Coach's Corner

Hello everyone,

As our season comes to a close there are a couple things that you need to do with your kids skis to ensure they can be used for another season, or be in good shape to get the value out of selling them.

The first thing you need to do is clean the edges and give them a quick sharpen.  Take off any of the rust; you don’t want that to sit underneath the wax you are just about to put over them.

You guessed it, next you need to wax the skis.   This is extremely important because if you put skis away that are not waxed it the base will actually shrink.   All of the moisture and wax that you worked so hard to get into the base during the season, will be gone in no time once the temperatures heat up in the summer.   The major problem with this is the base becomes concave with the edges are higher than the base, and if you have ever tried to turn his ski in this condition, it’s impossible to turn; the skis will go dead straight and if they are really sharp they can actually be difficult to turn sideways to stop. The only thing to do at that point it is to have the bases ground to have them leveled out. And the more concave the base, the deeper they have to go with the grind to get everything level, which can take off quite a bit of the base and the edge remaining.  

 A little bit of time at the end of the season can ensure skis will be in good shape when you need them next, or are ready to sell them.

 Regards,

Program Director
Steve Lawrence

Hi Everyone, Now that we are in the swing of things and approaching races we need to ensure the kids skis are tuned up and ready to go. 

Being that we ski on man made snow/concrete... We need to ensure the edges are sharp and consistently being maintained. For the kids to learn and be able to develop skills, the edges have to be as sharp as you can get them. That means tuning them preferably before every training session and at absolute minimum once per week. If you develop the habit of maintaining them on a regular basis it takes 10 min to touch up the edges. If you let them go for a month then you will have a couple hours ahead of you to get them ready. If you haven't been keeping up on them then I suggest you take them into a shop for a grind and then keep up on them. Teach the kids how to do it, its their equipment and kids have been tuning skis for eons very successfully. 

Now with the file guides its even easier. I have see 11 year olds tune their skis better than most adults so it can be done.

See you on the slopes

Steve Lawrence

Hello everyone, we are inching ever closer to the season beginning.

This time of year it is important to ensure all of the kids equipment is ready to go.

Have a look at the kids skis to ensure the edges are prepared and sharp. If they have been put away from the end of last season and have not been tuned, I can tell you they are not ready to go. If the edges are covered in rust and the skis were not waxed before you put them away for the summer, it is best to take them to a shop for a base grind because the base has likely shrunk a bit. To get the edges and the base level again they will need to be ground and the shops do this well.

 The bindings should be checked to ensure they are functioning and set properly and very importantly the boots you have fit into the bindings. This is often overlooked if you have purchased new boots for this season. If you have recently had skis in at a shop and brought them home, it is always a good idea to check to see if the bindings din has been set. Sometimes they turn them way down and don't inform people. This mostly happens to the older athletes who require the bindings to be far above the shops recommended levels.

 For the boots it is important to check to see if all of the buckles are present and accounted for and that they still fit if the kids have grown over the summer, and you have not checked them yet.

 By checking these things prior to the first day on snow it makes for far fewer surprises and delays when the kids are axious to start skiing. See you on the slopes soon.

Hello Everyone:

Since we are well underway with dryland and the temperature dropping, drastically, we are inching ever closer to the season starting.

Fitness is paramount at this point so the athletes can make the most out of their season. Fitness is a lifestyle, and it important to take the fitness beyond the 3 days of scheduled dryland so a pattern of fitness maintenance is established during the season once our formal dryland is completed.

 Our fitness component is designed to do specific things: develop some rotational core strength, increase foot speed and agility, and increase flexiblity. Every single athlete in the club should be working to increase flexiblity. It is decidedly lacking in all the kids and this directly affects the kids on snow, and limits what they can learn.

 So I highly recommend for 15 minutes a day the kids work on stretching and a short core workout, it can be done when the kids are in front of the tv, and will pay off when the season starts. The kids know what to do, simple crunches and planks, hamstring toe touch stretches, and front of the leg quad stretches will do wonders.

Regards,
Program Director
Steve Lawrence

With summer coming to an end, fall approaching, and the ski season just around the corner, it is time to start preparing. Some kids are very active over the summer and some very inactive. 

Skiing is a sport that require a tremendous amount physical strength and coordination to do even at a basic level. To do so in a competitive arena it requires a level of fitness that is well above average.

If there is one single element above all the skills that are important in athletics it would be conditioning. What does it take to become a well conditioned athlete?

Repetition

Initially the human body gets more out of conditioning from consistent or frequent smaller workouts, than it does from one long workout because the body requires consistent signals over time that it must adapt to the new workload.

The dryland that we do for the club is very sport specific targeting muscle groups that we need conditioned for skill acquisition phases.

This means that the kids must do some activity on their own in between dryland sessions. Hopefully the kids are playing school sports but if not, it is up to each individual athlete to take it upon themselves to be active.

Go for a run, do a core workout, no equipment is necessary. Just be active.

Motivation

The only thing required is motivation, and the understanding that every athlete that desires to improve their skills or to get to the next level, must ask themselves what are they willing to do to achieve their goals.

Consistent workouts over time creates a strong fit athlete.

See you all soon!  Steve.

Hello everyone,

As our season comes to a close there are a couple things that you need to do with your kids skis to ensure they can be used for another season, or be in good shape to get the value out of selling them.

The first thing you need to do is clean the edges and give them a quick sharpen.  Take off any of the rust; you don’t want that to sit underneath the wax you are just about to put over them.

You guessed it, next you need to wax the skis.   This is extremely important because if you put skis away that are not waxed it the base will actually shrink.   All of the moisture and wax that you worked so hard to get into the base during the season, will be gone in no time once the temperatures heat up in the summer.   The major problem with this is the base becomes concave with the edges are higher than the base, and if you have ever tried to turn his ski in this condition, it’s impossible to turn; the skis will go dead straight and if they are really sharp they can actually be difficult to turn sideways to stop. The only thing to do at that point it is to have the bases ground to have them leveled out. And the more concave the base, the deeper they have to go with the grind to get everything level, which can take off quite a bit of the base and the edge remaining.  

 A little bit of time at the end of the season can ensure skis will be in good shape when you need them next, or are ready to sell them.

 Regards,

Program Director
Steve Lawrence

  With the nonstop racing and training of the past three months it is very important to monitor the athletes fatigue levels at this time of year. Even though we have had a shortened season, it is quite common for the athletes to exhibit signs of overtraining, or general fatigue.

 Skiing is a very demanding sport for all of the athletes, and even more so when you get up into the older groups of K-1 and K-2.   But, for all the athletes the wear and tear of month after month of training and racing, sleeping in different hotels, dealing with the cold elements, as well as the pressures to perform, can take their toll.

 The coaches begin to see these signs of overtraining /fatigue when the athletes cannot complete the morning training sessions with the same amount of enthusiasm or effort. We start to see problems that would normally show up after two or three hours, begin to show up much earlier. Lunch breaks start to take longer, and the afternoon training sessions become very mistake filled.   This is the area where injuries and crashes are more likely to happen.

 Nutrition is absolutely paramount!!! The athletes have to be properly hydrated and they must be eating nutrient rich foods to have a hope of recovering from day to day activities, and to be able to perform safely. When the kids come in for breaks it is vital that they receive some foods and drinks that will help them. Empty calories hurt them!!!: Candy, Cola drinks, High Fat Muffins, Etc… All high sugar products basically fuel the kids up on worthless empty calories, and they will be worse off than they were before the break. They will be tired, struggle to concentrate, frustrated, and in a greater likelihood of crashing and injury. While this is a concern at all times of the year, its importance is compounded at the end of the season simply by the workload that they have undergone. Fresh fruits, nuts and trail mix, whatever it may be, practice good nutrition at this time of year, your kids will thank you for it.

 Also, keep an eye on the athletes fatigue levels in the afternoon, while they may be used to going for a few extra runs after training is finished, this is the time of year to take a close look at them and say maybe we should stop at three o’clock, they probably have a full day tomorrow.

 I hope these tips help.

Regards,

Program Director
Steve Lawrence

Now that we are in the heart of the racing season it is important that the athletes equipment is being maintained.

Nothing is more difficult for the athletes than trying to carve on dull skis!! Being from northern Alberta, we don't have the problems of dealing with a whole bunch of powder skiing days, and being worried that our skis are too sharp for the soft snow!! We are generally skiing on a tilted skating rink, and while you wouldn’t go skating with dull blades, you can’t go ski racing with dull edges.

 One of the very first fundamentals that we teach the kids is the ability to carve a turn.   In order for that to happen the kids must feel a firm platform underneath their foot. It is that sensation of a solid platform that they roll their ankles side to side to initiate the carving of the ski.   We teach them that their heel follows the exact same line as their toes. The heel does not push out the side, that is called stopping!! When the edges of the skis are not sharp the heel naturally wants to drift out to the side and it will no longer be following the toes, at best it becomes a controlled skid. This can become intensely frustrating for the athletes, because no matter what they do they are fighting the equipment.

 The harder the snow is the faster the skis edges become dull. This means if you are only having your kids skis tuned once a month, they are fighting their equipment. Given the conditions that we are skiing on, which often resembles concrete, the kids skis should be tuned at minimum once a week, minimum!!

Now taking them into a shop once a week is just not feasible, nor recommended.  Simply learning how to sharpen the edges, and then maintaining the sharp edges with a diamond stone after each training session is all that is required. This will go a long way alleviate a tremendous amount of frustration for your athlete.   The skis do not have to be waxed after every session, but should be done once a week to keep the base saturated with wax.

 Teach your kids how to tune their skis and in no time they will be tuning them on their own as part of their preparation for training. I have seen 12-13 year old kids that can tune their skis better than most adults.

 One thing to keep in mind, when you do take the kids skis into a shop for a base grind or full servicing, it is the shop’s policy to turn the bindings down almost to nothing. It is very important that you turn the bindings back up to where they were before your athlete skis on them.

I hope these tips help.

 Regards,

After a very long, warm, and dry fall season, we finally got on snow, and then proceeded right into the deep freeze!!!

Dressing the athletes for these cold temperatures can be a difficult task. Some clothing companies simply do a better job at insulating their products than others. As well, certain brands of pants and jackets pack out faster than others and lose their ability to insulate warmth.

The best way to overcome these scenarios is to layer the clothing. It is always easier for the athletes to take a layer off when they are too warm, than it is to search for something to put on. Usually looking to put an extra layer on involves going back to the lodge, digging through the bag to find the item that may or may not be there. If the athletes start with enough layers, when they get warmed up they can always just take off a layer and leave it at the top of the course, then there is no disruption of their training.

I have seen many athletes over the years wearing a simple T-shirt underneath their ski jacket.   The problem with this scenario is that if the athlete starts to sweat at all, in no time they will have a wet layer of cotton against their skin.   This leads to getting very cold, fairly quickly.

I recommend that the layer of clothing against the skin be a moisture wicking material, this keeps them warm and dry. A second layer of fleece is a great insulator as well. Then on the colder days either a vest or hoodie will be needed. This is the layer that can be removed if it’s too much. Then, finally their regular team jacket.

It’s always a good idea to have some hand warmers in their pockets that they can use whenever they need them.

And finally, make sure that the kids boots are dry. The feet get very cold, very quickly when the boots are damp or wet. This becomes a real issue when skiing consecutive days.   Boot dryers are a great investment and they dry the boot liners right down into the toe pocket ,which is the last area to dry, and the first to get cold the next day!!

I hope those tips help to get us through the cold days of January.

Regards,

Alpine Ski racing is a demanding sport that requires the participants to be in good physical condition to perform safely, and achieve the goals each individual sets. The twists, turns and speeds that the kids encounter are far different form other sports, and every run down the slopes each athlete faces centrifugal forces, rotational forces, anaerobic and aerobic loads, uneven terrain, inconsistent surfaces, and all while increasing speeds and keeping their balance. Sounds challenging I know! It is, and lots of fun as well.

Our fitness training philosophy is to train each individual to be a better, fitter athlete first, then train sport specific drills and exercises that simulate the forces they will encounter while skiing. We build a better athlete by focusing on their core development because every move we make in sports and in daily life is preceded by the activation of the core muscles and internal stabilizers: namely the transverse abdominis, or the TVA’s. So, the fitter and stronger the core, the faster and more efficient you move, the greater your balance, and the greater your ability to learn and perform new skills.

In addition to the main focus of core development, we include overall body strengthening appropriate the athlete’s age by improved motor skill coordination, increased motor unit activation, other neurological adaptations. We incorporate the training aspects of agility, quickness, speed training, vision training, balance, power and plyometrics.

The venues we will be using this year are:

Holy Spirit Catholic High School- 151 Crimson Drive, Sherwood Park

Tuesday and Thursday evenings from 6:00PM – 7:30PM

Separate Indoor shoes Mandatory- outside footwear will not be allowed and the school custodial staff will be checking at the door.

Father Kenneth Kearns Elementary School - #8 Sandpiper Drive, Sherwood Park

Saturday Mornings from 11:30AM – 1:00PM

Two pairs of shoes are mandatory as some of the training will be outside and some will be inside. The outside shoes cannot be used inside- no exceptions.

The program is split into 2 age groups: 5-8, and 9-18.

The 5-8 year olds are a bit too young for the full 3 day program, so we have training for them Saturday mornings only. There are 8 sessions planned.

The 9-18 year olds have 23 sessions planned.

One thing to remember is if winter comes early, we stop the fitness training and begin the on-snow programs immediately.

I look forward to seeing everyone at the training.

Regards,
Program Director/Head Coach
Steve Lawrence