SL Camp, Fall 2011
Mark George cuts through the fog on the steep pitch of Cameron.
On Friday, 12/23 about 18 New England Masters racers (plus a handful of fast-skiing friends and family) showed up at the Snowbowl for a day of SL to benefit the Middlebury Ski Team. The weather was warmish with intermittent snow and fog, and the conditions underfoot on Cameron were soft—perfect for building up the ruts.
Stever, Abbey and the assistant coaches did an awesome job of setting two courses. An upper warm up course on the flat, and a challenging full-length course that started on the top of the pitch.
The technology they’re using now at Midd is in a word, unbelievable. Video of course, but this year the video is wirelessly and instantly transferred to an iPad which is decked out in the latest special-ops weather-proof case (so cool). So now, when you finish your run, your instant feedback includes not only your time, but also your video! Thought you had your hands up and in front? Right or wrong, there’s the proof.
But wait, there’s more… Are you hip to Sprongo? At the end of the day, all the videos are uploaded to sprongo.com where you can check out your run and play with slow motion, or side-by-side analysis with any of the other races that day. The coaches can even add drawings and comments to any of the frames in the video.
I heard the coaches field a ton of questions from the Masters, and the consensus seems to be that there was much gained from this early-season training opportunity.
Looking forward to the GS camp in March!
Jeff Rubin
