Ski Racing Kids!

Glad he was able to come back and get a good time coach. Our 8 year was training on the ski cross course on Sunday and they made her hike up to the start. It's good for them to get some hard work in. She is nervous for her first "official" race next weekend. Nerves aren't a bad think either if you can channel them.

I'll tell you what makes me a little nervous. Seeing Steven Nyman wreck over the weekend. Holy cow that was intense. He was so on top of that run until that jump. Could have been much worse.

Great thing about this sport for kids is it teaches determination and hard work pay off.  If you are sending it at full effort you are going to crash at some point.  The key is finding that line during race day between intensity and finishing the course and to do that you have to go over the line in training to see where it is.

My kid is way more mentally tough that I was at that age.

I tried hard over the years to discourage my children from ski racing.  Alas, my older daughter jumped into the fray this year as a high school sophomore.

She's gaining some skills and knowledge for sure.  She is middle of the pack in these public school meets.  She's a bit humbled by how many kids (on her own team and others) have put in so much time racing gates every weekend since they were 8 or whatever and just have better edging on the icy surface and aggressive stances and confidence.  She's used to skiing at her own pace and searching out soft snow (you know, like most sane people should teach their kids to ski!!!)
Anyway, being a ski race dad is aparticularly terrible form of torture from my perspective.  Too much standing around.  I'm proud but cynical.  

Tough to jump in so late to the sport
Probably 10 or 11 is as late to start and be competitive for a normal kid though a Nysef kid started at 13 at won U16 National Champs GS.  He was a high end hockey athlete before.

The competitive kids are skiing at least 5 days or nights a week at U14 and 6 at u16

Nah. Not tough if you have realistic expectations.  There might have been some back corner of her brain that had a Karate Kid/80s movie scenario playing out: where the natural with an alternative training method steps up out of the blue at the big meet and beats the kids who have gone through the Nazi-style regimentation since they could walk.  I knew it wasn't gonna happen and I 'm sure she did too.

This is public hs ski racing.  It's cliquey but overall it's inclusive. It's supposed to be about fun, and it is, but there is little joy in many of these kids' skiing. Just rote body mechanics and muscle memory.(Joy doesn't win races you hippy!)

Her results have gotten better each week and she actually made top 20 in the gs last week.  Of course that's still 5.5 seconds off the winner's time.

witch hobble wrote

 have better edging on the icy surface and aggressive stances and confidence.  

Anyway, being a ski race dad is aparticularly terrible form of torture from my perspective.  Too much standing around.  I'm proud but cynical.

Do yourself and her a favor if you are not already, make sure her skis are tuned every day - and I mean razor sharp, whether she is racing or not and tell her to seek out ice to turn on. If she has confidence in what her equipment is capable of and will do her skills & confidence will improve quickly.

A racing parents job is just to be there at the end of the course with a hug.

I gave her skis a good sharpening a few weeks ago.  The school actually has a tune room in their ski storage shed.  The coach encourages the kids to tune their own, and she hasn't asked me to again.  I'm fine with that.

I don't know how old the grandkids are PeeTex, but the last thing my 15 year old daughter would want is for me to walk over and hug her in front of her friends and coaches at the bottom of the course.  She likes knowing I'm there for support, but a public display of affection at that instant would be viewed as a transgression on my part. More cowbell!

PeeTex wrote

Do yourself and her a favor if you are not already, make sure her skis are tuned every day - and I mean razor sharp, whether she is racing or not and tell her to seek out ice to turn on. If she has confidence in what her equipment is capable of and will do her skills & confidence will improve quickly.

I couldn't agree more - certainly for any east coast skier.

witch hobble wrote

I gave her skis a good sharpening a few weeks ago.  The school actually has a tune room in their ski storage shed.  The coach encourages the kids to tune their own, and she hasn't asked me to again.  I'm fine with that.

I don't know how old the grandkids are PeeTex, but the last thing my 15 year old daughter would want is for me to walk over and hug her in front of her friends and coaches at the bottom of the course.  She likes knowing I'm there for support, but a public display of affection at that instant would be viewed as a transgression on my part. More cowbell!

I would check them to be sure they are really sharp.

Hugs come in many forms and you find that no matter how much they roll their eyes and show rejection, it's all an act.

+1 on the tuning and confidence.  Tuning builds confidence.  Athlete wont lay them out if they don't hold.  Tune before every day on snow. Period.  Doesn't mean a 90 minute raceday job; rather polish up those edges with diamond stones daily.

Yup.  Matthieu Côté of Plattsburgh, NY.  NYSEF → Northwood School.

2016 season: U.S. Eastern Championships GS winner - Sugarloaf, ME
                    U.S. Nationals 4th GS (winner 2nd run) - Park City, UT

2017 season (1st-year FIS/U19):  FIS GS winner - Stratton, VT
                      https://data.fis-ski.com/dynamic/results.html?sector=AL&raceid=87571

Pretty good progression.  After winning U.S. U16 Easterns last season and getting 4th on the strength of winning run 2 at Nationals, we had a great prep period for Matt starting with New Zealand last July/August followed by Sweden in NOV.
  Côté transitioned pretty well from children's racing into his first U19 season.  Matt (N'18) is enjoying lots of personal attention from the coaching staff (easy with small groups/teams) and continues to make progress along with the other first-year U19 boys here.  (i.e.: Nouri Akoundi N'17 got his first podium ever this past weekend at Gore super-G on Sat. and another on Sun. - all of a sudden ski-racing is really fun again!)
  When Matt won his first FIS race in DEC at Stratton, VT we felt really good about our mix of ski camps, dryland training, and rest. We also didn't bankrupt the parents getting it done! Oh, let's not forget that he's 5'5'' on a good day and about 120lbs (on 35m skis) with his ski boots on.  It's what I love about this sport:  If there are SOME turns, it doesn't matter how big or little you are.  No excuses.  He/she who arcs the cleanest wins.  End of story.

Thanks for sharing all that detail.  Didn't feel it was my part to share his full name or Story

My guess is MC decided that at his size skiing might be More fun than getting the crap beat out of him playing hockey

PeeTex wrote

witch hobble wrote

 have better edging on the icy surface and aggressive stances and confidence.  

Anyway, being a ski race dad is aparticularly terrible form of torture from my perspective.  Too much standing around.  I'm proud but cynical.

Do yourself and her a favor if you are not already, make sure her skis are tuned every day - and I mean razor sharp, whether she is racing or not and tell her to seek out ice to turn on. If she has confidence in what her equipment is capable of and will do her skills & confidence will improve quickly.

A racing parents job is just to be there at the end of the course with a hug.

THIS is the truth!

Skis have to sharpened every day.  If not the Racer will not learn to trust the edge.  Training on an un tuned ski is a waste of time and effort.  

I'm always there with a fist bump post run.  Teen age boys are not big huggers.

This sport sure throws you some curve balls.  After some really good Super G training the past week both at WF and Gore my son woke up and starting throwing up with that 24 hour stomach flu that is going around.  Thankfully I had decided to stay at Gore that night otherwise I doubt we would have made the 90 min drive down.  He threw up again a few mins before his training run.  This kid is tough as I would likely wanted to just go to bed so the idea of racing at 50 mph would not be even possible.  Maybe a better parent than me would have pulled the plug for him but I wanted him to make the decision so he raced.  His coach concurred but said if he thought it was not going to be safe he would pull him.

He ended up being 5th on the day .87 sec off the winner.  I think this is a more remarkable finish than a podium on a day he was 100%.  The life lessons this sport teaches is quite something as I know for sure I would did not have the determination or grit this kid has when I was 13.

 Great story Coach and nice work Double ZZ. Congrats.

Kudos to little Z. He'll have that baked into his psyche when times get tough in the future. Good to be able to channel some of those tough experiences later on.

Gore U10s and U12s had an in house race down at the Ski Bowl yesterday on the skier cross course. I thought it was a really great format and good confidence builder. The finish included a slalom down the center of the half pipe. Lots of different skills were required. It was our 8 year old's first race and she was nervous but she finished both runs and came in right in the middle of the pack (boys and girls are ranked together). Fun fun time. Added benefit was being able to hit the ski bowl glade and multiple laps on 46er. I mistakenly followed some tracks in the ski bowl glade and ended up in the ski bowl village. I almost missed my daughter's first run - ooops! Stay high in there at the bottom unless you are looking for an adventure.

Nice work lil Z

Well if it was HIS decision kudos!

warp daddy wrote

Well if it was HIS decision kudos!

It was 100% his decision.  I gave him multiple options to head home and I could have been skiing the Slides at WF yesterday.  Even 10 mins after he threw up the first time he got in the car and said I'm racing.  There are only a couple Super G's a year and this is the event he loves the most.

I did do some things to make his day easier like taking his race skis to the start for him so he could conserve energy.  I can tell you for certain that whom ever designed the stupid run in to the BR chair has never had to carry a pair of SG skis to the start himself.

That whole section was supposedly designed with racing in mind, but still sucks for that too I guess.

I can understand ZZ wanting to race despite being sick.  I've had many ski trips when I wasn't feeling well, but I can't say I regretted going regardless.  Most recently I had a nasty cold for my entire weekend at Tremblant last spring.