We are looking forward to another great year for our youngest skiers in the club. The program had their first dry land training on November 27, where parents and athletes met with coaches! We had many returning and a few new athletes come out for the morning and they had a ton of fun. Our next dry land training dates are December 4th and 11th from 9:30 to 11:30 am. The 2011-2012 Nancy Greene calendar is posted on the right of our home page.
BACKGROUND INFORMATION
Nancy Greene Snow Stars is the Martock Ski Race Club’s entry level program for kids 10 and under. It is a program geared towards fun, improving skiing skills and safety. Ski equipment and lift pass are the responsibility of the parent / guardian. Prior ski experience is a pre requisite for the program as skiers must be able to get up and down the hill with limited help.
The Nancy Greene Ski League is the grass roots program of Alpine Canada Alpin. While national in scope, it is operated by the provincial associations and the many affiliated ski clubs across the country. Nancy’s philosophy, that children’s competition should promote participation and fun and de-emphasize winning, has stood the test of time. The program has been successful in introducing thousands of children, to alpine skiing.
Our club introduces children to basic ski techniques and skills, basic safety rules, and team-work. Enjoyment of the sport and the mountain environment are also emphasized. Our program also introduces children to competition. We host an event at Ski Martock and encourage participation at other provincial events. Racing for the Nancy Greene/Husky Snow Stars is always done in the team format. A prime concern is to avoid too much pressure on novice racers. ‘Ski racing for the fun of it!’ is the philosophy of any Nancy Greene/ Husky Snow Stars program.
PROGRAM SCHEDULE
The program is Saturday and Sunday. We want to maximize skiing and minimize waiting and freezing in lift lines – therefore early in the season, when skiing tends to be popular and the hill often is not completely open, we end our day earlier. The program also runs a three day camp over Christmas. Click the Nancy Greene calendar for more information.
Typical Day at Martock:
The children meet with their coaches in front of the Martock Ski Race Club at 8:45 for a stretch and warm up before hitting the slopes. The children ski in larger groups at the ski camp with a variety of coaches. This helps with early evaluation. The children are then broken into smaller groups of 8-12 and have 1 or 2 regular coaches for the rest of the season. The coaches work on skill development with an emphasis on fun. The activities are varied along with the ski terrain. The groups usually break mid-morning. If the program goes into the afternoon, there is also a one hour lunch break. Skiers usually eat together however we encourage parents of younger children to be available to help with lunch and bathroom breaks. Skiers can be picked up at the end of the day by the large tree outside the lodge.
For those racers age 9 and up interested in developing their racing skills can participate in K1 coaching sessions from 8 -9 am on Saturday and Sunday as well as 6-8pm on Wednesday evening. There is an additional fee for participation.
THE PROGRAM
Our Nancy Greene program follows the Husky Snow Stars program, Alpine Canada’s skill development program for young skiers. It will guide child, parent and coach through the appropriate skill progression. The goal of Snow Stars is to develop new skiers in a fun and rewarding environment. The Snow Stars Program consists of seven steps that outline key skills that the children require to progress from beginner to the athletic skier, and eventually to learn the basic tactical skills that are needed to learn to be a ski racer.
We plan to evaluate at the beginning, middle and end of the club program. The final evaluation will be recorded in the participant’s file for safe keeping and progress from one year to the next.
| HUSKY SNOW STARS |
| LEVEL |
THEME |
GOAL |
| 1 |
Safety/Skiing |
Create a safe and fun environment for the skier to learn the fundamental skills and begin to appreciate playing on skis. They will learn to increase control and comfort on skis. |
| 2 |
Parallel Skiing |
The skier is confident on green terrain and is at ease on groomed blue terrain and shows a centered, athletic and balanced position. |
| 3 |
Body Awareness |
Fore/Aft and Vertical Movement
The skier should demonstrate a centered athletic balance that is adjusted to the terrain, radius of turn and speed. The skier’s legs should be shoulder width apart and upper body stable. A pole plant is introduced at this level. |
| 4 |
Body Awareness |
Lateral movement
The skier should be able to demonstrate 15-20 parallel turns with a downhill ski carve at some point in the turn, a coordinated pole plant, centered athletic balance and a shoulder width stance. |
| 5 |
Coordination |
Demonstrates 15-20 linked large radius carved turns on blue terrain |
| 6 |
Athletic Skier |
The skier can demonstrate a centered athletic balance, outside ski balance, good pole plant, timing and coordination, separation and carving ski. The skier can complete a 20-30 cone or bamboo course with rhythm on blue terrain and is now becoming comfortable on groomed black terrain |
| 7 |
Racing Skills |
The skier can demonstrate 15-20 linked turns in a variety of blue and black runs and in various conditions (bump, ice, crud, powder). The skier will be introduced to racing elements in this level and will continue to refine skiing skills |
The early season training camp at Le Massif, Quebec was a great time. Given the lack of snow everywhere we made out pretty well, with very little traffic on the mountain. Coaches spent a lot of time team building when athletes were off the hill which gave our younger athletes a chance to get to know the older athletes. We had a super group of chaperons that attended the camp which helped to make everything run smoothly. Check out the flicker site for photos of the trip.
