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.