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.