Ski Racing Kids!

For the second run I crayoned the Cera on and corked it and brushed it out.  I don't know if it worked to make the skis faster but I felt my son needed a confidence boost and it seemed to work.  Ski racing is more than half mental I think.

He had a good 2nd run and placed 18th and was top 4 for 03 birth years.

does anyone use the green wax?  

yes - most Jan and Feb at Gore and definitely at WF those 2 months are green wax.  So fun to apply and brush out.  

Double Z in the GS yesterday



Unfortunately he straddled the first run of SL and fell on the second.  SL is the school of sometimes life is tough but that is a good lesson to learn.  He gained experience and is looking forward to getting to Easterns next season as a 2nd year.

The team at Bristol did a great job of prepping that course today.  It hit 60 and it barely rutted up.

Nice angles.  Did he make it to the Stratton Speed Project?

he just missed when he dnf'ed both SL runs.  may make it as an alternate - we will see.  The way this year is going i'm not sure how good SG training is going to be at Stratton in late March is going to be?

a bunch of WNY kids did really well in the SL that didn't have good GS runs and when a several of the top kids DNF'ed one run the combined results shot some kids way up.  Those kids can really ski SL but now they made Eastern's so they are going to be finishing 20 secs out of the winner in the SG.

How is your girls knee HH?

We've got a torn MCL but we should be ok

Those western NY kids have always ripped slalom  they get great volume at HH, TOGG, Lab etc

They may slam at Easterns

There are a lot of real strong 2004 kids coming behind.  This year there were only a few strong 2002s (unlike last year when there were a ton of 2001 strong kids), so tell him to finish the season strong.  Let him rip the Sugar Slalom

Coach Z wrote

The way this year is going i'm not sure how good SG training is going to be at Stratton in late March is going to be?

Not sure Stratton (or anywhere in VT besides Killington) will even be open by then, much less have enough snow to have a race course.

He needs to work on SL.  WF NYSEF only started on tall poll SL work after the Windham GS around Feb 7 so he has been skiing tall pole SL for only one month before this event.  His GS is very solid from all the GS work and I think the WF and Gore kids do really well with GS and Super G compared to the CNY and WNY kids so it cuts both ways.

Sorry to hear about the knee.  What grade tear is it?  I have had two grade 2 MCL's one on each leg.  They hurt like hell but in about 6-8 weeks with PT things are ok.  Lots of biking can help that this summer.

Double Z just got into the Stratton event as an alternate

They changed the focus to SL from SG due to the expected snow conditions which is good as he needs to work on SL the most.

Nice! bashing SL  poles is so much fun. Lucky kid, I started way too late and suck but have a great time doing it!

Hi there,

I like what I read here. Let me know if there are any questions I can help answer about racing, school, academics, camps, etc.

JP Daigneault
Program Director / Head Coach
Northwood Skiing
+1(518)897-8978
jp@northwoodschool.com

Great news

The FIS formally approved a change to get rid of the 35m radius GS to a more shapely 30m

This means my kid won't have to totally relearn how to ski when he turns 16.  The 35m rule was a stupid decision that did nothing to make things safer as they claimed it would.

Coach Z wrote

Great news

The FIS formally approved a change to get rid of the 35m radius GS to a more shapely 30m

This means my kid won't have to totally relearn how to ski when he turns 16.  The 35m rule was a stupid decision that did nothing to make things safer as they claimed it would.

We were talking about this with the grand daughter just last week. Here is the USSA guide from the meeting about a month ago, 35m is still in there for men. Did they update the guide again - if so, pls post a link.

http://media.ussa.org/Public/Athletics/Alpine/Congress-2016/2016-2017-AlpineEquipment.pdf

Men change back to 30 for the 17-18 season. Post-Olympics.  No change to women (yet).  Must be the manufacturers can not produce enough stock for both in time.  

They need enough time for the top racers to test equipment

The good news is that kids that grew up on shaped skis won't have to learn at age 16 f they are going to FIS racers to ski on a straight ski.  More of an issue fir boys than girls as they had a different rule.

In today's gender neutral world ski racing totally naked it so much harder on boys than girls.  The boys always ski destroyed courses while the best girls never do.

The Ussa equipment matrix seems to relax a bit before the new rule in anticipation of it.  We will see what they put out next season.  I'd be pissed off if I had a U19 boy that had to buy 35m skis that will be un sellable and had to change thier skiing and then change back.

Coach Z wrote

They need enough time for the top racers to test equipment

The good news is that kids that grew up on shaped skis won't have to learn at age 16 f they are going to FIS racers to ski on a straight ski.  More of an issue fir boys than girls as they had a different rule.

In today's gender neutral world ski racing totally naked it so much harder on boys than girls.  The boys always ski destroyed courses while the best girls never do.

The Ussa equipment matrix seems to relax a bit before the new rule in anticipation of it.  We will see what they put out next season.  I'd be pissed off if I had a U19 boy that had to buy 35m skis that will be un sellable and had to change thier skiing and then change back.

I think a 35m GS would be sellable either to another GS racer or as a SG for a U14. If they change the rule back to 30m they can still ride a 35m. What concerns me though is that you have 100lb 16 YO girls trying to ski a 25m (or 30m if they want to go FIS) GS or a 40m SG. To me that spells disaster.

NOT more of an issue for men than women (the larger radius).  The guys can muscle their way around the turn.  I will say equal impact to be fair, but it is tough on the gals.  Go see a college D3 race with FIS requirements and see the struggle the girls have that grew up on the USSA skis, forced to use FIS for a few years in college, will minimal training on them, and will most likely go back to USSA rules just after their college career is over.  Yes, FIS wrecked GS for this group currently at the college level and had no intentional of running FIS, nor D1, hence the D3 choice.  

Hoser wrote

NOT more of an issue for men than women (the larger radius).  The guys can muscle their way around the turn.  I will say equal impact to be fair, but it is tough on the gals.  Go see a college D3 race with FIS requirements and see the struggle the girls have that grew up on the USSA skis, forced to use FIS for a few years in college, will minimal training on them, and will most likely go back to USSA rules just after their college career is over.  Yes, FIS wrecked GS for this group currently at the college level and had no intentional of running FIS, nor D1, hence the D3 choice.

Yes - I agree with this. The small framed women really struggle. They may be strong but they don't have the weight to bend the skis. Remember, the force is mV^2/R and they simple lack the m.

Good point

Are they going to relax the women's gs radius to something less than 30m?  I didn't catch that