Summer training, equipment info, spring meeting
Hi, everyone.
This horribly long and boring blog post addresses these things:
Spring meeting
Summer program registration, schedule, groups, & thoughts around training structure
Equipment rental changes
Excited? Us too! Now that you can’t look away, read on:
1. Spring meeting: this will be on Sunday, May 17th, at 11am, and is REQUIRED for junior skiers + at least one parent. Maybe we’ll do brunch and make it festive. TBD. Got an audition for the NY Philharmonic? Maybe we’ll let you off the hook. Maybe. We’ll discuss in more detail some of the info below and also other important stuff to get us off on the right foot for summer. We’ll set up individual goal-setting meetings with coaches + athletes once spring training gets underway.
2. Summer program registration, groups, & thoughts around training structure: we’ll get further into this at the spring meeting. But for now, some useful tidbits:
Summer program registration: will open within the next week-ish on our membership platform. Summer registration is not frantic like winter registration. We let y’all in. Summer training is now a pre-requisite for being on the team in the winter, with very few exceptions. Why? It gives us much more time to get to know you and effectively coach you, particularly during a time of year when you’re not also juggling school skiing.
Summer schedule: is now posted online. You’ll notice that we’re going kinda old-school this summer: we’re aiming for a pretty consistent weekly structure. This will have to change sometimes with weather, etc., but we believe that solid, consistent training is a key component of getting good at this skiing thing. Note: new this year, we’re integrating Wednesday biathlon with morning ski practice and are offering an early afternoon strength session for Jr1. In terms of year-long training plan, we’re working on it and will get it posted as soon as we can.
Junior 1 vs junior 2 groupings: we typically have 40+ juniors signed up for summer training and another dozen or so U14s. This is too big of a group to run together for most things, so we need to break it down. This summer—as with last summer—we’re splitting the group largely based on both (a) rollerski experience/comfort; and (b) Eastern Cup race experience and goals. Those who show up and crush it at Jr2 practices may have the opportunity to move into the Jr1 group. We’ll be emailing y’all soon with our recommendations for your group.
Attendance expectations: you need to come to practice if you want to get better. No secret there.
Jr1: attend practices an average of 4 or more days a week throughout the summer. Can commit to following the training plan on days they’re not at Craftsbury
Jr2: attend practice an average of 2 or more days a week throughout the summer
3. Equipment rental changes:
Once upon a time, probably around the time that a set of rollerski rental equipment was returned to the clubhouse a full 6 months late, I made a grand proclamation: “We are DONE with rollerski rentals! We are done with uniform rentals! We should probably be done with all the rentals!"
A bit hyperbolic? A hair dramatic? Perhaps. But nonetheless indicative of some changes that need to be made? Yes.
We’ve been assessing how we run our rental programs. On one hand, we love that we can effectively outfit all the kids in our programs with the bulk of what they need to participate, and we strive to do that in a way that’s affordable. This sport is expensive, and we get that. On the other hand, our rental programs now encompass about four hundred pairs of skis, not to mention another few hundred boots and poles. Managing this volume of equipment is impacting our time for actually coaching. Furthermore, kids are graduating from our programs with no equipment of their own, which makes it really hard to continue skiing.
We want to scale back the volume of equipment rentals we’re doing at the junior level, which means asking ski families to buy & own some more of the requisite gear. We’re starting with rollerski equipment, but in phases. A single pair of rollerskis can fit you for decades! Like any piece of sporting equipment, they’ll need maintenance and you’ll need to replace parts that get a lot of wear (wheels, for example, once every year or two or three, depending on how much you rollerski). But that’s a great opportunity for you to take ownership of your equipment and learn how to care for it.
Read all about our rollerski rental phase-out policy here. There’s a whole bunch of additional info there to help you plan/budget for your ski equipment future. Summer rentals for this season will open when program registration opens. So, not yet.
That’s all for now, folks. You know how to find us with questions.