Bormio 2013

After a great week at the FIS World Championhips in Schladming it was time to go onto Bormio for the English Alpine Championships, for what is always a great week. I had high hopes for Bormio, some of which were achieved. Alongside my own races I also looked forward to fore-running the FIS races, and I saw this as a good opportunity for me to gain experience for my FIS debut next year and give me a good insight into the work I have to do in the summer to achieve my aspirations.

But before all that however I'd like to say a big thank you to Paul and Team Evolution for offering me an overnight stay at their base. Also big thanks to Sega for collecting me from Schlad, taking me over to Bormio and making life a whole lot easier for me. They have a fantastic set-up in St Johann and some great coaches who're going to improve a lot of racers over future years.

After the 6 hour drive from Austria we finally arrived in Italy - the 10th European country I'd been in over the month of February.

Frustratingly, Super G is the discipline I've struggled to achieve regular consistency in, despite it being by far the most enjoyable. The combination of speed and technique required is a test for anybody, but the lack of time and facilities in Alpbach mean that opportunities to train Super G are minimal. Generally it's a first lift blast from top to bottom before tech training, however it is always extremely fun!

My podium at last year's British Champs and a solid top ten in my GB Children's team outing in Andorra offered me confidence that the consistency was arriving however. After a great opening to the run I made one mistake on the steep which cost me loads of speed and time. Effectively the error cost me an overall win, however a solid second place and first English boy meant I'd achieved my first aim of the week - adding my name onto the English SG trophy, and settling myself for the rest of the championships.

As ever I was hoping to do well in the GS, not least given the development work I'd done in advance of Schladming. Irritatingly a poor first run I left myself a lot to do, which was the tone for the early half of my season really. However a great second run charge - my best run of the year so far - gave me another podium place and plenty of belief to go onto the slalom. 

Slalom has been a big frustration this year. I've had some fantastic training days over the winter but have never really got going when racing the discipline I've always felt strongest at. It's either rapid or dnf at the moment, however if I cut out the dnf's then I know that the podiums will flow. Certainly the work I did with Richard Breese in advance of Bormio had me full of confidence but another mistake riddled first run left me with all the work to do. I rode my luck with an all or nothing 2nd run in G.S. the day before and tried to go for the same again, but going too direct on the steep led me to a mistake I would come to regret.

After 15 pretty tidy gates I found myself slumped on the ground next to the coaches with the week's overall children's title - which at that point was mine to lose and one I was intent on retaining - thrown away on the last run of he week.

The three weeks back home since has given me time to refresh and prepare mentally for a final assault on Winter 2013 and children's racing - the British Champs. I'm fit, ready for the challenges ahead and hoping to do well. In any case, 3 full weeks in school at this time if year is more than long enough! 

  

    

Schladming International Youth Camp 2013

Amazing. A once in a lifetime experience that was absolutely amazing.

Attending Schladming 2013 as a BSS ambassador was an opportunity for me to experience a whole new level of skiing first hand, whilst also meeting new people in similar situations as me, witnessing first hand Austrian and Styrian culture in particular. It also gave me the opportunity of taking a well deserved break off ski training without leaving the mountains.

I went to Schladming a little uneasy, mainly because I wasn’t comfortable with the thought of lots of new people around me. It was a multi-national camp, whereas personally I’m used to sticking with the same group of lads I train regularly with - and my Glaswegian coach, obviously.

This took me a little out of my comfort zone. Amazingly however, over the first night and following morning I got to know more and more people, and made more and more friends from all corners of the world. From Chile to Russia, from America to Iran I now have friends with similar interests and experiences. It was a great opportunity for me and it helped me personally to become more outgoing, more versatile and substantially improve my people skills. I also have an offer of somewhere to stay when next visiting Argentina!

Without doubt however, the best part of the week was watching the races. Seeing the best in the world doing what they love was a truly memorable experience. It also gave me a deep insight in to the level of skiing which I aspire to achieve and reiterated to me that the only way I was going to achieve that was to try my hardest and give my all, every minute both on and off the slopes.

Standing in the VIP area next to the American Team was also something I won’t forget any time soon. Nor is the breath-taking atmosphere in and around the stadium, especially when an Austrian skier went down. It was mental! They live and breathe ski racing.

Off the hill we visited the press centre and experienced what it was like to stand in front of the microphones during a press conference. We also worked on how to make your own videos look good, how to cut film, which clips and images to choose and how to make the best videos. This was good for me so that I can take these skills away and I intend to put them to use in my next video.

We also did lots of different types of skiing, trying out telemark & monoboard skis as well as doing a fair bit of skiing on my own slaloms. 

Overall, Schladming has to be one of the most amazing experiences I've had and witnessed. I was immensely proud and honoured to have been chosen as an ambassador for BSS for the event. I took a lot away from the camp and would definitely recommend it to people who have the chance to go on a future International Youth Camp.

Below are a few pics but if you want to see more please check out my Picasa album at http://tinyurl.com/c2jssew

'Tis the season to be skiing

'Tis the season to be skiing and December camp is less than a week away. 

The off season is well and truly over, the summer foundation work is done, the new Head skis well waxed and my fitness is ever getting stronger. Even my packing is getting neater.

From almost the moment last season concluded I have been working overtime on my fitness because I knew it was a key goal and an area for development as an athlete. I feel that over the past six months I have gained a lot of power, endurance, core strength and overall good physique and I'm hoping that I'll be able to feel the benefits of this in my skiing over the course of this season. 

The Anglo-Scottish championships are only four weeks away and soon I'll be sitting down with coaches Mark Vinter and Sally Bartlett to see what short term preparation has to be done, what I want to achieve and exactly how I am going to make them happen. 

However, for now attentions have turned to the more mundane things about being a young athlete, like getting school work for the trip, packing clothes and preparing skis. Its going to be a hectic week and I'll be glad when I'm sitting in the back of the LDV this time next week. Those long sixteen hours of endless roads will give me plenty of time to think about what is hopefully going to be a memorable four and a half weeks. 

As usual, Alpbach and Hintertux are both looking amazing and I'm hoping the snow is as great as at was last winter. Looking at the webcams I can see that the boys in Alpbach have been blowing the snow like there's no tomorrow. Currently a cold front is in the process of passing over the area and that's ensured that there's been a nice heap of snow falling for a while now. 

I'll keep you posted on how December goes. I'll hopefully be able to squeeze in a couple of Austrian local & regional races between next week and the Anglo Scottish - keep your fingers crossed for me!

Have a great Christmas!

October Camp

So I’m back home again after an amazing week in Hintertux. It feels almost like a second home now.

The week out in on the glacier was a dream week. Perfect snow and clear skies all day provided us with perfect training conditions all day, every day.  The weather gods even treated us to 2ft of powder on the final day of the camp so it would have been rude not to take advantage.

My training was great. Every day I learnt something new and a lot of credit goes to Sally Bartlett for this.  The main goal I set out to achieve was to try out my new HEAD skis and to see if I was comfortable on them, how they would turn and what type of new challenges I experience with a longer length of ski.

However these were only minor achievements on my camp. Happily I learnt how to get more acceleration out of my skis, how to get more grip at the top of my turns in both technical disciplines and how and when to adapt my line on a change of gradient on the slope. In addition to this I also managed to iron out a few problems with my skiing and to refine my technique. 

I even managed to squeeze in a few runs of GS down a FIS length course and felt like I more than held my own on it.

 It would have been impossible to do this without Sally’s hard effort, support and time spent on all of the athletes from Telford Ski Club. If we weren't working on the hill we were either analysing video of various training runs, doing fitness in the gym or helping get equipment ready for the next day. It was a non-stop effort on her behalf and I would like to thank her for her time and effort. It was appreciated and certainly wasn't wasted.

So October camp has been and gone and now it’s only 5 weeks until December camp starts, in Alpbach. December camp is always something to look forward too because you can get some great foundation work done and the first races of the season appear at the end. The Anglo-Scottish races and I have enjoyed a good relationship in the past and I still believe I can carry on this form over the New Year period.

 

Firstly however I need to continue to train hard with my fitness before the camp so I can get maximum benefit from each day on the mountain, making the most of my on-mountain time from both a quality and quantity perspective.

 

Schladming 2013

A free week in the mountains always sounds nice. Even more so when you get a free week at the World Championships in Schladming next February!

A week before the 2013 English Alpine Championships I have been chosen, with Honor Clissold, to represent Britain as an ambassador for skiing at the Alpine World Championships. The week consists of training from top Austrian coaches alongside athletes nominated from around the world, mixing with the other athletes in the village of Schladming, attending ceremonies, watching the races and most importantly having lots of fun whilst learning the tricks of the trade with the best guys in the sport.

Of course I wouldn't have been able to get this without a serious amount of help from Chris Blagden with my application. The fact that he gave up his time and put so much in the effort to develop and boost my application is very much appreciated. Without his input I seriously doubt that my application would have been successful.

Thanks also to CESA Snowsports Association for publicising my achievement before anyone else - http://www.cesnowsports.org.uk/cesa/racing-participation/congratulations-jordan-fellows

Elsewhere it's been very much back to basics over the past couple of weeks, getting a bit of plastic mileage in preparation for the 2012 All England Champs. My time spent on dendix is getting more and more rare these days, as I do a lot of fitness work instead, but I still try to get up to Telford once or twice a month working on balance and foundation work. Alan's Tuesday session is still tops for this kind of training.

I squeezed two sessions in last week, preparing for Norfolk and whilst the weekend didn't go anywhere near to plan I went in feeling ready to battle it out. The video below is where I was last Wednesday

Skiing strong, I was feeling confident of chasing the big boys in advance of the race, however a mid course run 1 straddle essentially ended the weekend before it had started.

Thoughts now turn to the winter and the first part of this is being united with the hardware that's hopefully going to help me generate speed in 2012/13 - namely my new Head skis. The guys at Bartlett's have done a bit of shuffling and with a bit of luck I should be getting some wax in them by this Sunday morning.