Category — Alpine Canada

This weekend is the start of the speed events for the men are in Lake Louise, AB for a downhill, the women they are over in Aspen for a GS and Slalom downhill

Who to watch for?

The obvious choice is Bode Miller; the American is thirsty for a win. But the Canadian’s are at home. Last year Jan Hudec took top spot but others to look out for are Eric Guay, John Kucera, and Manuel Osborne-Paradis. Being the host country our younger, development athletes may have the chance to either fore-run or even get a chance to race!

On the women’s side look out for Lindsey Vonn. She’s in her home country, she’s recovering from an injury and she loves to ski fast. Canadian’s to watch, Shona Reubens, Emily Brydon and Gen Simard.

Levi, Finland: November 15^th and 16^th

Two weeks ago there were slalom events over in Finland. Lindsey Vonn took top spot on the women’s side, winning both runs. On the men’s side the top spot  was taken by Jean-Baptiste Grange followed by American Bode Miller.

For Canadians it was an exciting race. Our most decorated technical skier, Thomas Grandi, came out of retirement and raced for the first time in preparation for the 2010 Winter Olympic Games in Vancouver. Disappointed by his result Grandi looks forward to progressing and improving throughout the season.

I’m looking forward to this weekend, technical and speed, can’t ask for much more!

After three days of indoor ski training I can’t wait to get on the snow.

This passed weekend Phil and I were fortunate to participate in two events, the Canadian Ski Instructors (CSIA) Technical Update for the Ontario Region and the CSIA Ontario Development Day; on Friday I was on my own at the Alpine Ontario Coaching update.

Here are the highlights of the three days:

Alpine Ontario’s Coaching Update:

• Safety is priority No. 1: Bruce Hamstead, Alpine Canada’s Race Quality Coordinator gave an update on the netting for races. Unfortunately there have been many horrific crashes in recent years resulting in devastating injury, including Matthias Lanzinger who wants to sue FIS. More locally, Hamstead asked that together we be more aware where we set courses and ski, allowing ample room for falls
• Back to Basics: Benoit Lalonde, Alpine Canada’s National Director Tim Gfeller, Head coach of the Development Canadian Women’s Ski Team, and Pierre Ruel, Canadian Ski Coaching Federation’s (CSCF) Technical Director asked all of us in the room as coaches to teach our athletes to ski. Unfortunately as coaches we typically teach our kids to go fast and not how to be good skiers
• Hard First vs. Building Confidence: Two very different coaching tactics were presented. Tim presented about building confidence with the development team and Pierre presented the training program of Britt Janyk , where they put her on difficult terrain and increased the difficulty. But which one is better? Neither, the point is to recognize what stage your athletes are at. Tim has a new set of racers coming to the NorAm, Europa Cup and World Cup circuit and he needs to build their confidence. Britt has been a World Cup champion and needs to be challenged to continue to excel

It was a two-day update but unfortunately I could only make it to the first day. However, after talking to my colleagues I was told that Dr. Steven Norris’ mental training presentation was fantastic. I’m hoping to get into contact with Dr. Norris for a brief on his presentation.

The CSIA Technical Update
This day was really for the Level 4’s but a few of us were invited to listen to what John Gillies, the Eastern Program Director for the CSIA and Martin Jean CSIA Program Director had to say.

• Our Mission: after 8 years the CSIA has decided to update our mission statement. The president of the Canadian CSIA board of directors presented that the CSIA is an organization that is in the business of “setting the standard for the profession of ski teaching.” Supported by a vision and value system (which should be up on their website soon) is the root in the change of how the CSIA will teach new instructors
• Consistency: Last year the CSIA introduced a new evaluation scheme. Based on the CSCF marking scheme, the CSIA adapted the IACrCV Model
• Moving Forward: No longer is the CSIA perceived to be overly conservative or boring. It is time to meet the needs of our skiing public, to work in conjunction with the CSCF and CASI (our snowboarding partners). Along with that the CSIA has remodeled the Level 3 and 4 exams to better suit the needs of the candidates.

CSIA Ontario Professional Development Day
Although the CSIA is a national wide organization, certain aspects are managed and designated to the regions. The annual CSIA Ontario PD day was held again at Georgian College. Here are some highlights:

• Movement and Motion: “…all terrain, any condition, free to choose lines with economy of effort…” is a new technical slogan being socialized by John Gilles. Inspired by Pierre Ruel and the CSCF who coined their slogan as “… to get from the start to finish as fast as possible, without falling and without supervision.” What they both mean is that as skiers we need to constantly be moving through the turn and ready to adapt to anything
• Visualization: whether it be on course, on exams, or in a race course, visualize yourself being successful. Steve Young interviewed Britt Janyk and asked her how she visualized success? She said to learn to visualize start by thinking about an orange, from the smell, to the spray, to the texture
• New Website and Fan Page: Our Ontario Board has done a great job at creating a much more intuitive and interactive website as well as a Facebook fan page. Phil has taken on the marketing portfolio this summer for the Ontario board and was heavily involved in launching both

Overall I have to say the CSIA and CSCF are becoming more aligned. Both John Gillies and Pierre Ruel have been working closely together so that the two alliances are more symmetric.

The Level 1 Course Conductor Training is November 16th, it will be interesting to see who is teaching again this year and what our regional goals are.