nsacoaches

Mt Garceau GS Training Update

nsacoaches — Fri, 24 Feb 2012 14:25:52 +0000

Just wanted to send a quick little update from Saint Donat.
Everyone here is doing very well. We have an excellent training environment with some great terrain all to ourselves.
The snow here has been amazing! Yesterday we had 250 runs on the track and there was barley a dent! With these conditions we have been able to make some excellent technical and tactical changes.
Accommodation is also great, minus the fact that there is no internet. However, there is a cafe that is very near that has wifi that the athletes can use if they need for homework.
I am very happy with the attitudes, effort and energy that the boys display each day.

Melody

FIS Ladies update

nsacoaches — Thu, 02 Feb 2012 14:20:49 +0000

Today we had a great day, the girls that are participating in the Speed camp, slept late, (needed rest), did a couple of hours of homework and spent a good hour and a half doing line training (in the form of some great Go Karting) to prepare for the upcoming camp.
Our guest coaches will bring a good deal of speed experience to the camp and I know the girls will get a lot out of it, tomorrow they will start the day with Melanie Turgeon.
Mélanie is a former member of the Canadian national ski team, a 3 time Olympian and the 2003 DH World Champion.

Our other girls will have had a good GS day at Mt Garceau, good cooperation from the mountain and the ability to create multiple training situations will make for a great camp.

For the MSA GS and SG races we had on the Women’s side a challenging time of it.
On the morning of the first GS Mother Nature was a little too bountiful with a 25cm dump and strong winds.
The race was changed to a single gender race for the Women and, after lots of work on the course it was deemed a go so, we ran the first run.
Things went reasonably well with some very good skiing and good positions for the 2nd run.

As the 2nd run progressed we became concerned for the safety of athletes that may have to leave the course mid run, making the decision to pull our remaining athletes due to the conditions. With the high DNF rate (30 of 76 finishing both runs) and the number of girls unexpectedly finding themselves skiing in the rough snow off course or, for some, off their feet in piles of snow, proved a good move.

The plan was to run a Men’s race the next day and a dual gender race the following day with 2 SG races on the last day.
As you may already know the Men’s race ran under clear skies.
Unfortunately the day of the 2nd GS’s dawned with another 20cm’s of fresh, high winds (gusting to 80km’s!) so the 2nd GS races were cancelled, Major Bummer for ski racing!
But I was super happy to see that the NSA Women’s team (okay Men too) was out there ripping the POW and fighting to get as many runs in as they could!

The situation put us at the point of some heated discussion at the captains meeting, us and a couple of other programs, in favor of running the missed GS race (FIS rules allow a ROC to change a SG into a GS if the conditions warrant it) and moving the SG’s to the day before the speed camp.
After spirited debate the ROC decided to loose the GS and run the 2 SG’s in spite of iffy weather, soft snow and light conditions, for the 2nd race.

Their decision, lead to us pulling most of the girls from the 2nd race. (Only 3, the most experienced athletes at speed, were put in the 2nd SG race).

While the 1st SG went off without a hitch, our concern about the track and light situation for the 2nd race was correct for our younger girls.
The 2nd race started late, putting the most challenging sections of the track into flat, shadowless visibility, coupled with deteriorating track conditions
(caused by the need to set the 2nd race close to the 1st race track as, off that, the snow was soft and required lots of time to prepare), made it the right choice.

The girls are amped about the day tomorrow, happy healthy and ready to go.
I’ll let you know how things go tomorrow.

Best regards, Nick Kwasniak
Director of Conditioning and Injury Prevention
Women’s FIS Coach

Men’s Val St Come Update

nsacoaches — Mon, 12 Dec 2011 14:51:06 +0000

Hello Everyone,

Congratulations to Robert Cohen who placed 3rd J1 today at Val St. Come.

We are very lucky to be racing here at Val St. Come as there is only one run open and that is for the race.

There was a lot of positive results from the guys today and they gained a lot of valuable experience from which to draw from, even though not everyone finished.. I was happy with everyone’s focus and intensity.

I will forward full results from the weekend on Monday.

Regards,

Chris

K2 update from Sunday River

nsacoaches — Mon, 05 Dec 2011 13:45:18 +0000

we all arrived just in time for Dinner on Saturday evening at Sunday River. The drive was very smooth and comfortable with the new Van.
Today we did technical Slalom free skiing. We had a great Day. The weather was sunny and the snow better then I expected.
The area is working hard to accommodate our needs with the runs they have open.
Tomorrow we start training full slalom courses from 8 am to 1:30 pm then dryland and School work till dinner at 6 pm.

Jurg Gfeller
K2 Coach
NSA Director

Ladies FIS update from Sunday River

nsacoaches — Mon, 05 Dec 2011 13:43:29 +0000

Hello, Bonjour, again Everyone,

So far we have managed a solid had 6 days on snow. Several days of SL drills and training, along with 2 good days in full gates.
In case you have not yet got the news, yesterday we chose to take a day off as the mountain ran the snowmaking cannons all day making training unavailable. We took the team to a huge outlet mall in North Conway New Hampshire. Everyone enjoyed the day off and the shopping (you should see what you are getting for Christmas!)

While the weather has not been very co operative, we have done the best of a challenging situation and run some great training.
On the bright side, we are skiing and getting good results given the lack of distraction a fully open mountain would bring.
All the athletes are doing school 5 days a week and Mel (Professor M.) is overseeing their progress
With the drop in temperatures and the mountain’s commitment to snowmaking we were able to start our GS block with good snow and focus.
The hill will continue to improve as they put down more snow.
Dryland is going well with good commitment and focus from all the girls (boys too!)
Please look for another update in a few days.
Best regards, Nick Kwasniak
Director of Conditioning and Injury Prevention
Women’s FIS Coach

Mens Update from Sunday River

nsacoaches — Mon, 05 Dec 2011 13:41:41 +0000

So far we have had 5 days on snow. One day of free skiing and 4 days of SL gate training.

The weather has not always cooperated with us but we have done the best we can and had some pretty good training considering.

It has rained a lot and the temperatures have been very mild (+3 to +15) making it difficult to free ski/warm-up and run gates. Each day we have had to use fertilizer on the piste to harden the track so we can have decent training.

We have been lucky that the snow has not disappeared completely. With this said, our gate sessions have been very valuable and allowed the racers to gain further experience on variable/demanding snow types. At least we are skiing, there are not many options for training/skiing in eastern Canada/US and a lot of teams are not training right now.

Yesterday the temperatures dropped and they started to make snow. Today we chose to take a day off as the runs we use for training had cannons running on them all day. We took the team to an outlet mall in New Hampshire and everyone enjoyed the day off and the shopping.

For the next few days we will train GS if weather and snow conditions allow. The mountain should be in better shape after the last 48 hours of snowmaking.

Also dryland is ongoing each day and the team is keeping focused during all training sessions on and off the hill. Melody and myself are happy with the progress the guys are making and looking forward to another good training block over the next several days.

I will keep you posted with another update in a few days.

All the best
Chris

Nakiska -SG training -Sami

nsacoaches — Fri, 02 Dec 2011 20:34:43 +0000

Finally the weather is good enough and we have a few days on skis in order to train some super g.

Very windy at the top, but no problem between the trees and map maker is a perfect hill for start off on Super G skis.

On day two we got to train on the steeper hill on a very fast track set by Alberta;

tomorrow the weather forecast is for snow……we take a day off and we will start again on wednesday with some SL

Nakiska -Sami 1

nsacoaches — Fri, 02 Dec 2011 20:33:14 +0000

we now got three days in a row of good GS skiing in Nakiska and the weather is back to normal;

a bit windy (we were supposed to run super G with the Italian womens today but the speed lane was cancelled because of strong wind) we had great GS training on the the other hill ( more sheltered once you are between the trees)

Tomorrow the plan is the same: super G and gS skiis with us and if the weather (the wind) will cooperate we will run Super G with Sweden, if not we will train gS.

Nakiska -Sami’s blog

nsacoaches — Fri, 02 Dec 2011 20:31:47 +0000

Here we are at nakiska again!
We got to canmore yesterday in the afternoon flying in to calgary in the morning and despite the very little snow around it all looked good.
Planned to train GS on red crow in the morning session we got to nakiska under the rain.
I got a ticket for myself to go up and check the slopes before to get the crew up and I found a 30cm heavy wet snow layer sitting on top of the groomed run.
Everyone was leaving; I went for a run to check it out myself and I got to the conclusion that it was not safe or good even to freeski.
Good news the new uniforms were dry inside!!
Back to canmore and just planned a good dryland session for the afternoon.
Let’s hope for tomorrow!

Update from Jurg

nsacoaches — Sun, 02 Oct 2011 21:26:27 +0000

We have 2 days of training left here in Zermatt, before returning home on Wednesday.

We are getting spoiled with the weather and snow conditions that is for sure. We have had one month of excellent training conditions with only sunshine.

Since we have arrived here in Zermatt we have not seen a cloud, and the next few days will be the same. We are now seeing good and improved skiing from the athletes.

Last week the Swiss and the Austrian teams were training on the downhill lane. The Austrian women’s team was training GS beside the NSA. On the other side of us was the Swiss technical team training slalom, and beside them, the Italian men on GS. Today we had Swiss star Laura Gut training slalom with the NSA men and K2 team. It is so good to see and watch the best in the world train in great conditions.

With all the good weather and snow conditions, coaches feel that we all have had a very good and productive time here in Europe.

We will travel home on Wednesday October 5 from Zurich to Montreal on Swiss LX 86 arriving in Montreal at 3 PM.
From Montreal to Toronto on AC 421 arriving in Toronto at 6:15 P.M.

The Athletes traveling to Toronto will have their Ski Bag and Team equipment transported by Swiss on a Truck from Montreal to Toronto. On Thursday at 2 P.M. the Coaches will pick up all the Ski bags and team equipment in Toronto and bring it up to the Ski Academy.

If any of you need your Ski bag. you can pick it up at 2 P.M. from the Coaches on Thursday at Wendys west of the Airport on Airport Road. Please be on time as the Coaches need to get the rest back to the NSA.

All student/athletes will go home on Wednesday for a well deserved rest. Move in to the NSA on Sunday October 16 with school starting Monday October 17.

Jurg Gfeller