I just got finished taking a shower in what I can only best describe as half-squat-crouch. I guess it’s part of the price for going for to a ski academy and living away from home. As some of you may know I’m going to Burke Mountain Academy. Burke is considered a small ski academy located in rural Vermont. It’s considered small because of the 60 some-odd students who all ski race (a few nordic’s, but us Alpiner’s refrain from associating ourselves with them.) There are about 20 fis-age (15-and older) boys. Last year I raced on a team with 3 other kids and have home schooled the last two years so Burke hardly feels small to me.
Anyway I’m back at Burke and just had my first day of school in over two years. I thought I would do a little recap of last year…
Last season I skied on a team that you can hardly call standard. It was myself and three other kids and two other coaches. There were certainly ups and downs but overall I still regard it as the most competitive program in the country (if not the world.) We usually skied 6 or 7 days in a row and still do very hard dry land. At first this can seem overkill and tiring, however once I got used to it I found I would make huge leaps in my skiing during what would have been an off-day. On the other side at times it was emotionally draining and I sometimes found myself wanting to be done skiing early in the day, something I had never really felt before in my life. I also suffered from Osgood Shlatters, which is a condition that young and active boys are prone to. It can be caused from a growth spurt or in my case working my muscles too hard. “Too hard” is not exactly the right saying because the high amounts of skiing and dry land led to me being very fit and strong, and after our two fall ski camps I was skiing very well coming into November. The first day back in Colorado after taking a week of and going to Mexico my knees starting hurting a little bit. A week later I was in tears for the first time in… a long time, because of the pain. My skiing quickly regressed and I suddenly starting taking frequent rest days and went from little to no dryland. I was supposed to go to a National Development System camp that took place right after the Beaver Creek World Cup, to utilize the world-class training venue but I opted to take a week of skiing and try to get me knees better. I came back right before our first races of the year in Loveland. I skied all right but nothing spectacular. Over the next few weeks my knees continued to hurt and I was heavily relying on the power of Aleve and scored no results I was proud of. Going home for Christmas was a relief in more than one way. It was nice to relax my body and mind, see my family, friends and most importantly my dog, and even got ski a little powder (something they don’t get anywhere in the world except for maybe California or maybe a few times in Utah.) Anyway I’m not going to go in depth about the rest of my season, if anyone out there wants to know more tell me. All in all it was not what I was hoping for but I had a few good results I already feel more knowledgeable from it coming into this season…I must be a sixteen year old.
More about Burke, I just finished a ski camp at Mt. Hood with Burke. We were scheduled to ski 9 days on snow; skiing three days on, then taking one day off and doing that three times. This is the standard time table followed by most teams and academies at summer and fall camps because the high level of volume and often strenuous workout’s. This is a different approach from last year. I have mixed feelings about the less amount of skiing but looking at it positively I will be hungrier and my knees will be healthier (knock on wood.) The main focus of the camp was on Slalom and more specifically on technique rather than going fast, although we were ski racing so going fast is always in the back of your mind. The first seven days on snow were a general success minus the blazing heat. In Hood River, which is about 1 hour or so from Mt. Hood, it topped 100 degrees so that mean soft snow and lots of sweat but thanks to gracious amounts of salt applied to our “lane” semi-hard snow could be found. The last two days were cancelled because of bad weather at Mt. Hood but there was nothing we could do it about. So at the end of the camp I got 6 days of slalom and one day of GS. In slalom I was working on keeping ankle flexion and really starting my turns on my outside ski and bending the ski above the gate. Last year I had a tendency to skiing straight at the gate and skiing most of it on my inside ski, which is the opposite of what you want to do. In addition I worked on having a basic pole plant and having discipline hands. I switched to a shorter pair or slalom poles and the change was pretty amazing. The longer poles didn’t allow me to get forward and caused me to sink with the hips instead of keeping a long outside leg. I only skied one day of GS and the snow was very soft but I worked on having ankle flexion and pressuring my outside ski, while having pressure that was primarily in the fall line and skiing a deep line (even though we weren’t doing gates.) We leave for Chile in just under a month and I’m looking forward to using the basic tools I visited in Hood and apply them to my skiing in Chile.
We had a few days after Hood to get to Burke and get ready for school. It was nice to have at least one day of not having much to do except doing a little shopping and relaxing. Yesterday was the first day at Burke and that meant Physical testing. In the past testing has taken place of two days but this year it combined into one long…long, day of testing. The first component started at 6:30 AM (2:30 Alaska Time) and we were not finished until almost exactly 12 hours later. We did the 1.75 mile run, pushups, pull-ups, core, flexibility, height, weight, box jumps, single legs jumps, agility shuttle run and finally infamous knee touch squats with dumb bells in each hand. The knee touch squat was a rare experience, a rope was placed above you so that between each lunge you had to hit your head on the rope. For a 100 seconds you pounded out as many you could do with every other Burkie literally yelling as loud as they could all around you cheering you on. When your finished it’s standard to not be able to walk, instead you lean on someone near by and they help you walk around until you can support yourself. I didn’t do as well I hoped in Physical testing but that just means I need to work hard this fall and yelling at someone who is stumbling to the ground in pain and fatigue is always a good way to make friends.
So tonight is the first night we have had homework and I have spent almost all my study time to this blog. All well, it was nice to get my thoughts down on paper. It was my first one so I will be refining my blogging skills of the next couple months and will be updating this through out year for whoever on the Internet wants to read it. I gotta go do homework…wow I haven’t said that in a while.
I want to give thanks to Volkl and Scotty Kennison, Mark Betancourt, and Todd Rash for all doing their part in getting me skis for Mt. Hood. Thanks Guys.
Kieffer
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