First!

Chippin' Away

      One step at a time and you'll get there.

Mmmm...

Some of My Favorite Shots of 2010 from Evan Heath on Vimeo.

So fresh and So clean

No! Weightlifting is not bad for kids. Done properly, the neurological and neuromuscular gains will benefit the growing athlete immeasurably.

Find out how and why at Conditioning.

(Weightlifting the sport is different than weight lifting, the sport is much better)

Happy Century Post!

100 Posts! Detroit What!

A centennial in anything deserves a celebration in something.


It's a celebration!

Please send me two pictures of your athlete(s) skiing. One a 'before ski team' and the other an 'after ski team' picture. Embarrass your kids as much as possible. The pictures showing the best improvement (or funniest) will win a goodie bag and a free ski tune. Send them to my email please.

La Niña!

Seasonal Outlook

Hopefully she produces.

Dryland Games

Dryland Games will take place in early November! Stay tuned for details.

Anyone can compete, even non-team members.

Get ready for the First Annual Sundance Dryland Games! Kids will compete for a chance to win a grand prize. We'll be throwing out free swag like Skullcandy head phones, t-shirts, hats, stickers, goggles, gloves, and other accessories.

Below is a list of the exercises that we'll do. The athlete with the highest number of points wins the grand prize. Points are accumulated by number of reps and where they finish in the other exercises that don't have reps, e.g. 1st place in the 50 m dash gets 50 points.

Bonus exercises like the muscle up and handstand push-ups earn 10x's the points!

Max nonstop pull-ups:
Max nonstop push-ups:
Max nonstop sit-ups:
Max nonstop squats:
Max Handstand Push-ups: Worth 10x's the points!
Max Planch Push-ups (real):Worth 10x's the points!
Longest L-sit:
Max Dips:
Fastest 50m dash:
Fastest Agility Ladder:
Fastest Hex:
Max Non-stop box jumps in 30 sec:
Highest Vertical Leap:
Longest Broadjump:
Max Muscle-ups: Worth 10x's the points!

Hope you're ready! Tell your friends.

Ski Time

Ian Provo / Coast Edit 2009 from Ian Provo on Vimeo.

Want to be a better athlete? Come check out Ski Team Conditioning starting the first week in November. It goes on every weekday from 4-5. Guaranteed to improve.

Flexibility//

One of the most important of the ten general physical skills is flexibility. It is often the most overlooked and forgotten. Most people disregard flexibility as a waste of time because they feel like they don't need it.

Wrong.

Flexibility has traditionally been taught as a means of preventing injury, and only to prevent injury. It does this, but that's not all it's for. Short muscles prevent our bodies from using their natural leverage to generate the most power efficiently. Let's look at the hamstrings. Often the shortest muscle with the greatest impact on power, speed, strength, endurance, agility, balance, and getting hurt.

The hamstrings involve two joints: the hip and the knee. This is important because most of the typical musculoskeletal complaints involving the knee, hip, or even back typically have short hamstrings. This is because when you do hip based movements (jumping, skiing, any sport) the consequences will be felt on the knee because the hip is taking up slack in the hamstring and stealing length from the knee, and vice verse.

There's the injury aspect of flexibility. Now think of that stretching and pulling on joints and transfer it to other muscles. Take the quadriceps. They are the muscles that stabilize the pelvis and knees and extend our legs when we do squats. However, this should be the main job of the hamstrings through hip extension. Our quads take over because they are compensating for the shortness in our hamstrings. This is exactly like driving around with the parking brake on.

Here's a quick test: Sit on a table with the back of your knees against the corner. Keep your back straight and raise one leg. Can you get to full extension without rounding your lower back? Can you raise both legs without rounding? Probably not.

Here's the fix:
Stretch often
It's ideal to stretch after the workout
You can stretch anytime, really.
Use the contract and release cycle in all your stretches. Ask me if you don't know

Here are a few great stretches:
Lie on back use a towel, or rope, or partner to bring one leg up (either straight or bent at knee) Athletic range is 80-85 degrees before it starts lifting hip off ground

Samson Stretch
Wall Walk
Weighted Pike
Squat - butt to ankles, jump out from bottom
Romanian Deadlifts
Good Mornings

Ask me if you don't know!

3.2.1... GO!

DRYLAND**

Team Jackets

Send your jacket size to Tyson if you need a new one or are new to the team. If you have an old one that's too small, please get it to Tyson as well. If you would like to sell a team jacket, get it to Tyson as well.

Thank you!