Thursday in pictures!

 

 

 

Thursday was our first Slalom day of the camp and conditions were beautiful after the storm of Wednesday passed through. We set a slalom stubbie course on piste 3500m on a light dusting of fresh powder.

The main bulk of the morning was spent freeskiing getting a feel for the sweet spot of the slalom skis and how to ski dynamically and actively while maintaining a calm and stable upper body. The athletes were really happy to be skiing slalom in the sun!

Ruslan and Ali coaching at the bottom of our full length course - it was hard work skiing that long over 3000 metres.

Ruslan and his Juniors group after a big lunch.

After skiing, we took up a slot on the indoor running track for some quick sprints and an obstacle course including boxes, hurdles, ladders and lateral cone sprints. The athletes worked in teams and finished their training with a head to head race.

Ruslan and the boys worked on some lifting techniques in the gym.

Reaction starts to end the fitness session. Time to rest before full slalom gates on Friday.
 

Mixing the crunchy with the smoothie

Jazmine Butcher, making the most of Mondays soft conditions with some nice angles above the fall line on 3500.

The measure of man is not what he will do for himself, but what he will willingly do for someone else. 

In this case we must give credit to our good friend Phil Brown who has been sharing training lanes and fitness facilities with us. Things have been a little tricky in Tignes recently, with stormy weather making a nuisance of itself, skiing today was cancelled, and yesterday was a tough day for all. With some teams only getting 1 or 2 runs in the gates for the day, we managed to stick it out until 1pm with Lynn, having to hike to help pull.

Yasmin Cooper, proving that in tough conditions, if you fight for it, it’s still possible to pull off some great turns.

With the mountain shutting early on Tuesday due to high winds, and a poor forecast for Wednesday we realised very early on in Tuesday morning that Wednesday might be a weather day, after some joint planning Phil phoned to organise the basket ball court at the new Tignes sports hall for this afternoon whilst we booked a provisional hour slot for the morning. This advanced planning ensured that we were ahead of almost every other team on the mountain at ensuring we still had some quality training for today, as well as a lot of fun for the afternoon.

Trainees warming up for the morning track/sprint session.

Shooting some B-ball.

With a lot of snow fallen today, we are anticipating a powder day tomorrow, with the only downside that we may have to dig out our gates for the following days training. But who cares, roll on the powder.

Tignes Training Squad 20th - 26th October 2013

Good evening from Day 2 of our Tignes training camp and boy was it a contrast to yesterday! 
I don't know if I need any words here - this picture says it all...

The Tignes glacier is seeing record-breaking snow conditions for this time of year, fresh wintry snow and lots of it.  After starting our first day skiing yesterday in reasonable weather, a storm soon closed in leaving bumpy conditions, little visibility and strong winds.  The snow was falling horizontally but some of it must have stuck to the mountain because today we arrived at the 3032m funicular station this morning to a fresh snowy blanket covering everything above 2500m, it was like a winter wonderland!

Ali, Ruslan, Lynn and our 18 athletes took advantage of the sun and mild temperatures today and trained hard right to the last lifts at 3:45pm (with a break for a two-course lunch in the restaurant to keep them going).
Training today was on Giant Slalom skis but all three groups spent a lot of time skiing short turns on the long boards, not just because the snow was slightly soft making the pistes choppy, but to help achieve the level of physical effort required of a racer.  There is no cruising in a race course, so we worked on getting balanced on the skis to effectively pressurise and work the skis into short radius turns.  No easy feat but a perfect way to get to know the new skis that a lot of our athletes are trying out this week, I think there were some sore legs this evening! 

But that is racing...not just technical skiing and tactical choices but physical effort, good equipment and a positive focused attitude.  During these first two days of free-skiing we wanted to train all aspects of the athletes performance including battling through yesterday's challenging environment.  It certainly paid off when the athletes had lots more feeling in the inspiring conditions today!

This afternoon we reviewed video from today, had a big BSA game of football and trained some light agility.  After an easy recovery fitness session, hot showers and a big buffet dinner at the Diva I am sure the athletes are ready for tomorrow - Giant Slalom gates on the 3500m T-bar... Let's go!

 

The webcam of where we are training can be found here : http://www.tignes.net/en/skiing-in-tignes/webcams-290.html#Webcam_HD_Grande_Motte_-_3100_m_- Check it out!

Watch this space for more camp updates and photos soon....

2014 Winter Season Race Calendar

Below are the principal U14/U16 BASS British races we will be attending this season, all of which include U10/U12 events.

Further details available at links below or, as always: www.britiski.org

04 - 07 Jan	Anglo-Scottish Cup	Les Houches, FRA
23 – 24 Jan	Welsh Alpine Ski Champs	Champery, SUI
16 - 21 Feb	English Alpine Ski Championships	Bormio, ITA
13 – 14 Mar	Aiglon Cup	Villars, SUI
17 -18 Mar	British Interschool Ski Challenge	Les Houches, FRA
06 -07 Apr	Scottish Races TBC	Courchevel FRA
08 -11 Apr	British Championships	Meribel FRA

Norwich Slalom Camp, August 2013

BSA at Norwich Snowsports Club - August 2013

After a successful summer snow camp in Zermatt, Switzerland, the British Ski Academy changed skiing surfaces from snow to dendex for their Norwich Slalom Camp at the Norfolk Snowsports Centre. 

The venue held the British Artificial Championships in 2013 and hosts a number of freestyle competitions on its jump park including quarter pipe, moguls and rollers.  As well as dendex - plastic bristly brushes with diamond shaped holes - there are two slopes made of snowflex - a different style of plastic matting with no holes and more like a doormat. 

We took advantage of the variety of terrain and slopes this centre has by splitting each day into 5-6 sessions each with a different theme on a different area of the slope.  Every morning started with a balance competition and warm up 'play' session on skis where everyone got to ski together and every afternoon we finished the day with a team dual slalom event.  We had between 25 and 45 trainees throughout the week, some of whom were new to racing and some who were using the camp as a warm up for the English Championships held at Gloucester the weekend following the camp. 

To keep the athletes working hard on technique, tactics and testing their diversity on a pair of skis, there were four principle BSA coaches Brad, Jutty, Stuart and Lynn who had a group each and were supported by our BSA helpers Nia, Sophie, Polly, Jaz and Megan who are all current and experienced BSA athletes themselves.  Each group worked in a different area of the ski centre allowing the groups to have sole use of an area to train in.  This worked really well and kept everyone busy and  moving.  Sessions ranged from Slalom skills and drills courses, training gates, technical freeskiing, video analysis and ski-related fitness games.  Not forgetting our final days tubing session and the final afternoon of racing.

 

 

 

 

 

There were some serious improvements made by the trainees and we ended up awarding every athlete with a prize at the end of the week for their efforts and improvement. 

 

The team events all worked well and it was a great way to get the trainees mixing with trainees in other groups to their own.  The team spirits were always high in the afternoons!

The conditions were generally beautiful, but very hot to be kitted up in full protective race gear!  None the less we had many trainees return wanting to do several more days of the camp once they'd had a taster and we had some relatively new skiers become racers by the end of the week.  

We had a small group of trainees staying in care of BSA staff for the week who had travelled from afar - furthest trainee came from Geneva!  They had some nice meals out and a trip to the cinema.  Some of the trainees were more local to Norwich, and we were just thrilled to make this camp happen once again.  BSA have ran many camps at Norwich in previous years, and we would like to thank Norfolk Ski Club for letting us return this year for a successful camp. 

 

It was great to see Ski Bartlett along supporting the camp too who came for a whole day midweek with their mobile shop and kindly supplied prizes for our team and individual events. 

 After five action packed days, the camp drew to a close, thanks to everyone who came along, worked hard and made it so successful.  We can't wait for our next training camp in Les Deux Alpes this October!  I'll leave you with some photos from Norwich....

 

 Jack jumping out the quarter pipe while pretending to block a slalom gate!

 

 Freestyle pro Will showing us how it's done in a morning warm-up session

 

 Coach Jutty getting involved while Brad films on

 

 The week started with a Giant Slalom and technical theme finishing day one with a dual GS...

 And ended with Slalom and tactical training leading into our final race day simulation event

 

 

Well done everyone!

 

 

 

 

Zermatt, Summer 2013

pro·fes·sion·al·ism
[pruh-fesh-uh-nl-iz-uhm] noun
1. professional character, spirit, or methods.
2. the standing, practice, or methods of a professional, as distinguished from an amateur.


ath·lete
[ath-leet] noun
a person trained or gifted in exercise or contests involving physical agility, stamina, or strength; a participant in a sport, exercise, or game requiring physical skill.


pro·fes·sion·al ath·lete
[pruh-fesh-uh-nl ath-leet]
Potential definition: A person who is willing to make the most out of any, and every opportunity to enhance their performance in a given sport. i.e. Alpine ski racing.

Looking back on summer camp, I can only say we achieved the objectives above, and as a result it was a very successful camp. This summer the weather wasn’t as kind to us as last year, so we had to make the most out of every day, but by and large there wasn’t a single day when we came off the hill that the coaches weren’t buzzing about their groups’ progress. The weather days we had enabled us to do things we might not have been able to do otherwise - going for long hikes up to mountain lakes to swim, and completing the high ropes course, featured in our programme.
With a few new members of staff you can never be sure how things are going to work out, but the additions of Bradley Morgan, Alex Moran and the return of Jutty, have certainly strengthened the coaching team.
When first lift’s at 6:30 for racers and last uplift at around 12:30, it’s possible to get around 5 hours of skiing in the morning. The glacier in Zermatt is holding up pretty well, and we had solid snow until 11:00 most days, with only the surface transforming to soft snow until 12:30 when we’d finish. With long training pistes and limited numbers allowed on the hill you can get a lot of skiing done in that time.
The priority for the Juniors (training with Ruslan and Jutty) was to try and get to grips with the new GS ski, and after a couple of free skiing days they seemed to have the hang of them, some work skiing brushes on the flats and they were well prepped for their first runs in the gates. By the end of the camp they all seemed to have a good concept of the line and timing required to use them efficiently.
The children’s programme was split between myself and Dave Tee with Brad Morgan as assistant. We had a great time skiing with a mix of new trainees and old, plus the new 1st year U14’s. With good progress being made all round, we went home happy.

Ali

Feed me Seymour, Feed me.

Hi Racers and racer families
This blog is for our coaches to send messages on race camps and the season as it goes on.  I think Malcolm, Scott, Ali will be pleased to get conversational as they get into the habit of blog.  So sign up to the RSS feed and we'll see what develops.  This post just to set it up.
Dom.