Friday Alternate Session

  

For our alternate session today we treated the camp to a jump in the chilly river at Bingham Falls.  The gorgeous cascading water falls off a 50 foot cliff, and the pool is surrounded on all sides by ledges of varying heights.  Its usually a highlight of the week, and today was no different.  In addition to the adrenaline rush of the jump and the cold water, we got to use a little cold water regeneration. 

Instructional Session: Explosion

This morning's instructional session featured our very own SDSC Director of Curriculum, Christin Lathrop. Christin had a prolific career as a skier, racing for the US Ski Team and placing 7th overall in the NOR-Am standings before attending Dartmouth, where she was an all-American. She has spent the last 7 years coaching at Burke Mountain Academy, where she currently coaches the U16 athletes.

Christin led us through a series of six explosion stations, each emphasizing slightly different movements and explosion elements. Campers were challenged with box jumps, parachute running, agility hurdles, medicine balls, and variations of sprints and squat jumps.

Although the kids had a slightly slow start (it seems like they have been getting a good workout this week!), they rose to the occasion and improved as the session went on. It was great to see campers come away with a new understanding of not only how to explode off the ground and into the air, but also the proper method for landing so as to be ready for the next explosion. If they can apply what they learned this morning into their skiing , they should see some pretty powerful exits out of their turns this winter.

Movie Night!!

We had two movies set up and playing on projectors for the campers to choose from...

Skate Instructional with Danny Noyes

Today I led the instructional session in the Stowe parking lot.  We started off in sneakers for our warm up, and after everyone was loose we had a refresher on basic athletic stance.

In ski racing, athletes are only in this position for a split second each turn and spend most of their time on the edge of the skis either initiating turns, creating pressure at the top of the turn, accelerating in the fall line through the apex, or accelerating through the completion of the turn.  Despite this differential, basic athletic stance is so important because it allows skiers to enter each turn in the proper position.  A balanced position in the transition reduces potential mistakes and makes body movements to start each turn more efficient.

On skates we transitioned through a balanced jump progression into GS and SL turns.  I was extremely impressed by the improvement for some of our return campers.  The counselors were also fantastic, working with each camper and showing the special attention and direction we pride ourselves on here at SDSC.

A nutrition speach by Chad Couto, the fitness director at the Stoweflake Mountain Resort, will bring us to movie night and popcorn.  Some tired muscles here in Stowe, a quiet night is exactly what we need right now.

Mountain Biking

The alternate session today is mountain biking in the Cady Hill Forest area of the Stowe Bike Trails. We had dry sunny weather, which was a nice change from the rain we experienced Monday. The trails are in mint condition and the campers got to ride a lot. You can find every type of trail on Cady Hill: gradual smooth uphills, steep rugged uphills, technical root-laden turny trails, technical downhills, and smooth rolling downhills. The campers and counselors were super psyched with the biking.

Evening Activity - Skit Night and S'mores!

SDSC wrapped up the today with a slight change of pace. After a great presentation from Swix tuning expert Jerry Murphy...

... our dining hall suddenly transformed into Broadway at the Round Hearth. Each team had 15 minutes to prepare a skit using random props and centered on a topic chosen from a hat. To give you an idea of the skits that we saw, the skits topics included: imitating counselors, going on a ski trip, an SDSC camp 20 year reunion, getting stuck in a video game, and teaching a pirate with a peg leg how to ski. As you can imagine, it was a rather entertaining night!

We celebrated the midpoint of the week in style just after skit night, complete with fireworks from an unknown party up the hill and of course, S'MORES!

Skating at the Johnson Skate Park

Today's alternate session was skating at the Johnson Skate Park. Skating provides a great opportunity to use balance and moves similar to skiing. Moreover, it is super fun! The campers practiced their skills, as shown here by Danielle using quick knees like slalom turns. (Also seen here - some campers had GoPro's to video each other's moves!)

Some showed off their impressive jumps and tricks on the ramps, rails, and pipes.

    

All campers pushed their limits. Just like skiing, sometimes it's the mental aspect that holds one back more than physical limiters. It was great to see the campers trying moves and skills they hadn't done before. And most of all, it was great to see their smiles after. 

Next up: Skit Night!