Week 1:
Calgary's tortuous ice track with its 14 curves has proved extremely challenging for the Women's AIS Skeleton squad.
Week 1:
Calgary's tortuous ice track with its 14 curves has proved extremely challenging for the Women's AIS Skeleton squad. Following preparatory launches from both the junior and then women's luge starts, all 10 Skeleton novices have now progressed to running their sleds off the top of the track on a daily basis.
Despite their tentative push starts, near perfect track conditions have allowed the girls to slide at speeds of up to 110km/h. Much of the sliding time has focused on the fundamentals of sled driving, although the nuances of mastering some of the more challenging curves such as 'Curve Eight', 'Omega', and the oscillating inducing 'Kriesel', have not been overlooked.
The athletes' driving development to date has been transfixing as the girls rapidly come to terms with the consequences of entering the high speed curves at the ideal angle of attack, but also the incorrect ones.
Their body protection helps to dampen the inevitable glances with the track walls, but it is mostly the athletes' phenomenal courage that allows them to cope the high speed flips and wall crunching sled collisions.
While a number of girls have been dealing with their own emotional Kriesel's, the commitment and willingness to succeed has been inspiring.
A typical day could involve 2 runs on the ice, 4 to 5 maximal push starts in the ice house, gym/sprint, or recovery work, and several hours of performance related feedback and track rehearsal/visualisation.
Finally, the ever continuing comparisons between the AIS Skeleton program and the film 'Cool Runnings' reached epic proportions with the sharing of both the hotel and training venues with the Jamaican Bobsled team!
Calgary's tortuous ice track with its 14 curves has proved extremely challenging for the Women's AIS Skeleton squad. Following preparatory launches from both the junior and then women's luge starts, all 10 Skeleton novices have now progressed to running their sleds off the top of the track on a daily basis.
Despite their tentative push starts, near perfect track conditions have allowed the girls to slide at speeds of up to 110km/h. Much of the sliding time has focused on the fundamentals of sled driving, although the nuances of mastering some of the more challenging curves such as 'Curve Eight', 'Omega', and the oscillating inducing 'Kriesel', have not been overlooked.
The athletes' driving development to date has been transfixing as the girls rapidly come to terms with the consequences of entering the high speed curves at the ideal angle of attack, but also the incorrect ones.
Their body protection helps to dampen the inevitable glances with the track walls, but it is mostly the athletes' phenomenal courage that allows them to cope the high speed flips and wall crunching sled collisions.
While a number of girls have been dealing with their own emotional Kriesel's, the commitment and willingness to succeed has been inspiring.
A typical day could involve 2 runs on the ice, 4 to 5 maximal push starts in the ice house, gym/sprint, or recovery work, and several hours of performance related feedback and track rehearsal/visualisation.
Finally, the ever continuing comparisons between the AIS Skeleton program and the film 'Cool Runnings' reached epic proportions with the sharing of both the hotel and training venues with the Jamaican Bobsled team!
