 Poster: A snowHead
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Hi
Been reading this with interest from over the pond. Things are obviously different here as we have our own hills to ski on. But it does sound like there are a lot of kids doing a lot of gates in UK.
Here the number of gates is limited; as for U12, U10, U8 its still seen that doing gates is time spent away from skiing which is more important. Entering competitions is limited because of the travel involved but also becuase there is so much hanging around on snow and its recognised skiing would be more beneficial. Its alos recognised that kids will grow at different rates and that they want to keep as many kids in the sport as they can as the early growers do not necessarily turn out to be the best racers (Ben Thompson never won a race until 3rd year FIS we are told; he won a world cup this year) so they do all they can to encurage everyonbe including club awards for most sportsmanship , best free skier, most improved etc.
Having said that our head of development told me a couple of weeks ago that he would be doing more courses/gates in the U8, U10 group. These will be specially designed courses; designed not to do racing technique but designed to teach a specific skiing technique, ie they need to use that technique to manage to ski course, without it they will miss gates. That's becuase at that age they learn so much more by doing rather than explaining and its no good explaing to the average 8 year old subtle things about weighting skis etc.
Our club go over the top with dryland and going OTT is completely unnecessary IMHO. This year they are going with 3 sessions a week in June and then 4 sessions a week in Sept for U12. They said last year that fitness held some of the kids back when dryland was 3 sessions a week in the fall. I don't disagree but then some kids did no dryland at all.....and plenty do no sport outside the programme, whereas my kids do including lots of agility/plyometrics etc for soccerrrrrrr. BUT its definately good for kids to do some dryland; it promotes a team atmosphere, it gives them a clue as to the next step and it gets them thinkng holistically about health and fitness and taking some responsibility for themselves. I suspect very few clubs are doing any dryland in the UK and I suspect plenty would benefit from doing a little. Quite a few clubs here sign up for a gymnastics proramme as part of their ski club- thats usually good fun and worthwhile and good cross-trainign for lots of sports.
A friend of mine (based in UK) is developing a sports app for kids sports and it sounds like it will be ideal for racing and enable kids to track all activities and present to coaches simply. She is trialling it atm.
U12 here race stubbies for slalom; but they may train bigger gates (don't know why). GS is all big gates usually; but combis will be a mixture. Think currently at U14 they race gates.
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Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
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One of the reasons the UK clubs don't run such extensive dryland training programmes is that we don't have such a long period when the kids aren't skiing. Our alpine season might finish at around Easter - but then that's followed immediately by the summer race season which is roughly April-July. A bit of a break in August, but they'll still be on skis - a lot of them will be doing race camps on the artificial slopes and indoor and some will be out glacier training. Then the Championship races in September, and straight into a development phase leading up to the start of the next alpine season.
Certainly in our club most of our racing kids do take part in a variety of other sports too - off the top of my head, just from what I've heard them talking about, we've got runners, cyclists, fencers, swimmers, sailors, canoeists/kayakers, rugby players, football players, tennis players, martial artists, climbers, etc - but where it could be improved is if there was some record (training log) of this so that the coaches could see what's being done and if there are any areas which are being missed out. Developing a good training log template - with suggestions of the type of activity, frequency, intensity, etc - and distributing that to the coaches as a starting point wouldn't be a bad idea at all (it could be an app or online,not necessarily paper based).
From seeing what my own son does, he certainly does more specific agility and fitness work with his tennis and football coaches than he does with his skiing (although much of it is the same as he'd do in a ski specific programme so it actually works ok for him). But cross-training/dryland doesn't have to mean other sports - you can do it with targeted "toys" too - for example we have one of these, one of these and one of these - all pretty relevant to skiing.
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Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?
Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?
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Okanagan,
Yup. I think development/training logs would be really good as all these sports think of themselves in isolation and it would also help us as parents to help our kids see the big picture (ie you don't have to go to 4 drylands a week, becuase your goalie training is equally good for your skiing)
My friends app is doing just this because of her frustrations she's experienced over tennis. We have Team snap here which allows us as parents and players to plan and see stuff, but its not for coaches to see across programmes and I think that's a weakness.
Like the scooter thing - that looks awesome.
Maybe 12 months a year racing isn't the best thing? Is that what they are saying? Maybe that time in the off snow season might be put to better use?
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You need to Login to know who's really who.
You need to Login to know who's really who.
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Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
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Maybe - but he's already angling for a slackline and (slightly more conventionally) a trampoline.
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You'll need to Register first of course.
You'll need to Register first of course.
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Okanagan, quite fancy a slackline too! Interestingly I've let the daughter start using the skia for the last couple of weeks as she was curious why her looney dad was wobbling about on them, she's been training/racing for the last 3 or so years but never been near the medals, well this last weekend she had her first podium (bronze) in her age group but most notably posted some out of character times beating guys that historically have been way up above her on the results table, she was also selected for and came 1st in the under 11s team event. Possibly a total coincidence but if she believes its down to the balance training who am I to argue with her! 
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gatecrasher, if you fancy the scooter they're on offer at Decathlon at the moment for £44.99 which is a bargain as they're way more than that elsewhere (up to £120, but a few places have them at around £75). It's very much a skiing movement needed to"power" it - makes a good training tool.
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Talking of balance development toys - I forgot we've also got a couple of these.
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You'll get to see more forums and be part of the best ski club on the net.
You'll get to see more forums and be part of the best ski club on the net.
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Have any of you guys considered unicycling for your kids? Its just another toy that can be a lot of fun to learn how to use.
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| Elston wrote: |
| Have any of you guys considered unicycling for your kids? Its just another toy that can be a lot of fun to learn how to use. |
I know one of our older racers has one. Unicycles don't seem to have made it onto junior's wish list (yet!) but considering the other things he's practising I'd be surprised if it didn't eventually.
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snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
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Unicycles are a fantastic fitness tool for skiers. balance, co-ordination and fantastic core strength neede to ride them. TJ has been using one for 5 years now. His last bike camp with Wolfy as a Junior he rode 3km on it in the Austrian hills! Only came off twice too. Planning to use it again during this summer's dry land training. He will not be on skis again until late August, full on fitness throughout the summer months, hoping to put on around 10kg and increase his squat weight by 15kg to at least 165kg (2x body weight).
He stopped doing summer racing when he was in CH2 to concentrate on snow racing. Summer fitness is very important IF you want to be serious in this sport.
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And love to help out and answer questions and of course, read each other's snow reports.
And love to help out and answer questions and of course, read each other's snow reports.
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He stopped doing summer racing when he was in CH2 to concentrate on snow racing.
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Just think how good he could have been if he had been if he had been skiing SL every weekend on plastic and in domes during the "summer race season"
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Okanagan,
How much do these powerwings weigh? Cheapest I can see here is 130 is dollars and in lawa are coming over soon and wanting to bring a present.
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You know it makes sense.
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gryphea, According to Amazon it weighs 5.4kg. That's probably boxed weight for despatch I should think - so perhaps a little less if it was taken out of the packaging? Go for it he'll love it! We paid a fair bit more than £45 for the one we've got and it's definately been worth it.
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Otherwise you'll just go on seeing the one name:
Otherwise you'll just go on seeing the one name:
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b]Okanagan[/b],
Ohh. thanks
I'll ask them and think they'll mange 5.5 kg. Its not that much extra between two on the aeroplane.
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FAQ
