This is Basketball not skiing, but....

But; it says some really cool things; ask some really hard questions and speaks about many great athletes! Very worth sharing!

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/12/22/sports/ncaabasketball/22uconn.html

Lindsey Vonn Wins Again!

VAL d'ISERE, France (Dec. 19) – Olympic gold medalist Lindsey Vonn (Vail, CO) regained the overall lead over German Maria Riesch, winning the Audi FIS Alpine World Cup super combined to sweep the weekend in Val d'Isere.

Read more here:
http://www.usskiteam.com/alpine/news?storyId=3169

Ligety wins 3rd World Cup GS in a Row

ALTA BADIA, Italy (Dec. 19) – Two-time Audi FIS Alpine World Cup giant slalom champion Ted Ligety (Park City, UT) mastered the icy Alta Badia slope to capture his third consecutive GS victory Sunday and take the first World Cup overall lead of his career. The last time a World Cup male won three consecutive GS races was Austrian great Hermann Maier during the 2001 season.
Read more here:
http://www.usskiteam.com/alpine/news?storyId=3164

Lindsay Vonn Wins at VAL d'ISERE

Vonn Wins, Regains Downhill Lead
VAL d'ISERE, France (Dec. 18) – Olympic gold medalist Lindsey Vonn (Vail, CO) captured a stunning victory Saturday to regain the Audi FIS Alpine World Cup downhill standings lead as German Maria Riesch finished 24th. Teammate Julia Mancuso (Squaw Valley, CA) was 8th with five Americans finishing inside the top 30.
http://www.usskiteam.com/alpine/news?storyId=3148

Video of World Cup Stars displaying Fundamental Skills

As we start the season working on our fundamentals, I happened on this video clip that shows some World Cup stars skiing some pretty good turns. We saw a couple of these guys at the World Cup at Lake Louise this Thanksgiving. (THAT was an exciting race!) I am always amazed at how easy these guys make it look. But then when breaking it down, it really comes to mastering some pretty easy fundamental skills and doing them VERY well. It DOES TAKE discipline and practice to polish those skills to the level that we will see in the Video clips.

To begin with, you see very little body movement in any of these skiers. Using a balanced athletic stance with good hand/arm position, ankles flexed forward and knees flexed; their turns begin at/with their feet. The turns start with a subtle (and hardly noticeable, but still very dynamic) rolling of the ankles. Then the legs become more involved and you can see the rolling of the ankles and knees as the turn develops. The feet and legs are allowed to move outside the body to promote lateral balance, but the body remains quite(and still in that balanced athletic stance), with the majority of the work done with the feet and legs. In all cases a strong pole plant is used. Didier Cuche uses a somewhat unusual style of arm movement, but it works well for his body type. The other clips show a more usual pole planting mechanism.

You will also notice the balance change from one foot to the new foot at the beginning of the new turn. This is especially seen in Thomas Grandi's second clip. In each turn the inside foot will work to mimic the movements of the outside foot, but the outside foot of the turn IS the more dominent in order to best control the turn shape and maintain balance throughout the "ARC" and be prepared to easily move into the next arc.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TTboYL8CjaU

Banff Fall Camp 2010

What a Week! The weather was wild as the Canadian Wilderness! 3 days of Below zero Temps! Wow, but look at the photo and note that the Base Lodge was so close we were able to duck in from time to time and warm-up quite nicely...and no wind made it work quite well in our favor...(or favour, if you're in Canada...)Even with the cold temps we had a very favorable camp experience. The lane had man-made snow and was an excellent pitch for getting the season started. Great lunches were included and served at the base lodge, a bus delivered us to and from and we had a really cool place to stay complete with pool, hot tub and a very good waxing area. The Banff restaurant, The Elk and Oarsman served our group a very nice traditional Thanksgiving Dinner. We trained some with the Rocky Mountain College Team and saw Thomas Grandi as well as many other teams from all about. We had a great hike mid-week and finished the program by viewing a VERY exciting Men's World Cup Downhill Race. Our game sighting inventory included: Hundreds of Elk, many deer, a lynx, a wolf (we think) a hundred or more mountain sheep and some brave chipmunks that kept darting across our lane...Even though the season is only starting, I am looking forward to next year's trip to Banff! See our Photos here: http://picasaweb.google.com/WhitefishRaceTeam
Cut and paste to your browser if this does not work as a link.

A Prosperous Evening of Cuisine, Beverage, Good Company, Auction and Poker

The Showcase of the Chefs

A Prosperous Evening of Cuisine, Beverage, Good Company, Auction and Poker

The Flathead Valley Ski Education Foundation and I would like to invite you to attend and support the “Showcase of the Chefs” here in Whitefish on Dec 2nd at 6:00 pm. The Showcase is a longstanding tradition and one of the premier social functions here in the Valley. Held at the well-known Lodge at Whitefish Lake on Wisconsin Avenue; the event enjoys a pleasant and innovative dining set-up that actually does showcase 8 chefs from the best restaurants in the Whitefish area. Each Chef and their representative establishment, set up a station that serves their own trademark menu item, complete with complimentary wine matching their represented cuisine. Imagine a Chef’s version of a “Battle of the Bands”… Dinner guests may ‘roam the room’ and graze from one or all the buffet tables as they wish. It creates an especially fun atmosphere that provides some great food and an ambiance that promotes mingling and fun social interaction with the whole attendance. Tickets are $75.00 per person. Where else can you have dinner from 8 of the best chefs in the valley, wine and all the fun you can have for $75 a person? Because of the popularity of the event, tickets may not be available for sale at the door.

As you might guess, we see and visit with a lot of old friends. We all think you would enjoy the occasion.

Tied to the event are a Silent Auction and a Live Auction that always has terrific items available. As always there is a great representation of both Silent and Live Auction items. Additionally live poker tables will be on-site for your enjoyment!

Of course the Showcase is a fundraiser to help the Foundation with its mission of supporting our athletes in their competitive endeavors. As you know our program gives our children a quality program that helps them set healthy goals and make good lifestyle choices.

If you are unable to attend there are other ways that you can support the Showcase of the Chefs. Of course you can buy tickets even if you are unable to attend. Our ticket sales are very important to our outcome. Additionally our auction can always use items for both the silent and live auctions and donations are tax deductable. If a company or a large group would like to reserve a table we are able to reserve that table and a group of 10 tickets for a total of $750.

We know you will consider your evening at the Showcase to be a wonderful social outing, but also know that your support of our programs will be even more lasting by helping to support quality programs for our children.

Rooms for the evening are available at special pricing. The Lodge at Whitefish Lake will offer “take the elevator home” rate. In the lodge it is $129 and in the Viking Lodge the rate is $99 for Showcase guests.

We appreciate the help and we hope to see you at the Showcase.

You may contact any FVSEF board member or Richard Kramer at rk@redcaboosediner.com or (406) 250-9786

Thanks!


Roy

Fall Ski Camp in Banff!

We will travel to Banff on Sunday for a 5 day gate camp, Monday through Friday. Manmade snow, a private lane, great terrain and lift turnaround, a Super Thanksgiving Dinner, and the Men's World Cup Downhill on Saturday...what is not to "Like"?

FVSEF Meeting this Wed Nov 3rd

Come one, come all. Everyone is invited to attend Foundation Board of Directors meetings and fundraising planning sessions. Our regular meetings are open and we value participation from all.

Board of Directors meeting and Fundraising Planning Session this Wednesday November 3 at the Crush Wine Bar is Whitefish. 6:15 PM



 Review/approve minutes 3/02/10
 Financial Report-Alpine & Freestyle-Heidi
 Program Director
o Roy Loman-Alpine
 Program updates
 Trophy Display
o Bill Cubbage-Freestyle
 Program updates
 Discussion (we will limit this discussion to 20 minutes for this meeting)
o Foundations future relationship with WSI
1. Alpine & Freestyle programs
 Fundraising
o Warren Miller Film--Kent Taylor
o NxGen—Tim Hinderman
o Corporate Sponsors
o Showcase work session

 Next Meeting Date November 10
 Adjourn

Snow on the "Hill"

I can't lie...seeing the snow on our hill today, all the way to the base area, really toggled the switch for me! OK! Now I can align with the calenday and be way ready for winter, a lot of snow, some great training, skiing and some terrificlly good times shared among all of us!

David Chodunsky Blog Page

David's blog page has some good reading for all of us. It clearly shows the values of goal setting, evaluation of our progress towards our goals and how we might most positively respond to and modify that plan according to our evaluation… His persistance is mighty. David is working to make the US Ski Team and ultimately score well on the World Cup. His path, having gone through college first, is not the most normal of paths to the US Ski Team. I personally think that many college programs are very capable of preparing athletes for this level of competition. David’s experience and that of many of his teammates tends to prove to me that possibility is very viable.

I had had the good fortune to meet David in the East when he was skiing with the Dartmouth College Team. I think you will enjoy this reading and find some interesting insights in his web-site. I especially enjoyed his “Bio” page and particularly his comments about his college years!

Enjoy: http://www.davidchodounsky.com/biography/

Parents Meeting

Hi Ski Racing Families,

Don’t forget that Monday October 25th is our parents meeting. The time and location are now set at: 6:00 pm at the Whitefish Library.

Please do try to attend as this will be instrumental in kicking off our season in many ways. I will talk about our plans for our programs and try to quickly outline our plans and expectations for the coming season. FVSEF will also spend some time with their early season items. This is an important meeting and I urge you to have at least one family member present.

Thanks and I hope to see you all there!

Let's Ride This Wednesday 10/20

The weather looks great: Let's celebrate with another crushing ride at the Lion Mountain Trailhead: 4:15 pm...see you there.

Whitefish Alpine Officials Training

Hey all of you Race Officials;

I just wanted to send along a short thank you for participating in our Officials training this week-end. It was a beautiful week-end and I know you all have a lot to get ready for winter.

But I also know that you recognize the importance of what you have just done and how strongly it will impact the children involved in our chosen sport!

We all know what a great sport it is, but without all of you to keep it going strong, alpine skiing would suffer greatly…

Also want to be sure to thank our staunch supporters Bob Petitt from Bozeman and Sherri Hale for coming to lead our training programs!

Thanks again and I will see you on the hill SOON!