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.