Update Week Eight Jan 1 2023

Dear MAST Athletes, Coaches and Parents:

Happy New Year 2023! We are standing at the midway point of our season and I could not be prouder of our athletes and coaches for their commitment to hard work, teamwork, and a generous and gracious spirit. It is a thrill to watch your skiing skills improve these first seven weeks. More technical and tactical gains are yet to come. Keep up the hard work.

As I said in my Week Seven Update, we are entering a busy schedule of racing, in addition to our heavy schedule of training. Please help me out and take care of several administrative tasks.

Task #1: Sign The Liability Release Waivers to a) Afton Alps and b) Welch Village.
PLEASE, SIGN THESE WAIVERS BY SUNDAY, JANUARY 1.

WaiversAfton Alps Waiver
Welch Village Waiver

Task #2: State Your Race Intentions
Wednesday, January 4, 2023.
Metro East Conference Race #1 at Afton Alps.
STATE YOUR INTENTIONS FOR JAN 4TH AT AFTON HERE.

Friday, January 6, 2022
Hyand Race vs Jefferson (JV and Varsity)
STATE YOUR INTENTIONS FOR JAN 6TH AT HYLAND HERE.
Monday, January 9, 2023
Hyland Race Vs Wayzata, DeLaSalle, and Holy Angels
STATE YOUR RACE INTENTIONS FOR JAN 9TH AT HYLAND HERE.
Friday, January 13, 2023
Welch Village Invitational
STATE YOUR RACE INTENTIONS FOR Jan 13 Welch Invitational AT WELCH VILLAGE HERE.

Monday, January 16, 2023 (MLK Day)
Metro East Conference Race #2 at Wild Mt.
STATE YOUR RACE INTENTIONS FOR JAN 16TH AT WILD MT HERE.
Thursday, January 19, 2023
Hyland Race Vs BSM, Jefferson, Lake Crystal
STATE YOUR RACE INTENTIONS FOR JAN 19TH AT HYLAND HERE.

Monday, January 23, 2023
Hyland Race Vs Mound West Tonka and Lake Crystal
STATE YOUR RACE INTENTIONS FOR JAN 23RD AT HYLAND HERE.

Friday, January 27, 2023
Wild Mt Invitational II at Wild Mt
STATE YOUR RACE INTENTIONS FOR JAN 27TH AT THE WILD INVITE II HERE.

Monday, January 30, 2023
Hyland Race Vs Wayzata, Jefferson, Lake Crystal
STATE YOUR RACE INTENTIONS FOR JAN 30TH AT HYLAND HERE.

Metro East Conference Race #3 at Welch Village.
Thursday, February 2, 2023
STATE YOUR RACE INTENTIONS FOR FEB 2 AT WELCH VILLAGE HERE.
Task #3: Sign Up For Supplemental Training on Saturday, January 7, 2023
Register HERE For The Jan 7th Supplemental Training.
Task #4: Sign Up Work Our First Races
We need parents to volunteer for race worker positions for our first three races.  Please give our athletes a high quality race experience by filling these positions.
1.     Wednesday, Jan 4 MEC Conference Race #1 at Afton.  
2.     Friday, Jan 6 Hyland JV Race 
3.     Monday, Jan 9 Hyland Race (Varsity and JV)  
Coffee and Salsa Sales Fundraising News: Account Credits Are ALMOST Ready
I will be issuing the account credits that athletes earned selling coffee and salsa to your Team Snap accounts today and Monday. If you are unable to access those credits when you register to purchase a lift ticket or attend a supplemental training, please reach out to me so I can figure out what went wrong.
Sprongo Videos
The coaches shot a LOT of video clips over the last two weeks. We hope you are taking the time to watch and study your video and that of your teammates (who might possess some skills you still need to improve). I want to encourage ALL of you to watch and study one video in particular. There was a USSS race at Buck last week that many of your teammates entered. Coach Daniel stopped by to watch and video the second run. These clips are uploaded to Sprongo under the playlist titles ‘Chuck Stone’ dated Dec 28th.    There were many racers there worthy of your attention—Louie Nyguen, Josh Nelson, Oliver Mueller-but the one who will best demonstrate all of the skills you have been developing is Isaiah Nelson. Isaiah is on the US Ski Team. He hails from the Buck Hill Ski Team and was the World Junior Champion in Super G in 2022. He is an exceptional skier, accomplished in all four alpine disciplines. Daniel videotaped his forerun and it is worth watching over and over again. Use the side-by-side feature in Sprongo to watch Isaiah vs another competitor. I estimate that Isaiah’s run was at least one and a half seconds faster than anyone else in the field, and he was just forerunning. The bottom line: Isaiah’s run is as perfect a demonstration of the six fundamentals of alpine skiing as I have ever seen. Like Mikaela, he makes it look so easy. I encourage you to download his video. Watch it frame by frame. Implant the images into your mind—high edge angles; active lower legs that increase and decrease edge angles with speed, fluidity, and precision; decisive and powerful outside ski pressure with a perfectly square upper torso; perfect re-centering in the transition; quiet and disciplined upper body; a well-defined and timed pole plant; a tight arc back to the gate from above and the side; perfect positioning of the inside boot cuff/shin guard on the gate; turn completion as soon as plastic meets plastic (pole guards/shin guards make simultaneous contact with the gate), continuous ski snow contact, and perfectly carved turns with minimal snow displacement. 

Finally, if you missed it, Mikaela Shiffrin won three world cup races in a row this weekend. She now has 80 world cup victories. The 80th victory was also her 50th victory in a world cup slalom race. No athlete has dominated a sport like Mikaela. Making this last victory even more exciting is that her teammate, Paula Moltzen, finished in second place. Paula is a product of the Buck Hill Ski Team and won the State High School Alpine Championship when she was in ninth grade... somewhere around the time when Coach Matthew was racing. This is the first time since 1971 that two American women have finished one-two in a world cup slalom. If you didn’t see the race, you can watch highlights here: Mikaela and Paula World Cup Race.
And if you want to see what she did the day before: Click Here for Win #79.
And if you want to see what she did the day before that: Click Here for Win #78. 
And one more video to watch: Deb Armstrong Interviews River Radamus about technique, tactics, and the mental game. You might need to watch this one multiple times. Very worth the time.

Mark Conway
612-275-8392
[email protected]