Saturday Feb 21

Goal: Skills review, and Maple Taffy!

9:45 - 10 Group Game - No poles

Dip Ball

The Track Attack kids know and love this game, so use them to help teach the other kids! 

Set up: Two teams, two goals, one ball

  • ⁠Objective: To score throw the ball to a teammate standing in goal who catches and dips it (touches it to the ground with their hand) in goal

  • Rules:

    • No skiing with the ball

    • Dip it every time before you throw it

    • ⁠⁠If the ball touches the ground then it is fair play for any team so not like ultimate

    • No switching sides after a goal

10AM Split into age groups

Ski with Technique stations! Please be at Jackrabbit Flats for 11AM for maple taffy, fire and jumps! JR 4s are welcome to come to JR Flats early to help build some jumps!

Stop in various spots along the trail to review technique:

  • Lower titan hill (Or other hills near the stadium if its too busy)

    • Uphill challenge: How far up the track can you make it. Discuss strategies for grip ie. Small steps, “squish the grape”, good pole usage, elbow/shoulder join angles, bent ankles

    • Downhill “glide test”: See how far they can make it in the track - lots of the kids are really stuck on doing “mini-man” all the time - this is a good opportunity to show them proper race tuck form, and compare which is faster - “mini-man” will be slower about 99.9% of the time.

  • Some of the kids sounded keen to try the 50 m sprint again to see if they could get a better time, so optionally stop on that same section we did before. 50m is approximately the distance between the two light poles. They should do it in the uphill direction ;) If they earn another sticker for their time, don’t forget to hand it out at the end!

  • Practice double poling and step double poling on any flat/ slightly uphill section

  • Bring cones to set up track obstacles on a gradual downhill (the downhill just past the bottom of dynamite is good). cover both tracks to get them to step out of the track. Cover one track so they have to pick up their ski to get over it.

  • Practice downhill step turns (or snowplow turns for jr1 and maybe jr2) on the hill near the junction of Evelyns (Coming down from Evelyn’\s towards the junction) or another hill along the way that has a corner

    • set cones to mark the start of the step turning zone and the end of the step turning zone

    • have them count the number of steps they take around the corner. See what the least number of steps they can take is? Whats the most number of steps? Group activity - find the optimal number of steps that gets you around the corner the fastest and able to glide the longest

  • Suggest taking two-step for a fun alternative route that they might not often take!

Route Suggestions:

  • JR1 - Lower Mickey Olsen Loop, up dynamite, and then to JR Flats

  • JR2 - Mickey Olsen loop

  • JR3 - Mickey Olsen loop plus Evelyn’s if time or come to JR flats early to build jumps!

  • JR4 - Mickey Olsen loop plus Jump building

11:45-12 Stickers and Hot Chocolate

If any kids missed getting their toque, there are more in a box in the wax room! There are also more coach hats in a marked box in the cubbies - dont forget to grab one if you havent already!

Remind kids about the Nordiq Canada Toque design contest. I have printed out the contest application sheets to hand out - they are in a folder in the top right corner cubby. Submissions are due Feb 22!

Reminder:

The Big McInnes Challenge is this Sunday Feb 22. Please encourage the kids to ski! The “slider” (perimeter of the trail system), “Doggie Bag” (All the dog trails), or “Smider’s Web” would all be great options for the kids! Read up about routes etc. on the website revelstokenordic.org/the-big-mcinnes