January 15th, 2008
Yesterday was a treat. Not only did I have good energy during my morning intervals and felt that my return to quality racing is just around the corner, I also had the privilege to ski with the Sun Valley Prep team in the afternoon where they introduced me, and the other members of the ODT program, to a few of their favorite ski games.
The Sun Valley SEF has various programs to get kids in the surround areas out on Nordic skis. Starting with the Devo (Development) program with kids in 2nd through 5th grade getting out on skis for the very first time, and moving up to the Prep team, comprising of J3-J4 skiers, SVSEF instills the love of skiing into the community’s youth. Once older, SVSEF graduates their younger skiers to the Comp (Competition) team, where J2-OJ skiers really start to get after it, focusing more on the racing side of skiing. However, SVSEF doesn’t let skiing end there, recently adding the ODT (Olympic Development Team) consisting of post-grads who want to take skiing to the next level. The entire Nordic portion of SVSEF runs out of “the Hut,” which, unlike what its name applies, is anything less than first class. “The Hut,” located at Lake Creek on the edge of 10km of undulating Nordic trails, consists of a two story building which houses an enormous wax room, a first rate weight room, a spinning room –home to over a dozen spin bikes, and ski lockers for all of the skiers apart of the program. It is a skier’s utopia. However, even with everyone based under one roof, the different scheduling of practice times limits the amount of time skiers of different ages can interact and train together. Fortunately, every now and then the various programs are able to link up and ski together, with each program being able to learn something from the other.
Skiing with the energetic little buggers of the Prep team was nothing less than a blast. We played a few variations of tag, including the famed Sharks and Minnows, as well as a Prep team staple, Tails (an interesting combination of flag-football and tag). After a few minutes I learned that you had to be quick on your feet to avoid getting tagged, as the little rascals could move! They’d swarm in large hordes, hunting down the older skiers like a well-trained pack of foxhounds. Expecting to be able to easily ski myself to safety, I had to quickly change plans and do interval session part two of the day to have any hope of not being tagged (it didn’t work –they still got me).
Mayhem during “Tails”
After being taught some new games by the kids, it was our turn to do the teaching. As Kelley Sinnott, the Prep team head coach, had the kids ski laps, the older skiers joined in, helping with technique pointers here and offering bits of advice there. As the sun began to set behind the mountains surrounding the valley, it was fun to watch the future of American skiers fly around the trails, absorbing our bits of advice, and skiing with huge smiles plastered across their faces.
Mikey Sinnott giving some technique advice
Speedy little buggers
