Slight change of Plan

 We have arrived in Saalbach after two days travelling by car and by ferry.

We set off Thursday afternoon, Jack Peters a member of the team picked me up from my house and we set off for Dover. We stopped a night there and we got an early morning ferry. We soon made our way into Belgium and travelled south from there. Stopping for a night in Mulhouse in France we had a quick tour of Basel in the morning then we made our way through Switzerland into Austria.

It was an interesting drive; we went through concrete cities and saw vast landscapes.

In my previous blog it stated that after the Austrian Nationals we would move onto the German Nationals. Unfortunately due to lack of snow the German Nationals have been cancelled. Instead we are going to the Italian Nationals in Folgaria northern Italy. Although it is a change of resort we will still be competing in the same disciplines Slalom and Giant Slalom.

Right, back to the plan for Austria.

We arrived Saturday and just got ourselves together and unpacked. Sunday we had our first day training with Ross the coach. My focus was to get some milage on the Giant Slalom skis get use to the change in style. Skiing over 9 miles that day I was rather tired.  We have just finished our second day training; we have had some fantastic weather and some really nice runs. We have been in Giant Slalom gates today, training on the World Cup Downhill course.  I absolutely loved being in gates and can’t wait to get back in them tomorrow. I am racing Slalom on Friday, Giant Slalom on Saturday and Slalom on Sunday, I will check in with you guys after the races.

Cheers

Alex

X
 If anyone would like to sponsor my cause please click here

Or email me on alexclarke1992@outlook.com

Road to the National Championships

It has been a while since my last blog, so I thought I would update you all on what I have been doing and and my plans for the next few months. I've been very busy with university and training hard for the national championships.

 

Gym Training

Since January and my time in Les Deux Alpes I have been working on my stability and core exercises. I have been attending Pilate’s classes every week and have been seeing dramatic results.  Pilates focuses on stability, flexibility, core strength and grace (which I definitely do not have.) Mikala (our instructor) does her best to adapt exercises for me and is keen for me to improve.  There are some really nice people in the group and I enjoy banter with them. It's quite funny actually I'm finding I'm getting mothered by a couple of the women there, being the youngest and one of the only guys definitely has its good points!

I have also started training with a friend at university (Rob) who is also a Lecturer in biomechanics. He approached me recently and asked if I would like him to train me. Naturally, I bit his hand off and I am currently in the process of seeing him twice a week.  He is focussing on pure form and is working on my weakest areas. He has had me squatting with footballs between my legs (to stop my knees rolling in) and his eye for detail is having a positive impact on my training.  I couldn't believe the difference to my normal training, I definitely felt the burn!

Ski Training

Since attending Pilates I have noticed a dramatic difference on the slope and in my walking. Steve (DSUK Coach @ Chillfactore) has been trying to get me to do a specific drill for the last few months, which involves picking the outrigger (poles in my hands) up, after initiating the turn with a pole plant like movement. This gets my weight over my downhill ski more, giving more control.  Up until attending Pilates I have not been able to do this, but two weeks ago I managed to crack it!  

If you would like to see a video of me doing that drill click here.

This has completely changed my style of skiing and I am focussing on reducing my reliance on the outriggers more and more, to make my skiing more dynamic.

Steve has been pushing me hard over the last few weeks and loves winding me up, forcing me to try my best.  Although at some times he has told me off for working too hard. We have a great relationship and really enjoy working with him.

I have carried on attending the race training on a Sunday Morning with Carl at Chillfactore, the early starts haven’t gotten any easier though(5am start)! We have been focusing on working the ski and finishing the turns in the gates

The course soon gets cut up and is of a harder style (I hope) than I would see in a real race, giving me a real challenge. Since attending, I can normally manage a few clean runs, where as at the beginning I was struggling to even finish on a course that wasn’t cut up. The picking up of the outrigger has helped a lot on this as I am getting more grip, giving me more control (which is always a bonus.)

Ski Gear

I am currently looking to buy a race suit for this next race. My mum made me try one on (typical mum thing) before I bought one, not bending very well is never a good trait to have whilst trying to squeeze into a skin-tight one piece race suit!   I'm still looking so if anyone knows anyone selling one please contact me ☺

What's next?

On the 12^th March I will be travelling out to Saalbach for the Austrian National Championships and then onto Balderschwang for the German National Championships for my next race.   A friend and I will be driving there over a couple of days, two men, 3 legs, 2 crutches and a car full of ski stuff will make the 2600+ mile round trip. 

I will definitely be skiing in the Slalom discipline but I am also hoping to try my chance in the Giant Slalom arena. This will dependent on whether I can handle the Giant Slalom skis and whether it would be worth it. As mentioned in previous blogs Giant Slalom skis are a lot longer than slalom skis and the turning circle is larger.

Exciting things to come but I best get my university work done first, Speak to you later.

Thanks

Alex

X

 If anyone would like to sponsor my cause please click here

Or email me on alexclarke1992@outlook.com

Les Deux Alpes

Hey guys,

Sorry this is a bit later than planned, I had quite a lot of uni work to come back to, so that took over. 

First of all, Les Deux Alpes was amazing. We were lucky to get a dumping of powder before we got there.   The weather was stunning all week; every day was glorious sunshine, except the last day where it snowed.   Les Deux Alpes has a variety of different slopes and I was lucky enough to have got a hotel right next to the main gondola (like a cable car) so I did not have to trek far with all my gear.

I met my university Ski Team out there. There were roughly 40 – 50 of us that had come over from Preston for a week in the Alp’s. There were planned socials on and off the mountain. There were some interesting fancy dress nights, ranging from Rubik’s cube night (I must say I was the only dressed up on that night, the team forgot to pass the memo on) to toga night. Although these were nights out and the focus was on having a good time, this did not detract away from my skiing, although made it a little more difficult at times.  I skied roughly 4 -5 hours a day and was on the slope for roughly 10:30am every day.  I tried to plan time for recovery and rest after I had been skiing in order to maximise my performance on the slope for the next day.

The first couple of days I focused on just getting myself settled on the hill and used to skiing some of the steeper runs, whilst also using my new outriggers. After a couple of days, I alternated between my Giant Slalom skis and my Slalom ski’s, working on the goals I explained in my earlier blog.

The new outriggers worked a treat; I found I was able to hold an edge on the ice easier and found that the turning was more reactive. I was able to get a bit of feedback back to my Chief Engineer (Dad) for some tinkering when we next get time together. I also found that, although the weight had dramatically increased it did not bother me too much.   There were a couple more tests I wanted to try (removing the break pin and the comb break) but due to the icy conditions and the poor visibility on the last day, I didn’t want to risk it but I will be conducting these at Chillfactore when I get the chance. 

My goal for the Slalom skill’s was to work on my consistency, this involved finishing my turns and getting a stronger edge angle. I believe this was a success; it was great to get out on the hill and just ski. There was some really nice runs, so I could play around and challenge myself. 

I found it quite difficult to get back on the Giant Slalom ski’s these are considerably bigger than my Slalom ski’s, I struggled with the tips of my ski’s crossing. After a hard day, I soon reassessed my goals for them.  Over the week, I just worked on skidded turns, keeping the skis separate and trying to get a better position over the ski.  Towards the end of the week I managed to do just that and was consistently skiing some steeper blue runs without the tips crossing (which is a start J.)

I have taken everything that I have learnt/development over the week and I am putting them into my skiing lessons and race training to Chillfactore. Tomorrow (18^th January) is the first day I get to try the new outriggers in slalom gates, I am hoping from the feedback and the experience I gained from Les Deux Alpes this will make a massive improvement, I will report back when I know more.

Overall a great week, missing it already.

Speak to you soon

Alex

X

If you would like to donate to my cause, please click here

or Contact me on alexclarke1992@outlook.com

A New Year

First of all I would like to wish you a very happy new year and hope you had a great Christmas.

As I had not written for a while I thought I would let you all know what I have been doing and what my plans are, moving forward.

Since coming back from Landgraaf I have had meetings with my coach at home (Steve from DSUK.) We have discussed plans to move forward and how to best capitalise on knowing what class I am and also from my experience in Landgraaf.

I have been having lessons weekly and been attending race training at Chillfactore.

Steve has took be back to basics, focussing on getting a much better position on the ski but really getting a good edge for control in the steeper and icier conditions.  Steve has even been getting me doing drills going up the lift, in order to get a strong edge initiation. I feel like my technique has improved dramatically over the last month, I have been exhausted after every lesson and even not been able to gym train as much because of it….Which I am hoping is a good thing.

Race training has been fun so far (I am not enjoying the getting up at 5 am on a Sunday part though!) Carl at Chillfactore has been tailoring a lot of the drills for my style of skiing and seems keen for me to improve. I am finding time in gates is imperative to my improvement, I intend to carry on doing this for as long as I can, I have only been twice so far but I plan on keeping at it.

My dad and I have also been out in the garage creating our very own kit. We noticed that whilst I was out in Landgraaf, my outriggers (the poles I have in my hands) were skating over the ice and I was losing my line and slipping out.  So over the Christmas break, we acquired a set of old ski’s that we chopped down to size and screwed them to the bottom of my outriggers to trial.

On first test, they were brilliant. I found I was finishing my turns much easier and even felt in more control but there was a few points that we have taken from it i.e. The Weight and the edge kicking back slightly. Now we are going down the path of tuning these for performance, we have been discussing length, sharpness of edges, shapes of the skis and amount of brake. There is a load for us to play with, so it is an exciting time ahead.

On Saturday I go with the University Ski Team for a week in Les Deux Alpes, France. Unfortunately there wasn’t enough time to go race again but I am hoping to go again in March. On the other hand, a week out in the Alp's gives me a good amount of time to bed in my new outriggers and get some concrete feedback on what works and what doesn’t. Although this week will have nights of debauchery and drinking (water of course) I have set some targets for myself in order for me to improve and continue on my path.  

These are:

Able to ski red runs on my Giant Slalom Ski’s

Consistency on my Slalom ski’s

Feedback for my new outriggers.

Hope you all have a good start to 2015, Update to follow when I am back.

Thanks

Alex

If you would wish to sponsor me on my Journey Please click here

Or if you would like to contact me please email Alexclarke1992@outlook.com