Its nearly the end of summer and I'm back in Zermatt for my first camp of the season and my first camp as a FIS racer. Its been a while since I've been here, in recent years I've done most of my glacier training in Hintertux, but the snow here is always so good.
It was also a big new start for me, joining a new programme after 8 years training and racing for Telford. However with no full time FIS programme available I had to look elsewhere and BSA looked the obvious place to give me the opportunities to succeed in all areas of ski racing and also do well in my A levels.
Obviously, after eight years at one club, a brand new start wasn't anything I was familiar with so it was quite weird to begin with but the BSA coaches, athletes and staff have all made me feel more than welcome.
Another new start was skiing on the new Giant Slalom regulation skis. 195 cm long with a 35 m radius ski is something even the worlds best were struggling to cope with last year so I was intrigued to see how I would cope with them.
I was surprised myself when I found that they weren't as bad as we all first thought. After a few hours of drills and exercises with Ruslan I felt steady and stable over the new skis. On the glacier the time you have to ski is pretty limited so Ruslan and I focused on getting fewer runs of consistently high quality rather than wasting lots of energy throwing down lots of poor runs. As far as the new ski goes, day 1 was a very encouraging start.
So after a really good first day I was really looking forward to a similar second morning, however the weather gods decided to we'd get a bit of thunder and lightning overnight. Frustratingly one of the lightening bolts struck the gondola power cables, blew all the fuses and took the lift out. So instead of sitting around the following morning we decided to have a fitness day, starting the day with some fun games of volleyball and basketball. The afternoon was far from fun however as we went through an hour and a half of circuits, agility and power drills in temperatures of 27 degrees. It was testing to say the very least!
Days three and four were perfect training conditions. So, making the most of the opportunity we got a a couple of solid 5 hour mornings on the GS skis. Ruslan took me through lots of drills and exercises as we began to build up the speed now I was used to the longer skis. After a few hours of drills we concentrated on having lots of separation, getting a smoother & quicker transition and bending the ski to get as much rebound out as possible. Even over this short time period I can feel the speed increasing.
With a week and a half left my focus is looking to iron out a few technical niggles in my skiing and then trying to build up as much speed as I can on the new skis. Whilst off skis I'm working really hard to get super fit for the coming season. Exciting times await, hopefully the hard work will pay off.
As new starts go, this is a promising beginning.
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| A Quick Stretch |
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| Zermatt |
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| A Bit of Servicing |
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| Lift Banter with Milo |