Practice makes perfect...

Or so I've always been told. We had a couple of great practices this weekend. The snow couldn't have been better (sorry, southern Maine) and our young athletes were chomping at the bit. Jake persevered as the lone high school skier while I made him slavishly drill through some classical technique work. Like most younger skiers, he prefers to skate, but I have assured him that he will discover the zen of classic in due time. We worked on committing the weight to one ski, and swinging the drive leg though with good momentum and forward release. Relentless coach that I am, I turned around and made him do a classic time trial today, in far from ideal conditions. He had a strong showing, and already he is starting to pick up some of the technical subtleties. I think by seasons end he'll be singing a different tune about which discipline he prefers, but we'll see. Right now we're keeping our eyes on the prize and working to get into the post-season, and he's well on his way.

The younger crew was out in full force. Today we had 4th grader Lena, 5th grader Mitchell, and 8th graders Kaitlyn and Trent. After a little icebreaking session, Abby and I put them through the paces, doing some no-pole technical drills. These kids are picking up skating in a hurry, making me wonder why it took me so darned long to learn. After looping the stadium for a little while, we went right into "feats of balance", which today consisted of sking backwards down a very steep, ungroomed trail. I made it about ten feet before being shown up by both Lena and Trent. Hoping to save face, I switched us over to one ski distance contests, but still failed to top Trents hill spanning perfect run. Once we were all good and soaked, we headed out on trail for a longer ski and another big hill to tackle. This one was even longer, and also ungroomed. We opted for chinese downhill, where two skiers lock arms and test each others balance with shoulder pushes as they go down the hill. Trent seemed to interpret my instructions as "throw your partner into the woods", which he attempted on every run. Our finale was a four person linked ski to the bottom, of which only Mitchell and Kaitlyn managed to survive intact. Abby and I both wished we had remembered the camera; it was quite a sight, at least until Trent and Lena's spectacular crash. But it was a great day of skiing, and I hope the kids had half as much fun as Abby and I did. We're both really looking forward to next weekend and some more nordic goofiness.

Since we don't have any pictures this week, here is one of my favorite inspirational nordic videos: Petter Northug showing the definitive "finishing kick"

Wow!



Adam

The County!

Just getting back from Presque Isle, we were stranded an extra day by the storm, but the trip was well worth it. Excellent snow conditions, a (nearly) flawlessly run race (results snafu, but nothing serious), and some good solid results from all of our athletes. Justin was blazingly fast on saturday, qualifying for the sprint heats, a first for him and for any athlete of mine at an eastern cup. Both Lindsey and Lauren skied strong, despite Lauren
taking a fall on the first hill, which can be devastating in a sprint. And Jake got his first taste of an Eastern Cup, reportedly loving the thrill of cruising into the stadium at mach 3. Lauren skied strong on sunday, despite more woes with crashes, this time finding himself in the woods, a situation any seasoned nordie can relate to. Jake and Lindsey both had more strong finishes, they are in good shape and finding their snow legs. Justin had another strong finish; two top 30s to take home with him. And I even found time to jump in the race myself, though I somehow ended up as "Matt" Masterman on the results. Oh well, Matt scored better than Adam has in years, so I won't complain. Happy holidays to everyone, we're going to enjoy our Christmases and Chanukkahs and then get right back to business.

What's this white stuff falling in December?

Feels like AGES since I've skied this early in the season, and at the touring center, no less, though we did put in our time up on the hill. Justin came up on Saturday for some on-snow work, so we paved a trail back and forth in front of the alpine base lodge. And then turned around and did the same thing on Sunday with Lindsey, Jake and Trent. Dodging alpine skiers aside, it was REALLY nice to see the kids on snow and start getting the snow legs back again. Abby came up on Sunday to take some video for us (youtube version pending : ) ), and we actually got in a nice technique clinic complete with visual feedback and a chance to go back out and try some different stuff. For our first official weekend, I'd call that a home run.

We also got to meet with the whole team, including all of our new younger members, and it was pretty exciting to see young athletes taking a chance with cross-country skiing. And I couldn't help but notice that every single one of them is an awesome athlete in the other sports I've seen them do. Not that that will matter much in the very serious business of having fun on skis, but the coach in me ALWAYS notices potential talent, and that meeting was full of it. Abby's going to be having trouble keeping up with these kids within a month (not to worry, Abby, I haven't been able to keep up with my athletes for years.) Anyway, thanks alot to everyone who's giving this a shot, we're going to do our best to make you forget all about any other winter activity. : )

November...

My least favorite month. Dark, rock hard pavement, hunting season, and the memory of last season's snow at its most distant. Its also the month where training hours are the longest, and Justin and I beat back the November blues today with a sparky double pole workout. Justin has skied for me for years now, and I've never seen him in better shape. His running times from the fall were blisteringly fast, he's strong, and he's chomping at the bit. We circled Wilson lake and talked about hip lean in the double pole stroke. Justin is VERY methodical about form; he thinks about it contantly, and is very diligent about refining his technique. We're trying to get more power out of the double pole by pulling his body weight forward to come down on the poles. Its a tricky adjustment; in my experience, the most common technical challenge for upper level high school skiers. Indeed, when I asked David Chamberlain, a fews years back (as he was returning from a World Cup event), what the key to good form was, his short answer was "hips forward". Justin made some good progress today, as my horrible pictures completely fail to show. Once the snow starts to fly, the real fine tuning can begin.

Maybe this post should have come first, but... Welcome to the CVA Nordic blog, where we will be chronicalling this, our first year as a nordic program. More specifically, we are a weekend program, intended to be complementary to being on a high school or middle school ski team. For younger athletes, we want to teach the sport through games and races and just generally having a good time on snow, which is just about impossible NOT to do in my opinion. For older kids, we will have a strong JOs focus: this is a program to help put kids on the New England team if that is their goal. For some athletes, that may be a goal for a few years down the road, but that doesn't mean we can't start laying that foundation now. And, of course, good skiing is good skiing, so if your goals are to do as well as you can in high school racing, thats also a great reason to join the team. We want anyone who wants to ski, preferably those who are as nuts about this sport as we are. : )

Anyway, the blog is just so parents, athletes and friends can check in with what we are doing and stay in touch with the team. Please, PLEASE leave comments for your kid/friend/kid's team/ etc. We love comments, and we are giving a prize to whoever gets the most (not really, but still, drop us a line). Also, thanks to recently aquired modern technology, I am always available to chat and love to do so, so call (207 491 3983) or email (marpa_lotsawa@hotmail.com). You can also email Abby (aweissman@gocva.com), shes the one who usually knows whats going on.

CVA Nordic! Duathalon debut

What a great day for our first event as CVA Nordic. I weas worried about the hurricane lousing things up, but it was a beautiful day. This early in the season, we weren't able to arrive "en masse", but it felt good to be out as a team nonetheless (our actual contingent of competitors was one past-his-prime coach (*raises hand*) and senior Lindsey Mathes, who took pity on me and did the running section so I didn't have to). Bowdoin puts on an awesome event: a 5k run, followed by a quick transition to ski gear and then a 6k rollerski. Lindsey and I shamelessly took advantage of doing a no-time-lost handoff instead of switching to ski boots, but alas, it was not enough to move us up to the podium. Actually, Lindsey ran quite well; shes coming off a good xc running season and is in great shape. It was also nice to see former athletes of mine like Sam Mathes (who skied to a blistering 4th overall), and my old coaches Becky Woods and Bob Flynn. New Gould head coach Jeremy Nellis (congrats are in order for succeeding the legendary Dick Taylor) was also present, shaming me by doing the entire race himself. In all it was a nice day to ski and catch up with friends. Our next team event will be the Atomic sprints
in early december, where we *do* hope to arrive en masse, with our younger skiers and Coach Weissman (who is currently with the school in Switzerland). But there will be some blog posts before then from training sessions, or whenever I get bored on the weekends. Yes, I really do sit at home tapping my toe waiting for the snow to fall...