EVERYONE:

1. Patience, young Jedis: please wait until a coach messages Slack saying the weekly plan is posted before filling out the attendance form, making plans based on what you see on the training plan, etc. The weekly blog post provides useful context (i.e., “no practice due to race”), and the various moving parts all go together. Occasionally y’all are so enthusiastic you hop on attendance mid-weekly-edit! Sometimes it takes longer than we hoped to get the week sorted out, but we’re doing our best. Tonight coaches were driving back from a long race weekend in Maine with the juniors—we just got home around 9pm to start thinking about the coming week. Thanks for your patience.

2. Attendance form: do this EVERY week!

3. Training plan: you can see details for each practice here on the club updates (back one page; below the blog post) and also in the same place as the last 5 years in googleland

4. Slack: PLEASE join our Slack workspace and the appropriate channel. There are still a few of you non slackers lurking. ALSO! Look through the channels. There are some community-created ones (like #gear-swap) that are a better place for various inquiries than the all-programs one.

5. Waxing skis: head on over to this blog post to learn more.

6. No Sunday practices this weekend.

7. Holiday week schedule: will be forthcoming this week when Anna’s brain is less mushy

8. Our juniors started the Eastern Cup racing circuit: woot woot! Results from the first weekend here.
   

JUNIORS:

1. Holy moly first Eastern Cup: so proud of you all; had a blast; also very ti ti and not articulate so hopefully you get the sentiment

2. Gah headlamps it’s the darkest week of the year

U14s:

1. Holler at Ollie if you wanna do the middle school race Weds but don’t have a middle school team. If you have a team… talk to the coach of said team

BKL:

1. Juggling of groups: is ongoing. Some kids currently registered in BKL may be happier in Catamounts and some may be better suited to U14 comp. It’s all good—we are trying to give kids the best possible experiences so that they love skiing, and all of our programs strive to accomplish that. If a coach reaches out about shuffling your kid’s group, please keep that in mind.

2. BKL expectations: this is part of the BKL program description posted on our website: “Participants should—at a minimum—be able to comfortably ski a 1-2km loop in both skate and classic techniques, with minimal falling, otherwise they are better suited to the Catamount group.” We make these group distinctions so that we can create an environment where everyone is appropriately challenged, because that’s what leads to fun and further skill development. Being over your head is not usually fun. Being with people you constantly have to wait for is also not usually fun.

MASTERS:

1. No Sunday practice, as you saw. Otherwise, nothing of note, really! See you Thursday for some skating. Exactly what, TBD. We’ll send out further details on Slack so some of you diehards can be uber prepared/know what you’re missing if you can’t make it.

BIATHLON:

1. Whoa, racing! Great work to all who raced!

2. No Sunday practices on 12/24. Sorry for all the Sunday cancellations recently but races/holidays are tying up coach availability.

CATAMOUNTS:

Great first week, everyone! This week:  

1. Keeping things classy - with Classic skiing. This week we'll continue to solidify our skills balancing on those slippery boards that we silly humans attach to our feet.  Classic skiing is a great way to build skill that is confident and smooth, before we jump on those speedy skate skis.  We'll work on going up hills, turning, and then of course going down those very same hills!  

2. Timeliness - keep crushing it. We'll leave promptly at 3:30 every week - the days are still getting shorter.

3. Groups will be largely the same unless I have contacted you.  We will shuffle some kids this week, and we'll see if that's a better fit.  If so, we'll be in touch!  

4. Hats and mittens - are amazing, just like all you lovely parents who sent their kids in with these.  Keep it up, warm kids like skiing, cold kids just want to go home.

5. Christmas Eve - stay home with your family and practice unwrapping things - like candy?!

-coaches