K-Squadron grabs Provincial Mogul Title

 The 2011 provincial Mogul titles hosted at Jasper on April 1st produced a roller coaster of emotions for all of the athletes, coaches and parents of NASA’s mogul club. The step up from the NASA mogul patch to an FIS homologated mogul site is huge. This site was the host of the Canadian Jr. Nationals last month and it presented a challenge in jumps, steepness and length that was just too much for some of our first season athletes.

 It was decided by the coaching staff to have some of the K-Squad athletes sit this one out. Georgia Woods whose combined alpine skills in K-2 and mogul experience put her in a position of skiing a top to bottom run with out blowing up. It was a big challenge for both coach and athlete to figure this course out and they did this with no time to spare. Georgia skied her final training run 10 minutes before the official start with a full two jump run top to bottom cleanly for the qualifying run. With a cut for finals we needed to put down a qualifier to place us in the top ten. Georgia’s qualifying run was clean enough to place her in 7^th place, so for finals we notched up the DD (degree of difficulty) for both jumps and turn up the speed dial.

Out of the gate for finals it was 7 turns to the first air…Cossack…land and into the long middle bump section leading into the final air. Twister-spread off the second air and a short 8 turn dash to the finish line. We improved our time by 3 seconds with no major breaks in turns. With the entire K-Squad team to give hi-fives to Georgia at the finish line it was once again another defining moment for us all.

This level of competition and the challenge of the course showed us all that this was no walk in the park, no casual ski through the NASA mogul patch. The final results would not be announced until the evenings banquet, but we knew that Georgia dug down deep mentally and physically to ski the best she had for finals. When results were announced for the 2011 Alberta Provincial mogul titles, Georgia was awarded the gold medal in her age group (12-13 year olds) with a comfortable points spread back to the second place finisher. Then for the overall awards for the day were handed out. These medals included all ages and Alberta team members; Georgia joined the older girls on the podium with the bronze medal. We celebrated her win with the entire Alberta freestyle family at the season rap up banquet Saturday evening.

All in all… it was another high mark to K-Squadrons first season. We will continue this direction throughout the summer with aerial training on the Red Deer water ramps along with dry land training. It is our intention to give every opportunity for all of our athletes to taste and appreciate both the excitement of moguls and competative skiing as a fantastic activity to participate in.

Thanks to all and we will see you at the Wearmouth Cup and K-Squadrons mogul event on Easter weekend.

Cheers,

Mike Haid & Preston Smith                      

Epic Results for K-Squad Athletes at Red Deer Competition!

Last weekend was a monster for NASA’s mogul skiers as they competed in their first ever-mogul event at Red Deer with over 150 young athletes participating from every freestyle club in the province. It truly was a couple of days of “firsts” as Friday’s training got underway on a full two-jump course. The team’s preparation leading up this event has been extensive with a superb on snow training site and a super secret trampoline training facility at a clandestine location close to COP. Fridays training went off without a hitch as all three athletes handled top to bottom runs with confidence by the end of the day.

Race Day started early with assistant coach Preston overseeing a full course inspection with the kids well before official training started while Mike attended the coaches meeting.  Coaching roles for the day were as such… Mike would be on foot and at the top of the course for training and comp runs. Preston and Julie were on skies to accompany the kids for stretch, warm up and support all day.  Race order for the day was rather unusual as there was a cut for a second run but it was the bottom half of the qualifying runs that got a second chance. We knew we would have to lay down our best on the first run, as most likely the NASA kids would be in the top half of the cut if we skied smart and clean. All three had good training runs especially Sean who seemed rather relaxed about the whole scene.

First up was Heidi running third in the start order… play list on her I-POD for final preparation and run was “EYE OF TIGER”…her pick as she patiently waited for the starters signal. It was top to bottom with no major mistakes, beautiful turns, and spread eagle on the top air with a Cossack on the bottom jump, perhaps a tad slow in speed but clean.

Next up was Georgia Wood running close to the end of the women’s start list. Georgia, an experienced K-2 alpine racer from Australia has numerous regional, State and National titles in Australian Moguls but all on courses like NASA’s Mogul patch. This was her first ever start on a full course. She too was wired for sound for final preparation and her run… rumor has it that it was some classic Queen playing on her I-POD in the start gate.

Georgia exploded out of the gate and proceeded to blow away the rest of the field with a staggering 5.4 spread in total points awarded by the judges between her and the second place finisher… To put this into perspective as it relates to alpine, it would be like the first place finisher with a time almost 30% faster than second place…. All 3 judged aspects for moguls (turns 50%, jumps 25% speed 25%) were dominated by this very gifted multi-disciplined skier.

Next up was Sean who had a mid pack draw out of a field of over 90 for the boys. Preston was in the start gate to keep Sean out of trouble… he also had an exceptional run going until he hit the second air a touch too hot… landing virtually on the first mogul after the landing pad. He was spat out of the course and kissed the fence. He would have a second run later in the day if he wanted.

Unfortunately, things were running very late with a second run maybe by 6 or 7 pm… it was decided to ask Sean if he wanted a second run or pull the pin to get home, rest up and hit the NASA mogul patch bright and early for Sunday. We chose to forfeit a second run and enjoyed a special time together as a team in the finish area before returning home.  It was indeed a very special moment in time for all involved with NASA’s mogul program… 1^st place for Georgia and a rock solid 3^rd place finish for Heidi! Heidi had the second best turn scores of the day behind Georgia… with a significant points spread ahead of the second place finisher but was much slower and that pushed her back to the Bronze medal position.  Georgia posted the highest score at the event (boys and girls).

Head K-Squad Coach Mike Haid is very pleased with what the athletes accomplished but has assured them that they are nowhere near their full potential… so don’t get comfortable or smug with this one event. Coach Mike is determined to keep the athletes on a proper long term development pathway working towards consistent and significant improvements both on and off the snow.  

K-Squad Begins Mogul Training at Nakiska!

 

K-squad skiers enjoy their first ever day in a competition set mogul line last Saturday.  NASA’s Mogul coach has spent a great deal of time on the beautiful groomed runs up on the Gold chair working stance and balance with his athletes from mid-November till now…Coach Mike is amazed at the quick transition to this type of terrain and applaud the kids on their effort leading up to this point.

Looking at these pictures he notes that both Heidi and Sean are centered and already have the ability to start pivoting the ski to initiate a carved turn on the backside of the bumps. We have a whole lot of skills to learn but we are on a solid foundation to excel and ski at a very dynamic level.

 

Way to go Sean!

(note the Nancy Greener’s with their coach in the start gate, even they had a gas!)

 

Even coach Mike lets it loose on course… rumor has it that Jan the GM of Nakiska was sighted hooting and hollering more than once while testing out his mogul skills, another sighting was Scott Zahn sampling the terrain too.

K-Squad invites any of the NASA groups to drop by for a visit, as they will have the course in mint shape for the weekend!



K-Squad Training Updates

Parent Meeting Notes and Updates:

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Update on Wednesday, January 12, 2011 at 5:02PM by Nakiska Alpine Ski Association

 K-Squad Junior Mogul Course is Here!

We have the goods! A very successful course prep Sunday allowed for a total build with one of the industry’s finest cat operators Sunday evening with minimal time put in to this effort. All that is left is the manual shaping of the lines as seen above and shaping of the jumps. Thanks to Sean’s father who assisted me on Monday to shovel shape and then step out the top course.

Because of the specific location assigned to us, I have split the slope into two distinct courses. The top course is just mogul lines about 70 meters in length (above photo) but because we have a dog-leg change in direction as we hug the tree line… we will have a bottom course which is 110 meters or so in length that leads into a big jump site. Now I’m not sure how this will work out if we are to have lots of kids on course for training. But for the mean time we will make it work just fine with our small numbers. Preston and I will decide how to make the two courses work with safety as a major concern.

 What is great about this layout is we can introduce the lines to the youngsters without the intimidation of the jump first… then get on the bottom course with a proper mogul jump with a very safe chopped landing and run out. This jump site is big… big in the sense of size for the entry level. It will allow me to construct a variety of jumps, all with a very good safety factor built in with the long chopped landing zone.

The lay out I have designed is certainly outside of the norm… but it is my intent to teach the skills needed both skiing the lines and allowing jump progression first before introducing the features of a full course. The bottom course will be the one used for our club event in March, which I hope to include any and all of the Nancy Greene skiers plus the Jumps and Bumps kids from the local freestyle clubs. It will be a best of two judged runs on a one jump course with the finish line in the out run area of the jump, which is the last feature of the mogul course.

We have a fair bit of work left to do as the bottom course needs shovel shaping and stepping out plus the jumps will have to be shaped. Two of us completed this task on the top course in 3 hours so I can put a time frame to do the bottom course at 6 hours with two people. I would hope to have this complete for Saturday or Sunday at latest.

Mike Haid - K-Squad Head Coach