MMSC Orientation

First and foremost...everyone was early this morning and ready to go, we even left MMWA at 8:28am!  I love being early.  If you are on-time, you are late!  The day started with a great talk about why we are at MMSC lead by Igor.  It was nice to hear many athletes (boys and girls) open up and offer their experiences to each other.  The two overwhelming themes for a majority of the athletes were the simple concepts of family and team.  Although skiing is an individual sport when you slide into the start gate, all of the athletes spoke of how they know their teammates are pulling for them.  To quote Colleen Cataldo, "It's pretty cool how at the start of we are always cheering for each other and most other teams are quiet."  Parents would be proud to hear their children speak so warmly of the program and how good it makes them feel to be here.

Next it was off to the gym for a Sideline Sports tutorial with Lorant... 

It is amazing to see how much work he has put into creating a place where athletes can go to find all of the information they need for the season.  There is a goals section, a link to the training calendar, an individual calendar within the platform, all of their workouts, the ability to send messages to your teammates and coaches, all of the athletes video, and many more features.  This is a big step for us and we will all be well versed in no time!

For a light workout, we hiked up the work-road to Armandos Alley where we opened up about our ski racing fears, hopes, and dreams.  It was nice to see the athletes realize many similarities when it came to not only hopes and dreams, but their fears as well.  It is good for the athletes to verbalize their thoughts to each other and it is extremely helpful for us as their coaches to hear what concerns them and what they dream of heading into the season.  It also gave me the opportunity to take our first team photo of the year! (Which apparently became annoying to the J3's as the season went on since I took advantage of nearly every "photo op!")  You can all expect much of the same ladies...so get used to it!

1st Team Photo of the Year! (absent from the photo: Issy, Linley, and Dougie)

Fears, Hopes, and Dreams...

Thanks for a great first day!