Thursday, January 5, 2012

Real Gates

Another session in almost perfect weather!  Although the lack of natural snow is a bit discouraging, no one can really complain about being outside this winter.  With temperatures hovering around freezing, frost bite wasn't really a concern.

For our second Tuesday night session we made first turns through 'real' gates.  Up until this point the team has used brushes to build our courses. Setting up the brushes on low angle slopes, with wide open turns has encouraged the kids to get on edge and make nice (fast) round turns.  We have also thrown in a lot of extra brushes that help to guide the kids through a nice round turn.

This week we raised the challenge level a bit by adding stubby gates to the mix.  Working on Single Cedar, we set two courses.  On the first slope, we laid out a tight GS with the stubby gates with brushes to indicate the appropriate line.  On the lower slope we threw in our first slalom turns.

It was really remarkable standing at the bottom and watching the kids progress as they made their passes through the slalom course.  The first trip was a challenge for everyone.  Lots of the kids had to really throw on the breaks in order to make the turns.

By the end of the evening, all of the kids were getting it.  Nice turn shape, skis on edge, hands forward.

We wrapped up a bit late, everyone was having way too much fun.  Sorry if we got the kids home a bit late.

On Sunday we have another full day session.  Practice starts at 10:30.  We will be out there by 10:00 if any of the kids want to be on the snow a bit early.

 


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