KMS friends in WP

After a morning of chasing the UPS truck for Kelsey's boots, we finally got on snow after lunch. Before we started our training though we stopped by the FIS Alpine Nor AM course to find Kristen Leggett (KMS '08). Kristen qualified for the US Ski Team Development Team last spring. Kelsey and I found her, but she reported that a big rut had blown her off the course. We told her she'd get it tomorrow! Kelsey and David did take a few straight pops today as we did our laps. We are planning to jump tomorrow. No course yet - maybe Monday. Big snow in the forecast!

Snowy day in Killington

I must say that the food at the school is delicious, the pancakes this morning were awesome. So we got the OK to build a jump today on Bunny Buster, and there just so happened to be a nice whale back for us build our first jump of the season on. All the athlete's seemed really excited about the jump, Smitty and I warmed the athletes up with about 5-10 straight airs. When they performed a few competent take offs, we moved them right in 360's. We were pretty excited when everyone on the team was trying spins, it was the only jump that any of the athletes were trying. We did have a few back flips, Bryan Zemba performed his first straight 720's landing around 6 of them, Nick Keating and Jeremy Gravell threw a little style into the equation doing some 360 mute grabs. It was a great first day of jumping for the athletes, can't wait to see what the break out next time.

WP - Day One

The question of the day: How is it out there? The answer: There are two trails the length of the top of Mouse Trap to the Ramshead Quad. The WP competitions department is working on getting a course by the end of the week - we will see. There is more snow in the forecast but not a significant amount. It is cold enough for snow making though and it seems like a bunch of that is happening. David (KMS'04) and Kelsey (KMS'07) worked on short swing turns today and we got situated in our new pad. I added those pix from Opening Day at Killington finally - they are in the web album.

PG CAMP in WP

Well, we are at our condo - slope side - hoping for snow so that we can use that feature!! HAHAHAHAHA! Snow in the forecast this week though - we will send it on to Killington when we are done with it! Many of you have asked about our Winter Training/Competition Camp. We will go with Plan A and leave for Squaw on Jan 17 and stay through the Heavenly Valley events on the 26-27.

Rain, Rain, Go Away...

Well, the rain let up today, and the temps are dropping, even some snow flakes in the air at noon. The team skied together today on the poma lift. We introduced brush gates into our training today which was a challenging new concept to some of us. DJ and I were really able to get a good look at the raw skiing skills of the whole team and by the end of the training session the athletes were showing a strong sense of upper/ lower body separation. Tomorrow we are OFF SNOW, then back on Thursday.

Welcome Back

I hope every ones Thanksgiving was a filling as mine, and hope your long weekend was great. It was great to see all of the athletes this afternoon, and great to see Vicky and Brian Smith today, so we now have a full team. Even though the weather wasn't the best we have seen this weekend, it was just nice enough to get some work done. We split the athletes into two groups today and focused on edging, doing drills such as wedge turns, javelin turns, and a few others.

Then we moved onto afternoon sport, were we split into two groups. Group 1 worked on our upper lift program which is an upper body work out, and Group 2 worked on a knee strength workout. We also did 350 and 50 push ups.

Again it was awesome to see everyone back, and tomorrow I know the athletes are looking forward to their 3 mile run. And just a reminder, don't forget to do your training logs.

Happy Turkey Weekend!

The Freestyle Coaches wish everyone a safe and happy holiday!

Since we have been working hard in the gym this month and on the hill - let's keep the momentum and keep working out over break.

Independent Dry land Assignment:

Remember to do a light jog and mobility before you work out or SKI!!

Wednesday - 30-45 minutes aerobic activity and 350 core
Thursday - Eat Turkey
Friday - The word on the street is that the athletes are meeting at the training center at 9am to ski together. After skiing Coach Deb is hosting a 3:00 - 4:30 optional work out for the full time KMS athletes that do the Lower Lift work out so we can stay on schedule: Brian, Alden, Tim, Sterling, Jeremy, Nick, Bryan, Kelsey, Alta, Vicky, Becca, Kait, Jillian and Alta. If you cannot make it to KMS or are one of our younger athletes, then do legs circuit (5 sets of body weight squats - 20 reps; Bouncing Step ups - 20 reps; Alt Forward Lunge - 20 reps; Squat Jumps - 10 reps. Take a 2 minute break in between sets) and 350 core.
Saturday - 30-45 minutes aerobic activity and 350 core
Sunday - Hill sprints (10 meters flat, 20 meters hill - 3 set of 4 sprints with 4 minute rest in between each set) and 250 core.

See you Monday at 12:15 for training or over the weekend on the hill! Watch out for Charlie - he claims he is going with no harness!

I am going to post a bunch of pix tomorrow! I walked out of the office AGAIN today without my camera cord -ugh!

Lizzy Spins Video!

Team Pix of Opening Day at Killington!

LIZZY SPINS!

NEED WE SAY MORE?

Killington Opens!

KMS Freestyle had its biggest group EVER for the first day at Killington. It was awesome to have everyone up there - the group from Colorado and ESPECIALLY the group that has been in dryland for two weeks.

As every year mountain management asks the KMS athletes to stay away from the hill on opening Saturday and all Saturdays in November. They have given a nice discount to the athletes on their passes and a good deal to KMS: we are asking our freestyle team to honor their request and take the day off.

Sunday: The dorm crew should be ready at 7:30 for pick up and to head up to the training center. The day students and weekend crew should meet us up there. Please be dressed and ready at the tree by 8am so we can blast a few runs in before it gets busy. We will train until 3pm. We MAY head back to KMS to work out if the mountain is too crowded. Everyone should pack their lunch or plan to buy it.

Schedule for next week:
Monday - No morning sport, classes in the morning and training from 12:15 to 5:30. (We will do KMS Freestyle student council elections on Monday.)
Tuesday - Training from 8:30 until 12:15 and classes from 12:45 - 4:45.
Wednesday - OFF
Thursday - OFF
Friday - OFF
Saturday - OFF
Sunday - OFF

We will have morning sport ONLY on Wednesdays this year to make up for the lack of a morning to sleep in.

Athletes: Please look to the weekly schedule on the KMS Freestyle page on the KMS web site beginning on November 26th as we will begin posting the detailed schedule now that everyone is back.

Parents: Continue to check the regional and invite & winter camp schedule for drop off and pick up information.

TGIF!

PS DJ took a pix from the mountain today - hopefully he will add it to this blog later!

The Eagle has landed...

The crew is en route from Boston and we are going skiing TOMORROW!!! Wahoo!!

The KMS gym is bumpin'! After our leg work out and core work out today we took a trip to Rutland to get more sweatpants and a new speaker system for the gym. Wow! What a woofer can do...Looking forward to tomorrow!

Last Day at Copper

Blue skies and temps in the mid 30's rounded out our wonderful trip to Copper Mountain. Trail conditions were great today as we experienced a small snow squall earlier this morning. Today, the athletes encountered a change of pace. Instead of drills, drills, drills, the athletes worked on getting in as much mileage on the slopes as possible to build up their endurance for the upcoming season. Overall, the trip was a tremendous success. We are all extremely excited to come home and ski K-Town!

Ice Time and Four Square

The Vermont crew went to Rutland today to do some cross training on ice. Needless to say there was some fairly hysterical moments, but we ALL got through it with only a few bumps, bruises and one stiff neck. We took advantage of the warm weather when we got back and did some plyometric training outside with the Alpine J3 team. The day ended with Coach Deb in meetings and the athletes playing Four Square on the KMS' Four Square Court's Opening Day. Registration for our Eastern events will not be open until Thanksgiving if anyone is wondering.

2 Days to Snow Time in Vermont

The athletes at KMS worked hard today during their morning session: They completed a warm up, an upper lift work out, a tramp session where we shot some footage for OUR movie, and a core resistance, iso ab and 100 push-up finale. We are all looking forward to our teammates return on Thursday evening. Kelsey - can you come over for Friday?

Day 6 in Copper

Another day in paradise, well there could be more snow, but sunshine, perfect temps, and no crowds work for me. Today we rounded out our flats training drills by focusing on weight transfer and pressure. Everyone is advancing in their techniques and tactics. In the afternoon Jeremy, Alden, and I worked in the park and on switch skiing the flats. Meanwhile Dj took the rest of the group out to ski. Well, one more day, then we can't wait to come home to an open Killington.

Day 5 in Copper

Whats up everyone? Pretty exciting today waking up and seeing it snowing outside. Some of the athletes might have seen snow, but for some of us it was the first snow fall we have seen this season. We had our usual early morning starting at around 8:00 with warm up and mobility. For our morning session the whole group skied together and did a lot of drills: working on lower body and edging. The mountain was dead today so we had the whole mountain pretty much to ourselves, so we took advantage of it and skied a lot. After lunch the freeride boys went into the rail park and started working on some skills they need for some slopestyle events this year. They also shot some footage for their upcoming ski video that will be released next summer. The rest of us: Bryan, Alta, Kayla and Nick got some mileage in - lots of turns, lots of runs and some burning legs. We are trying to help get the athletes in ski shape for some of the big events early in the season. After we got back off the hill we went to the athletic club down the road and used the pool, played some games, and relaxed in the hot tub for awhile. And, thank you, Shawn for cooking us a great dinner tonight, it was great.

Happy Monday!

The athletes wanted to share their smiling faces with everyone! Check out the photo album for individual shots! We had a training log session to organize our logs and start working on seasonal goals. The athletes ran the three mile, had a tramp session, did the Core Resistance/Back Strength Emphasis, had some boxing matches and did some stretching. We have not received the news from the mountain that we were hoping for about tomorrow, but our fingers are still crossed!

Day 4 in Copper

Hello everyone! Well I must say we were a little spoiled, it hadn't been that crowded the last few days, but today it was mobbed until lunch. We did our usual morning warm up run and mobility work out in the parking lot. We split up into two groups today. Smitty had Nick, Bryan, David, and Kayla, while DJ took Alta, Sterling, Alden, and Jeremy. Our focus for the day was pole plants, and then we went back to some of the other edging and body position drills from the last few days. There were a few natural mogul lines forming here and there, and the edges of the trails had some sweet snow. We even found a little jump or "jib" as some of the boys call it. We even saw Alta dabble a little in the free ride arts by hitting it. Despite the crowds in the morning, the afternoon turned out great. Now everyone is just hanging out watching a little football and getting a lot of work done. Shawn has been doing a great job with the athletes helping them with their work. Everyone has even been taking some of their free time to get their academics completed. Hope everyone back home is doing great. We can't wait to see the rest of the crew AND for the opening of Killington!

KMS Sunday

Today we had some of our KSC/KMS athletes with us in addition to the "Vermont Group": Sammi Stolar and Ryan Brewster. We EVEN saw Vicky as she moved some stuff into her room. We started our day with all school team building and speedball down at the Sherburne Rec fields on River Road. After lunch at KMS we were joined by Coach Albert to assist Coach Deb with the group for a trampoline session and a lower body work out. The athletes had a long day of training today, will sleep in until their first morning class as we do not have morning sport on Mondays. We train tomorrow afternoon and hope to get some good news about getting on the mountain. Keep your fingers crossed for us! I heard from Alta, Bryan and Nicholas in Colorado - still waiting to hear from the rest of you!

Day off in Copper

Hello everyone! Well today is our day off, Bryan was kind enough to cook everyone chocolate chip pancakes this morning for breakfast. I just wanted to give everyone an update on each of the athletes' focuses the last few days. We have been working on edging the last two days on the flats. Alta, Kayla, Bryan, and Nick have been working on initiating their turn earlier for more edge set throughout the turn. Sterling, Jeremy, and Alden have been working on holding their edge set all the way through the turn. In the moguls Alta and Nick have worked on been lighter on the face of the mogul and allowing their range to come up more for a little smoother ride. Kayla is working on keeping her hips square down the fall line and matching her turns. Sterling, Jeremy, and Alden are working on skiing less tense and using more absorption. Bryan is working on skiing with his chest up and driving his pole through the turn. So that has been our focus for the last two days and the days to come. I posted a bunch of pictures, so you can check them out on the KMS Freestyle photo link to the right. Have a great weekend, and we will talk to you tomorrow.

TGIF

On Friday the Vermont crew had a tramp session to start our training day before we headed to the rock climbing center in Rutland. Taylor Doxsee joined us today so we decided to celebrate our tough week of training and his arrival with a trip to Ben and Jerry's. (Bo Bo's was too long of a commute - hope that is okay Tribal Leader!) We are also off today. Jill is finishing up her college essays and the rest of them are doing snow chants. We are not setting our day off for next week until we hear what the mountain is up to. Have a good weekend!

Copper Day #3

Let the fun begin.
A full day of mogul training and everyone is going to sleep well tonight. Everyone skied multiple top to bottom runs on this challenging course with huge ruts. Zemba nailed his back-x and Sterling skied out of multiple Lincoln loops. The rest of the team concentrated on skiing top to bottoms and using the techniques that we have been working so hard to master on the flats. It was great to ski along with some of the US team members. KMS alumni and US Freestyle Ski Team member Mike Morse gave a clinic on how to ski out of a jump, while we watched Bryon Wilson testing out his off-axis 1080. Having the US team there pushed our guys and girls to ski till they dropped. The coaches were very proud of everyone after today, and we'll all enjoy a well deserved day off tomorrow.
Writing from DJ's computer,
Smitty

Ballin' in Vermont

We did an upper lift, some boxing to get out some pent up energy, played speedball with the Alpine J3 program (which was really fun!) and drove up to K1 to check out the snowmaking activity. I made a new place to post photo albums to the right over there, so check it out and let me know what you think. Have a good one! Keep your tips up out in Colorado! Hope DJ is making his phenomenal breakfasts!

Copper Day #2

Hello everyone! Well today was another spectacular day out here, still no sign of a cloud. We started our day today with the usual warm up run and mobility. We spent our morning session doing some edging and angulation drills. The team as a whole has gotten their ski legs back pretty fast, and are doing a great job with the drills. We came in for lunch break, and after lunch the athletes had their first taste of moguls this season as we went over to the mogul lane where Team Summit, Team Wasatch, and The US Team were training. They were a little stiff at first, but relaxed as time went on: They even took a few jumps, only straight airs though. So it's going great out here. A few of them are a little sore, but all in all it's great. Sorry I don't have a picture, the battery on my camera was dead. Until tomorrow...

Day 1 in Copper

Hi everyone. Well it was great to get back on snow again. It was a beatiful day here, pretty sure I didn't even see a cloud. The conditions were great, it was nice snow for everyone to get back on their skis. We started our day today around 8:00am, the kids loved it. We went out for a warm up run and mobility, and then made our way to the hill, all 2 minute walk of it. We did a lot of skiing around in the morning, had lunch, and then did some stance, and lower body rotational drills (drills that work on movement from the hips down to the feet while keeping the upper body still). Everyone by that time was starting to get tired, so we made our way back to the condo, did a cool down run, and a long stretch. So it was a great first day, and tomorrow we are going to work on a lot of edging drills. Talk to everyone soon.

Top to Bottom SNOW making!!

The group in Vermont was BEYOND psyched to see the snow guns running on the lower mountain today and are in full belief that they will be on snow this weekend - we will see! Otherwise, we started our day with the infamous three mile run, followed by a drive to Rutland for an aquatic plyometric workout and then back to the gym for a core workout with the resistance bands and physioballs.

Happy Belated Birthday to Kayla yesterday!!

WE have the white stuff, too!

Sorry for the late post: we watched NATURAL snow fall on the mountain during training on Tuesday! It was great. (A little more last night and some more during morning sport this am, too!) Dry land is going well. We spent the day in the gym and went over our Athlete Code of Conduct after work out. The new crew is getting into the swing of things and the old crew is working hard. We will continue our positive thoughts towards snow today and hope for an early opening!

Anyhow,

WE HAVE ARRIVED

We have arrived!!!! Everyone is here safe and sound, all the bags are here and the crew is in Copper. After starting our day at 2:30 this morning, and some pretty windy bumpy plane rides, walking around alittle once we arrived made it totally worth while. Walking into the village and seeing people ski down the mountain was awesome, can't wait to get the kids on the hill tomorrow. The condos are awesome (thanks Deb!), and we did figure out the combination situation if anyone has gotten any calls or texts. So everything out here is great, although to the kids dismay, "Teacher Man" Shawn is getting the kids work together to have studyhall tonight. Hopefully all the children have called their parents to let them know they have arrived. So tomorrow we are waking up early to eat, nice warm up, and go make the first turns of the season, it's going to be awesome. Talk to everyone soon, this blog is so easy to use.

Day One Done.

Well, Day One has come and gone. I did not take any pictures though - sorry! - so I included a recent one that I added to my favorites folder. (It has only been one week but it still seems like yesterday that the Red Sox won the World Series!)
Anyway, our November trippers are at the Curtis' home before they take off early tomorrow morning for Copper out of Boston! I hear chicken wings are the late nite snack! A big thank you to the Curtis' for allowing the group of 11 to take over their Harvard home. They were SO pumped to go today - it was exciting and made ALL the crazy planning worth it.
The rest of us had a FULL afternoon of work outs and then worked on season goals and training log stuff. We have our first All School Meeting at 8am tomorrow, breakfast together afterwards and then we will continue dry land training for the morning hours before lunch.
Kait leaves for Colorado after training in the am - but for college interviews - not skiing. Hopefully she will return as planned after having to deal with some of our athletes' overzealous attitudes today! Oh man...
Word on the street is that Jilly will arrive at KMS tomorrow morning! Yeah! Jill is coming back to KMS for her senior year. She will be at school for a couple of days this year with her competition schedule! She qualified her lay-tuck off the double at the water ramps this summer and will look to compete it for Selection events and on the Nor Am tour.
Vicky and Brian are finishing up their fall sports and we wish them all the best and anticipate their arrival sometime this month!
We are OFF this Saturday - just wanted to clarify that.

Snow making continues

Well as I drove to the mountain this morning I was excited to see that snow making has continued. It got me even more excited for the upcoming season, hopefully the picture does the same for all of you. See you all this weekend.