EISA Fall Meeting

My first EISA meeting was surprisingly worthwhile. We met at the OTC in Lake Placid on Monday for a technique session with USST coaches Matt Whitcomb and Pete Vordenberg - they shared some of the drills and cues that they've been using with their athletes, and gave us a little feedback on our own skiing as well. This was fun - most coaches don't often have the chance to have others critique their technique. I don't necessarily agree with these guys on every single element of technique, but the basics are pretty similar regardless of one's philosophy, and this session gave me some new ideas and perspectives. I've been impressed by the dedication and openness of the USST coaches - these guys pretty much live their jobs, and I'm sure that they could have found other things to do with a few spare hours in the middle of a training camp. They chose to work with us instead, and I appreciate that.

Tuesday's meeting was a little less interesting but included some noteworthy developments. The one thing that will affect our team most is a change in the NCAA qualification process. The old system had skiers qualifying based on points scored in their best two races in a single technique. In the new system, we'll combine the points scored in the best two races of BOTH techniques (four scoring races total). This will require more consistency and versatility from the skiers, which I think is a good thing. I would have preferred to make this change next spring, because I like to take my time to discuss these things more thoroughly, but I think it's a good change nonethless. It'll work to our advantage, too - I expect our skiers to be strong in both techniques throughout the entire season rather than popping a couple good races in January and then disappearing.