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. : )