ON SNOW
That camp was legit. After a week of on-snow training at
Foret Montmorency the team is getting primed for the season. Each year it seems
like this training camp is tweaked more and more, (and not just to account for
the dwindling lack of snow each year) with good returns and more productive
sessions.
A photo from the nearby tower looking down on the manmade snow loop (Photo: Reed Likly)
Only a few years ago when this camp was as simple as it
gets. Ski a lot, eat a lot of anything, and ski again until you are too tired
to move. In the space of a few years we’ve gotten more professional, more
thorough, and more organized. We meet at night to discuss topics like recovery,
race mentality, goals and warm-up routines. We plan meals that will best suit
our training, and talk about why we eat what we do. We upload, modify and watch
video of technique (sometimes even before we’ve left the lodge).
Video analysis
Skiing around a 1.7k loop can be arduous in some ways, and
extremely beneficial in others. Ethan and I can see everyone on the team
multiple times, at multiple places. We can ski ourselves, take video, ski some
more, pull team members aside, send them off with things to work on, and (my
favorite) ski with just about everybody at least once a day. “Let’s take a lap”
was probably my most common phrase I said all week, uttered whenever somebody
came by with a technical question or if I wanted to get a sense of how someone
was skiing.
Erin Perryman is the technique-master of the women's team. She is always thinking and modifying to improve how efficiently she skis
ON RACING
And while technique and easy skiing are the foundation of
this camp, a little early season racin’ is usually in the cards. There’s not
much at stake with these early TTs, but we competed well. A few of the top guys
weren’t too happy with their races for one reason or another, but our women’s
team was incredibly impressive. For a group composed entirely of freshmen (with
the exception of sophomore Kate, and senior Kelsey who was not present) these
girls were in the MIX, stacking the top 10 against much older Colby and Bowdoin
teams. The part that keeps impressing me with this group is how similar in
ability they are (and it showed here) and how that enables them to keep pushing
each other and improving. People have probably been led to believe we’re in a
bit of a rebuilding year with such a young team, and even I have been thinking “man,
give these girls a year or two together and things are gonna get real fast”.
But after seeing this group on snow I get the feeling we might start seeing
some killer results sooner than expected.
On the men’s side, Will Frielinghaus is continuing to
improve and impress in every hard effort. He’s probably most known for being on
the eccentric side, both in personality and ski technique…but as he skied by
the waxing benches while Ethan and I were prepping the women’s skis, we saw a
whole new Will. Calm, smooth and efficient, but with all the snap of that wild
side. He was carrying out absolutely everything that we’d talked about and that
he’d worked on this summer and fall, and doing it all without prompting. It was
clear within 10 seconds of watching him ski that he would be our top guy on the
day. Eric was struggling a bit after tweaking his leg skiing the day before,
but opted to gut it out and race, still coming out competitive in the end. I’ll
still hold to the statement I’ve made all fall that Eric is possibly the best
classic technician on the EISA Circuit (and not far off in skating), and when
he’s at full throttle there’s gonna be some impressive races from him this
year.
Reed also had a solid race, and looked powerful throughout.
He ended up less than a minute off some consistent top-20 Carnival racers, and
I’m confident he can keep chipping away at that gap by the time the real race
season gets underway.
The night before we left, some of us took the customary trip down to the Stoneham Terrain park after dark to hit some jumps and boxes. Here's some photos of Reed and Austin Hart gettin' it done and working on their balance:
Box grind
Stair gap
ON CAMPUS
In a rare move, mother nature decided to throw us a bone and
give us a little early-season snow at
Star Lake this week. It’s always a treat to finish up Thanksgiving camp and
keep skiing, and we’ll be heading out this afternoon for a little skate ski on
the golf course. I spent most of yesterday driving around and checking out
other options, but Star Lake, like usual, is where it’s at.
We’re eagerly awaiting Exam Week, the end of the semester,
and the beginning of the racing season!
Star Lake, 11/26/12
No comments:
Post a Comment