Fight Club on Snow - Part 2

Be sure to read Part #1.

Unfortunately the media hasn’t really helped foster better understanding of our sports by describing Boardercross (and Skicross) as the NASCAR of snowsports – this analogy is completely wrong by the way – and I can offer up a few sports that make for a much more accurate comparison (read more about this topic on a previous post).  Even though these sports are, and have been in the Olympics since 2006 (SBX) and 2010 (SX), most people are not totally clear on what races are like and know even less about the athletes who compete in each discipline.

You Actually Tune Your Own Boards?

Client Success Story

Before relating one of my client’s success stories, I want to describe a few standards I follow when training and working with people:

-     It’s my experience that no matter how great you perform in the gym, none of that matters if your improved strength, endurance, etc. does not translate to results outside of the gym.

-     I also believe that one’s overall health and wellbeing are just as important as their sport specific goals and achievements.  You should look and be (inside and out) a real example of fitness, health and athleticism.

Both these ideas match with my business mission:

Develop/administer effective, creative, specific and safe exercise programs/training sessions to help my clients achieve their personal health/fitness, athletic performance and competition goals.

Ale Getting SBX Ready

2014 USASA Nationals Re-Cap #5

Be sure to read Nat’s Re-Cap #1 + #2 + #3 + #4.

Nationals Race Day was generally overcast with moderate temperatures and some occasional snow alternating with sun, then back to clouds.  Wax selection was perfect and the boards were running fast even with the varied weather conditions.

Oxess Ready to Go Fast

2014 USASA Nationals Re-Cap #4

Be sure to read Nats Re-Cap #1 + #2 + #3.

Final preparations for race day include tuning and waxing boards (lots of waxing), some gym work, visiting with friends and family, and of course the traditional Nationals lasagna dinner.  How you manage your time and activities during a longer break (I had 3 days off before race day – technically 4, but I worked the day after practice was done) makes all the difference in staying in the peak zone for performance.

Ale's Board Getting Some Speed Mojo

2014 USASA Nationals Re-Cap #3

Be sure to read Nationals Re-Cap #1 + #2.

SBX Practice days, hosted by the Rocky Mountain Series, are awesome.  You’ve got access to the course for 3 hours each day with a limited number of participants.  Most of the skiers/riders there are pretty good and are working with a Coach/Race Team so you get to watch a lot of solid riding during practice as well.

Copper Course - Practice Version

Guest Article for Daybreak Carve

Recently I was asked to write similar articles for a few different media outlets describing my top 3 (or 5) pre-season training exercise choices.  The idea was to give a tip that if the reader applied it to their training, would ensure they’d be appropriately prepared for the upcoming winter season.  I gave the premise some real thought and consideration, but came up with a little different answer from what was originally requested.  Coincidentally, Ale from DaybreakCarve.com liked the theme and asked if I'd write more about the topic.

Is This the "Magic" Exercise?

2013 USASA Nationals Review #3 - Finals

Be sure to read Part #1 and Part #2

Race Day morning was clear and calm with relatively warm temperatures.  We got to the staging area super early and were able to secure a good spot for tuning and to stash our gear. The Copper Course was in great condition and super fast to start the day.  Inspections and practice runs went well.  We continued with the ‘Progression’ theme and built up speed from run to run.  Ale and I both felt good and were ready to rock time trials.

Staging Area at the Top of the Copper Course

2013 USASA Nationals Review #2

Be sure to read Part #1

Practice Days #2 and #3 began the same way, course inspection followed by a few start section laps to get loose and in the groove.  On Day #2 we focused on two of the more challenging areas of the course for most of the day to make sure we had the right line and were confident with these features.  The next to last berm and finish section were where we put in the most effort.  The berm was really rutted out and had a washboard-like surface.  You also had a ton of speed hitting this right to left bank which went right into a table, then drop, then left to right bank into a table which gave you even more speed headed into the final section.

Awesome Waxing Set-up at the Condo

2013 USASA Nationals Review #1

Copper Mountain was once again host for USASA Nationals.  As in previous years, we arrived early to take advantage of the extra SBX Practice Days and to try and better acclimate to the altitude.  In fact, I had been living in Breckenridge for a month prior to Nationals, coaching in the Ski& Ride School and had adapted fairly well to the high alpine environment.  Ale showed up a few days in advance and put in some gym time in an effort to acclimate to the altitude too.  We were both excited to get some quality practice runs in on a full-length course.

2013 USASA SBX Racing Year-end Review #4

Be sure to read Part #1, Part #2 and Part #3

We used the final practice and race day at Holiday Valley as a ‘mock’ Nationals.  Most of the video is from the practice day.  The start section on practice day was not quite groomed out and shaped for race conditions, which created some interesting features to handle right out of the gate.  The rest of the course was in good shape and would give us a solid warm-up for the Copper course.

2013 USASA SBX Racing Year-end Review #3

Be sure to read Part #1 and Part #2

Practice…practice…practice; we finally had time and decent conditions to put in some real solid on-snow training.  There was one race day left at Holiday Valley and then the next event would be Nationals out at Copper Mountain, CO.  The idea was to focus on a few technical riding skills that needed improvement and use the upcoming New York races as a ‘mock’ Nationals.  Even though everyone was excited to gear up for Nationals and do as much racing practice as possible, it was important to maintain some level of balance and keep up with the gym training too.

Coach Jb With Some TGU Action

2013 USASA SBX Racing Year-end Review #2

Be sure to read Part #1

The next competition was in our home region, the Appalachian Series, with Wisp Resort in Maryland hosting the 2 re-scheduled races (postponed earlier in the season due to bad conditions/weather).  Besides steady improvement with technical riding, our other main goal for the event was to qualify for Nationals.  If each athlete could win gold in both races they’d get an automatic bid for Nationals by being the Series Champion.

Gray Was a Big Raffle Winner Too

2013 USASA SBX Racing Year-end Review #1

If you can believe it, this winter had a worse start than last season: lots of rain and not-so-cold temps well into mid-December.  Though disappointing, especially after a big snow at the end of October, it did provide for an extended pre-season conditioning portion to the workout schedule.  So at least our bodies were in great shape at the start of the season.

Boards Ready to Go Fast!

2012 USASA National Championships #6

After returning from Nationals everyone thought the season was over, but somehow 7 Springs opened up for a day on April 24^th and we got to have fun with our snow friends under sunny skies one more time. 

Even "Stick Man" was there

Here’s our Year-end Race Season Re-cap video:

Ale (see Athlete Bio Page: here) did an awesome job editing and creating the graphics. 

We also were lucky enough to have a feature article written about our trip to USASA National Championships in the Tribune Review, which you can read here.

2012 USASA National Championships #5

Here’s a collection of random pictures and video from the 2012 USASA National Championships.  Videos are of us blowing off steam after the races and having fun on the last day of the trip. 

Ale on Practice Day #1

Ale's 1st Heat

Fully participating in Mustache March

Lining up for practice

Practice run on Race Day

2012 USASA National Championships #4

The only change in schedule for the Masters Women and Masters Men SBX Race days compared to Open Class was no lunch break.  There were a few other age groups competing so there was plenty of time to get nutrition when you needed it though (food is very important!).

Practice Time

Ale (see Athlete Bio Page: here) raced on the only ‘snow’ day we had during the whole trip (it was 60’s and sunny every day).  The forecast was for rain and we thought “how appropriate”.  Considering that about a 1/3 of our training days were in the rain this year, we thought that no one’s going to be better prepared for these conditions – lol.  Thankfully no rain fell.  It was around 40 degrees and actually spitting snow and flurries with a few breaks of sunshine.

3/4's of Team Haleakala Racing

2012 USASA National Championships #3

We spent one of our ‘off’ days in between practice and racing up on the hill watching the Open Class SBX competition.  It’s always helpful to see how the best riders are handling the course, the line they choose, what gate is fastest, etc. especially when finalizing/confirming your race strategy.  And these guys/gals are pretty good.  On a relatively tight course the top men were hitting over 40 mph and the best time trial run was :56 for the Men and 1:02 for the Women.  Hopefully you’ll get a sense of what I’m talking about when you watch the video, though most of the footage is from the start and top sections. 

All race days start the same way; course inspection, practice time, and then time trials to set seeding.  After a lunch break, they began the heats.  I filmed some of the Men and Women’s time trials, their consolation round and final (commonly known as the Small Final and Big Final - Small runs first, then the Big Final).

The good news is that the races that day confirmed that we were spot on with our course strategy and plan and boosted our confidence for the upcoming races.

2012 USASA National Championships #2

This post chronicles our practice day experience from Nationals earlier this month.  There has been a ton of video to edit so it’s taken me a while to get things prepared for web publishing, but now that all the prep work is done, I’ll have a few new posts up in quick succession.

Ready for Practice

2012 USASA National Championships #1

The 2012 USASA Nationals journey has begun.  Coaching and competing at Nationals is more than just the event; it’s seeing old friends in Colorado, lots of snowboarding, homemade lasagna and other cool surprise adventures along the way (not to mention hours of board waxing).  I’m looking forward to training and coaching with the practice sessions for Boardercross (SBX) starting next Wednesday.  Be sure to check back for post updates with pictures and video during and after the competition.  I’ll also be tweeting throughout my travels @theMtnAthlete.

Welcome!

Final 2012 USASA SBX Local Series Results

It was a little different experience this weekend at Snow Trails, OH for the last set of local USASA SBX races.  And by different, I mean it was actually winter again.  Cold temps, fresh snow and a fun course with 5-person heats made for a really enjoyable day of competition (Kudo's to Pete and his staff with the USASA Snow Ohio Region for running the event).