Good Afternoon:
The following athletes have NOT stated their race intentions for Jan 23. Please do so today. Thanks. Mark https://www.mplsalpineski.org/jan-23-2021-hyland-race-intentions.html Abel Addy V. Arbeiter Asbury Bergman Bitney Bitney Bruzek Bunay Collins Cumming Dahmes Dresen Erickson Fernandez Foy J. Gustafson Hartzell Hartzell Hedrick Heindl S. Isensee C. Johnson M. Johnson S. Jorgenson Jurek Jurek Katle B. Krueger Krueger-Wolfe Lamosse Layon Lindseth Luepker Marsten Maurice F. McConville Moldow O. Mueller V. Mueller Nahas Nechville-Gray Nelson Pulkrabek Smith II L Spanier S. Svedahl E. Vahhaji S. Vahhaji Voyakin Good Evening Everyone: We had a wonderful evening for a race at Wild Mt tonight. Race results are attached. Congratulations to Oliver Mueller for his very dominant victory on the boys' side and to Erik Arnold, who finished on the podium in third. The boys placed 9 in the top 15 which was very good considering how few gates you have smashed this season. Congratulations are in order to Gabby Harritt, our top female skier who finished in 6th place. Hill-Murray scored some fast times tonight and gave us a butt kicking in the team scoring. However you have only been in gates for 1 to 2 days so don't think twice about tonight's results. I expected tonight's results. I saw good skiing from my perch in the start tonight. You will get faster. Your timing will come. Your technique will continue to improve with hard work and focus. I'm excited to get back to work with you tomorrow. Watch the progressions on Instagram. Focus in on understanding the drills and what they are trying to accomplish. Set one or two technical goals for yourselves this week. Share your goals with your coaches and ask them to help you achieve them. A big thank you to all the parents who drove, worked the race and cheered you on . Thank you to the coaches. We ran a good race tonight. I appreciate all the help. Mark
MAST Update 18 Sunday, January 17, 2021 Dear MAST Athletes, Families and Coaches: We had a very successful first week of training. Enthusiasm was high. Effort was spectacular. We focused on learning the fundamental skills of making a perfectly carved turn. Thank you to all the coaches who were able to make it to the hill this week and get everyone off to a great start. We will continue to work extremely hard at mastering the fundamentals while also testing them in courses this week. You will see a lot of ‘stubby’ courses in the days ahead. You will be asked to do the same drills you have been learning and practicing in our directed free skiing sessions but now in a stubby course: hands on hips, palms together drill, outside ski to outside ski, pole jumpers, clap behind the back, and so many more. You are so lucky to ski on MAST because you will get really good at this sport. But you have to do the drills and learn to LOVE THEM. So far, REALLY good! Team Goal: I am setting three goals for everyone on the team. By Saturday’s race, I want everyone to be able to:
Monday, Jan 18 Race @ Wild Mt 4:30PM Start-- arrive with boots on between 2:45 and 3PM. Meet in front of the chalet to pick up your bib and meet the coaches. ---AND--- Monday, Jan 18 5:00-7:15PM. Junior Varsity Training All Pods. Lanes 2, 3, 4, 5. Bring Rope Tow Gloves. Meet on Lanes 2, 3. Tuesday, Jan. 19. Hyland Training 3:30-5:30PM Pods 10, 11, 12 Lanes 5, 6 5:00-7:15PM Pods 9, 10 Lanes 5, 6, 8. Meet on South Chair @ 5:00 6:30-8:45PM Pods 7, 8 Lane 6 Meet on South Chair @6:30. Bring Rope Tow Gloves and Shin Guards Wednesday, Jan. 20. Hyland Training 3:30-5:30PM Pods 10, 11, 12 Lanes C, B 5:00-7:15PM Pods 9, 10 Lanes C, B. Meet on South Chair @ 5:00 6:30-8:45PM Pods 7, 8 Lane C, B. Meet on South Chair @6:30. Bring Shin Guards Thursday, Jan. 21. Hyland Training. 3:30-5:30PM Pods 10, 11, 12 Lanes 2, 3 5:00-7:15PM Pods 9 Lanes 2 Meet on South Chair @ 5:00 6:30-8:45PM Pods 7, 8 Lane 2 Meet on South Chair @6:30. Bring Shin Guards Friday, Jan. 22. Hyland Training. 3:30-5:30PM Pods 10, 11, 12 Lanes 5, 6 5:00-7:15PM Pods 7, 8, 9 Lanes 5, 6 Meet on South Chair @ 5:00 Bring Rope Tow Gloves and Shin Guards Saturday, Jan. 23. RACE DAY 7:45AM-10AM Junior Varsity Race Lanes 1, 2 Meet on North Chair 9:30-Noon Varsity Race Lanes 1, 2 Meet on Center Chair II. Adjustments for Week Three and Some Reminders After a week of adjusting to the reality of skiing during a pandemic, heavy crowds, and a closed chalet, we are going to make one adjustment to the schedule. Pod 10 athletes can chose to attend either the 3:30 practice with Pods 11 and 12 or the 5:00 practice with Pod 9 (except on the dates when only one lane is assigned at the 5PM time slot.). This will even out our numbers between the two practice times. For all practices, please note where you are to meet your coaches at the start time. For most practices, athletes attending the 5 and 6:30 practices will meet on the South Chair. Please carefully view the MAST Instagram Progression each day so you can get started on your drills as soon as you reach the summit. That way, you don’t need to listen to Mark drone on and on about which drill to perform and how to perform it. III. Wild Mountain Race: Monday, Jan 18--Additional Details Attached is a Jan 18 Race Plan and Run Orders. I encourage parents to make copies of the run orders so you can follow the race. Note that there is a First Run Run Order and a Second Run Run Order. I still don’t have Wild Mt Liability Releases from the following athletes. [If you dropped your waiver in my mailbox (yesterday or today) I haven't been home yet to retrieve it. Heading there tonight.] Abel Claeson Isensee Jurek and Jurek Jurek Lamb Lamosse MacKimm Mueller Noble-Schuler Renz Svedahl The RELEASE is attached. Please fill it out, sign it and scan it. Email it back to me tonight at markrobertconway58@gmail.com. If you are unable to scan it tonight, be sure to bring it to the hill tomorrow. PARENTS: WE NEED GATE JUDGES and a STARTER. We have volunteers signed up to maintain the course, but we still need a minimum of three gate judges and a STARTER. Gate judges can hike up or be on skis. There are only 36 skiers in each race (boys and girls) so it will not take long. The STARTER is on a head set with Timing. The job is easy to learn and fun. You will see the top half of the course and get to be a part of the action. My wife has filled this role the last four years at Sections and loved it. You will tell the Timer the bib number of the race in the start gate and when the Timer instructs you to send the racer, you issue the Start Commands: "READY....GO." Please send me an email if you can gate judge OR fill the Starter role. If you work the race, MAST will purchase your lift ticket. Parent Lift Ticket Requests Here are the names of families that requested a parent/sibling lift ticket: Arbeiter-1 Arnold-2 Bitney-1 Cumming-1 Ehlers-1 Wedren-1 If anyone volunteers to gate judge, I will cancel your ticket order. Coaches at Wild: Mark Conway Daniel Polland Paige Alampi Kirsten Moertel Jeff Hemer Dane Hartzell Everyone: if your name is missing or you would like to make a change, please email before 9am tomorrow. A reminder for everyone to read and know the Wild Mt COVID-19 protocols. IV. January 23 Race at Hyland If you haven't done so already, please be sure to STATE YOUR INTENTIONS to race or not race in the race at Hyland on Saturday, January 23. The deadline to do so is Tuesday, Jan 19. The JV race will begin at 8:45am and the Varsity race will begin at 10:30AM. Look for a second email with a link to sign up to volunteer as a race worker. Thanks everyone. Mark Conway 612-275-8392
Apparel is in and ready for pickup. Thank you, Gail & Melissa!
Pickup: Sunday, January 17th, Noon-2p Melissa Harritt's house: 326 W Minnehaha Pkwy, 55419 Please email Melissa with questions, mharritt@icloud.com. GO MAST! MAST Update 17.1 Wednesday, January 13, 2021 Dear MAST Athletes, Families and Coaches: I. Training tonight, Wednesday, January 13th:
II. Wild Mountain racers - UPDATE Details for Monday, January 18th race are below. We are still waiting to hear from Wild on our race hill. Racers:
Racers & Parents:
Mark Conway 612-275-8392
MAST Update: RACING in 2021 Tuesday, January 12, 2021 Dear MAST Athletes, Coaches, Families: First, you might have received a MAST Calendar that indicated we had a race this Saturday morning, January 16. We do not have a race. We will have practice though: 7:45-10:15: Pods 10, 11, 12 9:30am-12:15am: Pods 7, 8, 9. Meet on Center Chair at 9:30am. If you are late, you may find us on South Chair until 10:15 when we will move to Lanes 1, 2. Second, we DO have a VARSITY race on Monday at Wild Mt. More on that in a bit. Race Schedule and The Need to “State Your Race Intentions” Due to Covid, we are limited by the MSHSL in the number of athletes that can race per course (36) and the number of teams (3). So, for each race on the calendar, 36 boys and 36 girls will be racing. We have two races scheduled at Wild Mt, both against Hill-Murray. We have a number of races scheduled at Hyland on either Friday afternoon/evening or Saturday morning. You can see from the schedule that we have both a JV and a Varsity race schedule on each date. Once the first race is over and all the competing athletes have left the premises, we will hold the second race. We are in the process of working with other high schools to bring in some competition at these races. We may switch the order around yet so don’t get too locked into whether the Varsity is racing at 4:30 or 7:00 on Fridays, or 8:30 or 10:30 on Saturdays. We also may move up the second start times should we discover that the races go more quickly than anticipated. For each scheduled race, every athlete needs to STATE YOUR INTENTION TO RACE OR NOT RACE. If you do not state your intention, you will not be on the race run order and you will not get to race. You also need to state your intention by the race entry deadline. Why do you need to do this? A lot of work goes into organizing a race. For instance, we need to create a race run order. We only want people listed on the run order who are actually going to show up and race. This makes races run much more smoothly and quickly. If you are not planning on racing, you still need to state your intention to NOT race. This is just a courtesy to your hard-working coaching staff, so we aren’t sitting around guessing about what your plans are. You can state your race intentions by using the form that can be found on our website. Look for the TRAINING AND RACING header. Then click on the drop-down header titled RACE DAY SIGN UP. You will see a button for each race day listed on our calendar. Just click on the race date and the Race Intention Form for that race date will appear. Fill it out and click submit. Here is a link to make it really easy for you: State Your Race Intentions Here January 18th Race at Wild Mt against Hill-Murray The invitation to race at Wild Mt is extended to the athletes listed in the spreadsheet that is attached. If your name is listed, please state your race intentions for the January 18th Wild Mt Race. With only one practice under our belts, we had to select the athletes to invite to the first race from results from last season. We are racing Hill-Murray, a tough competitor from Section IV. Washburn girls should be fired up to face them. You will not have had much time in gates beforehand, but don’t let this worry you. The Hill-Murray athletes have not either and they do not have the advantage of having been training virtually during ‘the pause’. You have the head start even without dozens of hours in gates this year. One problem we have this year: Transportation. I do not want our athletes and coaches riding a bus together. The drive to Wild is long and I just don’t think that would be a safe trip for us to make together yet. Consequently, we need you to ride with your parents or with your parent’s permission, another parent—preferably a family you already car-pool with regularly. The Race Intentions Form will ask you how you are getting to Wild Mt. Please fill this out. If you can’t get a ride, let us know that as well. Finally, please look at the Instagram post each day before practice so that you know which drills we will be doing and how to do them. After practice, watch them again. Try to figure out how you can perform the drill better. We need the athletes to take control of your development. Standing around explaining each drill is not a good use of time and it is difficult to do outdoors with a mask on and with the large groups we have. And I almost forgot: go one-at-a-time down the hill. Single file. I don't want any collisions out there. Thanks, Mark
MAST Update 17 Sunday, January 10, 2021 Dear MAST Athletes, Families and Coaches: It is time! Practice begins tomorrow. Please come to practice during your Training Pod’s scheduled time. For tomorrow, meet at the top of Lanes 4 and 5. I encourage you to bring rope tow gloves (leather chopper or gloves). You will get in many more runs by using the rope tow. Attached is a map that roughly outlines the lanes for you If you are not following MAST on Instagram, follow us at @mplsalpineski. I will post the drills we will be utilizing each practice on Instagram first thing each morning at the latest. Watch the drills before practice so you know what drills to do, how to do them and how many. This will free up the coaches to give feedback. Here are the drills we will introduce tomorrow. You can also watch all the drill on Sprongo in the Drills For Skills Playlist. Fundamental Skills Training Week 2-Day 1 Monday Jan 11 Skills Emphasis:
# of Runs/Movements/Drills 2--Wedge Turns 2--Downhill Traverse In Parallel Position 2--Edge Sets 3-- Garlands 3--Garlands Linked With Passive Pressure 3--Javelin Turns 3--Outside Ski to Outside Ski (Inside Ski Raised from Transition to Transition) 3--Wide Track Turns (Gorilla Turns) 3--Railroad Track Turns with Parallel Shins 3--Outrigger Drill Attached is an updated schedule. Throw out any previous calendars that I might have sent. Know that this one may change. Again, your grade level is your pod assignment. So ...if you are in grade 8, you are in Pod 8. Mark Conway 612-275-8392
Good Evening MAST Skiers:
1. MAST is assigned lanes 3 and 4 tomorrow (Friday during the 3-5:15 and 5:15-7:00 lane assignment times.) Wayzata is switching lane assignments with MAST tomorrow during the 5:15-7:00 time slot. So, from 3-5, MAST skiers should ski on lanes 3 and 4. From 5-7, ski on lanes 1 and 2. 2. Tonight, Mr. Beckett Wedren was faithfully and intensely executing drills that required him to leave his poles on the top of the lane. Unfortunately, his poles went missing and a shorter pair of poles remained. His missing poles are Leki brand, 115cm, green tape around the bottom of the handle, name and phone number are printed on the poles. PLEASE CHECK YOUR POLES TO MAKE SURE YOU HAVE YOUR POLES. If you might have inadvertently taken the wrong poles, aka, Beckett's poles, please let him know immediately so he can sleep restfully tonight. Here is Beckett's contact information: 612-275-0589. 3. Please continue using the drill progressions on Instagram to self direct your technical skills development. Now this may not be the place or time to do this, but I do need to express a bit of frustration? Hurt maybe? Confusion perhaps? Everyday I post 8-10 brilliant short video clips to Instagram. Each clip features a perfectly demonstrated drill, beautiful cinematography, brilliantly timed editing, eloquent descriptive narrative--- all meant to enhance your skills, broaden your experience, deepen your well of wisdom, enlighten your heart, and fill you with the joy of making a perfectly carved turn by the time you are 18 years old. Being new to Instagram, I have become--admittedly-- a bit obsessed by one of its tantalizing features: THE LIKE BUTTON. With each post, I wait--paralyzed--in hope that this is the day we break .... out of the low teens. To pour salt into this wound of neglect, my dear son Luke posts a selfie of his smiling face from a chairlift at Bridger Bowl today AND HE RACKS UP 298 LIKES IN ABOUT 5 MINUTES. And to give the arrow one more twist into my already aching heart, many of those likes came from MAST skiers. WHHHAAAATTTT?!?! Don't you know that some of those teeth he is showing off aren't even real. I should know. His mother and I paid for them. Come on Folks! These progressions could change your life? Where is the love I ask? And yet... we carry on. Continuing to give one life-altering drill at a time. Putting it out there for you with selfless love. Everyday. Receiving nothing in return EXCEPT the hope that someday, you too, will be riding a chair at age 18, at an elevation of 8000 feet at Bridger Bowl or Big Sky or Grand Targhee or maybe, like Elsa at 3000 feet at Stratton Mt in Vermont, with a foot of fresh powder awaiting your perfectly carved turns. Maybe you'll send a selfie and you'll get 298 likes, and then... finally then...you will remember who liked you first. So, no likes needed. Just get good enough so you can't not smile on a chairlift in the mountains on a powder day. See you Monday. Can't wait. Mark. PS. Make sure you are following MAST on Instagram. @mplsalpineski Your smile will get brighter. MAST Update 16 Tuesday, January 5, 2020 Dear MAST Athletes, Families and Coaches: As you know, MPS has delayed the start of winter sports until January 11. This means that the coaches cannot hold in-person training. We can, however, continue to provide you with skill building progressions via Instagram that will allow you to self-direct your training. You have a season pass and you are welcome to use it. MAST has also been assigned training lanes by Hyland. If you are going to ski, I encourage you to use the lanes. This gives you safe space to practice your drills. All other lanes on the north chair will be occupied by other clubs and high school teams. The center and south chairs will be busy with lessons and the general public. In other words, not a lot of room to ski other than on our assigned lanes so please use them if you are going skiing this week. If they don’t get used, Hyland will ask us to forfeit the lanes. I don’t want this to happen. Attached is a map that roughly outlines the lanes for you. Do NOT ski in another team’s lanes. That is not safe to do. Listed below is the lane schedule for the week. You will see that the lane assignment times do not correspond with our published practice times. This is because -under normal conditions -our practice times overlap with Hyland’s lane assignment times. Normally, we start practice on the south chair with directed free skiing and then move to our lanes for gate training. This allows us to have overlapping practice times. As one group is finishing up with gate training, the next group is warming up and working on technical skills on another hill. For this week, you can do all your self-directed free skiing in our assigned lanes during the times listed. I encourage you to go during your assigned pod’s training time, but you are free to go whenever you wish this week. So, if you are in pods 7 or 8, you are welcome to use lanes 3 and 4 at 6:30 when practice would normally begin. Next week when we start in-person coach led training, you will need to attend at your assigned pod’s training slot, and we will likely be asking you to start on the south chair. Tuesday 3:00-5:15: Lane 3, 4. Pods 11 and 12. 5:15-7:00: Lanes 3, 4. Pods 9, 10. 7:00-9:00: Lane 4. Pods 7, 8. Wednesday 3:00-5:15: Lanes A, B. Pods 11, 12. 5:15-7:00: Lanes A, B. Pods 9, 10. 7:00-9:00: Lanes A, B. Pods 7, 8. Thursday 3:00-5:15: Lane 6, 7. Pods 11 and 12. 5:15-7:00: Lanes 6, 7. Pods 9, 10. 7:00-9:00: Lanes 7. Pods 7, 8. Friday 3:00-5:15: Lane 3, 4. Pods 10, 11, 12. 5:15-7:00: Lanes 3, 4. Pods 7, 8, 9. Saturday 8:00-10:00: Lanes 1, 2. Pods 7, 8, 9. 10:00-Noon: Lanes 1, 2. Pods 10, 11, 12. If you are not following MAST on Instagram, my understanding is that you can find us at @mplsalpineski The coaches are always worried about your safety and on the alert for unsafe situations and behaviors. Here are some rules you should follow to help keep you safe. Best Practices For Skiing Safely At Hyland
Some additional reminders about proper etiquette and behaviors and practices.
Have fun. Use the drills. Trust the drills. We are the only team that uses drills religiously and it is the key to our success over the years. Strive to make an improvement to your skills every day. Looking forward to seeing everyone on Monday. Mark Conway 612-275-8392
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