Sprongo Update: Thursday, December 3, 2020

Thursday, December 3, 2020
Sprongo Update--Please Read Carefully
Dear MAST Athletes, Parents, and Coaches:
MAST uses a video sharing service called Sprongo.  Sprongo was created by a former ski racer who has a deep understanding of how performance can be improved through visual learning.  The MAST coaches shoot video clips of our athletes in training and sometimes at races.  The video clips taken at a practice or race is then uploaded to the playlist created for that day on the MAST Sprongo account.  The only people who can watch those clips are the coaches and athletes and anyone you give your username and password to.  Otherwise, video of you skiing is inaccessible to the general public. Each clip can be tagged to the athlete featured in the video.  All video uploaded and tagged will be listed in both the playlist of the day and in the athlete’s Sprongo account.  Consequently, when an athlete is a senior, he or she can watch video taken when in 7th grade.   Pretty fun to see how much improvement you have made.  Mostly though, the coaches want you to study your video and that of the better skiers of the team.  Coaches talk into the camera and give you tips as they are filming you so that you can remember the advice you were given that day in practice.   It has been a tremendous coaching tool for our skiers over the years.   I want you to use it.  Besides, we pay for this service so use it.  Otherwise you are wasting a great opportunity.
Tonight, I sent an invitation through Sprongo to our new teammates to become members of the Minneapolis Alpine Ski Team Sprongo Site.  The invitation was sent to your MPS email address. Please check your MPS email account for the invitation to join Sprongo.   If you are a returning MAST skier who does not have a Sprongo account set up for yourself, let me know and I will send you an invitation to join as well.   If you have a Sprongo account, please make sure you know your username and password and make sure it works.   
Some Dos:

• You will need to create a Sprongo Account User-Name and Password.  
• Please write down this user-name and password and post it on your refrigerator.    
• Use a password that you are willing to share with your parents, grandparents, sibling who is away at college, your favorite aunt, etc.   These important people will want to see you ski, especially this year when they likely won’t be able to stand on the hill without a ticket and watch you race.    I want your important people to be able to ski so withholding the password from them is forbidden.   Punishment for violating this commandment is (you choose): tune your coach’s skis or hike the hill for practice.   
• The account needs to be opened using the FIRST and LAST NAME of the SKIER.  No nicknames or monikers.  Just your boring old first and last names.   
• You may add a picture of yourself to your profile or we will do it.  By uploading a photo of yourself you will help the coaches learn names and faces.   With 110 skiers on the team, this is not an easy task, especially for our volunteer coaches who don’t get to be on the hill with you every day.

Two Do Nots:

• Do not set up the account in a parent’s name.  Only the athlete’s name will do.
• Parents, we can only allow one account per athlete so be sure to ask your athlete for the Log In and Password so you can watch your son or daughter ski from the comfort of your own computer.
• Do not set up a second account if you already have one, even if you forgot your username and password.   We have ways to recover those.  Just get ahold of me and I will help you recover access to your account.

Call me if you are having trouble getting your account set up.   
Finally, do this by Saturday morning.   Will and I will be holding a Sprongo Tutorial for any interested MAST athletes at 9AM on Saturday.  Look for an invitation from my MPS email address.  I will also send a link to the tutorial on Friday.   Log in to the tutorial from you MPS email account.
Thanks for a great first week of Virtual Training.
Mark Conway
612-275-8392