Top juniors carve spring snow at elite NDS camp

Winter sports are winter in name only. With the Stanley Cup Finals pushing into June, hockey tackles the warm weather. Ski racing won’t bend to the North American climate, either. Even in June, there are race lanes, there are eager athletes, there are coaches with that burning desire to teach.
    The USSA’s National Development System June camp at Mount Hood is prime evidence. The camp, in its fifth year of existence, is running from June 5-15 at Timberline on the famed Oregon peak. About 30 boys and girls ages 15 to 17 from across the country are participating in the invite-only camp.
    “The focus of this camp is to introduce and promote fundamentals of alpine skiing, and we also introduce tactics of alpine skiing,” National Competition Director Walt Evans said Friday in a conference call with four of the NDS camp athletes and NDS coach and recently retired World Cup athlete Jonna Mendes.
WINTER SPORTS are winter in name only. With the Stanley Cup Finals pushing into June, hockey tackles the warm weather. Ski racing won’t bend to the North American climate, either. Even in June, there are race lanes, there are eager athletes, there are coaches with that burning desire to teach.
    The USSA’s National Development System June camp at Mount Hood is prime evidence. The camp, in its fifth year of existence, is running from June 5-15 at Timberline on the famed Oregon peak. Thirty boys and girls ages 15 to 17 from across the country are participating in the invite-only camp.
    The camp is a stepping stone for younger athletes to reach the national development team and, perhaps, the U.S. Ski Team. Will Brandenburg, the 2007 Ski Racing Male Junior Athlete of the Year, attended the inaugural NDS June camp at Timberline in 2003 and has steadily climbed the ranks. He’s now a member of the U.S. B team.
    National Competition Director Walt Evans has assembled a diverse and experienced coaching staff of 13 that includes Alexandra Krebs and recently retired national team member Jonna Mendes.
    “The focus of this camp is to introduce and promote fundamentals of alpine skiing, and we also introduce tactics of alpine skiing,” Evans said Friday in a conference call with Mendes and four of the NDS camp athletes.
    “More than anything, we want them to understand that [these athletes] are their own best coaches. So we’re trying to instill really solid skiing with them and give them a quiver of tools so that if they hit a slump, they know how to pull out of it.”
    Athletes qualified for the camp based primarily on results from key competitions such as Junior Olympics, Whistler Cup and the Topolino races. Athletes born in 1990, 1991 and 1992 are attending this camp. Four standouts — J2 Junior Olympics gold medalists Michael Ankeny (Buck Hill) and Wiley Maple (Aspen) — and Topolino qualifiers and Junior Olympic medalists Rose Caston (Rowmark) and Tracie Kroneberger (Winter Park) — participated in Friday’s conference call as part of media training.
    “The goal here is to instill really solid fundamental skiing and stress to the athletes and their home coaches that repetitive fundamentals will make the athletes better and better and better,” Evans said. “… Frankly, I’m expecting that two or three of these boys and girls will emerge to the world juniors team in March of 2009 which will be hosted in Garmisch. And also, I think, within the next 2-3 years we’ll be moving two to three boys and girls out of this group per year onto our new D team. … I’m very, very proud of the 30 athletes we have here, 18 boys, 12 girls and the 13 staff. They’re doing a great job.”
    And the athletes are excited to be participating in the 10-day camp.
    “It’s great to experience the best coaches and athletes in the country, doing fundamentals and learning the basics,” Caston said.
    “It’s a good opportunity,” Maple said. “Skiing with the best kids in the nation helps everyone ski faster. It’s a true honor to be able to come out here and be with all these kids and coaches.”
    The camp features intensive on-hill training along with education sessions, video analysis, goal-setting sessions and dryland training.
    “My group’s been working a lot on stance and position,” Kroneberger said. “We’ve been doing lot of athletic stance and parallel stance, working on ankles and the alignment of skis, some tiny but important things.”
    Ankeny, a slalom standout from Minnesota who’s participating in his second June NDS camp, said, “The [NDS] camps are getting better as time passes. We’re getting more coaches, people who have experience on the World Cup, like Jonna. Their insight and experience really helps us. Each camp is getting better, more organized, better training conditions. Last [year’s] camp at Copper [Colorado], we worked on tactics more, and fundamentals. I learned how I should approach each course and how each one is different.”
    Ankeny, who won the slalom title at the J2 Junior Olympics at Mount Bachelor in March, said developing more strength through dryland and weight training is a goal this off-season.
    “I know that in order to progress in ski racing, you need to be strong,” he said. “I’m not the biggest guy, so one of my goals is to really work hard in dryland and weight training so I can push further in the sport, get stronger and bigger and be able to go faster.”
    Asked of his progress on that goal, Ankeny replied, “I’m still working on it.”
    Mendes, who’s coaching in her third NDS camp since retiring from the U.S. Ski Team last May, lamented the fact that the NDS wasn’t available when she was climbing the junior ranks.  
    “When I made the national team — it was 11 years ago now — we had regional programs that were helpful in getting small-town kids up and onto the national team, but nothing nearly as wonderful and impressive as the NDS,” she said.  
    Friday was the third day on snow at Hood for the NDS campers. Evans said a Friday night video session would focus on carving and transition. “We’re finding that one key element is the way they’re changing edges between turns.”
    Video, Mendes said, is one of the things that has changed the most in the past decade. “When I started, we would watch video on a tiny little screen and mostly use it off the hill. We’d train all day and at the end of the day sit in front of the TV and the coaches hoped we went home and thought about it. Now we can shoot a run and show them what they’re doing well, and they can see that right away. That helps them get it in their heads and get more out of their skiing.”