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