Gym sesh, a social, and some skiing!

Hello All!

I hope that everyone has had a wonderful start to their week, if not, just remember that our winter break is just around the corner! Over the past two days we have had some seriously fun activities including another trip to Green Mountain Gymnastics (GMG), a J3 social hosted by the Schoepke family, and our first day on GS skis spent on the Spruce side of the resort, aka some great time in the sun.

The fun started on Monday with a trip to GMG in Williston following a delicious lunch at the academy prepared by the new academy chef, Jeff. The group of athletes had grown since the last time we went to the gym, so we were divided into two groups consisting of the newcomers, and the moderately experienced crew. While the newcomers were learning how to tumble, (literally crash tactics for when a maneuver goes wrong) the experienced crew was able to jump around on the trampolines for a while. After completing as many flips as their hearts desired, the experienced crew began a series of workouts involving the trampolines and a whole lot of oxygen. Once the newcomers had gone through all of the necessary training procedures, both groups began to entertain themselves in the foam pit.

Just before our Warm up

The tumble station

Its much tougher than it looks!

Everyone walked out of GMG with a grin spreading from ear to ear as a platoon of miniature gymnasts (probably ages 5-10) soon replaced us on the floor. we then began the journey back to Stowe for an evening at the Schoepke house. Everyone enjoyed a wonderful dinner prepared by Mrs. Schoepke, which was shortly followed up by some serious dance competitions as athletes competed one on one in "Just Dance 3" on the Nintendo Wii system. It was an incredible afternoon, but athletes had to return to the academy just in time for the dreaded study hall.

A little appetizer action

Team dinner

Grant and Connor dancin' away!

Today was an interesting one as athletes took out their GS skis for the first time since we have been back in the East. Coaches noticed some old habits starting to come out in the warm up runs, so we began the session with a progression passed on and developed for everyday use. The progression starts with very minimal speeds with skidded turns and slowly increases through a series of different drills to full speed arcing down the trail. Everyone began to get a better feel for the larger radius turns demanded by their GS skis as the progression came to an end.

Checkin' out the Demo

Sandra and Evelyn- No one will be forgetting their snow pants anytime soon!

I know this was a slightly long one, but there was just so much going on that I had to describe a little bit of everything!

Until next time!