Well ski season is over and now the athletes should be in the first stage of active recovery. And so should the coaches. It is really quite something to realize after a few days or a couple weeks off snow just how"injured" we were all season. Little aches and pains become more apparent, we now have time to feel them. It is important for these small injuries to be looked after now so once the next training stage starts we are ready to go. So athletes if you are feeling any tightness or other aches and pains try to see a doctor or a physio. Do the things we all know are needed to repair, ice, stretching, moist heat. Other things that are good now are things such as relaxation and imagery.

Make sure skiing and racing stay important to you over the next several months. If you are a Canada Games athletes, remember, one year and it is all over. We still have lots of work to do.

If you can please stay in touch with your coaches. Let them know what you are doing for summer activities. If you are not playing sports see if you can find a fitness program that works the aerobic capacities and strenght. No I do not mean you have to going running everyday.... Just something that gets your heart rate up. Go find what your training heart rate range is. Your coaches are there to help.

There is tons of stuff on the internet from World Cup athletes that you can do or be inspired by. See if your favorite athletes have blogs or websites or check them out on Youtube. I will post some things here from time to time so check back for articles on nutrition, mental training and planning.

Lets see just what we can do as Atlantic skiers to be better next season.

Have a great summer coaches athletes and parents.

Well it has been far too long since I last posted anything. And I have a lot to tell you. On November 15 2013 I have a total knee replacement of my left knee. I have suffered from Osteoarthritis now for a number of years. I have tried physio, acupuncture, laser treatment, massage, ice, heat, medications, and injections. All of which worked to a degree for a short period of time. Surgery has changed my life. No other way to express it. It has been a hard recovery in a lot of ways.... not the least of which is I have not skied or coached yet this season...
I have done 5 weeks of physiotherapy at the hospital with an amazing therapist....have been doing the same or similar exercises at home since I got home from the hospital... I am going to the gym three morning a week again and I now cannot wait to get back to work... my real job...

Here is how this has been life changing. I can sleep through the night, I can sit and watch TV (Olympics) and not have pain, the can climb stairs, up and down and I walk with no limp. I can get into my car and drive and no feel after a few minutes like I could pass out. And as my trainer says I no longer walk like an old women. Not that there is anything wrong with that... I am just not old.

Getting ready for this surgery I was inspired to loose some weight, now I did not have much to loose but even 15 pounds has made a huge difference. I was inspired to get a much better diet, again not that I had a bad one, I just now have a much better one and I feel so good.

This has been life changing and I have not even started to ski yet. No idea how much better that will be.

I have several people to thank, and this is in no particular order.

Dr. Andrew Berkshire, and his staff, all the nurses (RN and LPNs) at the orthopedic wing at the DECH, Barb Toole at the Physiotherapy department at the DECH, all my friends, athletes that I have coached and all my coaching friends. Most important though... my family and even more important my mom. No way would I be where I am on recovery without her.

 

http://www.dartfish.tv/Presenter.aspx?CR=p1490c3372m171650#!AQECAAECAAEBAQAAAQEBAgIBAAIACUVxdWlwbWVudAlTa2kgYm9vdHMAAQEBEXAxNDkwYzMzNzJtMTcxNjUwAAAA
 

HI Gang here is the link to the boot fitting presentation we did at the NB Alpine Sport Science weekend.

Please take a look at this for more details on boot fitting and what to look for.

Thanks

HI everyone, So we have been doing for a couple months now. Things are going well. The athletes that are coming are showing some real progress. Good work and well done to all those athletes. And a big thank you to their parents who bring them every weekend.
So NB Alpine is hosting a sport science weekend next weekend, Oct 26 and 27 right here in Fredericton at the UNB gym. Please see the notices sent to the clubs from NB Alpine. Please let us know if you are coming so we can get the material and order lunch.
To coaches this is a chance to gain at least some of you CSCF licensing credits. So again please let me know if you are coming.

Do your snow dance and get your gear ready. In NB you never know when we could be skiing

Hey gang, one the things that is really important to ski racers young and older is agility and fast feet.
Take a look at the video I have linked for you and be ready to perform at least some of these over the next couple months as we prepare the ski season.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=B_bbBglPGHA

Hey for anyone in the Crabbe Mountain Race club, fall dryland will start next Sunday. That is September 8th. There will be an email going out very soon with the details. Keep your eyes out for it.



This fall we are really organized and have a great plan to help you athletes become the very best you can be. You have to do the work, but we will give you the tools to do it.



We will work on not only fitness and conditioning, but flexibility and some mental training skills as well.



So be ready, next Sunday September 8th 2013 we start the next ski season.



You have all heard this from me before, fitness and conditioning are the great equalizers. No matter where we live in Canada, we have the same opportunity to be at the same fitness level. Or better, if others do not do the work. With improved fitness, we can ski and train on snow longer, having a better training effect. A training effect is when each run is worthwhile and the athlete can get something from it. In our case, I would say our best athletes have had about 3-5 runs a day that they were actually getting a training effect. I would like to see that get to 5-7 runs. 5 runs a day where we as coaches can help you the athlete be better. FASTER.

 

Fitness and conditioning are only the first part of narrowing the gap. We need to eat right, sleep right, get the best of our recovery time, and have the athlete’s brains in the right place at the right time. The athletes need to have as much experience as possible in order to draw from when certain situations present themselves on the race track.

 

So let’s get this season started….

 

Hey everyone, I was surfing on the net a few days ago and I am not sure how I found this video but it is cool. Please take a look at how Mike Janyk from the Canadian Ski Team trains.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=O2KmEe0W1zw

There are tons of videos like this from most of the World Cup athletes. Just go to youtube and type in your favorite racers name and you will find lots of stuff.
Ski season is coming, faster than you might think. Some of us have been doing fitness training all summer, some have been playing other sports and getting fitness from that. Either way, all this work this summer will have a positive effect on your on snow training. The better physical fitness you have before the season, the better you will be able to train. If last season you could do three or four training runs a day before you started to feel it in your legs, and this season you can do five or six, that means there are that many more times you can actually make an improvement in your skill.
Fall fitness is starting soon as well. More focused on the fundamental movement skills we as skiers need and more focused on the fundamental sport skills we need as skiers.

Things such as balance, agility, speed, jumping, landing etc. For sport skills things such as timing, reaction, balance, stability. All these things need to be worked on all the time to make sure athletes are at their best.

So once school starts training for skiing and racing starts as well.

Go find videos that you like and your coach will be happy to help you with them.