That title makes it sound like he got fired or ‘resigned’ or something, but I assure you nothing of that manner happened!

Anyway, my boss when I worked in New York, Pete Phillips (now head coach at Burke Mtn Academy) is running two trips to the Nordic countries in the next few months here.  I realize it’s a slim chance that anyone will be interested in doing these, but I thought I’d get the word out none the less.  I went on a spring trip to Sweden with him 3 years ago with our crew from Lake Placid and it was a great experience for all the kids involved.  Pete is a unique personality in the coaching community and incredibly well connected in the skiing world both in the US and in Scandinavia.

Links to info.

The spring trip

The summer one

Last night with the Devos we started out with a normal warm-up trying to pick a loop that is somewhat different.  I think that just picking a standard loop and skiing it gets boring fast, as there are only so many options at Birch Hill.  (This may be due to a personal bias, as I don’t think anyone else could spend 30 hours at Birch in a typical week, but I figure I should have a longer attention span than the kids which should balance this to some degree.)  Usually I’m creating new loops with various ‘official’ and ‘unofficial’ cut-offs.  Besides, you can’t deny that skiing on narrow, winding, bumpy trails isn’t good for balance, agility and ski-feel, all of which are prerequisite to being a technically proficient skier.

Anywho, back to last night… I thought we’d do the typical ski with something a little different to spruce it up.  So we started off cutting over to the top of the middle loop of warm-up, going downhill before cranking a hard right back towards White Bear Access, proceeding backwards on that trail before going down White Bear the correct way.  Instead of taking the normal/boring lighted loop around the flat section we chose to head straight into the unlit Biathlon Stadium.  I must be rubbing off on these kids because sure enough shortly thereafter one of them suggested that we climb the steep banks on the side of the range and ski down.  At this point my coach mind is clicking ‘new, fun, different, great for ski feel, good for downhill skills, good for getting over fear of downhills, good for strength (getting up the hill), etc., etc…’  After a few rounds up and down we then decided it would be a good idea to proceed through the drifts (we get drifts in Fairbanks?) around the back of the range and return back to the stadium.  5 minutes of breaking trail through knee-high snow and we were back.

Since we were having so much fun at this point we headed down the trail a little further for some other ‘unofficial’ cut-offs.  The trend continued on for an adventurous hour and a half of distance training that included many diversions for ski skill improvement.  We’d totally scrapped our plan for the day (speed - hey we’re middle schoolers (ok, they are, but in a way, I am too - at least maturity-wise), speed is the number one thing we can develop), but we’d ended up with a great training session.  Score one for spontaneity.

…is an awesome thing to witness.  It is the driving force, the inspiration and reward in this job.  Often times you feel like you’ve missed the progression as a coach, yet all of a sudden the Ability is there.  Sometimes you can see an athlete just on the cusp of that breakthrough, and you just want to give them the spark to get there - that last step often being the hardest.  With the Devo crew it happens so fast it is amazing, in 10 minutes they can go from looking like your average middle school skiers to looking like pros.  Awesome.

Tonight it was the comp skiers turn.  What were once pixie-stick arms are suddenly able to huck a 10 lb medicine balls across the room, knocking their catcher backwards.  It’s not so difficult to imagine those same arms putting the hurt on a pair of poles as they catapult their body towards the finish on Saturday and Sunday, gaining the margin for success, the mind knowing full well that the strength is there to do it…

It’s been a month of steady improvement since the last Besh Cups.  Needless to say, I’m excited for this round…

For those looking to go to JOs in Truckee this coming March, the Pia’s scholarship is something to consider to help offset trip costs.  Link to Info.

UPDATED 7:30 SATURDAY 1/17

Don’t hang your heads with the race cancellation: there is some awesome skiing to be had at UAF.  The T and Potato Fields, T-field road and Smith Lake were particularly nice today.  Still powdery, even.  Word is there’s a little more ice in the woods, but with the forecast calling for up to an inch of fresh snow it should be quite a day on the boards.

Tomorrow the Devo team will skate there from 1-2:30 and the Comp team will ski an OD classic ski beginning at 3 PM.  Comp skiers should feel free to show up anytime after 2:30 to wax their skis and hit the trails.  Both groups will meet at the ski hut.

Any Devo skiers who left their classic skis at Birch for the race can pick them up at practice tomorrow, and any Comp skiers who intend to ski past 5:15 or so tomorrow may want to consider bringing a headlamp to ski elsewhere than the lighted loops at the end of their ski.

Video from the Pre-Olympic World Cup Sprint in Canada on Friday:

Men’s A Final

Women’s A Final

Encore of the men double-poling into the finish

Now that’s what I’m talking about!

Due to Safety Concerns and an inability to groom, Town Race #3 has been cancelled today!!! (We’ll wait for further news on rescheduling).

Comp athletes will train at UAF at Noon with Skate Equipment, running shoes (and crampons?).

We will cancel Devo practice for today, and hope to ski on Sunday.  Stay tuned for an announcement on that later today - Hopefully the UAF trails are in better shape with the different weather and more recent grooming.

Drive safely out there!

Well, it’s been a wild week here in Anchorage for Nationals.  Today is the first day we have woken up (or will wake up depending on who you are) and know for certain that it is not a race day.  Tomorrow however…

Our plan is to stay on and race some college races with USSA points on Saturday.  It has been a long road trip for many of us, but the timing couldn’t have been better as the two-week cold snap appears to be about to break in Fairbanks.  There has been little break in this time for us as a busy training camp week suddenly morphed into a big-deal race week that wasn’t to be.  For the coaches that meant six days in a row of getting up and waxing and testing and getting skis ready and waiting around for delays before cancellations, while for the athletes it meant waiting and dealing with delays and having the same vague structure to each day, day after day after…

I won’t be original in comparing it to Groundhog Day, but it really was that way.  After preparing for the classic sprint race 4 times we finally got it off yesterday.

Still, despite all the setbacks, there are some positives to draw from this week.  For one, learning to live on the road is important.  Two weeks is a long way to be away from home as a teenager, but ‘road-living’ is almost an essential skill in the sport of skiing as major championships as a junior and all levels of competition beyond it involve some long trips for important races.  Learning to make yourself comfortable in an unfamiliar situation is an important skill to make sure you are not slowly losing energy until you’re at ‘E’ by the end of the trip.

There is also the competition aspect of it.  For all of our racers this week, these were the tightest races they have ever been at.  For Skeeto and Heather 30 seconds in their 5k would have been about 30 places on the results.  Jordan missed the top-30 and the senior bracket in the sprint by .02 seconds.  To be on the right side of these margins you have to be very precise with what you do - both on the day of race, and in your preparation for the race.

Anyway, I have to go and pull some details together here.  Apologies for any poor grammar and misspellings!