Evening Activity - Bike, Super Speedball, and Swim

For our alternative session tonight, we jumped back on our bikes and headed to the fields behind Stowe Motel. We introduced a new version of Speedball where each team has two goals to defend, as well as a game called Quebec Ball. Team Sweden in particular played long into the evening. There's no question that they could have played until it was completely dark, but we had to cut them short.

It was a beautiful evening on the rec path, with Mt. Mansfield in the background as the sun was beginning to dip over the horizon. After working up a sweat in Speedball, we all made our way to a swimming hole along the rec path where kids can jump off a series of rocks into the river. Even though we had swam earlier at the Waterbury Reservoir, we all were itching to get back in the water and cool off. Overall, today was a hot one, and the more we could refresh in cold river water the better!

Tomorrow we look forward to Micaela Holland's agility session in the morning, and then we head to the Johnson Skate Park in the afternoon!

Waterbury Reservoir

For our afternoon activity we suited up and hit the Waterbury Reservoir! The reservoir is only a short fifteen minute bus ride from the Round Hearth and is always a favorite because SDSC campers love to play in the water. A multi-ball game of keep away, hand stand contests, shark, sand castles... what more could you want! We played around in the water for about an hour and our session culminated with an all-camp 'egg contest.' In their perspective teams, each camper rolled up into an egg at the same time to see how long they could float for. The top two contestants from each group were chosen compete in the final round. Brady from team USA was our winner!

After the
 reservoir we returned to the Round Hearth and made a slip n' slide in the Vigneau's backyard! While we owe so many thanks to the Vigneau's as the owners and operators of the Round Hearth, they really went out of their way to create a fun and safe environment for the slip n' slide. It was also only possible with the help of Johnson's baby shampoo, a lot of tarps, duct tape, a hose and plenty of water buckets. SDSC campers all tried their hardest to make it down as far as they could go - but it as sooo loooong that only a few could make it to the very end. Everyone had a blast!

We hope the fun continues tonight in our evening activity for Super Speedball and a swim in the river!

Instructional Session on Skates - Balance

This morning SDSC campers took to the parking lot of Mt. Mansfield to work on the first pillar of BASE: Balance! Before skating up Danny took campers though a warm up in their sneakers to get heart rates up and introduce them to the fundamentals of balance and its importance in ski racing. Next, campers participated in a jumping progression to reinforce basic athletic stance and how to jump over bamboo gates, small hurdles and large hurdles. Learning proper technique with sneakers on helps campers develop proper habits for when we are on skates, and helps them feel the stabilizing muscles we use while skating.

We then geared up and began the skate portion of Danny's session. Campers had the chance to familiarize themselves with skating and stopping before we broke into groups and practiced our basic athletic stance through the parking lot in lanes. Once everyone was comfortable we began a progression which challenged campers to practice knee and ankle flexion, hands and chest forward, eyes forward, feet and knee's shoulder width apart. We progressed through the same bamboo, small hurdles then large hurdles on skates, and then finished off the day by applying those balance skills to both SL and GS courses. Danny talked a lot about how linked the tactics and technique in skiing are related to rollerblading and therefore how all of the skills we tested on skates will translate directly to our skiing. Through tactical discussion about line and elevation followed by a chance to test their knowledge, campers could understand what body movements really work for them. We will follow up with some video analysis later in the week. Thanks Danny for a great session and for making us balance pros!

Night Swim at THE SWIMMING HOLE!

Tonight we took our campers to The Swimming Hole, an indoor pool that is equipped with a diving board, basketball hoop, kiddie pool, and water slide.  The kids had a blast on all and even after 1.5 hours we heard a lot of "awwwww'" when it was time to leave. 

 

 

 

What a great cap to a Monday!

Afternoon Adventure - Mountain Biking!

On our first full day at SDSC, the camp traveled to Cady Hill for an afternoon adventure through a fun network of single track mountain bike trails.

While all campers had the option of staying on the rec path and get ice cream in town, an unprecedented 70% of camp chose to go in the woods! It was so impressive to see how many campers were itching to push themselves even if they had never biked on trails before. Members of all teams (Switzerland, Sweden, and USA) climbed up Cady Hill Connector to Florence, then back up Snake to finish on Charlie's. Florence in particular is a camp favorite, as it takes riders down a very smooth and flowy series of switchbacks, rolls, and even a few jumps. As different as mountain biking and skiing may seem, the basic athletic stance we focused on during this morning plays a huge role in both. We also talked a lot about the many parallels in how we look ahead in mountain biking, just like we need to when on skis.

Campers at Green Chair

The campers who felt more comfortable on the rec path traveled into town to get ice cream at Stowe Ice Cream and see a really cool beaver dam at the end of the path. The rec path from Round Hearth to Stowe is 4.5 miles, so even that group rode at least 9 miles...wow!

After spending two hours on the trail or rec path, we had some hungry mouths to feed for dinner! Tonight we get to swim at the Swimming Hole for some much deserved time in the water. 

LET'S BEGIN

Week two is upon us and we couldn't be more stoked about it! After our closing ceremonies campers that were staying enjoyed some well deserved downtime which included lots of sleep, a pizza party, mini golf, laundry and swimming. Today we welcomed 14 new campers to the SDSC family. We spent the afternoon getting to know each other and going over the weeks schedule. Next we enjoyed a dinner of grilled chicken, peas, salad and rice with boston creme and apple pie's for dessert. 

After dinner we loaded the bus down to the fields for our evening activities. We split the camp into half, one group went to Foster's swimming hole to jump in the water while the other group played some field games, then both groups switched. At the field we played speedball and Tank. Speedball is a mixture of soccer and handball and campers love to play when they're here. Tank is a super fun game where two groups have to communicate with a blindfolded teammate, directing them towards flags. The blindfolded teammate must listen, find one of the flags then throw it to tag their opponent out. It sure is a fun game to watch! 

Tomorrow morning we will start the day with a field session led by Coach Eric Barthold. Eric was a division I skier at Colby College and the leading scorer on the Colby Soccer team as a senior.  After he graduated, he coached at Killington Mountain School before returning to Colby where he worked as the assistant coach for a number of years. Eric is going to introduce basic athletic stance and we can't wait!

END of Week 1, and Middle Weekend

Week 1 ended on a high note with a great round robin of mixed team speedball.  Its nice to get the campers active one more time (and tired) before sending them home with their parents.  The Closing Ceremonies were concluded at noon on Saturday and a special thank you to our sponsors Marker/Volkl/Dalbello, Swix, and POC for sending product for the campers.  We even had several COLBY SKIING tees to hand out.

The afternoon and evening on Saturday and the morning on Sunday were many hours spent relaxing and recovering from an overloaded week of activity.  A trip to the river to jump in (Foster's), pizza from Piecasso (18 campers polished off 7 pizzas and salad), quiet time with a movie, and a short bike to mini golf led to a group ready to roll into Week 2.  A special thanks to camper Alexandra Bouchard's mother Sarah for delivering a special SDSC cake for desert!


We are ready to hit Week 2!