Yoga and Relaxation at Tonight's Evening Activity

Tonight we had planned to go to The Swimming Hole, the indoor pool and water slide in Stowe. Unfortunately, by the time we got there the weather had turned for the worse and we were unable to jump in (even indoor pools have policies concerning Thunder). The kids were troopers as we tried to wait out the delay, but ultimately we had to return to the Round Hearth.

We made the most of it though, relaxing for 10 minutes in the hot tub and then re-centering our minds with yoga, run by the counselors. Each group had their turns in the hot tub (the older ladies rocked out to Taylor Swift Sing-a-Longs) while the other groups followed counselors' lead in a yoga session.

Tomorrow we look to a balance session with Danny on skates up by Mount Mansfield, followed by a trip to Waterbury State Park. We are in the swing of things now! Stay tuned for more fun and singing tomorrow!

And on to the BIKES!

The camp hit the rec path this afternoon on our bikes for a little adventure.  The cross training element is so important in all sports, but a strong connection exists between mountain biking and skiing.  Both sports rely heavily on balance, leg and core strength, identification of line (path), and instant evaluation of course conditions.  Perhaps most important, both sports enforce the quickest decision making at speeds.

A lot of our campers made their way into the woods, including some from our youngest team FRANCE, and some campers for their first time ever!  The Cady Hill Trail system offers a wide variation of challenges and allows our campers to progress to the next level no matter their skill level.

Some campers decided the 10 mile bike ride on the path was a solid challenge in itself and were rewarded with an ice cream at Stowe Ice Cream at the end of the path, and of course a quick swim on the journey back up the path to the Round Hearth.

Intro to BASE with Eric

This morning was our first instructional session of week 2 and Eric gave us an overview of the five fundamentals we will work on this week. First he went over basic athletic stance which was a review for returning campers but still a fundamental that even our college counselors are still working on. Next we moved into BASE; Balance, Agility, Speed and Explosion. Each of these fundamentals are extremely important for skiing but also for overall athleticism. Our session was at the polo fields and Eric split us up into two groups; France and Italy then USA and Germany. After a great warm-up we rotated through four stations which each emphasized one of the fundamentals of BASE. Eric is a great teacher with a ton of energy so campers always look forward to his sessions.

In the balance station we worked on single leg and double leg athletic stance exercises on the ground and on dyna disks. Focusing on keeping the core tight and balancing while completing other exercises (like throwing a ball to a partner). Next was agility where campers went through a series of exercises thinking about how to move their bodies quickly and accurately. This is always a challenging but the campers kept each other motivated. The speed station was focused on how to generate velocity with muscle power and proper running/sprinting technique. Eric really emphasized how you can use your whole body to create speed, not just your legs. The final station was explosion! Using soccer balls and medicine balls campers learned how move their bodies to produce force. Squats, woodchoppers and partner throws were on the menu and Eric emphasized that perfecting form was more important than how far one could throw the ball.  We always really enjoy Eric’s sessions because while he is an incredible athlete and teacher, he really knows how to make it FUN for everyone! 



And we exhausted ourselves...

Not bad location and scenery to spend a few hours outside working hard and sweating...

Week 2 is Underway!

Week 2 is underway and we couldn’t be more excited! Campers that stayed for the weekend had a relaxing start to the morning and then biked on the rec path to mini-golf, and stopped for a quick swim on the way back. It was so fun to see the different age groups biking together. 

After lunch, we welcomed our eighteen new campers to the Round Hearth. Everyone is settling in well! Camper orientation went well Campers took turns reading aloud camp rules and expectations before meeting with their new team. France, Italy, Germany, and USA got to know their teammates with icebreaker games like name games and screaming toes or "wah!" New and old campers meshed and it's obvious that campers are on their way to making great memories and new friends!

The Round Hearth served us an awesome first night dinner, complete with mini pudding pies. It was quite the treat! The night finished with our evening activity where we swam at Foster’s swimming hole, played a few different games of speedball, and ended the evening with an all-camp rock paper scissors tournament. Congratulations to our winner, counselor Caroline!

Camp is off to a great start! We can all feel the energy from the campers and staff, and are all excited for another week of Stowe Dryland Ski Camp

Closing Ceremony at 11:00 AM

We would like to invite all parents to join us for our Awards and Closing Ceremony tomorrow (Saturday, July 29) 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.

Final Night - Cookout, Inflatables, and Ice Cream

Well, here were are, at the end of SDSC 2017 Week 1. Today was the perfect day to end things, and the energy at our cookout/dance party certainly reflected that excitement. We returned from Micaela's session or the Waterbury State park a little worn down, but everyone rallied for a great evening of dancing and smiles full of ice cream.

After a quick rendition of Queen's "We Will Rock You" and time cleaning rooms, we are all ready for our final morning. We look forward to a speedball tournament before wrapping things up at the closing ceremony at 11:00 AM. See you tomorrow!

Explosive Power with Micaela Holland

This afternoon, SDSC's own Micaela Holland ran our final instructional session of Week 1, focused on power and explosive movement. After a highly successful racer at Bates College with multiple NCAA Championship appearances, Micaela began her coaching career at GMVS. From there she served as the head coach at Clarkson University, and most recently finished her first year as head coach at her alma mater this winter.

Micaela ran us through a series of six stations with various explosive movements, from throwing medicine balls to box jumps to two-footed broad jumps. Micaela emphasized three central aspects of explosion, all of which were incorporated into the stations: force, velocity, and power. There were definitely some tired legs here at the end of the week, but it was very impressive to see everyone's determination to get the most out of the session under a hot sun (finally!). It was also really great to see how balance, agility, speed, and explosion all came together on the last day to solidify everything we have worked on so far this week.

Tonight we look forward to our final night celebration, with a cookout, ice cream, and inflatables! Everyone get your dancing shoes on!

Alternate Session at the BEACH

For our alternate session today we visited the Waterbury Center Reservoir.  It is located 12 minutes from our base here at The Round Hearth, and is part of the State Park system in Vermont.  The lawn stretches wide for a nice layout leading up to the sandy beach and the warmer water was a nice adjustment from the freezing river we've become accustomed to.












Splashing around playing keep away and having a hand stand challenge kept us busy until we turned our attention to the giant slip n slide.  Greased up with baby wash the kids hit the 70 ft slide.  Fun times and great weather to end our last full day here in week 1.

Be Our Guest!

As is tradition here at SDSC, Thursday nights are reserved for movie night. The rest is well deserved after working so hard this week. Instead of playing games outside, we survived a passing thunderstorm by singing "Be Our Guest" and "You're Welcome" as Moana and Beauty and the Beast graced our two screens at Round Hearth Cinemas. 

As we look to tomorrow, it becomes even more evident that we are on the final stretch. Tomorrow's highlight will definitely be Micaela Holland's Explosion Session, followed by a trip to the Waterbury State Park and a final evening celebration with a cookout and inflatables. Thanks for tuning in, and we are looking forward to a great finale!

Mountain Biking at Cady Hill

Well, weather couldn't have cooperated with our plan for the day any better!  We awoke to a slight drizzle, the parking lot dried in time for skates this morning, and this afternoon we biked in between a couple of rain clouds and some sunshine.

The Cady Hill trail system is one of the prized possessions of the town of Stowe.  The Parks and Rec department spends significant time and energy to provide trails for all abilities and considerable upkeep to make sure they are always riding great.  The majority of our camp made it into the woods for to ride the single treks, with many laps on our favorite trail Florence.  The reward was worth the work, and a few campers made the climb up 4+ times.

Mountain Biking is a great cross training tool for ski racing.  It consistently tests your balance and judgment, as you choose a line over the bumps, between the roots, and even in and out of turns.  We were able to test our depth perception with speed over the ever changing treks, and the endurance and muscle building aspect is a plus.

Some of our younger campers stayed on the Rec Path and reached the end for our second visit to Stowe Ice Cream this week, and the majority of the camp hopped in the river on the return trip to the Round Hearth.  A few of our campers did it all:  biking Florence multiple times, hitting the ice cream shop, AND jumping in the river.

"Best day ever" from the mouth of one of our older campers Maxwell Rodgers.  Well said.

Speed Progression with Danny Noyes

This morning, Danny led all of SDSC in a speed progression on skates in the Mount Mansfield parking lot. Danny has been the director of SDSC for 13 years, and is heading into his 11th year as the head alpine ski coach at Colby, has coached 12 NCAA Div I All-Americans (7 men, 5 women), and was honored as Eastern Intercollegiate Ski Association Coach of the Year in 2010. Needless to say, our kids are very lucky to have one of the best coaches in the business here at SDSC. 

Danny brought us through a running form progression, emphasizing the importance of being able to run efficiently in order to get the most out of any sport or dryland training. We worked on quick A-skips, bounding, and keeping our toes up for optimal traction. After focusing on running, we revisited athletic stance and transition to skating! Since we missed Monday's skate session because of rain, the energy in the group was high and people were itching to get into courses. Danny spoke to us about resetting into our athletic stance in the transition between turns, and then using our ankles to roll into a turn. While the surface we were skiing on wasn't white, it was so great to feel some of the elements of skiing: we were flexing our ankles and knees, rolling into the top of our turns with our ankles, keeping our hands up and maintaining good spine angle and engaged core. 

It's hard to believe that it's already Thursday, and there's so much more to come! Top on that list is mountain biking, slotted for this afternoon!

Evening Activities - Ski Tuning Presentation and SKIT NIGHT

After working hard all day in the sun, we were able to decompress tonight with a presentation by Jerry Murphy followed by skit night. Jerry, who works for Blizz Helmets, Start wax, and Face Tape, took the kids through a ski tuning presentation and also featured multiple of next year's race and bike helmets from Blizz. Jerry comes every year and it's always so great to be able to connect all the elements of ski racing together from the body technique to ski preparation.

After Jerry we hosted the annual SDSC Skit Night, in which each team was randomly assigned a setting and a theme or genre and had 15 minutes to put together a brief skit based on those. We had a romantic comedy in Jurassic Park, an instructional yoga video in a coffee shop, and a murder mystery in space. It was quite the scene out on the lawn and really fun to see the kids diving right into silliness and their smiles definitely told a great story. 

The only thing that could possibly makes things better would be s'mores, so out came the chocolate and marshmallows! It was a great end of the day and we are all energized for a speed session and mountain biking tomorrow. 

ERIC Hits AGILITY with SDSC

To lead our Agility day, we had to look no further than our very own Eric Barthold.  His practice plan structure pieced together education, activity, repetitions, and fun!  Using agility ladders, bamboo gates, low hurdles, short boxes, and a cone grid, Eric taught each skill, created opportunity for repetition and improvement, and then combined all of the skills in a fun relay at the end.

It was nice to enjoy the sunshine today.  The weather forecast is all over the place for tomorrow, but we have a Plan A, Plan B, and Plan C!

Johnson Skate Park!

Normally, campers get an instructional session on skates with Danny before we head to the park. However, due to the rain, our first skate session was today at the park but you’d never have guessed! These rippers were skating around like pros in no-time. Johnson Skate Park is located in Johnson, Vermont about thirty minutes from the Round Hearth.

This is the furthest bus trip we make during camp but it sure is worth it. The park has a number of obstacles and terrain such as a large bowl, rails, rollers etc. At first campers are generally timid around some of the larger obstacles but by the end of the session they are speeding through the rollers and by the end, skaters are trying new skills and testing their limits. Safely learning to test limits is a  a fundamental element of coming to camp at SDSC. We also set up cone SL/GS courses so campers can​ practice the B.A.S.E fundamentals that we’ve been working on all week and apply them to a ski specific scenario. Lookin​g forward to Eric’s session on Agility this afternoon!

Some More Fun Videos

Some Fun Videos

EVENING FUN AND SKI VIDEO

Tonight we split the evening session into two halves.  First, we swam at The Swimming Hole, and indoor pool that is accompanied by a diving board, a water slide, water basketball, and water volleyball.  Kids had a blast and the only bummer was that they only got 45 minutes to swim (back here next week for a full 2 hrs!).

For the other half of the session we had our college skiers pick out a few clips of their racing or training from this past winter and throw it up on the projector.  Our counselors spent time walking through what they work on and try to do in their skiing and make the connection with the movements and body positions we've been working on so far at camp.  Our college coaches Eric, Danny, and Micaela chimed in with pointers and themes and brought the group back to how what we are working on here at SDSC directly translates to our skiing.

Mansfield Hike...To the Summit We Go!

Almost every camper that returns to SDSC has one goal in mind: to summit Mt. Mansfield. As one young camper recalled "I've been coming here since I was nine and every year I get further and further, today I made it to the top, it was awesome"... and awesome it was! The hike is one of the most prized sessions for our campers. Since we run on such a tight schedule here at the Round Hearth so we can fit everything in, each team only has 2 hours to reach the summit...and anyone that has ever hiked Mt. Mansfield before can attest to the hustle required to make it in that time-frame! All of our older groups made it to either the summit of the ski mountain (i.e. the visitor center) or even higher the summit of the mountain . It was a bit misty and the fog made it difficult to see any views but everyone felt proud and accomplished with very tired legs! The younger groups went to the Trapp Family Nordic Ski Center and had their own adventure on the ski trails. The first ever group made it to the cabin - which is the equivalent of the 'summit'. Don't be fooled though, these strong little guys hiked over 6 miles! Looking forward to tacos for dinner and our evening activities...but more on that later. 

Balance with Martin Guyer, US Ski and Snowboard

 

This morning we woke to a much better day, and things brightened even more with the arrival of our featured coach, Martin Guyer. After coaching at Green Mountain Valley School for over 10 years, Martin is currently the US Ski and Snowboard Eastern Region Director of Development. As Martin put it, he basically works for the US Ski Team by  coaching athletes before they are named to that team.

It is always such an honor to have Martin join us as he brings an incredible amount of experience, energy, and fun to all his sessions. Today he focused on balance, and emphasized over and over again the importance of keeping active play throughout our entire lives to improve our balance and coordination. In order to be both healthy people and high level athletes, he argues, we need to continue doing things like gymnastics, mountain biking, and playing on playgrounds. Those are the places where we learn naturally about balance, and activities that force us out of balance like playing on a jungle gym are extremely important for athlete development more broadly. 

As a result, the kids had tons of fun with exercises like throwing tennis balls back and for with a partner while standing on one leg, or finding everyone's spirit animal and moving as if they were that animal, or a relay race where campers had to sprint forwards and backwards, do somersaults, log rolls, and skips.  

Thanks so much to Martin for joining us! We are very very lucky to have him. 

More FUN Stuff Tonight

For our evening activity we split again so each group could partake in an activity they hadn't yet. The younger groups biked down the rec. path all the way to IC Scoops to get some ice cream! It was impressive how hard they rode after being inside all day. The rain stopped but it was still a bit misty out so campers had to dress warm, but that didn't stop them from riding through the puddles.

The older groups headed to the Stowe Motel fields to give their all at some team building activities. Human knot is always a camp favorite; campers link hands in a tight circle with others opposite them and find themselves entangled in a giant knot. Other games included tank, helium stick, lift the pail and tarp flip. These games encourage teamwork, communication, and sportsmanship. These qualities are very important aspects of not just being an athlete but being a person as well!

The weather looks to be clearing early tomorrow morning just in time to send our camp up Mt. Mansfield to charge the summit, and to welcome our first guest coach of the week.  Martin Guyer, USSA East Director of Development, will be here to run sessions in the morning and afternoon.

Afternoon Switcheroo - Basic Athletic Stance and Teambuilding

Once again adapting to the less than ideal rain we have seen here and Stowe all day, camp slit in half into two different activities. The older 3 teams (Sweden, Germany, USA) worked with Danny for their first instructional session on Basic Athletic Stance.

We spend considerable time throughout the week bringing Basic Athletic Stance back into play, so spending focused time on it today is important.  Some campers were hearing these instructions for the first time, others were building off bits and pieces they had learned in the past, and its safe to say that nobody has mastery over it yet.  To be proficient in something takes practice, and it takes 1000 perfect repetitions to achieve mastery and make proper movements habit.  As explained to the camp, we build our stance like we build a house... starting with the foundation.  Feet shoulder width apart, toes pointing straight (we dont ski with our toes pointing out, do we?), ankle and knee flexion, slightly forward spine angle, hands at the height of our armpits and out in front (like you are ready to catch a ball), and ENGAGING your CORE.  The verbiage was repeated almost as many times as the movements, and as stated above, we will revisit them each day this week.

While Sweden, Germany, and USA were progressing through basic athletic stance, Norway, Italy and France worked together on some team building exercises. They untied human knots, hoola hooped as a team, and even crossed an alligator swamp! It was so encouraging to see all the teams focus on their communication, listening, and leadership skills.

If this afternoon proves to be a preview for the rest of the week in terms of effort, adaptability, and listening ability, we are in for an amazing week! Plus, it looks like things are going to clear tonight, so we are hoping to get outside and cure this early case of cabin fever!

Introduction to Basic Athletic Stance

 

Well, our rain dance last night didn’t quite give us sun this morning but we certainly didn’t let it stop us for the morning session! The older groups (Germany, USA and Sweden) braved the drizzle and headed down the bike path to have a little biking fun in the rain, complete with hot chocolate at the end of the path. While some were a little weary about braving the elements, everybody came back muddy and full of smiles.

The younger groups stayed at the Round Hearth for a fantastic session led by Coach Danny on basic athletic stance. Danny chose to start camp with this important fundamental because it serves as the primary building block for the rest of our instructional sessions this camp. Danny taught campers the importance of knee & ankle flexion, tight core muscles, knee and foot position, spine angle and hand position. Proper body positioning while doing anything athletic, especially skiing, will help avoid injuries and help these athletes become strong and fast! The session consisted of a functional warm-up and explanation of body positioning and correction, a jump progression and then a circuit to practice all that Danny taught campers.  Afterwards we hit the hot tub to let our muscles have a rest! Thanks Danny!