SMS Skate Team

I figured it was time for an update on the SMS Skateboarding Team. As you may or may not know, skateboarding is a fall and spring sport elective. This started 3 years ago, and gives our athletes another sport choice alongside soccer, golf, tennis, lax and cross-country running. Since year one, skating has been a popular choice, fielding 7-14 team members each season. Past standouts include Ellery Hollingsworth, Dan Feldman, Alex Bayer and Johnny Malanga.
This fall the team has 9 members. Current leaders James Haffner, Hunter Wood, Chris Tierney and Connor Hudson have been on the team for years and do a great job setting the tone of each practice and event.
We had an influx of hungry skaters to the team this year. Orin Pearce, Connor Callen and Kyle Dorfman had been dreaming about the SMS park all summer, and are now finding lines and skating the park like locals. The team is rounded out nicely by Erik Roomet and Randall Stacy. Erik obviously spent his summer skating. He has new street tricks and can now skate mini-ramp. Randall is a testament to how quickly you can learn to skate well, if you are willing to put your butt on the line. His mini-ramp mastery would make you think he was born on a skateboard.


Yesterday at practice I took the last 20 minutes to film. I challenged the team to all get one trick on film. I was blown away at the tricks they chose, and by the fact that 11 people (Coach Kirk and Jamie Charron being 10 and 11) filmed tricks in such a short time . The video attached is proof!
Photos are proof too! Sort of, they can be decieving, but these ones aren't. All makes! Chris Tierney bs flip. Ian Kirk wallie. Erik Roomet feeble grind.
The skate team is planning an event in the next month. As in the past, it will be a jam-format comp with prizes, food, local skaters, and, hopefully, live music! This event will also be our second fund-raiser for injured VT snowboarder Mike Schwarz. Stay posted.

No Sunrise in the Overcast AM

Just about the whole team is finished but a few are still working their way up Brazers way. That hill is the steepest sustained .9 miles I have ever run up. It is the last leg of our weekly three mile sunrise loop and (sunrise or not) today is the fourth time around for this fall. Just another morningsport session for SMS Snowboarding...Just a reminder of the work being put in at this moment.

These Days

These days are our anatomical adaptation phase of dryland training. This phase is five weeks beginning after testing. At the end of the period we will raise levels of difficulty. As always the focus is on function first. This means that isolated muscle exercises are rare while dynamic movements are featured daily. That refers to both the warm up and body of each training session. When we do plyometric training we keep the number of reps low. Our "strength" program is aimed at the whole body and the weights are never above 80% of max. Our aerobic training is primarily to train for training. This means that the muscle cells and lungs of a runner do not help a snowboarder stick tricks but a base in that aspect of fitness means I can keep functioning at a high level when hiking a pipe or a long day of laps adds up. Stretching this line of thinking I can say too that "anatomical adaptation" is a phase of training for the harder training to come. So when you ask your daughter how much she benched today and she says it's not the weight or number of reps but the form that is important now you know where she's coming from.
The casual way of describing whats going on out there is that we are running and jumping, doing yoga, walking tight ropes and lifting weights. We are keeping it mixed well and the kids are doing well. Yesterday we played on the new obstacle course in the woods out back.

Fall Dryland Update

The kids are back, happy and hungry to resume their mission. Fitness Testing is wrapped up except for for today's makeup session and the results show they are ready to go. Six of seven returning girls put up their fastest time for September 1.5 mile tests. The same ratio put up their best bench press numbers for September and that pattern holds with little variation across nine separate testing categories.Very strong show put on by Makayla Tierney.
Likewise the young men's group came in ready with four guys under ten minutes. They were led by Joe mensch's 9.10 and Connor Hudson's 9.27. The sub ten crew wrapped up with Eric B and James Haffner at 9.56. That number is particulairly good news considering that EB is in love and JH is back strong from his ACL surgery.
I like to say that there are no bad september tests because the results at this time of year are just for moving forward. That advice is even more relevent for new testers of which we have Nine. These guys and gals are learning the tests and the process. It's a part of thier competitive development and therein is a value of testing that begins before measuring fitness. Out of the new athletes Serena and Spencer Shaw are already putting up some of the teams stronger results.
The Regular Dryland training is now in effect and a big Thanks goes out to Jo Stephenson for coming into morningsport at 6:30 am twice a week for PowerYoga. I think it is a great addition to our program. The flexibility and core work in yesterdays session was priceless.

A Day With the Pros

Things going well down under. Yesterday I enjoyed a late (9:30) wake up, worked out in an empty gym, skated downtown, ate lunch with Liz and Ellery, swam in Lake Wanaka, then hit the hot tubs with Ben Boyd and the ISTC. Video of the entire day coming soon. Today I caught a ride up to the hill with Olympic Medalist JJ Thomas. We got there early and his crew was slow motivating so I hiked to the top of the Mt where I took photos and got my meditation on. From there it was hot laps in the slope course by myself, getting some tricks and style back. Relearned switch back 5s and landed some good combos (for an old schooler like myself).
Throughout the day I connected with old friends who I used to coach and are now top riders. As the photos show, I ran into Ellery, Hannah and Elijah Teter, Scotty Lago and Shayne Pospisil. We all go way back and its amazing to run into them on the other side of the world where we are all snowboarding for a living. All in all a very rewarding, positive day. Loving my job, my place in life and those who support me.

Makayla and Eric NZ Slope

Here is the video! I hope. Sorry it took so long, don't have a great excuse, sometimes computers win.

Makayla and Eric NZ Slope

Having trouble linking the video to the blog, but I retitled it on you Tube. Its called Makayla and Eric at NZ Open. My account is Ashymillion9.
Things down here continue to be epic. Blue skys today, and I rode Halfpipe a bit! Then skated, missing Hunty, James and Hudson. Now chillin, ready to do it again tomorrow.