December Alpine Update 2024
So far this season has been a little dry in terms of snowfall. I know all of us are eager to see the resorts open to more terrain. While I also share this appetite for deeper snow and longer runs, I think we can use this time to our advantage in many ways. While some of the older athlete’s competition season has officially started, the rest of us don’t start racing for another month, providing an excellent opportunity for us to slow down and think about the fundamentals of good skiing. In many ways, this is a huge block as it allows both coaches and athletes to have a singular focus – improvement from the ground up. By January we will all be full steam ahead training, traveling, and racing. Revisiting fundamentals happens but never with the same duration or intensity. So while skiing slow and doing drills is definitely not the most exciting, it will pay dividends in the long run. I promise!
Alpine Director & Head Jfast Coach
Alpine Athlete Spotlight:
Elysia Moreno
Between our early season camp in Colorado and our first two weeks of training at home, Elysia has been hard at work getting back in skis and back to top form. She is positive and encouraging to her team and a great person to ski with and have fun. More importantly, was the work Elysia put in this summer and fall during dryland. Coaches were very impressed at the much stronger she has gotten. Great job Elysia! Coaches are very proud of the effort you are putting in.
Link to Holiday Camp Calendar: CLICK HERE
Link to Nutrition Information: CLICK HERE
Alumni Spotlight
Elisabeth and Mary Bocock began their skiing careers at Snowbird, and both raced in the World Cup opener in Solden last year. And at the World Cup at Killington this year Elizabeth was 8th first run and made a spectacular recovery in her 2nd run to earn her first World Cup points. Meanwhile, Mary had a 10th-place finish in a Europa Cup in Zinal, Switzerland earlier this month. This is a wonderful example of how dreams that begin in LCC and with SBSEF can come true!
Here is a great article in ski racing about the Bocock sisters:
https://skiracing.com/americas-bocock-sisters-world-cup-debut-solden-2023-24/
Good luck this year Mary and Elisabeth, you have hundreds of SBSEF fans cheering you on!
U16 Update:
The U16 team has been actively building upon our early-season training efforts in Aspen, Snowbird, and the UOP this month. We are grateful to Matt at the UOP for accommodating extra SL sessions as we gear up for the Sean Nurse races in Snow King from December 19th to 22nd. Additionally, a big thank you to the Snowbird crew for facilitating early morning on-hill training opportunities.
We have maintained a consistent focus on our season goals, which include refining body position, applying pressure and balance over the outside ski, understanding where and how to pressure the ski effectively, and remaining square in the fall line. The team has made significant progress through constraint-based training and slow drills, even while the mountain is open to the public.
To provide more context, constraint-based training involves exercises that intentionally limit certain movements or aspects of technique, forcing athletes to adapt and focus on specific areas for improvement. For example, skiers might be asked to perform drills with their poles held in a particular position, restricting their usual range of motion and highlighting any imbalances or inefficiencies in their body position. Slow drills, on the other hand, involve performing movements at a reduced speed, allowing for greater attention to detail and promoting muscle memory of correct technique.
The combination of these training methods has proven beneficial in addressing individual and group needs, leading to improved performance and a deeper understanding of fundamental skiing principles. Moving forward, we will continue to implement these and other effective training strategies to ensure the team is well-prepared for the upcoming races and the remainder of the season.
U16 Head Coach
U14 Update:
Team U14 is off to a great start, with a productive training block in Aspen just before Thanksgiving. After the holiday, we were back at Snowbird making laps on the new Wilbere Chair and our improved race venue. The hill looks great and provides the best snow on the mountain as we work through our drill progressions.
We’ve been doing a lot of balance drills to get back on our feet- whirly birds and skiing on one ski have been the favorites. We have also been focusing on starting the turn on a ‘bent leg’, meaning that we are working on starting the turn with shin pressure over the outside ski. This helps build fall-line pressure above the gate. While skiing powder and training gates are the fun part of the sport that we all sign up for, this prep period is building a strong foundation for our athletes to create really strong technical skills that will relate to faster skiing once we get into gates. We have seen significant improvements in our athletes, putting in hard work.
We have a group of 2nd year U14s preparing for the first open race in Jackson, the Sean Nurse Memorial race. They will be racing 2 days of GS, and 2 days of SL. Our compressed training schedule to prepare for these races has shown that these athletes are skiing with great speed! Good luck to our group joining the U16 crew in Jackson, December 19-22. We will be starting Christmas Camp soon, and get into our first SG block of the season. Who’s ready to go fast?
It feels great to be working on our new race venue, the future feels really promising. Making laps on Regulator in the afternoon sun reminds us how lucky we are to have this opportunity. Looking forward to more snow on the horizon, powder days, and fast skiing on race days.
U14 Head Coach
Jfast Update:
The Jfast season has officially started. Our U12 group got to spend a week in Aspen Colorado with the U14 and U16 prior to Thanksgiving. Colorado has been fortunate enough to have some cold temps for snowmaking and some help from Mother Nature. The surface was outstanding, and groups were able to make use of some very effective training while watching some impressive skiing from other teams that were training next to us, specifically the US men’s and women’s D-team.
Athletes have been diligent in working on their stance and balance and edging and pressure. We are roughly a week away from Xmas camp which is a huge training block for JFAST (Dec 21 – 31). As a reminder, Xmas camp is included in all athletes’ tuition. Coaches are looking forward to a productive camp. Please check Team Snap for camp details.
Jfast Head Coach
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