Hello Freeride parents and athletes,
The time has come for another season of shredding, schralping, and schussing down the slopes at Whiteface and beyond! Hopefully everyone has been taking advantage of the early season conditions, finding their legs, and preparing to work - and play - towards the personal goals set for this season and for years to come.
For the first time I can remember, we will be starting the season with a full weekend of training, starting bright and early this coming Saturday, December 6th. Athletes should be at the NYSEF Training Center and geared up no later than 8:15am, at which point we will assemble as a group, just uphill of the main deck entrance ramp. (For those of you new to the program, please check in at the front desk, inside the building, when you arrive so that I can orient you. Also, check the link for more info - here) After the groups have been divided and everyone is headed uphill, I will be having an informational meeting with parents inside the training center at approximately 8:45am - exact location to be announced. Again, for those of you new to the program, the freeride office - (snowboard and freestyle ski) - is directly across from the main desk. Our office doubles as our coaches locker room so we do ask that if you would like to talk to a coach or myself, especially at the start of the day, please check in with Linda at the front desk, or, if unavailable, knock first. The dry erase and bulletin boards just outside the office will have current information on training groups, coaches info, schedules, and results throughout the season so please feel free to check them out.
In our meeting I will be going over a lot of information including daily protocol, competition schedules, competition tracks, athlete expectations, volunteer opportunities, and a whole lot more. One thing that I would like you to do prior to this weekend is talk to your athletes about their goals and really get them thinking about what they want out of this season and their skiing or riding "career". Our training program is based on competition, and whether it's casual, local events or the national or international level it's up to your son or daughter to determine. We are here to help them achieve their goals, but to do that we must get them to start with communicating their desires to us. We will be handing out goal sheets which will be asking them to outline their short, medium, & long term goals. Help us get the ball rolling so we can make the most out of the next few months. In the end, we hope to teach our athletes to set and reach for their goals, competitive or otherwise, and to take steps every day to achieve them.
General goal guidelines:
Short - Short-term goals can be as simple as getting the most out of each run or each drill, and of course are based on each athlete's ability. For some it could be making solid turns from top to bottom and for others, it could be learning to get air, ski/ride switch(backwards), staying in control through the bumps, maintain proper form through the cross course, land a trick or make a grab, etc. Continued focus on short-term goals leads to improved performance and a higher level of control.
Medium - These should be over a slightly longer time frame and could consist of improving a combination of skills such as putting together a competition run, linking tricks, increasing speed on a course, maybe entering a comp or shooting for a successful result. (It's important to note that many of our events are judged and final results are not always a perfect measure of success. Success in this case may be better based on individual performance in relation to prior training and competition.)
Long - In this case, we consider long-term to be season-long. The goals here may be based on reaching a certain skill level in a discipline, reaching a regional or national championship (or getting on the podium), or it could be completing a checklist of individual achievements such as mastering a list of tricks.
Of course, many of our athletes may say their long-term goal is to be in the Olympics or the X-Games, and that's great, but to get there you must take one step at a time and make each day count.
If you ever have any questions or concerns please feel free to contact me. In the meantime, have a great week and we'll see you Saturday.
Sincerely,
Mike
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