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