Getting Ready for Winter

August Greetings Ski Racing Families,

Some great cool nights and the beginnings of some change in the vegetation tell me the summer season is beginning to wane slightly. The early and late day color of the sunlight are also telling me the sun is moving lower on the horizon. I am not about to stop having summer fun yet, but I do see that a new season is on the way and skiing close behind that.

FIS Membership
For those athletes who will be 15 or older and will wish to compete at the elite FIS level, the August 15 deadline is approaching, so you will want to take care of that membership. USSA membership will need to be done at the same time. For those who will not compete in FIS races, but will compete in USSA events, we have until October 15 to register USSA memberships.
If you have any questions, please let me know.

Bike Raffle
The Bike Raffle drawing is scheduled for September 28, so we have a bit of time to sell more tickets. That drawing will sneak-up on us so stay with the ticket sales as best you can. Remember the raffle proceeds directly influence (lower) your costs, so be as active with your sales as you can. If you need more tickets contact either Frank Tabish (406) 250-9450 or Bill Kahle (406) 270-9467.

Winter Preparations
We all consider skiing to be an athletic event and that means good athletes make good skiers. Being a goal driven group, most of us would like to be great skiers and that means a need to be great athletes. Of course a side benefit of being a great (and life-long) athlete is the physical health and mental benefits that come with that fitness level.

Fitness is a long-term process that places fitness activities in the right time frame for each individual. If we consider development on a continuum from younger to more mature, things like agility, co-ordination, balance timing, anticipation and similar skills are learned most-easily at younger ages. Games, gymnastics, dance, team sports, biking and others are all great development tools. For athletes in pre-puberty; stamina, good movements , basic strength, flexibility and continuation of the above skills are important.

Strength is one component of fitness and is very important for skiing. For pre-puberty athletes, strength gains usually do not come from the building of muscle mass, but more often from the development of the neurology that control the muscles. That neurology “learns” to recruit more muscle fibers and typically better co-ordinates the efforts of muscle groups to provide some pretty significant strength gains. Activities like games, team sports, gymnastics, biking, in-line skating, rock climbing and others help and should be continued. Resistance training can also be incorporated. At the pre-puberty age, body weight activities will usually be the safest and most productive. Body weight activities are exercises like push-ups, pull-ups and other calisthenics. Excessive weight training when the young bones and connective tissues are not mature enough may be injurious. However, a safe introduction to weight room exercise can be productive for pre-puberty athletes. Emphasis should be on technical proficiency of the exercises, not on accumulating a lot of weight on the bar. Usually, a broom-stick or similar bar is substituted for a weight bar until the correct movement patterns can be satisfied. The correctly done movements will train the athlete’s neurology and provide strength gain while ensuring the correct (and more safe) movement patterns are reinforced for post-puberty training loads.

Our post-puberty athletes should be continuing this process and adding more elements as well. At this time of year, these athletes should have a sound aerobic base for stamina and have built up a solid component of over-all strength. This is the time of the year to begin the process of converting that strength to power. Strength means you can move heavy resistance. Power means you can do so very quickly. Skiing well at an aggressive level requires great power. A routine at this time of year should have some long aerobic maintenance, but also should be shifting to more sprinting kind of activities and intensity. Weight room exercise can contain strength gain exercises (higher weight, lower repetitions) but should have workouts that are structured with less weight and higher velocity movements. Remember, always do the exercises with quality (and safer) movement patterns.
Plyometric (jumping) exercises are very good for power development, but must be structured for the fitness level of the athlete. Many of these activities (ladder drills, low hurdles and others) can help develop agility and co-ordination as well) The jump-rope is a form of plyometrics that also helps to develop co-ordination, timing, anticipation and rhythm.
Core strength (front, sides and back of the torso) should be trained 5-6 days a week. Many muscle groups require a day of rest after an work-out. The core muscles are structured with an energy system that allows them to work more continuously. They can and should be trained more frequently.
Flexibility (stretching) should be done daily.

Good athletes make good skiers…

Equipment
Having the right equipment is also extremely important for our success. We should be making some general assumptions about some of our gear at this point. What will we need for skis, boots, helmets, etc. It is a bit early to know exactly what sizes we will need for winter, but keep this all in mind.
Those of you who have gear you will want to move to another family, this is a good time to formulate that list. You can use me as a clearing house for those lists, but I need to know model, size and how much you would like for your gear.
I will set up an equipment swap for the fall and will let you know the dates and location for that as I can.
We will also work to have a system for acquiring new equipment at a discount and I will keep you informed about that process as it comes along.

Next year’s team
I have been told that our team training prices will continue at the same price level for next year. The only increase is the daily rate for the Holiday Camp. All of our season long Team prices include the Holiday Camp. The daily rate is for those who may be visiting. That is great news and I will let you know when the registration forms come available on the internet. I hope you will choose to do as many training days as possible. More time on snow equals more improvement. If you have interest in the Academy program let me know. Our Academy skiers have found it to be very productive.

If you know of new families who are interested in participating with the team, let me know. I would like to add them to our communication process as quickly as possible.

That should be plenty to digest for now, but I will add more soon…see you then!