Alpine men swap skis for skates at intense camp

The U.S. men's alpine team swapped skis for hockey skates and equipment in its latest camp as coaches, looking at opportunities for strong cross-over training, brought in the head coach of the Utah Grizzlies and a former National Hockey League player to organize on-ice workouts designed to payoff when the racers return to snow this winter.
    "Everyone was fired-up to have the camp and we ended up with everyone still being fired-up at the end," two-time Olympian Marco Sullivan said Tuesday as he headed home from the camp. "This next week's definitely going to be a week of rest," he laughed.
PARK CITY, Utah — The U.S. men's alpine team swapped skis for hockey skates and equipment in its latest camp as coaches, looking at opportunities for strong cross-over training, brought in the head coach of the Utah Grizzlies and a former National Hockey League player to organize on-ice workouts designed to payoff when the racers return to snow this winter.
    "Everyone was fired-up to have the camp and we ended up with everyone still being fired-up at the end," two-time Olympian Marco Sullivan said Tuesday as he headed home from the camp. "This next week's definitely going to be a week of rest," he laughed.
    Head coach Phil McNichol and his staff, including speed head coach Chris Brigham and tech head coach Sasha Rearick, got together with U.S. Alpine Director Jesse Hunt and decided on the different approach to conditioning. Hunt, who grew up in Vermont, used hockey drills — good for footwork and balance, and good for quickness in addition to boosting aerobic capacity and body awareness in high-speed motion — when he was SL/GS head coach for four years before becoming program director in the spring of 2002.
    Conditioning drills extended well beyond the skating workouts at Park City's new ice sheet, next to where the U.S. Ski and Snowboard Association is building its Center of Excellence. "The Sports Science staff and conditioning coaches organized a fantastic camp," Brigham said. "The on-ice sessions were intense and we learned some new stuff about recovery at our training facility. We were teaching the boys a few other ways they can work on their recovery" following an intense training session.
    The program included the benefits of going from hot to cold water in showers, recovery sessions on bicycles, sports massage instruction and a Pilates instructor who worked on improving flexibility technique. McNichol said the modality of recovery was body alignment through the Egoscue Method, led by Kyra Ryan, director of the Egoscue Method of Salt Lake City.

Brigham: Recovery options explored
"I don't think our guys ignore [recovery] but they spend so much time on a bike, for instance, so the staff explained some other options … some things they can do in winter on their own," Brigham said.
    But the buzz from the camp dealt with the daily on-ice sessions. Jason Christie, head coach and director of hockey operations for the Utah Grizzlies, a minor league farm team for the New York Islanders, and former National Hockey League player Andre Faust were the coaches. U.S. ski coaches joined the alpine men for the skating and tactics drills.
    "The downhill crew always travels with skates when we're in Europe," Sullivan said, "and we play pickup games every week … Canadians, of course, Swedes, some Finns…
    "There's a rink at just about every stop on the tour, so some of us have skated, but a lot of the guys hadn't. I was really impressed by the improvement of the guys from the first day to the fourth. Guys' skills, their puck handling, stick handling, all of it — there was 100 percent improvement. They even learned how to pass, learned some of the dynamics of hockey.
    "From the coaches' perspective, it was good dryland [training]. It was so exhausting and by the end we were all cooked — I mean," Sullivan continued, "we'd be on the ice about 7 a.m. every day, and then we'd go to the training facility, do recovery work for a couple hours … have some meetings during the day, have different talks, and then go back to the rink in the late afternoon or in the evening." In addition to the conditioning factor, he noted the edge-to-edge technique in skating transfers easily to ski racing as athletes drive their edges in for control and propulsion.
    The camp concluded Monday night with a take-no-prisoners hockey game between the Black and White teams in the first Icemen Cup game. "We probably should have been dressed in black and blue. It got pretty competitive out there," McNichol said. "But it was good team-building, too."
    Tied at 2-2 after two periods, Team White won 5-3 with Hunt scoring a hat trick, i.e., three goals, while McNichol and assistant Europa Cup coach Peter Korfiatis had one each. Paul McDonald had two scores for Team Black with Chris Beckmann getting the other.

Trophy game: Intensity, friendly collisions
"Oh, my God, it was intense," said McDonald, who drove back to his home in the Seattle area when the camp ended. "It got a little aggressive, but everybody had a good time. [No names, please] hit me pretty good at one point, but after a couple of minutes I forgot about it."
    Sullivan, who was a linebacker and captain his senior year at North Tahoe H.S., drew parallels between the hockey game and a World Cup race or his high school football career. "The feelings I had before the game almost were like the anticipation of race day. I played high school football and there was that same game-day intensity. I was feeling that vibe.
    "The intensity definitely was up a notch. There were some words exchanged, and not in friendliness, but at the end we were all laughing about it. In the heat of the moment hockey can be so frustrating and you've got somebody right in your face," he said.
    Rearick was impressed by the energy and enthusiasm from the athletes, who hadn't played much hockey until the camp. "They were at it … good energy, good intensity," he said. "That's what you want to see … good buy-in on a concept. This was outstanding."
    Said McNichol, "The camp was extraordinary. Everybody pushed themselves, coaches included. I can't say enough good things about it. We haven't done this kind of conditioning camp in a number of years. The last one, I think, was the Oceanman camp in San Diego, and that was about 2001 … but this year we felt we needed to bring the guys together and explore team dynamics through conditioning, and the element of working hard together, supporting each other through an arduous process of training and pushing each other's limits.
    "And hockey takes the guys out of their comfort zone. That was important … and we got the payback we wanted," he said.
    "A couple of athletes were injured beforehand, so they did bike work, some pool work … and everybody worked with Keith Henschen, who's a performance sports psychologist; he's worked with the Utah Jazz and U.S. Track & Field as well as U.S. speedskaters, among others. Now the athletes have met him — he was at our April and May sessions and now here. He'll be staying in touch with them, and they know they can use him."
   
While McNichol, Brigham, Sullivan and Erik Schlopy have their own jerseys — complete with their last name across the shoulders, some athletes didn't have even that much gear. Christie brought black or white Griz hockey shirts, so that became the natural division of talent — who was on which team — for the Icemen Cup game.
    The first hockey camp won't be the last, according to McNichol. "Jesse did a hockey program in Lake Placid years back, and we've had a basketball camp with Nike, but we haven't done hockey for a while, and the guys were ready for it. The skating and awareness factors improved five- or six-fold; so, I think we'll do this again, through the next couple of [preseason] cycles.
    "The transfer of skills, and keeping them focused on their real sport, was great," McNichol said. "This camp was everything we wanted."

The teams for the Icemen Cup:
Team Black – Chris Beckmann (Guilderland, NY), Will Brandenburg (Dakota Dunes, SD), Erik Fisher (Middleton, ID), Tim Jitloff (Reno, NV), Nolan Kasper (Warren, VT), Tim Kelley (Starksboro, VT), T.J. Lanning (Park City, UT), Paul McDonald (Bellevue, WA), Andrew Weibrecht (Lake Placid, NY), Jeremy Transue (Hunter, NY), Per Lundstam (USSA strength and conditioning coach), Rewk Patten (World Cup speed coach) and Todd Daniels (men's physical therapist).

Team White – Jimmy Cochran (Keene, NH), Kevin Francis (Bend, OR), Cody Marshall (Pittsfield, VT), Steven Nyman (Provo, UT), Erik Schlopy (Park City, UT), Marco Sullivan (Squaw Valley, CA), Jake Zamansky (Aspen, CO), Jesse Hunt (U.S. alpine director), Phil McNichol (men's head coach), Chris Brigham (speed head coach), Sasha Rearick (tech head coach), Peter Korfiatis (Europa Cup coach) and Ben Black (tech coach).