click to enlarge I lit some fireworks just after this picture was taken. I love bon fires and fireworks.

This is a picture of my bonfire from the other night.

Just thought I would update you.


I now have poison ivy from gathering wood for the bonfire.

click to enlarge Jed(on right)working out in the fall of 2006. Now he is enterting the professional world as a design engineer with K2.

I made it out to Seattle about a week and a half ago after making the drive in two legs. I can't thank those of you I called (pretty much everyone in my rolodex) for keeping me entertained on the drive out. It's been an adventure adjusting to the whole "professional" thing (which I'm sure surprises no one). I landed a job with K2 as a "jr. design engineer" a few months ago. With a bit of training and time, I should be a full blown "Design Engineer" - I'm guessing 8mo to a year. I'm starting out by familiarizing myself with the K2/Line lineup by building prototypes, organizing their "Wax and File room", and beginning to to learn how to run all the NC/CNC (Numerically Control, Computer Numeric Control) machines. These include everything from a GIANT (about half the size of the ski room, and two stories tall) CNC mill that cuts the tools (molds) for skis, to a drawknife that cuts bases and glass fabric. I really haven't gotten into design yet, but it's probably for the best as I'm finding there is more of a learning curve to this whole gig than I previously thought. A quick list of things I've picked up:

Ski presses are hot.
Ski presses, the corollary: I burn easily
Industrial belt sanders are cool.
Industrial belt sanders, the corollary: I sand easily.
Bending edge material is more frustrating and monotonous than listening to Joey rattle off FIS standings.
Nobody thinks my "Give me Vokl or Give Me Head shirt" is cool.
I don't understand hipsters.
I am the newest and youngest employee. This "entitles" me to several privileges, including, but not limited to, buying the beer for Friday beers, cleaning the massive CNC Mill(which involves climbing in and hoping nobody will think it's funny to start running it) and cleaning out the kegerator.

I was blown away by the size of K2; I work in one of the larger buildings in the SoDo/Industrial district. K2 Sports includes countless snowboard brands (but who really cares about them anyways..), Madshus (sp? nordies?), Atlas and Tubbs snowshoes, K2 skates, Line skis, K2 Skis, and a few others I've certainly forgotten. The building is setup as a "box within a box" - the larger box is the warehouse/shop/test facility. The smaller box is the graphics/management and engineering departments. As you might expect, the Graphic/Management parts are on the upper floor and have really cool office suites with everything from leather couches and video games to boulders (not kidding). They hide the engineers on the lower floor in corners where tour groups are sure to miss us. I've been working at someone else's desk all week as I need to wait for the resident ski-layup guru, Dale, to move into his new office before I get a desk to call my own.

I should be in Seattle for another month or so, and then Take off to China to K2's manufacturing facility for a few months. Hopefully I'll be able to make it back for the KB ride before making my way westward, to the "East".

Hope to see you all soon,Toodles!
-j

click to enlarge I dug out this picture from Brie's sophomore year. Old School!

Congrats to alum Brie Pike-Sprenger 04' on her new job with the US Ski Team
Brie Pike-Sprenger who graduated in 04 has accepted a position as an athletic trainer/physio with the US Ski team Women’s Alpine Team.
Brie was a standout alpine racer at Middlebury and most recently worked at Porter Physical Therapy in Middlebury. In the 09-10 season Brie worked closely with the sports medicine room at Middlebury College taking care of injured athletes that were out of season or sustained season ending injuries. Although she worked with athletes from all of the teams at Middlebury, she had a large group of alpine women this year. Brie was phenomenal with those athletes helping them recover and also assisting the coaching staff with a better injury prevention and analysis plan.
Brie is currently in New Zealand at her first on snow camp with the US Team ladies and will relocate to Park City upon her return.
Congratulations Brie. Middlebury is proud of your accomplishment.

click to enlarge Way to go Schoz. Nice run!

I ran in the NYC QUEENS half marathon on saturday with my dad and mom. I ran the first 8 miles with them and then went on my own to try and post a time that would be under a 10-min mile. I accomplished my goal by running 13.1 miles in 2:08 and I actually, surprisingly, came in 2nd for my age bracket, but it was nice. It was extremely hot. At the start of the race at 7 am it was 86 degrees! So I was just happy to finish in that kind of heat. It was definitely a really fun event! Can't wait to start training back at Midd!
Schoz

on the age class podium too!

click to enlarge Image from casualgameanddesign.com

As promised here is some more detail on the topic of long term athlete development (LTAD) and skill acquisition.
To start I have to refer anyone interested in this topic to the book below. I have to confess to buying it for my i-pod, but either way it is a good piece with plenty of great stories and research backed information. Here is the title and author. It is very good.

The Talent Code: Greatness Isn't Born. It's Grown. Here's How.
By Daniel Coyle.

Long term athlete development is based on developing movement patterns and skills at crucial times in an athlete’s physiological development to give the athlete/or person the best chance at having success later in their life and or career. It is widely believed that it is easiest to learn movement patterns and abilities through practice at a young age. At various ages the body and mind is more effective at learning and being able to reproduce skills or movement patterns. It is a simple way of saying, when you are young your muscle memory is like a sponge, absorbing and retaining much more of the movements and activity than in later years of a person’s life. John Nolting from USSA Sports Education presented that from the ages of roughly 8 yrs old (give or take a year or two) to the post pubescent years individuals have a greater ability to learn complex movements and skills. Following puberty it becomes more difficult physiologically for the body to engrain those movements into its memory. How does this relate to ski racing? It is supported by the belief of many great coaches that at younger ages nearly a majority of time spent on snow should be free-skiing. The remaining percentage that makes up the whole would be directed drills and skill work with coaches, and that last little bit actually bashing gates. This is well known but not easily adhered to as many kids and parents pressure coaches to ski more gates at a young age.
Have you ever noticed athletes that are super fast in gates as a J4 and they ski for a club that trains gates more than they freeski. Follow their careers forward and notice that as they may have dominated as a J4, they are most likely not dominating as a J2 or J1. Sometimes size and speed of maturation affects this but many times it is the fact that those kids at a young age learned how to ski gates better than the others. They learned skills for sure but the real question is did they learn the important fundamentals and technique that will allow them to be more than a J4 phenom. Can they go on to ski well at the FIS, college or international level?
Dan Coyle in his book TALENT CODE, talks about the idea of "deep practice." Deep practice is described in great detail in the book. I will give a short version. It is basically practicing a complex skill in a systematic method to allow for the muscles and nerves to learn and physiologically change to engrain the movement and perfect it. It can only be done by doing it thousands of times over and over again and by practicing the movement in its entirety and then breaking it down into blocks. When each block of the movement is mastered it is added to the complete motion or action and then practiced some more. A great example as it pertains to ski racing would be to have kids free ski working on a forward and balanced position. Plenty of runs and lots of turns. Then having a coach break down the idea of being forward and balanced, and having them do a block of drills or traverses in an athletic stance and a block of drills focusing on flexing ankles forward in the boot. These drills should be done over and over again and then mixed in with the freesking. Keeping it fun should be a goal as well. That is an example of deep practice for a young athlete. (we do this at the college and US team level too)!.
So I am no expert in this area but I can recognize and agree that skills must be learned at a young age. Older athletes can also learn but it takes longer and is not always as successful.
What I found so interesting about this topic is that it applies to athletic skills as well as other motor skills like writing, playing a musical instrument and even applying the idea of deep practice to work/career goals. I did forget to mention that deep practice can work for the older generation too.

Lastly- there will be a free webinar presentation on long term athlete development by USSA sports education on August 17th 8-9 pm eastern time

Below is the link to register for the web presentation on August 17:
http://www.ussa.org/magnoliaPublic/ussa/en/formembers/coaches/news/USSASportEducationPresents1.html

Also available through USSA is FREE ski racing educational video clips, see the following link: www.dartfish.tv/ussa

Below is the link to register for the web presentation on August 17, 8-9 pm eastern time

Links and Resources

Head Alpine Coach

Stever Bartlett

Bartlett enters his fifth season as the Head Coach of the Middlebury College Alpine Ski Team in the winter of '10-'11. In his four years as head coach, Bartlett has worked hard to continue the success of Middlebury Skiing. On the circuit this past season the team collected a handful of carnival podiums and numerous eastern cup wins. In 2008 Bartlett was awarded the EISA Coach of the Year award and led the team to a 5th place finish at the 2008 NCAA Championships. In 2010 The alpine men finished 3rd in the nation in slalom and 4th in the nation in GS at the Championships hosted by the University Colorado. In 2008 they were 2nd in the nation in slalom and 3rd in the nation in GS. Bartlett came to Middlebury after working with the U.S. Ski Team in Park City, Utah. He most recently worked as a World Cup assistant coach for the alpine women's team during the winter of 2005-2006. Bartlett has also served as the head Europa coach, a Development Team coach and as a strength and conditioning coach with the program. Bartlett was a staff member at the 2006 Torino Winter Olympics, where he worked as a coach for gold medalist Julia Mancuso. In 2002 Bartlett was awarded the VARA (Vermont Alpine Ski Racing Assoc.)"Coach of the Year" award while working as the head coach of the Killington Mountain School. Bartlett is a 1996 graduate of St. Lawrence University, where he was captain and member of the alpine team. He earned his degree in environmental biology, with a minor in sports science.

shbartle@middlebury.edu

802.443.5845

Assistant Alpine Coach

Abigail Copeland

Copeland will be entering her second season as the alpine assistant coach. Copeland was an integral part of the teams success in 2009/2010 and brought much energy and dedication to the team. As well as a valuable on hill coach she also took on many of the strength and conditioning duties. Copeland comes to Middlebury from St. Lawrence University in Canton, New York, where she worked as the assistant men's and women's coach from 2007-2009. Copeland graduated from St. Lawrence University in 2006, where she was a four-time member of the alpine ski team and field hockey team. She graduated with a degree in Fine Arts and received her masters degree in Education Administration in the Spring of 2009. Prior to her education at St. Lawrence, she attended the Mount Mansfield Winter Academy in Stowe, Vermont.

acopeland@middlebury.edu

802 443 5270

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