February 24th, 2010
The FIS team has just returned from a short training camp in northern Quebec. Following our olympic break, this camp was a good change of pace from the busy race schedule of late January/Early February. Thanks to Mt Grand Fonds for the Charlevoix hospitality and helping us prepare for our next races.
Both the FIS and K2 group are entering another big stretch of races. This week the SQA K2s are in the eastern townships at the K2 provincials. The FIS team will race at Camp Fortune this weekend in the Miele slaloms. On Monday, the 2nd and 3rd year FIS guys will travel to Okemo, VT to race 2 SGs and 1 SC in Eastern Cup competitions and return home for the GM Cup at Camp Fortune.
On another note, some of the NCOST parents have been busy prepping the race courses in Whistler. No doubt they have had their hands full as Whistler has certainly lived up to it's reputation. Looking good guys!
Stay tuned!
February 12th, 2009
Speed week for FIS and Quebec Speed training for K2s
Earlier this month both the K2 and FIS Team found themselves in the Quebec city region training and racing in SG and DH. The K2s called Stoneham home for a week of training. Coach Rog had this to say early on in the camp:
"We have just finished day two of our four day camp. The snow is fast and grippy and the weather is extremely cold but it’s not dampening any spirits. Monday morning after our long race and travel day on Sunday started slowly. Free skiing GS and SG in the morning before running 6 fast GS course runs in the afternoon. The pitch here on run #1 at Stoneham is steep and has some interesting fall lines which make the kids work for every turn. It’s fantastic.
Day two started early with a SG/DH set the gates were set at 50m apart it was fast. This will be the fastest the kids ski all week. We started with an 80% run and picked up the intensity from there. Removing gear slowly until run 5 – 8, those were full downhill suite and all out. We broke some speed comfort thresholds this morning which made the more technical course in the afternoon seem easy and slow. The afternoon was more of a SG set 35m to 37m working on line and some individual technical focuses for everyone."
On this FIS side of things, the team was racing at Mont Ste Anne in Super Series events. Athletes from all over Quebec, Ontario and East US were in attendance and reaching speed of 125km/h on the famous Crete piste. Despite a tough start to the series, plagued by two cancellations due to soft snow conditions, all events were held in a more condensed program. After having some work done on the track and help from mother nature with some cold, the athletes had a dry and grippy surface to test their speed skills. This track is great for all skill levels. To a young developing FIS athletes, it's a safe and relatively unintimidating track to hone speed skills. To competitive athletes, it's a great venue to push your limits, and pay special attention to both gliding sections and turning sections.
At events like this you can break down your run into sections and with the help of interval reports, top to bottom video and DartFish, you can really pin point what you need to work on to go faster. So while this is a race series, you are constantly working on your speed skills; tucking position, line, pressure distribution, gliding. Being at a resort like Ste anne, the team also took advantage of excellent tech training on the side. The athlete's comfort with speed definitly showed, the sl session we had were the best all year.
Finally, on the result side the team had a great week, highlighted by J1 podiums by Makena in SG and DH, J1 and Overall podiums by Chris and Julian. Ian breaking into the first page in SG and top 10 in SC.
September 20th, 2009
We are heading down to Valle Nevado, Chile with both FIS and K2 athletes on September 29th. By the sounds of it snow conditions are amazing and we should have excellent training in SG, GS and SL. We will be working with other regional teams from Quebec and have exposure to the Quebec Provincial team as well, it will be a good chance to measure up early in the season.
Lately we've been working hard on setting up everyone's equipment for the camp and the season. Lots of hours have been put in already to boot fitting and ski preparation. The boot lab at the T&L Warehouse has been great so far for all our punching, grinding and alignment needs.
On the dryland side of things, we've been doing field workouts with a little bit of mountain biking and zip lining in the mix as well. Alot of our time has been focused on hip stability and mobility, joint awareness and as always improving our conditioning. Thomas Macneil has helped design our dryland program and trains our athletes full time outside of team workouts. The program is designed by looking at the demands of our sport and addressing them in every workout we do. We are excited to see how in translate in our on snow training.
August 10th, 2009
Ski Camps for all regions are in full swing right now, with most teams down south in Chile, including some of our Alumni athletes. Graham Scott and Mathieu Fournier are both in Chile with the Quebec Ski Team. Graham is entering his 2nd season with the Quebec Ski Team, while Mathieu has a special invitation to train with the provincial team for both pre season camps. Randa Teschner (Ontario Ski Team) and Stephanie Marcil (Quebebc Ski Team) will also be heading south in mid September for pre season camps.
Best of luck to all NCOST Alumni and thanks for the years of hard work.
As for the current NCOST athletes, our FIS guys will be heading back to Mt Hood on Friday for a technical camp. For 4 of the 5 athletes going, this will be their first on snow camp. The focus up till now has been on physical preparation and complementary sports. It is always exciting getting back to snow after a good period of physical training, as well as rest, mostly psychological, getting away from skiing can offer a new perspective, both from the coach and athlete. This is the idea behind our shorter summer camps, be rested mentally, ready physically and hungry to ski. The camps are shorter but the quality of training is higher.
We will as always, train with the big picture in mind and a full spectrum approach. We consider the first camp as foundational training for the rest of the season, getting the body aligned for fast skiing and tighter turn shapes.
Stay tuned,
Chris |
