THIS PAST WEEKEND-UPCOMING EVENTS-1/7/14

Hi everyone.

I have to say that this weekend was very successful.  The kids skied great and they did an awesome job dealing with the cold weather.  Kudos to all the kids for being awesome.  Thanks a ton to coach Zane and to all the parents who helped in many ways.  Having not worked with this age group in a while and only having two coaches there, I forgot how helpful all the parents can be so, again, Thank you very very much.

Upcoming races/events:

Jan. 25-26, U10 race festival at Ski Sunlight.  This is more about skill development and fun than it is about racing and results.  There will be skillsquest scoring there (as far as I know).

Jan. 26, YSL race at ski cooper

Feb. 8-9, Age class Slalom race at either Eldora, Crested Butte, or Aspen.  If you have a U12 or U14 sibling heading to one of those places and you are racing, go where your sibling is going.

Feb. 9, YSL slalom at Vail, hosted by Vail Devo.Team

Feb. 23, YSL kombi (SL-GS) at Ski Cooper or Loveland (we will probably go to Cooper for U10’s)

March 2, Age class parallel/dual slalom at Echo mountain

March 9, YSL GS at Beaver Creek.

March 15-16, YSL Championships at Copper Mtn

March 15-16, U10 championships at Telluride.

March 29-30, Kombi age class race at Echo mountain, this is a good race to do if you raced YSL all season and want a taste of Age class racing as preparation for next season.

We have some excellent leads on a couple coaches and we hope to have at least one in place by this weekend.  Keep your fingers crossed.  We are working hard towards getting our staffing sorted out.  Thank you for your patience and understanding.

Happy 2014.

Cheers!!

Mike Wolfson

SpeedQuest Team, Head Coach

Ski and Snowboard Club Vail

970-790-5130 (o)

970-406-8333 (c)

SPEEDQUEST UPDATE-12/22/13

Hi everyone-

I hope everyone is having a good start to the Christmas/New Year’s break.  I just wanted to bring you all up to speed on what’s been going on in the world of SSCV SpeedQuest.

1. We’ve been getting in a lot of mileage on Vail Mountain skiing a variety of snow conditions and terrain while at the same time strengthening some core fundamentals, such as:

-upper/lower body separation

-pole plants

-active steering of the inside knee/ski

-edging skills (railroad tracks, edge sets, pure carves back up the hill, etc.)

-ankle flexion (staying in the front of the boot)

-plus others

2. We have started our skills quest skills practice and scoring.  We have 4 skills to work on and score.  Scoring started today for the first skill and will be finished by tomorrow by all coaches.  The skills are based on a score from 0-10. 4-5 earns a bronze, 6-7 earns a silver, and 8-10 earns a gold.  The first skill we scored is a straight run to side slip to edge set.  Please look at the poster upstairs in the clubhouse, above one of the benches.

The other 3 that we’ve been working on but not yet scored are:

pole hoppers, freeski run with pole usage, and outside ski turns.

All the skills quest elements and scoring can be found on the ussa website or just ask one of the coaches and we can show you the whole deal.

3. We had a time trial today (GS) to help with our decision on who will attend the first age class race and who we suggest goes to the first YSL race later in January.  Stay tuned for that information coming soon.

We will be trying to get a day of training over in Beaver Creek next weekend so the kids can get a feel for the hill and it gives the kids a little change of scenery from Vail.

We are uploading videos to Sprongo on the SSCV-speedquest page.  I will be getting invites out to everyone soon so you can watch the videos.

The kids are skiing great and it sure seems like they are all having a fun time skiing with the coaches and other kids.

Please continue to refer to the calendar found through the SSCV website for what each day has planned.  If you can’t find or don’t know where to find that calendar, please let me know.

Oh…..we have a full day of skiing tomorrow (Monday).  If your child can’t make it we understand but we hope they do. See you then.

Well, that’s enough for now.

Please contact me or the other coaches if you have other questions/concerns or comments.

Happy Holidays.

 

Mike Wolfson

SpeedQuest Team, Head Coach

Ski and Snowboard Club Vail

970-790-5130 (o)

970-406-8333 (c)