Hey, another great day of training in the sunshine! But today I'm going to talk about something else... what brought us to Zermatt
To answer the question, I have to go back a few years. We stopped skiing in the summer several seasons ago, defying conventional wisdom. I truly believe one sport makes an athlete better in another. Different movement patterns, less likelihood of muscle/joint damage from repetitive activities, and most importantly, no burn out. Also, you're only a boy once and baseball is a normal state of affairs! So we just operated on winter ski training until two years ago. That year Scott was invited to the Topolino Shootout, an assembly of the top 13-14 year old athletes to decided whom would represent the USA at the children's international ski championships in Italy. Scott and I conspired to form a plan for success and decided some intense pre-season training was needed. Now there just aren't a lot of places to go in November, so I did a web search and found Michel Pratte race camps. After reading the web site and conversing with Michel, we decided it was worth a try. That year Scott won the Topolino Shootout taking 5 of 6 races and represented the USA in Italy. That sold us on training in the Fall.
Fast forward to this year, our third working with Michel Pratte. Michel is a former World Cup tech racer for Canada. His cohort in crime is Matt Kerr, a former World Cup coach for Canada. Together they form a team with which Scott is very comfortable. What I like is that they don't chase cosmetics. They assess the issue and cut to the heart. So, for the past two years Scott has trained with these guys for two weeks in November. While he's training, I hang around helping with course maintenance and learning from the master coaches. It's been a successful formula. But this year we decided Scott needed four weeks on snow before joining the USST at Loveland Basin for training on injected (read ice) snow in late November. Michel had a two week camp planned in Zermatt, plus his normal two weeks at Copper Mountain, CO, so here we are.
A secondary reason for being here is to further acquaint Scott with survivng and travelling in Europe. It won't be long before he has to come here alone to compete, and I want him to be past the "Wow" factor.
If Scott's lucky, this may be his last year training with Michel and Matt (US Ski Team schedules conflict). However we are both richer for the knowledge gained and the good friendship with these great coaches.
To answer the question, I have to go back a few years. We stopped skiing in the summer several seasons ago, defying conventional wisdom. I truly believe one sport makes an athlete better in another. Different movement patterns, less likelihood of muscle/joint damage from repetitive activities, and most importantly, no burn out. Also, you're only a boy once and baseball is a normal state of affairs! So we just operated on winter ski training until two years ago. That year Scott was invited to the Topolino Shootout, an assembly of the top 13-14 year old athletes to decided whom would represent the USA at the children's international ski championships in Italy. Scott and I conspired to form a plan for success and decided some intense pre-season training was needed. Now there just aren't a lot of places to go in November, so I did a web search and found Michel Pratte race camps. After reading the web site and conversing with Michel, we decided it was worth a try. That year Scott won the Topolino Shootout taking 5 of 6 races and represented the USA in Italy. That sold us on training in the Fall.
Fast forward to this year, our third working with Michel Pratte. Michel is a former World Cup tech racer for Canada. His cohort in crime is Matt Kerr, a former World Cup coach for Canada. Together they form a team with which Scott is very comfortable. What I like is that they don't chase cosmetics. They assess the issue and cut to the heart. So, for the past two years Scott has trained with these guys for two weeks in November. While he's training, I hang around helping with course maintenance and learning from the master coaches. It's been a successful formula. But this year we decided Scott needed four weeks on snow before joining the USST at Loveland Basin for training on injected (read ice) snow in late November. Michel had a two week camp planned in Zermatt, plus his normal two weeks at Copper Mountain, CO, so here we are.
A secondary reason for being here is to further acquaint Scott with survivng and travelling in Europe. It won't be long before he has to come here alone to compete, and I want him to be past the "Wow" factor.
If Scott's lucky, this may be his last year training with Michel and Matt (US Ski Team schedules conflict). However we are both richer for the knowledge gained and the good friendship with these great coaches.
No comments:
Post a Comment