Welcome New Campers!

It's a new week here at SDSC with thirty campers psyched up for week two and twenty newcomers fired up and ready to go. Returning campers spent the day sleeping, mini-golfing, swimming and biking before our newcomers arrived. Once everyone was registered and settled in, Sue made us a delicious dinner and we took off for the fields. With less campers this week, we will run the camp all together instead of splitting up for activities. Tonight we went to the Stowe Motel fields and rotated through speed-ball, capture the flag, team building games and a camp favorite - a trip to the river to swim! The water was especially cold but there were lots of cool spots to jump off and everyone had a great time. We're looking forward to some mountain biking and a great introductory athletic session with Eric.

Below is a picture of a team building activity where all team members have to lift a bucket of water and see how long they can keep it off the ground with their feet!

Weekend Stay Over

We had 30 campers stay over in between SDSC week 1 and week 2 sessions.  A LOT of sleep and rest... and also a little bit of activity.

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Closing Ceremonies at 11:00

We would like to invite all parents to join us for our Awards and Closing Ceremony this morning at 11:00. The campers will be at a session all morning and then will be returning for the ceremony, so we ask that all parents wait until after that presentation to begin moving out. The SDSC staff and campers have kept a tight and safe environment for camp throughout the week, and we want to ensure that continues until we release the campers after the ceremony. Thank you for your understanding, and we will see you soon.

Friday Night Cookout and Inflatables

Well, we have reached our final morning here at SDSC Week 1. Yesterday evening we kicked off our celebrations with a fantastic cookout out on the lawn of The Round Hearth on a perfect Sunday evening.

After dinner, the festivities commenced in earnest as all the campers were treated to an inflatable bungee run and music arranged by a DJ. It was hard to tell who was having more fun, the campers or the counselors! Classic group dance numbers and all the current hits were there, and the dance moves were enthusiastic and on point.

Today we go to the field for one more fun session of games, and then return for closing ceremonies!

Waterbury State Park on a HOT afternoon

For our last alternative session, SDSC traveled to Waterbury State Park for an afternoon at the lake. The time in the water could not have come at a better time, as temperatures rose into the high eighties. Micaela's session this morning pushed us to raise our level one more time, and the water felt great on our legs and cleared our minds. 

We saw some intense hand stand competitions, egg competitions, keep-away games, and a whole lot of splashing. And then, the moment all the campers had been waiting for finally came: the annual slip and slide! 

It has been some week. As the kids return to the Round Hearth for cookout and inflatables, it's hard to imagine that we are already heading toward the end of Week 1. It really has been a great one. We will post more details later tonight, but we are looking forward to our closing ceremonies tomorrow morning at 11:00! See you all then. 

The Slip and Slide!

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EXPLOSION with Micaela Holland

This morning, SDSC's own Micaela Holland led a terrific session on explosion and power. Micaela is the head alpine ski coach at Clarkson University, where her team completes in the highly competitive MacConnell division with schools like Brown, UMass, Babson, and Castleton State. Before coaching, Micaela raced for Bates College, where she led the Bobcats to the NCAA Division I championships for three out of her four years. 

She brought her vast knowledge of skiing into her session, alternating between breaking the group into smaller stations and then bringing everyone together to practice technique. She emphasized how all of the other elements of B-A-S-E combine when thinking about explosion. There were medicine balls, boxes, hurdles, and even parachutes. The parachutes were particularly popular, and those who have been testing all week completed their 40 second box jump test.

It is turning into a scorcher of a day, and we are definitely looking forward to jumping into the water this afternoon at the Waterbury State Park!

Evening Activity: Nutritionist Chad Couto and Movie Night!

Tonight we had the pleasure of welcoming Chad Couto to the Round Hearth to deliver nutrition presentations to the campers in two separate sessions. Chad is the fitness director at the Stoweflake Resort and Spa, runs his own Fitness for Life program, and has been an avid triathlete for many years. Chad comes every year and this year was particularly invested in science of recovery.

Half of the camp listened to Chad, while the other half spent time outside on the Round Hearth Lawn. 

Here was the scene at 7:45 tonight...

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Chad's presentations gave way to two movie features: The Sandlot, and Zootopia. Again, it was quite the picture as everyone laid out their pillows and blankets together for the last two hours of a great Thursday. On to our last full day of camp featuring Micaela Holland for an explosion session!

Instructional Session: Speed with Danny Noyes...and a little rain

Today Danny led our speed session at the base of Stowe's Mount Mansfield. Danny, the head alpine ski coach at Colby College, has been SDSC Director for 12 years and led a terrific session in the morning for the younger four teams. Danny has been an amazing mentor to me as both his athlete and colleague, and there is no better camp director in the business.

Today's session added to Monday's by introducing parallel position to basic athletic stance. Campers focused on matching their feet, knees, hips, and shoulders throughout their turns in GS and SL courses. Danny also emphasized the importance of progression in our skates sessions, as well as establishing a routine in training and race day. We repeated many of the initial exercises from Monday's session but at a faster pace, mirroring how a well prepared athlete would take a few warm-up runs before races doing their favorite drills.

Thunderstorms and rain unfortunately halted all activity early in the afternoon. We have been lucky with the weather until then so we can't complain too much, and tonight's restful evening of nutrition speaker and movie night will surely be appreciated by our tired campers.

Morning Activity: Mountain Biking

For the second time this camp teams headed to Cady Hill Forest to test their skills. Since we've already been there once this camp, athletes were more familiar and comfortable on the trails. After climbing the initial Cady Hill trail there is an option to stick around the front side of the mountain on Bear's Trail, Town Loop or Bridgey or venture into some more advanced downhills including a camp favorite, Florence. It is a long downhill section full of bank turns and rollers. Check out a map of the forest on the right!

Updates from our younger campers bike session coming soon!

Evening Activity: Speaker Jerry Murphy, Skit Night, and S'mores

Tonight's evening was packed with activity all around the Round Hearth. SWIX's Northeast rep Jerry Murphy returned for yet another year to introduce campers to the basics of ski tuning and preparation. It's always great to connect camp activities to all the various elements of ski racing, and Jerry gave us the perfect platform to do so.

Campers then were challenged to come up with skits in their teams using a collection of props chosen at random from around the Round Hearth. We saw scenes from coffee shops, recess playgrounds, restaurants, and even an appearance by Bill Nye! The performances were capped by an original guitar and singing number by all the counselors whose chorus included "SDSC, best camp in Stowe, our best option when we are missing the snow!"

Finally, we ended the night roasting marshmallows around the camp fire, as all good camps should. As we cross over the halfway point of this week, it has been pretty amazing to see how the entire group has come together, from the generation of older campers who will be "graduating" this year to the new campers who are still learning the flow of our daily schedule. They all have been working extremely hard in the daytime sessions, and the group's cohesion is really starting to show as a result.

Alternative Session: Johnson Skate Park

This afternoon, SDSC traveled up to Johnson, VT to visit the camp favorite Johnson Skate Park. We have been going to the Johnson Skate Park for years, and every year the facility seems to improve. This year's features were newly paved and painted, creating the air of professionalism as kids zipped around on ramps, boxes, and quarter pipes. While the sun heat up from above, so did the action around the park as we saw jumps, grabs, 360's and transfers across rails.

While the skate park is one of the biggest challenges campers encounter this week, it also provides camp with an excellent opportunity to test the lessons we have learned over the last few days about athletic stance, balance and agility. For anyone feeling a little anxious about dropping into the quarter pipe or any of the ramps, basic athletic stance and forward lean is essential as you roll down a ramp. Campers consistently find themselves in unbalanced positions and need to engage their core to regain their balance, much as coach Sohier Perry emphasized in our session yesterday.

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Next on the schedule is a presentation by the Northeast SWIX rep Jerry Murphy, skit night, and S'mores!

Instructional Session: Agility

Our own Eric Barthold led today's agility session in the Polo Fields.  Eric grew up skiing with Ford Sayre out of the Dartmouth Skiway and took his talents to Colby College where he skied on the Division 1 ski team and also led the soccer team in goals his senior year.  After graduation, he interned for the international program Grassroot Soccer and coached skiing at Killington Mountain School before returning to Maine to coach soccer at the University of New England and skiing at his alma mater Colby College.  Eric is one of the most well-rounded ATHLETES I know, and he is also one of the best well-rounded PEOPLE I know.  He started a program called "Man Up and Open Up," traveling the Northeast to lead conversations with junior high, high school, and college students about challenging gender expectations or norms in society, even appearing in his own TedX talk as well as the Huffington Post and several other news and media outlets.  Check it out yourself, and maybe your local junior high or high school can bring Eric in!!   www.manupandopenup.com

Fun, focus, and engagement the whole way through, today's agility session incorporated creativity right from the beginning with our dynamic warmup all the way through our final hops, zigzags, steps, and cuts in our obstacle course relay.  Fun session, and great workload.

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Evening Activity: Ski Video and The Swimming Hole

Tonight coaches and counselors rounded up campers to fast forward to winter so we could think about skiing. All our staff at SDSC have years of experience as both racers and coaches so we were all able to add variety to the discussion. Some of our most talented counselors showed the group real videos of their best personal races. It is great for the campers to hear current older racers talk about their development, fears and strategies for success.


We went over basic technical and tactical fundamentals, common challenges and ideas for the athletes to think about. Watching video year round is critical to improvement. Watching it in the summer is especially helpful in keeping your mind focused and thinking about Ski Racing. It was really great to see the athletes connect what we're doing in our sessions to how it will help them improve on the hill.

After the video session everyone headed down to The Swimming Hole, an indoor pool featuring a waterslide, pool basketball and volleyball. Any energy left was certainly spent jumping around in the pool. Tomorrow morning Coach Eric is going to lead the team through an agility session!

Alternative Session: Mount Mansfield Hike

Alternative Session: Mount Mansfield Hike

This afternoon we strapped on our hiking shoes and headed to Mt. Mansfield. Every year teams attempt to summit Mt. Mansfield and return in just 3.5 short hours. This is a difficult trek for anyone and campers have been talking about the hike since they arrived. In a record year many groups made it further than they ever had with team USA and Germany making it to the summit along with a few other teams coming very close. The walk down was a bit slick so teams had to be agile and choose their footing wisely.


The hike was long and tiring but team morale was higher than it has been all week. We saw campers encouraging one another, helping each other over rocks and most importantly giving each other a high-five at the top. Mt. Mansfield is 4,393 feet so getting (almost) to the top is no small feat. I even heard a group of ladies saying that hiking a mountain this tall was on their bucket list- way to go ladies! Some of our smaller campers headed to Trapp Family Lodge to check out the nature trails and do a smaller hike, check out a video of their adventure on the last post.

Alternative Session: Mount Mansfield Hike

Alternative Session: Mount Mansfield Hike

This afternoon we strapped on our hiking shoes and headed to Mt. Mansfield. Every year teams attempt to summit Mt. Mansfield and return in just 3.5 short hours. This is a difficult trek for anyone and campers have been talking about the hike since they arrived. In a record year many groups made it further than they ever had with team USA and Germany making it to the summit along with a few other teams coming very close. The walk down was a bit slick so teams had to be agile and choose their footing wisely.

The hike was long and tiring but team morale was higher than it has been all week. We saw campers encouraging one another, helping each other over rocks and most importantly giving each other a high-five at the top. Mt. Mansfield is 4,393 feet so getting (almost) to the top is no small feat. I even heard a group of ladies saying that hiking a mountain this tall was on their bucket list- way to go ladies! Some of our smaller campers headed to Trapp Family Lodge to check out the nature trails and do a smaller hike, check out a video of their adventure on the last post.

Finishing strong...

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A little bit SILLY

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Featured Coach Sohier Perry - BMA

Today we welcomed Sohier Perry to camp to lead sessions on BALANCE.  Sohier is currently a boys FIS coach at Burke Mountain Academy.  Prior to his move to Burke, the Ford Sayre Academy product was a boys FIS coach at GMVS working with now USST Head Women's Tech Coach Mike Day, and before his two years at GMVS he was the assistant coach at UVM.




Its always great to bring new people to SDSC and take advantage of a coach's experience of different activities and exercises.  Sohier did not disappoint today.  Balance is a great area to focus on and change tempo a little, while still accomplishing a lot.  You don't need the impact or volume that we would get in a speed or explosion session, but instead the focus is more concentrated while still getting the feeling of working hard.  And results... using the different pieces of equipment (balance beam, dyna discs, med balls, plyo boxes, etc.), improvement was immediate and sustained all the way through the session.

Great session Sohier!

Evening Session: Team-Building Activities

Campers were worn out after their first full day but luckily camp staff made a delicious dinner of braised chicken, egg noodles and salad which re-energized us for the evening activity. Coach Eric planned an evening full of team-building activities so each team could get to know each other better and learn to work together. Teamwork is an important life skill which campers will use in every aspect of their lives. This is always our favorite evening because we finally get to see teams coming together and effectively communicating with one another.

Games we played included team hula hoop, alligator swamp, human knot, tarp flip, team ski walk, hot chocolate river, tank and helium stick. Each team played at the stations for several minutes before moving onto the next.



To give camp staff a taste of their own medicine, campers blindfolded their counselors and watched them play tag. After everyone was tuckered out we loaded the bus for the Round Hearth, had a snack and a bit of downtime and off to bed campers went. We're all looking forward to a hike up Mount Mansfield and a balance session with guest Coach Sohier Perry!

Afternoon Session: Mountain Biking and Swimming!

For our second adventure today we took to the Stowe Recreational Path and Cady Hill Mountain to test our mountain biking skills. Cady Hill Forest is located just at the end of the rec path in Stowe. Some of our more experienced campers challenged themselves in the woods where they were able to try a variety of different mountain biking terrain. After a steep ascent into the park, groups set off on beginner, intermediate and advanced terrain. The trails all loop back to one another so if there is a particular section a group really enjoyed they were able to give it a few different tries. Mountain biking is a great dryland activity for Ski Racers not only because it works all the right muscles, but it also helps young athletes figure out tactics.

Younger campers stayed off the single track but instead challenged themselves on the rec path, braving slightly rainy conditions. Luckily, the weather held out and all groups were able to make it all the way to downtown Stowe and back. Swimming is a must whenever we pass the swimming hole so most teams jumped in for a quick dip to cool down after their hard work. Time for dinner and our evening activity - can't wait to see what Eric has planned for us tonight!

Instructional Session: Basic Athletic Stance

Today I led the instructional session on skates on Basic Athletic Stance.  This position is common in almost all sports, and is really important in skiing.  The position is "strong", "balanced", "stable", and "allows you to move in any direction"... all answers given by our campers!  In skiing, ideally athletes return to this position in the transition between turns, really only lasting a fraction of a second, before moving into the next turn.  The majority of the individual turn, or even entire run, is completed in some degree of a parallel position.  However, this basic athletic stance allows the skier to be in a good position entering turns.


We've all seen videos of an off-balanced Bode Miller or Ted Ligety make amazing turns.  For the most part, these people are super humans who escape mistakes because of their amazing natural athletic ability and fitness.  For the majority of skiers world wide, especially junior skiers, eliminating mistakes by being forward and balanced leads to cleaner and more powerful turns and race runs.




After getting comfortable with the position on our sneakers, we moved to skates.  The SDSC campers worked their way through a progression of Basic Athletic Stance, flexing, hopping, all the way up to JUMPING on the skates, clearing different heights.  The campers did great.

Team Switzerland!!!