EVERYONE:

1. Attendance form: do this EVERY week!

2. Training plan: you know where to find this now, right?! Please make sure you’re reading the right row for your group. We’ve got funky practice times for some of the older kids this vacation week!

3. Slack: if you still don’t know how this is working, please holler at us and we’ll help you.

4. Waxing skis: head on over to this blog post to learn more. There’s so much more to learn always!
   
   
   

JUNIORS:

1. Please work on your timeliness for these vacation week practices. We know it’s hard to get here after school for many of you, but there’s not really that excuse this week, and we’re giving you a half hour more than we usually do for morning practices! It sucks for your teammates who ARE on time to wait around for you to start practices.

U14s:

1. Keep crushing. We’re so impressed with the focus and determination of this group!

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. Stay tuned re: Sunday: we wanna classic ski more than we’ve gotten to… we’re just waiting for the weather to cooperate so y’all don’t get mad about klistering (though we know that some of you love klister, as do we, if we’re being honest).

2. Ollie’s about to ditch you for a week: next weekend Ollie’s heading out to Utah to support the GRP + some of the juniors at US Nationals. After Thursday you’ll be in the capable hands of Rick, Anna, and possibly others.

BIATHLON:

1. Double-check the schedule this week: we’ve moved some things around to take advantage of vacation week and to try not to have practices in the dark.

2. Classic + biathlon: generally it’s okay to do biathlon practice on your classic skis, if that’s what the schedule calls for. The exception is when you have sticky wax on that will get all over the mats!

CATAMOUNTS:

1. This group CAN SKI!  We coaches are so impressed with the tenacity and skill in our Catamounts this year!  GREAT adventures are in the works! We'll classic ski for one more week, and really fine tune everyone so that our time on skate skis next week feels successful.

2. Hats, mittens, timeliness - you are all crushing it!

3. Attendance form - thanks for filling this out each week, it really helps our planning! It's always on the bottom of this page.

4. We thoroughly enjoy our jobs and your children, thank you for being part of our programming this season!

5. Poles - a handful of kids have accidentally swapped poles.  At the end of every practice we play games without our poles, and we try to place them in our pole circles - nice and organized, and pretty like a snowflake.  Despite our best intentions, when it's time to "find your poles and your parents" inevitably excitement takes over and poles are swapped.  Please check the names on the poles at your house and make sure they are the ones you rented or own.  IF not, we can sort it out at practice this week, let us coaches know!

Great first week, everyone! This week:  

-coaches