Ski and Snowboard Australia ski cross racer Jenny Owens has been training in Mt Hotham, Thredbo and Perisher Blue, and also tried out her form in the National Alpine Championships in Thredbo last week. SSA ski cross coach Matt Lyons reports on the progress his athletes have been making during the southern hemisphere winter:

“The girls are coming along pretty well, generally,” Lyons says.

“We've had some great training in Thredbo and Perisher, taking things back to basics with Jen and using the opportunity of a good snow year to really hone some fundamental skill areas she's been struggling with, after being by herself for the past few years.”

“This has been effective and she's gaining in confidence every day.”

“We entered the National Alpine Champs at Thredbo last week, for some competition environment pressure, in order to see where her strengths and weaknesses were at and these generally provided us with some great information. Jen won the National Senior GS event - five or so years after her last title entry.”

“We had a pretty good camp at Hotham earlier in the month, in conjunction with the OWIA snowboard cross team. The resort has built some great features and put a lot of time and effort into providing the athletes with a quality, event-specific environment.”

“We managed to conduct some great testing with John Marsden (Sports Science and Jen's strength and conditioning coach) from NSWIS and figured out some interesting (and very handy) information about starting methods, which we're implementing and working hard on developing.”

The other member of the SSA ski cross World Cup team from last season, Katya Crema, is continuing her rehabilitation from injury

“Following a bit of a slow start, Katya is coming back from her knee operation, having had some complications with the production of scar tissue following her surgery in March,” Lyons reports.

“She's currently in the capable hands of the Victorian Institute of Sport and Dee Jennings (OWIA aerials strength and conditioning coach), and her progress is encouraging. We're hoping she'll be back on snow by sometime in December and we'll see how she progresses from there.”

Lyons and Owens will be back at Mt Hotham this week for a couple of days training prior to the FIS ski cross event on August 23, and an opportunity to train alongside the Canadian team, then head back to New South Wales after the weekend event for a couple of weeks of start-specific training.

“We’ll have the assistance of a purpose-built, portable on and off-snow start gate (provided through the combined efforts of NSWIS and the Jindabyne Sport and Recreation Centre) that meets the specifications of the Olympic start gates that will be used in Vancouver in 2010. John Marsden will also be back in September to conduct some follow-up testing out on the hill at Perisher Blue.”

“We're also going to try and get some terrain and jump training in at Thredbo, Perisher and Hotham over the last part of the winter. The great snow-cover in Australia this year means we have lots of options for this period leading into our short, pre-competitive winter break in October and November.”

“We then head to Colorado for a month prior to the first event of the winter - the first of the pro-event Jeep series to be held in Breckenridge (TBC) around the middle of December.”

“Physically Jen is stronger than she's ever been and in great condition and we're looking at building on this and consolidate her fitness over the coming months. We also have an aerial skills camp coming up at NSWIS in Sydney in September/October with most of the other NSWIS winter program athletes. The athletes do a lot of work on trampolines and with the NSWIS divers, as well as developing other spatial awareness skill areas.”