I have just got back from a week training and I thought I
would update you on how I have been getting on. I have now officially graduated
from University with a First Class Honours Degree in Business Management and I
am looking forward to starting my new job in London in September (once I find some accommodation.) Graduation was a great day,
which involved lots of pomp and ceremony followed by a great meal with the family and celebrations with friends (not the usual ‘wanna be
athlete’ approach.) I soon came back down to earth though and was focussing on
my next training camp.
We have just got back from Hintertux Austria, this is a
frequent place the team visits. We stayed at the Hotel Koessler, which we have
stayed in a few times (some of you will remember me mentioning it in August
last year.) The hotel had a great family feel and they couldn't be more obliging, they know all our names and offer a great experience for us, even joining
in on the team banter.
Each athlete had been given a designated coach or coaches
for the week. I was paired with Euan. He has been a coach for the British
Disabled Ski Team for a few years now and has a wealth of knowledge I could
benefit from. We were working on a one to one basis, which meant it was a great
opportunity to learn as much as possible over the week. I have known Euan for a while now but this was
the first time we have skied together, we had a good working relationship,
water stops and lift journeys were filled with playful banter, which broke the
day up and facilitated positive improvement.
Weather conditions were hot…very hot. If I could I would
have skied in shorts and a T-shirt but that wouldn’t have been the best idea.
We were skiing in thick slush most of the time, not the best conditions for
racing on. My overall aim for the week
was to get better separation of my body (upper from lower) in order to give the
skis more drive, which was reviewed daily along with daily targets. The daily programme consisted of:
6:45 morning activation
7:30 breakfast
8:20 Ski Lift
8:30 to Roughly 12:00 Ski
12:30 Lunch
13:30 Core and Recovery
15:00 -16:00 Video Analysis
18:30 Team Meeting
19:00 Dinner
Somewhere within that schedule we also found time to service
our skis.
The week consisted of working on the fundamentals of skiing
and working our way up. Euan wanted to get my skiing more efficient, my skiing
was quite inefficient and I had to use a lot of energy to ski. The first few
days we worked on just turning the feet and making consistent turn shapes in
the thick slush. We then increased the difficulty and worked on rolling feet to get the
edges to engage. Once we had that, we worked on dropping the hip into the turn
in order to get the separation and more drive from the skis. This is something that was beginning to come
towards the end of the week and I found that my left footer (ski bum talk for turning
to the right) was rather whippy. Check out this video here. (Sorry for the
nerdy paragraph)
This was my first camp where we had the support from a
phyiso (Chris.) Chris was in charge of pre morning activation, which had us working
on activating all the appropriate muscles and getting us ready for the days training. This for me, involved me foam
rolling, stretching and working on activating my glutes (bum) muscles. He also
ran the recovery sessions and made sure we were all in fit for the next day. The recovery sessions usually involved some
gentle stretching and foam rolling. One day we went for a swim in an outdoor
pool which although was meant to be thermal fed and the day being hot, the
water was not! The purpose was to relax the muscles and keep us in tip top
shape. As you can see…….we took recovery very seriously :p
I learnt a lot about my own body on this camp and Chris was
keen to give more information to improve my gym sessions at home. We found that
due to my hip position I struggle to get separation on one side and this is
something I am working on to correct. Following on from this I have been invited to
train with the team on a dryland camp at Bishom Abbey in Marlow for this
weekend. This is organised by EIS
(English Institute of Sport) and should give me a great understanding of my
strengths and weaknesses and help me correct my body position.
I will update you all on how the two days training at Bishom
goes and my further plans for development this summer. The next training camp
is indoor at Wittenberg Germany on August 14th for a week and I am
excited to get back on the snow and put some of what I have learnt into
practice.
Thanks
Alex
If anyone would like to sponsor my cause please click here
Or email me on alexclarke1992@outlook.com
