Alford Oct 30th Report

Today saw another glorious day in terms of weather for the 3rd training week – we have been very lucky with the weather so far. The atmosphere amongst the trainees and coaches was just like the weather, warm and pleasant which was reflected in the level of the skiing on show today.

Performance squads were on timed runs first thing with some fantastic skiing and times coming in before they were put through their paces with Alex and Jamie on some technical drills. Race Dev 1 were working on stance and outside ski pressurisation with myself whilst Race Dev 2 worked on lateral separation and Andrew C had them doing short swing turns. Race Dev 3 and 4 were continuing to work on building the skills of balance and rotating the skis.

The head to head team races were the closest they have been for a long time with all the race development groups competing across 5 teams each with a coach. A lot of the races were neck and neck with the smallest of mistakes often making the difference between a win and a loss. It is with great pride and honour though that I can announce my Blue team were the winners today!

Following a request from Alford Academy today can we please ask that all athletes wear non-marking training shoes in the gym on each Sunday.

Many thanks and look forward to seeing all of you again next week or of course beforehand on our very popular Wednesday eve training and race league. Details are HERE if you are interested to join us.

James

Best times for each racer from the Sunday first rotations are now complete;

Performance Squad 1	Best Time 30/10		Racing Development 1	Best Time 25/09		Racing Development 3	Best Time 02/10
Rachel Brown	Absent		Jack Sleigh	8.96		Findlay Cormack	Absent
Hamish Alexander	6.76		Harvey Sleigh	8.93		Jacob Ipsen	Absent
Graeme Campbell	7.24		Archie Duncan	9.53		Glen Liversidge	10.51
Andrew Simpson	6.64		Daisy Cowie	9.49		Eva Sinclair	10.47
Neil Simpson	6.78		Logan Duncan	9.05		Michael McIntosh	11.31
Beth Whatford	6.77		Harriet Dawson	Absent		Keira Henderson	11.41
Ollie Bailey	Absent		Kieran Lennox	8.11		Olivia Sinclair	11.77
Nathan Smith	7.37					Finn Rogerson	11.13
Jack Morrison	7.09					Carys Henderson	12.14
Jonathan Marshall	Absent					Fergus Penny	Absent
						Annabel Mackay	11.52
						Rasmus Ipsen	Absent
						Louisa McIntosh	12.16
						Emily Carry	12.35
Performance Squad 2	Best Time 30/10		Racing Development 2	Best Time 25/09		Racing Development 4	Best Time 02/10
Andrew Howell	7.92		Izzy Pfleger	10.66		Finlay Smith	Absent
Ben Whatford	7.78		Kizzy Scott	9.88		Oran McGurran	11.08
Ellie Green	7.66		Alex Hay	10.22		Thomas Paterson	13.19
Kathleen Rae	Absent		Ruaridh Rogerson	8.94		Owen Campbell	12.03
Vicky Rasmusen	7.95		Murdo Reid	8.95		Shea Campbell	15.01
Elliot Cameron	Absent		Torin Liversidge	8.57		Catriona Brown	Absent
Paul Marshall	7.73		Dillan Driver	9.88		Jennifer Brown	11.63
Finlay Carry	8.73
Sophie Ross	Absent
Rachael Morrison	8.08
William Lennox	7.42

Training Sunday Oct 30th

We’re back to regular weekend training from this Sunday. I hope everyone had a great break (whatever you may have been doing) and is ready to get going with some serious training.

This weekend the coaches will be James Paxton, Jamie Robertson, John McRae, Alex Wright, Callum Scott, Andrew Campbell and Stuart Dunbar.

I’m in the Alpes at the moment, so James will be adopting Head Coach duties. If there any questions or issues arising from ski training, then please don’t hesitate to speak to James.

This week the Head to Head races will be between all of the Race Development Groups, so I’m sure it will be a very tight competition with some close finishes. Let’s hope the coaches can hold their own.

Please see the below schedule and be ready to start your session at 9am.

Have a Great Day All. I’m looking forward to seeing the photos on Sunday.

Gary W

The LSRA Bairns & Lassies

Gordon Skiers will be supporting the LSRA Bairns and Lassies event on November 26th at Hillend.

This un-seeded race is open to both registered and un-registered racers in all age categories up to and including Under 16. 

AGE CATEGORIES 

U8 – Born 2009 or later 

U10 – Born 2007 or 2008 

U12 – Born 2005 or 2006 

U14 – Born 2003 or 2004 

U16 – Born 2001 or 2002 

RACE FORMAT 

The format of the race is proposed to be two runs on the same course for all racers using the same gates. This will be confirmed with the acceptance bulletin. U12 and below will be fastest run from two. 

The approximate start time on the day will be 08:30hrs and racing should be finished by early afternoon.

If you are planning on attending and would like Gordon Skiers race support for the event please email racing@gordonskiers.com with the following details;

1. Racer name
2. Race year of birth
3. Adult name accompanying
4. Adult contact cell phone and email
5. Confirmation of your racer BASS number (if you don't know please write "not known")

Entry is via the following online form only;

ONLINE ENTRY FORM

Closing date for race entry is Monday 21 November 5pm or sooner if the number of entrants reaches our maximum quota. Acceptance will be a first-come first-served basis. 

IMPORTANT NOTES

In order for Gordon Skiers to plan we required all those intending to race to have confirmed to us NO LATER than Sunday November 13th

ALL U8, U10 and U12 CHILDREN SHOULD BRING PROOF OF CLUB MEMBERSHIP ON RACE DAY; alternatively those without such proof of membership MUST purchase third party liability insurance at Bib Collection on Race Day – cost £4. NO INSURANCE, NO RACING. IT’S FOR YOUR OWN SAFETY START TIME

The wearing of a helmet is mandatory.

Race Official Training

Our race convenor, James Paxton, has become a Snowsport Scotland ‘Event Crew Development’ tutor and is looking to run a training session for parents on the requirements of event crew roles and their responsibilities. The course looks at the various official positions required for running a race and the associated role and responsibilities for each.

Gordon Skiers is a race club and we like to encourage all of our members to enter races throughout the year so part of the session will include a presentation titled ‘Intro to Racing’ and which will hopefully provide more information and clarity giving you more confidence to enter your children into races.

The club prides itself in running the Gordon Skiers Open in January under the careful direction of James and usually has one of the largest race entries in the Scottish Calendar. Events like this do not run by themselves and require a team of roughly 60 volunteers to act as officials across the weekend and make them run smoothly. We would like to train as many members as possible within these roles to help ensure we can still run successful events. There is no commitment required to take on any role even once you have attended the course so please don’t feel pressurized. Rather come along and expand or just refresh your ski racing knowledge for the benefit of everyone!

The training and presentation will last between 2 and 2.5hours and James is looking to run this on a TBC week night in November.

If you are interested in attending the Event Crew Development and Intro to Racing session then please email racing@gordonskiers.com to note your interest. Please also include dates when you are available to attend so that we can schedule the most convenient date for members.

SSS Movement Preparation and Gymnastics

Open to registered Gordon Skiers Members -  Snowsport Scotland Movement Preparation and Gymnastics

Laura’s Gym, Oldmeldrum (next to Hoodles)
Key points Saturday Afternoons Various Times
From age 8+

This session is open to club level competitors and beyond. It is designed to develop physical literacy to become well rounded athletes. Coaching will be conducted by qualified gymnastics coaches with regular input from SIS S&C coach. Sessions will include rotations of bodyweight S&C circuits plus acrobatic training. This will be the main route to earn the right to gain access to the additional Strength and Conditioning sessions at RGU. Attendance of on hill coaches from all local clubs/programmes at these sessions, is encouraged both for coach CPD but also to aid continuity from gym work to on hill coaching. There are approximately 30 spaces available per session.

Next block runs Saturday 29th October to Saturday 17th December

• 29/10 5.00pm-7.00pm 
• 5/11 3.00pm-5.00pm 
• 12/11 1.30pm-3.30pm
• 19/11 3.00pm-5.00pm 
• 26/11 1.30pm-3.30pm 
• 03/12 1.30pm-3.30pm
• 10/12 1.30pm-3.30pm 
• 17/12 4.30pm-6.30pm

To take part in this programme participants must be registered with Snowsport Scotland either through club membership or competitor registration. The program as a whole is being overseen by Strength and Conditioning coaches from the SIS and Snowsport coaches from Snowsport Scotland.

Payment for these sessions is to be made on a per term/block basis to Snowsport Scotland. Snowsport Scotland is grateful to support from sportscotland, thus allowing the cost to be based on £10 per session per athlete (subsidising £4 per session per athlete). Booking and payment of sessions must be done up front – eg. if you are planning to attend 6 of the 8 sessions you will need to tell us which ones you intend to attend and make the payment of £60.

Preferred entry to additional Strength and Conditioning sessions is by attendance at Movement Preparation and Gymnastics, if there are exceptional reasons why an athlete cannot attend this session this will be addressed on a case by case basis. There are specific entry points into the additional Strength and Conditioning sessions for further information please contact Ben Kinnear or Louise Kochalski.


To Book please complete the google docs booking form below. https://goo.gl/forms/jpzZiO20nWlgoMvw2


Payment to be made by calling the Snowsport Scotland office on 0131 625 4405. Alternatively, payments can be made via bank transfer to 'Snowsport Scotland' (Bank of Scotland Acc.no - 06137942 Sort code - 802260) Payments should be referenced with 'Name & What Payment is for'. 

The closing date for bookings is Friday 21st October. All bookings will then be passed to Laura’s Gym.

Alford Oct 2nd Report and Times

I’m always surprised by the levels of skiing I see at Alford. The sun was blazing and everyone was really up for the challenge.

Today I was working with Race Development Team 3 and Race Development Team 2. These skiers were rocking today and achieving some amazing results and improvements on the timed runs.

Special mention to Finn Rogerson and Emily Carry who managed to achieve, close to, 20% improvements on their times, with the fastest time of the day recorded by Eva Sinclair (10.47s)

I saw some challenging drills being delivered in the training sessions today. Andrew had RD 3 skiing on one leg and Mark had RD 2 projecting forward onto the fronts of their skis, nice and early in the turn. Jamie seemed to be having fun with some testing Short Swing Hop Turns for Perf Squad 2 and James had Perf Squad 1 showing us their skills on 1 ski.

It was a great day and Rob captured the spirit of the whole day in photograph. Please browse the photos, on Facebook, save your favourite and bring it with you at the next training session to get feedback from one of the coaches. We can learn an awful lot by studying the images.

In the next sessions we will be using video to help with the coaching sessions and will take time, during the session, to deliver video analysis to skiers.

A reminder that we will be running an extra session on Wednesday night, from 7pm - 9pm, for £10/skier. Please let us know by Monday night on this form if you will be coming along. I already have 8 names, so we have some space for extra racers. Parents are welcome too, if they fancy having a try in the gates. (We are also collecting interest for mid-week sessions for which you can express interest on after the holidays using the same form).

I've added, below, the race times from today with last week. I’ve only given the best times, but everyone improved and I know there are far greater improvements to come.

Well done to everyone over the last 2 weeks. Remember we now take a break from training until October 30th.

I hope you all have a great holiday and come back to training ready to fitter and faster.

Gary W