USSA Eastern Region models slalom project off national team initiative

By Published On: August 5th, 2014Comments Off on USSA Eastern Region models slalom project off national team initiative
Eastern Region Mt. Hood slalom project participants and coaches. Martin Guyer

Eastern Region Mt. Hood slalom project participants and coaches. Martin Guyer

TIMBERLINE LODGE, Ore. — Top alpine athletes converged on Mt. Hood in late July for a six-day USSA Eastern Region project featuring the highest-performing male and female athletes from the U16 level all the way up to collegiate skiers looking to make improvements during this slalom-only regional camp. Under the leadership of Eastern Region Coach Martin Guyer, Waterville Valley’s Director of Athletic Performance and Head Women’s Coach Adam Chadbourne, Mt. Mansfield’s Head U16 Coach Garrett Lashar, and Eastern Youth Coordinator Tom Ashworth, athletes worked on doing everything with a purpose. Taking cue from noted psychologist K. Anders Ericsson who originally pioneered the idea, Guyer refers to this purposeful training as “deliberate practice”, and it was the theme of the entire project.

This highly focused regional camp was centered on pushing the mental and physical capacity of the athletes in attendance.

“Our goal is to find the maximum intensity the athletes can give and then raise the volume of training as much as possible without compromising on that intensity,” Guyer said. He achieved this by having the athletes do what he calls “timing in and out of focus.” The athletes would get to the start of a course or drill and would “time in” and put forth complete focus and intensity. After the course or drill was completed, the athletes would relax and allow themselves to “time out” of focus.

Real performance and change with the group was noticeable, and the structure of mixing the ages within the camp allowed for more growth from all of the athletes involved.

“The younger athletes got the modeling and leadership of the older athletes, while the older athletes gained leadership skills, picked up their pace, and learned to be role models,” remarked Guyer of the positive effects of the mixed ages in attendance.

“It’s cool to see the next group of kids ski and see how much progress they make,” said former U.S. Ski Team athlete Brian McLaughlin who will be attending Dartmouth College starting this fall. “It seems like the younger kids are more advanced than before, way more advanced than I was at their age.”

The Eastern Region staff and accompanying coaches modeled the project off the U.S. Ski Team men’s slalom camp that took place in June.

“We are looking to promote balance and athleticism by working on different turn shapes and rhythms. We are trying to emphasize the need for consistency in body position and movement,” explained Guyer. “We had a goal of performing 1,000 slalom turns per day with a high level of execution.” The project also included a seminar with Dr. Jim Taylor on imagery and performance rehearsal, which the athletes and coaches felt was very helpful in elevating performance and tied in well with the overarching theme of the project.

“Overall the conditions were good, we didn’t miss a day,” added Guyer. “The regional training group programing is supplemental to an athlete’s home program training. Hopefully these athletes will take what they have learned in this project and continue to improve when they return to snow with their home programs in late August or early September down in South America or at the next Eastern Region program, a GS-only camp at Loveland in October.”

The USSA Western and Rocky/Central Regions are also hosting projects at Mt. Hood this August, and Ski Racing will report on them in coming days.

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