The Boy Scout’s motto is Be Prepared and it’s a pretty good one if you’re going to be heading out into the woods in the winter. If you’re heading into the woods, you should always go with a purpose and that would include preparing for the possibility that things won’t go exactly the way you expect them to. Here’s a short list of items that would fit the Be Prepared mantra and are easy to carry in your pocket: Read the rest of this entry »
Archive for February, 2006
Torino 2006 begins today! The Opening Ceremonies will be televised tonight in the USA, starting at 8 pm local. The United States Olympic Committee has made a terrific decision in selecting Chris Witty to carry the American flag and lead her teammates into the stadium. The teams generally march in in alphabetical order, based on their spelling in the native language of the host country. In Italian, the USA is Stati Uniti, so Chris will bring in the American flag as the 67th nation out of the 85 nations attending the Games. Greece will be the first country, as is tradition, and the host country, Italy, will be last.
This will be Chris’ fifth Olympics and she’s won three medals along the way. She’s competed in Winter Games including Lillehammer 1994, 1998 Nagano, and Salt Lake City 2002 in speed skating, winning a gold, a silver, and a bronze mdeal along the way. She also competed in the 2000 Sydney Games in track cycling and became the ninth American athlete to compete in both summer and winter games. Chris achieved these amazing accomplishments in the face of personal demons caused by sexual abuse as a child.
Check out the Opening Ceremonies tonight; NBC is estimating that 2 billion people will be joining you as viewers. Even if you don’t enjoy big productions, its an amazing moment when the people of the world literally come together and Chris Witty will surely be part of tonight’s history.
The opening ceremonies are expected to be a theatric epic and the lighting of the Olympic Flame is surely one of the defining moments of an Olympic Games. There have been many memorable moments at both Summer and Winter Games, involving a variety of athletes and notable persons making dramatic statements. At the 1992 Barcelona Games, archer Antonio Rebollo, a paralympic athlete, shot a burning arrow into the Olympic Flame cauldron from a platform at the opposite end of the stadium. At Lillehammer 1994, the Olympic torch was finally brought into the stadium by a ski jumper, who flew off a nordic ramp, landed, and lit the cauldron. In Sydney 2000, the lighting of the Flame by Australian Olympian aboriginal runner Cathy Freeman was clearly a strong statement of reconciliation by the Australian government for a legacy of injustice to aborigines.
In the pursuit of better skiing and riding, it can be hard to self-assess which movements are keepers and which to toss away. There are many feedback methods (visual, audible, inner ear, etc.) that don’t leave a hard record for evaluation. Consider that animal tracks can speak volumes about the animal’s behavior, emotions, and activities. Your hunt for direct feedback in skiing and riding can end simply by observing the tracks you leave behind in the snow.
Moguls are a terrain feature that few folks can just conquer with little effort. It takes skill, mental toughness, athleticism, and experience to ski moguls with confidence. Great mogul skiing is built, not found, and there are some very effective exercises you can use to practice for moguls on groomed snow. One of those exercises focuses on making short turns that rely on quick and precise edging to get you in and out of a turn promptly: Hockey Stops.
There are four basic styles of learning: doing, thinking, seeing, and feeling. Every person generally has one learning style which is most effective for them, with a combination of the other styles playing a part to various degrees. In skiing and riding instruction, these learning styles are the basis for almost every improvement suggestion. As an example, this post explores the doing learning style.
Well, you’ll never see this event on a ski area website, but we’ve gotten some winter rain recently here in New England. It’s a bit early in the season to be adapting to wet snow conditions, but the skiing conditions can be very good when it’s raining. When the snow surface is wet and loose while the base is firm below, you need to change your skiing skills to match the conditions. For corn snow, a primary adaption is to use lower edge angles in your turns.
Good balance in telemark turns can come as much from what you keep out of your stance as from what you put into it. It’s tough to maintain balance from a split stance regardless; adding in an unnecessary rotation of the body will only make it more challenging. It’s key to keep the upper body quiet in telly turns and the location and motion of your hands can have an important role toward that effort.
On the Sprint blog Seth Wescott talks about he mentally approaches competitions.
For me the mental preparation for boarding is a never-ending process. … I like presenting myself with challenges every day to overcome and get stronger both mentally and physically. I talk a lot about the big mountain and freeriding equation. … I go to Alaska every year, and put myself into situations that are completely outside of competition to push me to another level, so I can come back to competition and a more controlled environment with a clear head.
Seth Wescott was on the Late Show with David Letterman show last night giving the “Top 10 Reasons I’m looking forward to the Olympics”. I couldn’t help but notice the t-shirt he was wearing…. “Sugarloaf makes me happy”. I bet he made them happy too. 
Watch a tiny snip from the show by clicking on the photo. Quicktime movie, 7.7 MB.