Getting ready
Taking over the trail
First ones up, way to go!
Group shot 1
Group shot 2...interesting face Court!
Thanks for a great morning everyone, one week from now we will be finishing our first day on snow at Vail!
Saturday, November 19, 2011
Pinnacle Hike
We had a fantastic hike today to the Pinnacle Summit! Aside from a chilly breeze at the top, the weather was perfect for a hike. Not much else to say other than it was a great day!
Friday, November 18, 2011
A day of rest and community
The word "rest" seems to mean something different for everyone. For the coaches, today it was going through 36 sets of skis and boots and documenting important information. We documented every bit of information we felt necessary before getting on snow at Vail. It is important for us to know the athletes set-up so if any problems arise, we have a database with each athletes equipment information. While we were going through equipment, the athletes attended a school meeting and then had a school wide football game. I was able to catch the last few minutes of competition and take a couple of pictures. However, by that point, most of the girls decided they were tired of the cold and testosterone and had gone inside...
After lunch, athletes participated in a couple of community service projects of which sadly I do not have pictures...but I do have a photo of the mountain courtesy of Mike Leach! They are closing in on the bottom of North Slope before the warmer weekend temps hit us. Things are looking a little better up there, thanks Leacher!
Pretty fired up to hike Pinnacle tomorrow. Join us if you are in the area, we are leaving MMWA at 9:30am and should be in the lower Pinnacle parking lot by 9:45am!
Bess lined up at WR on the far side, Alita marking the line of scrimmage
Sophie...taking a play off?
Mansfield - 11/18
Thursday, November 17, 2011
Hitting the gym...
Today was the first full workout for the girls putting in 2 and 1/2 hours between strength and core. Needless to say...I am sure they are a little tired tonight. Here are some snapshots from the workout...
We finished the core workout had enough time to watch the first 9 women from the Soelden GS. This offered the girls a bit of downtime as well as get them fired up to get on snow as many of them uttered..."I can't wait to ski."
After a great first week, the girls have a well earned day off with tomorrow's Community Day at MMWA. The coaching staff is pleased with their willingness to work hard these first few days. This week has made the coaching staff even more excited to get things started on snow and continue to push the girls in the gym. Thanks for a great first few days!
Jamie - "split-squats"
Sam and Kelsey working the one-legged squats!
Sloane getting all jacked up!
Molly - "kettlebell swing"
Come on Colleen!
Working...hard?
Alita - "landmine"
Time for core!
Bess liking the camera....Jamie not so much!
We finished the core workout had enough time to watch the first 9 women from the Soelden GS. This offered the girls a bit of downtime as well as get them fired up to get on snow as many of them uttered..."I can't wait to ski."
After a great first week, the girls have a well earned day off with tomorrow's Community Day at MMWA. The coaching staff is pleased with their willingness to work hard these first few days. This week has made the coaching staff even more excited to get things started on snow and continue to push the girls in the gym. Thanks for a great first few days!
Wednesday, November 16, 2011
Another busy morning...
We had another busy morning of activities and dryland. We started off with a solid goals setting (brainstorming) session...
Rather than sitting in front of a computer, we took a step back and picked up a pen and paper. Erin worked her way through our MMSC goals sheet as athletes wrote down some notes about their personal goals for each section. We decided that brainstorming about our goals before trying to formulate them might help when the time comes to construct them. Hopefully it will help them out when they sit down to complete the goals section on Sideline Sports.
Then it was time for some team building. Athletes had to line up by height...without speaking. They then had to rearrange themselves by birthday...again without speaking. My directions seemed to be the only thing that made this difficult (surprisingly enough) so once we were clear on how they were to line up they seemed to manage just fine without speaking...maybe I am on to something here? The group then split into two and took on "the human knot." For those of you who are not familiar with the human knot, here is a brief description: form a tight circle, put your right hand in and grab the right hand of someone across from you, put your left hand in and grab the left hand of a different person...then try to untangle without letting go...oh and no speaking!
One group was able to get untangled in less than a minute which is unheard of! The other group labored over their knot and eventually needed the help of speaking to untangle! Then came the full team knot...
After 12 minutes of the knot standing, trying to sit, "you go through here...I think my wrist is breaking...Can you open a window?..." The knot was clearly going nowhere and we needed to head into the gym so we had to abandon the knot for today but it will be revisited!
Today was our first team workout using Sideline Sports so it was a bit of a learning process. However, it became clear as things progressed that they were understanding how the program worked and how to follow the workout. This is an amazing tool that we have at our disposal. I am excited to see how things take shape as the season continues.
Dryland continues tomorrow!
Rather than sitting in front of a computer, we took a step back and picked up a pen and paper. Erin worked her way through our MMSC goals sheet as athletes wrote down some notes about their personal goals for each section. We decided that brainstorming about our goals before trying to formulate them might help when the time comes to construct them. Hopefully it will help them out when they sit down to complete the goals section on Sideline Sports.
Then it was time for some team building. Athletes had to line up by height...without speaking. They then had to rearrange themselves by birthday...again without speaking. My directions seemed to be the only thing that made this difficult (surprisingly enough) so once we were clear on how they were to line up they seemed to manage just fine without speaking...maybe I am on to something here? The group then split into two and took on "the human knot." For those of you who are not familiar with the human knot, here is a brief description: form a tight circle, put your right hand in and grab the right hand of someone across from you, put your left hand in and grab the left hand of a different person...then try to untangle without letting go...oh and no speaking!
One group was able to get untangled in less than a minute which is unheard of! The other group labored over their knot and eventually needed the help of speaking to untangle! Then came the full team knot...
After 12 minutes of the knot standing, trying to sit, "you go through here...I think my wrist is breaking...Can you open a window?..." The knot was clearly going nowhere and we needed to head into the gym so we had to abandon the knot for today but it will be revisited!
Today was our first team workout using Sideline Sports so it was a bit of a learning process. However, it became clear as things progressed that they were understanding how the program worked and how to follow the workout. This is an amazing tool that we have at our disposal. I am excited to see how things take shape as the season continues.
Dryland continues tomorrow!
Tuesday, November 15, 2011
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.
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!
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!
Monday, November 14, 2011
And so it begins...
The women's program will be embarking on another new endeavor and we will be throwing our hat into the world of blogging. While a majority of the initial posts will be authored by the coaching staff, as the season progresses we will have a number of athlete posts as well. My ambition at this point is to have daily blog entries, ideally a picture of the day and/or video clip. The possibilities are endless! In its infancy stages, my hopes are high for the blog much like my hopes are high for the season. We have an amazing group of athletes (thanks to all of you parents), an incredible staff, a great school, and the ideal training facility. Now it's time to get to work!
With our camp at Vail rapidly approaching, I thought it might be fitting to start the blogging with a photo from our future destination. For those of you who went to Vail last year, the picture is taken from the top of the pitch on the training hill. (Photo courtesy of SMS coach Dylan Snell.) Things are looking good!
All for now...
Topher
With our camp at Vail rapidly approaching, I thought it might be fitting to start the blogging with a photo from our future destination. For those of you who went to Vail last year, the picture is taken from the top of the pitch on the training hill. (Photo courtesy of SMS coach Dylan Snell.) Things are looking good!
Topher
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