tests and quizzes on the road. We had an amazing yoga session post-ski, and enjoyed a pasta casserole for dinner.
We are skiing on the West (Ouest) Mountain. The race run for the U16 provincials is Le Point du mier
It seems as though it is impossible for us Eastern skiers to dodge the cold. Our group headed out today in Val St Come, QC in what was another frigid -25 with windchills of -35. After yesterdays pouring rain you would think that the conditions would be absolutely bulletproof - Mother nature proved otherwise. We got on the race track this morning to find a top layer of what the rapid increase in wind speed completely dried out. This crust broke quite easily and we discovered a firmer base underneath. Our first session was very indicative of those who are willing to push themselves when weather and snow conditions are not ideal. The athletes battled mother natures frozen tendancies for 2 hours with no breaks and 2 full skin suit runs. After lunch we free-skied superG. The mountain is fairly large and quite deserted during the week - giving the athletes an opportunity to tuck and ski high speed turns top to bottom without interruption. The ground remained firm as long as a designated track was not setup.
A beautiful evening shot of the Auberge VSC
The Val St Come auberge will host the Outaouais delegation for their U16 provincial championships. We really felt strongly about exposing our Quebec athletes to the race environment they will encounter later in the season. The Auberge has been very accommodating with a great tuning setup, slopeside exit & entrance as well as delicious food and spacious rooms. The Auberge is situated immediately at the bottom of the Ouest mountain.
We will head back out tomorrow into what the athletes refer to as 'the frozen abyss' with the same schedule planned. We are on track for a a later return on Thursday night as we have adjusted out plan to ski the full day Thursday.
Most coaches can relate to a few of the comments below, most parents may be able to also associate in a different context:
Are we there yet? What time is lunch? When are we finishing today? Can we take a break?
How many more runs are we doing? Do we have to go full suit? Whens inspection? What time is pickup? ...and the most resonating recently: Can we have our poles Back?
We don't currently have any athletes from Mont Cascades on the team however both Martin and myself have strong roots at Cascades. I grew up racing Nancy Greene and U14 at Cascades before moving to the Zone/NCO ski team and Martin coached Nancy Greene (I may or may not have been an athlete of his at the age of 7) and he continued to work for their race program eventually heading the program before moving to the NCO U16 team as their head coach. After a 4 day break over Christmas the athletes were less than impressed when we continued our pole-less balance act. At the end of a 3 day stint at Mont Cascades on the 27th, 28th & 29th of December we painted the hill with some blue and red and gave the athletes their poles back to start doing what they love: bashing poles.
MSM alumni on the team consists of 3rd years Ben Beaudoin, Becca Cook, 2nd year Nora Fripp and 1st years ALexis Boivin & Jillian Lynott. We have moved into a GS block where we (much to the athletes demise) took their poles again - and they can anticipate that this cycle will continue through the rest of X0mas camp. We are at Mont Ste Marie for December 30th and 31st and return on January 3rd and 4th, 2014.
Today was a very special day. Our U16 athletes were very privileged in that they got to spend a few hours ski around with USST member Abby Ghent and MSM local, NCO alumni, current CAST member Dustin Cook. Both Dustin and Abby appreciate a longer ski so it was very fitting that they got to ski some GS with us.
Pictured from Left to Right, top to bottom: Lake K-M, Nora Fripp, Nicole Clarke, Rebecca Cook, Abby Ghent, Abby Thomas, ALexis Boivin, Hunter Watson, Jillian Lynott, Ben Beaudoin, Michael Power and Dustin Cook.
Take a look at the video below of Tiger Woods. We were hopeful that Dustin and Abby had this effect on the athletes. Turns out they did. Such an amazing opportunity. It's funny how much pressure they felt to perform and how much confidence they had in the visual picture that both these stellar athletes put on for them and how quickly they wanted to copy it. Hopefully the visual sticks.
For the session with Dustin & Abby - the athletes got their poles back :) The athletes are beginning to understand (especially with a longer turn) the importance of our slow fundamental work. We are very happy with their patience and very excited to see all their work pay off in the racing season.
Over the course of the Christmas break the gang heads out to our local ski hill affiliates. We often join forces with the other U16 programs in the region and train collaboratively. Our plan of going back to some basic fundamental training to make use of what is available in Ottawa (which is usually minimal) at the time of year has worked out very nicely.
We have a larger group of Ontario athletes from Camp fortune this year on the team. Nicole Clarke, Michael Power, Lake Korte-Moore, Hunter Watson and Nicholas Caves have come to the NCOST from Camp Fortune Ski Club. We spent Thur.Dec 19th & Fri.Dec 20th at Fortune working predominantly on stance and balance. It was very interesting to see the big and fast athletes ski on the same runs as the beginners doing some very beginner drills.
Ben Beaudoin wearing only his left ski pictured above with a young free skier on the lift that services the easier terrain at Camp Fortune.
...We continued the same exercises a littler deeper into the Outaouais while at Vorlage on December 21st & 22nd. We have a 2nd year athlete Abby Thomas who calls Vorlage her home hill. To give our readers a little perspective at this point we are on day 3 & 4 of skiing with no poles and continuing with the same 3 drills: Lots of Javeline skiing (inside ski up and crossed over the outside ski), One ski skiing (natural balance & risk taking), A range of snowplow exercises as well as some skating drills to engage a lot of lower joint activity.
Madeline - pictured above was recruited on the bunny hill at Vorlage and took a kind interest in the athletes. She was really curious what the "batons" were that the athletes were using. Each athlete received a third of a gate shaft that some chose to decorate with multi coloured duct tape. They also use it to maintain a strong upper body position (hand height and lower and upper body separation.
Below is a summary of some of the tactical information (sequencing of movements) we discussed with the athletes while engaging their minds at slower speeds. It is very important to us that the athletes develop a solid platform and then begin to sequence their movements. We setup different environments to challenge their balance and test their balance skills.
The top of our last a.m. SuperG session. Some big gains made in SG this camp, especially for the youngsters.
The team is off with Marty watching 'Catching Fire', the 2nd movie in the popular Hunger Games series at the Cineplex in Sunridge Mall, Calgary. I am at the Starbucks enjoying some peppermint tea in an attempt to digest the feast we had at Montana's (It is all you can eat rib night on Wednesday). We arrived in Calgary at around 4:30pm after another hairy drive on the unpredictable 93.
We are very pleased with how the camp went. Other then the 10 day cold snap we were blessed with great weather and at bare minimum the cold yields great hard snow. The athletes are skiing very well. They are confident, competitive with each other and very committed to their improvement before the real racing season begins. The shootout ended very dramatically. On the girls side Abby, who had the lead after the GS DNF'd in both her afternoon runs. Rebecca stepped up her intensity in the slalom and took the girls side of the shootout. Jillian was a very close 2nd place and Nora and Nicole also failed to complete their morning/afternoon runs. On the boys front Hunter had a 1.6 second lead going into the slalom. His lead was obliterated by Big-Ben in his first run of slalom where Ben evened the playing field. Ben continued his domination in the afternoon by increasing the margin by another 1.5 seconds. First years Lake and Nick were not too far behind the pace completing both their afternoon and morning runs. Michael Power - skiing very well in sections was unable to finish the course giving him a DNF result.
Becca was more willing to share her prize with the gang... Ben on the other hand he enjoyed his winnings solo....
ShootOut winner Ben enjoying his dessert
prize
Ben has a personal tradition that every time he goes to Montana's he plays a trick and says that it's someone's Birthday... His target - Marty!
We will return the vans first thing in the morning tomorrow and then head to the airport for our 10:25am flight. We are expected to touch down in Ottawa around 4:15pm.
“When the game is over I just want to look at myself in the
mirror, win or lose, and know I gave it everything I had.”
-Joe Montana
1st year U16 athlete Jillian Lynott attacking the GS
Still a bit balmy here in BC's interior - on the better side of -20 degrees this morning (is there a better side to -20?) Forecast is warming up conveniently for our soon approaching departure. The athletes competed in the GS portion of the NCO annual shoot out today...
Here are the results of the athletes (best morning + best afternoon run) going into the slalom portion tomorrow:
“I may win and I may lose, but I will never be defeated.”
-Emmitt Smith
Ladies
1st year U16 athlete Nicole Clarke getting after the GS
on Oldtimer.
Men
1. Hunter Watson
2. Ben Beaudoin +1.79
3. Lake Korte Moore +5.32
4. Nick Caves +7.1
5. Michael Power DSQ
Marty and I found this video of Elizabeth Goergl in a World Cup GS hosted here at Panorama in 2007. It is on the very track that the athletes are competing and training on tomorrow. At around 18.0 seconds is where our athletes starting point is and they have skied the remainder to the bottom in GS & SG at this camp.
“Winning and losing are both very temporary things. Having done one or the other, you move ahead. Gloating over a victory or sulking
over a loss is a good way to stand still.”
-Chuck Knox
The bib draw for the slalom portion of the shoot-out is complete. We look forward to what tomorrows results will bring. Our schedule has us skiing the slalom shoot out in the 3rd session of the day and we will ski Super G bright and early in session #1.
“Competitive toughness is an acquired skill, not an inherited gift.”
8:45 - Begin SG runs
