Intermountain Youth Championships!
The Intermountain Youth Championships were held at Trial Creek this past weekend. With blustery weather and cold snow, 250 U8-U16 IMD persevered through the 1k, 2k, 3k, 5k, skate intervals start, an exciting skier cross course (NordicX), and a 1k, 2k, 3k, and 5k mass start. The championships marks the season finale for U14 and younger athletes and is designed to be more a bit more fun and festive than your traditional qualifier weekend. The weekend also marked the final race for the U14 Cup. JHSC athletes Mason Wheeler, Natalie O'Brien and Sydney Wilmot cracked the top ten in the final standings. For complete results of the U14 Cup, check out the Intermountain Division website at - www.intermountainxc.com.
A handful of JHSC athletes posted strong results in all of the races and ranked 2nd overall as a team just behind BSF Bozeman and in front of Sun Valley by the end of the weekend. Congratulations to the all Junior, Development, and Teewinot athletes that competed in the weekend events and thanks to strong leadership from Johnny Springer, Rob Murphy and Sevi Hagen for preparing the athletes for the big weekend. For complete results and check out -https://www.sportstats.us/. For a shout out to the top JHSC finishers check out the recent The Jackson Hole News & Guide article.
A big shout out to all the volunteers that helped over the weekend, without your efforts we wouldn't be able to pull off a race of this magnitude. We received compliment after compliment from coaches and visiting parents and comments about the efficiency and professionalism of all the weekend events.
Junior Nationals. McCall Final Qualifier.
Congratulation to Annabel Hagen and Elijah Weenig for qualifying for the Intermountain Junior National Team. Elijah and Annabel secured their spot after each posted podium results at the last JNQ in McCall over President's day weekend. David King missed the team by one point, and was 0.6 seconds out of 6th place in the 5km skate race, which would have given him the points to make the team. Des Concannon and Jack Love are creeping up on the U16 field by barley missing the team by a couple spots. Coaches in IMD are speaking of the potential in our club by looking at technically sound skiers like Matthew Watters. Every athlete brings a unique gift to the team that keeps the train running down the track at full speed. JHSC coaches have been discussing how competitive the Intermountain Division has become over the years, and the fact JHSC Nordic is playing a significant part in raising the bar within the division. While not every athlete qualified for the IMD team, we have displayed strong depth, consistent and improving results, and tremendous composure during the race and at the venue. Congratulations to all of the Prep and Comp team athletes that have endured a difficult race schedule all while maintaining strength and constancy. Check out the Jackson Hole News & Guide article for a write up on the weekend event. Elijah and Annabel will head down to Soldier Hollow for Junior Nationals this Saturday.
Olympic Coverage
Did you miss the Nordic Olympic races? Check out https://ixcski.weebly.com/ for complete coverage of every Nordic race.
Long Term Athlete Development During Seasonal Transitions
As we transition into spring, athletes have their sights on spring sports, they remain active with technical fundamentals, and remember why they're involved in the sport as fun and games are incorporated into each teams training plans. Depending on their phase of development, we suggest involvement in other sports and while staying connected with Nordic by the time summer roles around. As a reminder to JHSC parents, JHSC coaches are following a program manual that you can find on the JHSC Nordic homepage - https://jhskiclub.org/program/nordic/nordic-program. See below for each team's General Athletic Development guideline for seasonal and year-round development.
Lollipopper
As athletes become comfortable on skis, athletes primarily focus on their body awareness while on skis and slowly incorporate coordination drills and fun technique drills taught through the games approach. “Adventure” skiing on the trails of trail creek slowly becomes a standard part of the practice routine. As a Lollipopper athlete develops, their adventure ski may begin with a ski in the nearby field close to the ski cabin. By the end of the season Lollipoppers learn and explore the wider trail system of trail creek. We require very little of an athlete at this level as our primary objective is to keep light and fun, and instill a love for the sport. As in most phases of development, multi-sport participation is recommended at this age.
Teewinot
Just as in the Lollipopper program,as athletes become comfortable on skis, athletes primarily focus on their body awareness while on skis and slowly incorporate coordination drills and fun technique drills taught through the games approach. “Adventure” skiing on the trails of trail creek slowly becomes a standard part of the practice routine. By the end of the season, Teewinots learn and explore the wider trail system of trail creek. We require very little of an athlete at this level as our primary objective is to keep light and fun, and instill a love for the sport. The mental and social maturation of this phase enables the group to practice two days per week, one more day than the Lollipoppers. As in most phases of development, multi-sport participation throughout the yearis recommended at this age.
Development
As athletes physically develop and have gone through the earlier phases of development in skiing, and have been connected to other sports at different times of the year, they are ready for the introduction of dry-land training. Summer dry-land that includes the introduction to roller-skiing is offered one day per week. Starting in November athletes start dry-land again with fundamental movement exercises, games, and ski imitation activities. The Development team will train regularly, two days per week throughout the season. More advanced Development athletes may be invited to train with the Junior team one day per week.
Junior
We build upon the summer training routine with an additional day of dry-land training. There is an opportunity to interact with Prep and Comp team athletes one day per week in the summer, couple with one day of roller skiing. Regular scheduled training for the season starts in November; with four days of training. This schedule will remain consistent through the remainder of the season. Given the wider range of biological development and sometimes ability in this phase, athlete participation may vary from summer training and 4 days per week in season to starting at 3 days per week only in season The over all emphasis is fun and enjoyment of the sport, but we incorporate more complex training through the framework of fun and games. Strong athletes with no prior experience in the sport are encouraged to participate.
Prep/Comp
Prep and Comp team athletes follow and begin to understand period based training. The periods are broken down into a balanced yearly, monthly and weekly training schedule. The overall yearly plan for these athletes equates to about 400 hours for U16s and 450hrs for U18 and U20 athletes. However as athlete are involved in other sports, take time for family vacation and are involved in other activities, the plan is dynamic and can be modified to each individual’s needs. Some athletes are involved in other sports, others focus on Nordic training year-round. Coaches pay attention to each athlete’s goals inside and outside of Nordic racing and training. This plays a factor in how we design their individual training plan while still adhering to the overarching plan of the team’s periodized plan. There is an increase in volume training, but we still emphasis speed, agility, technique and strength given that we primarily race and train at altitude. While volume training becomes more important at the Prep and Comp team level, there is currently a larger national discussion about the importance of emphasizing speed, agility and overall athleticism on skis.
