Guest Ghostrider Posted July 21, 2004 Report Share Posted July 21, 2004 Anybody have any tips or tricks they use for setting up a good gs or sl practice course? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ncermak Posted July 21, 2004 Report Share Posted July 21, 2004 The USSA ski coaching clinic/certifications give many good tips. Although designed for skiing, As usual, they can be adapted to our needs. Other than that. beginners should use a rope to measure the distance between gates, following the USASA or USSA guidelines. Also, take the time to look up the course as well as down the course. and finally, bring an experienced course setter along with you and talk about what you are dong and why. And of course, most importantly, Think about the fall zones as well as the race line. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rambo Posted July 21, 2004 Report Share Posted July 21, 2004 Hey Ghost rider How are you doing? I met you at one of the races at boyne or nubs this past year I was the "old Guy" riding the coilers. Did you buy gates? I was planning getting some to train with this year. ware are you planning on racing next year. since the new people took over the middle earth series I understand that they are not going to offer sl and gs? Later Rambo Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Ghostrider Posted July 21, 2004 Report Share Posted July 21, 2004 Hey Rambo! I havent bought them yet, but I am planning on getting a full set before the snow guns fire up. I was hoping to maybe set up something like a weekly wed. night race down here at Timberridge. Weve got a few ex-racers down in the kzoo area that seem to be coming out of the woodwork. They were busy having kids and doing other grown up stuff like that in the past few years... But I heard about the middle earth take over, and I actually have talked briefly to the new director about a few options to keep the races going. I was just made the USCSA midwest snowboard rep this last year, so I've been hoping to team up the USASA and USCSA together to offer a Saturday or Sunday race (i'd like to get pgs) each weekend up north (probably mostly at Crystal Mt.) with different racing groups so us 30 or so college riders can race for uscsa stuff and usasa points and the other usasa people could still have a fun day with us. It seems like it would be a good attraction to me for the resorts because there would be 200 ski racers also racing on the same days (but different hill)... Do you know how to get in touch with most those guys that were at the Nubs race? Because I would definately want to invite them all to come run gates on whatever night timberridge lets us even if the asa stuff falls through. I have also talked with bittersweet in the past about racing there, but its expensive and they have a few shady bi-laws about racing (such as every racer must buy a season pass) that would need to be worked out. However, if we have a good group of people who will actually show up and race, that would be a better hill since its about twice as long as timberridges hill and actually has a little varying terrain. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
philfell Posted July 23, 2004 Report Share Posted July 23, 2004 When setting a course consistancy, rythem and flow are extremely important, espically since most of the events we race are almost all parrell. If you haven't set alot of courses it is extremely helpful to have a rope with the meters marked on it (22m is about average for G.S., and 10m-12m is average for Sl). The problem with a rope is that it gets tangled and you need an extra person working the other end so it ends up taking longer than it should, but it is helpful your first couple times out. The easiest way is to set on skies not a problem if you are coaching, but if you are setting for your own training this probably isn't mush of a option unless you ride in ski boots. With skies you are get around the hill easier and use your skies to measure the distance between turns (have one ski across the hill and one in the fall line like and upside down T. Touch your drill to the snow next to the tail of your ski, then slide down untill your tip is next to the mark in the snow the mark the snow where your tail is now. Repeat until you have your desired spacing). When I set on my snowboard I usually do the splits (put my back foot in the snow slide my board downhill, one split, bring my rear foot back next to my board then slide my board downhill, two splits, etc.) You don't know exactly how many meters your spacing is but you know the turn are similar and you can make rythem changes easier. It's really hard to just "eye ball" your spacing, you usually end up with a course with no rythem and isn't fun to run. The best way to learn is to just go out and set and run your courses you'll find out what works and what sucks soon enough. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tilledog Posted July 24, 2004 Report Share Posted July 24, 2004 Hey Phil, I knew you'd bust in on this one. Hope your summer's going well. Drop me a line sometime. Dave Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
derm75 Posted July 25, 2004 Report Share Posted July 25, 2004 not exactly on topic but does anyone know of weekly/biweekly/whatever groups where you can practice running gates in the Summit County, CO area? I'd be more likely to enter a race if I could get some practice running gates once in a while, it's been a few years. Jeremy Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Coldrider Posted July 25, 2004 Report Share Posted July 25, 2004 Both <a href="http://www.skiclubvail.org/" target="http://www.skiclubvail.org/">Ski Club Vail</a> and <a href="http://www.teamsummit.org" target="http://www.teamsummit.org">Team Summit</a> offer snowboard race training on a regular basis. Although their programs primarily target young competitiors, my understanding is that they are happy to accomodate any athlete interested in developing their racing skills and work out a training schedule to meet individual needs. Hope this helps. Cheers, COLDrider Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Ghostrider Posted July 25, 2004 Report Share Posted July 25, 2004 I trained a bit with Vail last season. I was one of the older ones at 20 years old, but it was still great and they were a big help since they set courses often. Last I knew, Ben Boyd was running the snowboard stuff there. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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