Skiing, racing and all the space in between
Today was one of my favorite rites of summer—Eliteam pick up at GMVS. This was my last year to be picking up an actual camper. Boo! But the beginning of counselorhood. Yay! What Doug Lewis does with these kids is pure magic. If you get a chance scroll through the photos in the camp photo gallery to get a peek at all they do in a typical day. This year I gave a little talk … » read more
If you’re a hiker in New Hampshire, you probably know that hiking all of the state’s 4,000-ft peaks is a thing. As a transplant from the west coast, I did not know this, until late one August when my son did not want to report back to middle school. I could hardly blame him, but his angst was enough to warrant a meeting … » read more
For the past few days I’ve been stalking the Ski Racing site for a piece I have coming out. (Update: It’s up. Read it here!) It’s just some common sense advice Doug Lewis and I put together about choosing a summer ski camp, or choosing not to go to a summer ski camp. It offers thoughts on things to consider, but basically advises people to do what’s best for their own kids. I’m stalking … » read more
It hurts because it means the end is near. I love spring but hate that the ski season ends so abruptly and, for some, so harshly.
It is an unsanctioned top to bottom event on any mountain, with no rules. I take that back. The one hard and fast rule is that there are no rules, which of course is why it must be unsanctioned.
I recently wrote this Racer Next column for Ski Racing, on the importance of adhering to some kind of in-season maintenance program. I did not, however, provide any specific program. This is in part because my own personal maintenance program—though darned good for middle-aged women with past-prime joints and cartilage in search of sanity during a New England winter—has zero relevance to young ski racers. And in part because to my own kids, a maintenance … » read more
I recently wrote this Racer Next Column for Ski Racing on Hermann Göllner. Before embarking on it I knew I’d feel incomplete trying to capture the Gestalt of Hermann in one piece. Two pieces is barely better, but at least this fills in some details, namely the two things I had always wondered about: what brought Hermann to the States from the Alps that seem to reside in his bones; and how does anyone get … » read more
Every high level coach in the country is lamenting the echo chamber that is our development “pipeline” of technical skiers….And yet, this rush to speed, this Faustian bargain to pursue the quickest path to the podium at the expense of developing solid technical skills, continues.
Last spring I signed up to take an online course called The Science of Happiness. The course started in September and ran through November—timely for a native Californian with a propensity towards Seasonal Affective Disorder heading into a New England winter. Not surprisingly the course comes out of U.C. Berkeley, where contemplating the neurobiological and evolutionary roots of happiness over steaming cups of chai is, like, totally legit. What really hooked me on taking the … » read more
The time is ripe to take the notion of being a “good sport” out of the realm of loserhood (i.e. the conciliatory pat on the head, and the “there now Jimmy, be a good sport,” with the subtext being, “get used to losing and be quiet about it.”) and into the realm of greatness.