Grand Rapids, MI
For the second year, John Aalberg visited the Grand Rapids Nordic Ski Team
for a dryland and rollerski clinic. Over two days, we were again treated to
in-depth personal attention from one of the top coaches in North America. We
are extremely fortunate for this opportunity because John is a talented
skier who can teach effectively, and has many “real life” requirements of
his time; among them his young family and serving the sport as an FIS
Technical Delegate year round.
Last year I was struck by the tremendous difference in talent between John
and even our most gifted master's skiers. Having never seen an Olympic –
class Nordic ski racer before I was quite star struck by the whole thing.
Even the way he moves about shows you two things:
* God made John Aalberg, and he made him to be a Nordic ski racer, so He
endowed John with a heavy dose of rare talent for it
* John has done his part too in honing his God-given ability through tens of
thousands of hours of drills and countless kilometers over a lifetime of
training and skiing well and fast
.</p>
<p>After lunch & video review – oh, forget it, you look a LOT cooler in your<br />
mind's eye than you actually do on the video tape ! – we did a footwork<br />
session. This was fun too, because John grew up in Norway doing just these<br />
things. None of these drills is too difficult, and it costs zero for<br />
equipment, and again, this is what the young Norwegians do in the off-season<br />
(refer to any Olympic results to see how those kids turn out), so why aren't<br />
we doing more of this stuff ? I gotta take that medicine. As simple as ski<br />
walking, jack it up to medium for Moose hoofs (translated from Norwegian<br />
something like Smooth As the Moose's Head As He Runs, so you get the picture<br />
to keep your head on an even plane), or turn it up to 11 for the Bounding !<br />
Then John likes you to drop & do various kinds of push ups, and all sorts of<br />
fun other foot work things like skate jumping.</p>
<p>On Day 2, we got back on the r-skis, and we found a rare paved Michigan hill<br />
with little traffic for some V1 & uphill V2 while being videotaped. That was<br />
a big help for everyone, as we again all got something specific to work on.<br />
It's amazing that something as simple as the V1 can be misinterpreted<br />
(botched) to such a degree (by me). When John does it, it looks SO easy.</p>
<p>Then we went back for some core work which is a huge area of improvement for<br />
master's skiers. Even the 12 year old junior skiers in Canada must withstand<br />
a 15 minute core routine, just to meet the standard. He also reviewed in<br />
depth the new block training format he & Torbjorn are espousing, which makes<br />
sense to me. The thing about John is that he went to two Olympics while<br />
working a full time job, so he will give you no sympathy for slacking. He<br />
will also allow zero tolerance for you not doing your running ! He seems to<br />
know what works for master's skiers, and where to put your time to work most<br />
effectively.</p>
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