Hi everyone!

1st I’d like to thank the parents who helped with fencing Lower Alley Cat last Saturday morning! Special thanks to John Guzzi, Dusty, Charles Gagnon, Tara Mann, Marius Stanescu, Jane Smith, Michael Leifer, and Brian Weinberg. It was probably the smoothest and quickest GS setup I’ve experienced at Catamount!!! And thanks to Ken & Kenny Tingley for their help in breaking down. Because of their help, I was able to give the kids video analysis in the timing shack at the bottom of Catamount at the end of the day.

This coming Saturday, any racer not going to championships should meet me in the Taconic Lodge at 8:30 without their boots on. We will watch a couple of videos and then head out focusing on personal skiing and technique (Please bring your SL skis but no need for chin bars or armor). There will be video analysis for each racer and we will spend the day doing many of the drills that we didn’t do this season due to the late start and lack of time.

Unfortunately I have a conflict on Sunday as my older son Harry has an All County Orchestra performance at SUNY Purchase so I won’t be able to be there on our last day of training. The U16’s will be training GS on Lower Alley Cat and Interclub will be setting up a fun Kombi course on Catamount. I will leave it up to each racer where and what they would like to focus on on Sunday. I’ve arranged with the coaches to expect your racers.

Thanks again for a great season! It was wonderful working with and getting to know your kids. I saw a tremendous amount of improvement this season in every single racer. Some racers learned how to clear SL gates, some learned to make pole plants, some learned to shin stubbies, some learned how to carve, some learned how to separate their upper and lower body, some improved their inspection techniques at races, some improved their race “mental” game. Many times learning a new skill comes with a temporary slower time. Don’t let it get you down. Frustration is a natural and sometimes necessary step in our learning process. It often provides us with motivation to change our movement patterns. I’m already looking forward to next season so we can improve even more!

Let’s not forget to thank Peter Chudy with his tireless help (and $!!!) in getting us capes, TV’s, Apple TV’s for video analysis and apparel! Dusty and Charles for their constant help every day of training. And Steve Adams and the mountain in making sure that we get the trails, snow and equipment that we need every training session. A lot of coordination goes on behind the scenes so that we can get the best training possible.

And finally special thanks to Coaches Peter Cross, Sonia Tatlock-Gagnon and Chris Cashen. It’s been an awesome season working with you!!!

Have a great “Off Season” and “ski you later!”

Coach Pat