NO HOLIDAY PRACTICE/ upcoming events

There will be NO practice on December 25 or January 1

Next High School Practice: January 8
Next Middle School Practice: January 9

***Upcoming Events***
--Biathlon Junior World Trials, Jericho VT- Dec 27-30 (good luck to athletes attending- Caitlin, Jack, Chester, Emelie!!!)
--Pre-NorAm Practice- January 8/9 (please attend practice for your age group that you will be racing in)
--NorAm Race, La Patrie Canada- January 14-16 (send in deposit ASAP and register via Biathlon Canada)

*Congratulations to Chester J, Tara H, Jack E, Emelie C, Zoe C, and Molly S for excellent races at the Eastern Cup opener this weekend!!!*

Hotbox and Snow

HALL FAMILY HOTBOX

Would you like to get a professional quality hotbox treatment for your skis at an economical price?

Carter Hall and his dad built a thermostatically controlled hot box using directions from one of the top ski tuning technicians in the country. They are offering hot box services to local Nordic skiers.

Why hot box your skis?.....The simplest answer is to make them go faster!

What is hot boxing?.....A thick layer of warm wax is put on the skis and then put into the hot box for four hours, where the temperature is at approximately 125 degrees. During that time, the wax will penetrate into the base of the ski. After the ski has been warmed in the hot box, it is cooled down for the night. The next day, we scrape and brush the skis.

Most ski shops recommend that you wax your skis every day to make them as fast as possible. A hot box treatment is roughly equivalent to waxing your skis 25 times.

And we all know that your skis only get faster the more you wax them!!

Local ski shops charge between $20 and $50 for hotbox treatments. You can have Carter do it for $10!

Call 846-4872 (Yarmouth) or email Carter at y2015@yarmouth.k12.me.us to set up your hotbox appointment!

Great Holiday gift for family members who are skiers!!!

On another note- everyone think SNOW!

Did you get on snow this weekend? Where did you ski? Comment on this post and share your weekend adventures!

Upcoming races:
Craftsbury Easter Cup Opener this weekend
Sugarloaf Opener this weekend
Biathlon JWT's, Jericho next week

Ski fast, shoot well, and keep thinking snow!
SMBC

Eyes for the Pies Photos

Here are the much awaited eyes for the pies rollerski race photos.

SkiErg World Sprints

Friday afternoon a group from SMBC went to Bates College to use the SkiErg machines for the sprints (http://www.skierg.com/logbook/skierg-world-sprints). We raced 1,000 m (1k) on the SkiErgs and can send in the times to compare to other skiers around the world. We also took a run around the Bates campus to check it out!

Kirsten and Connor

Joel and Mike

Raleigh and Ben

Sarah and Braden

Laurel and Caitlin

Getting Ready

Carter and Jack

Yeah Jack!

What a fun way to spend an afternoon off of school!

Video

For Video footage by Kellan H. from the race:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-keJIliReuo

The Eyes for the pies race was Sunday and the weather held out for the racers and volunteers.

I want to thank all the volunteers who helped make this event a success.

Special thanks goes to Tiki for sweeping the course on Saturday, Ted Hall for bringing his excellent timing equipment, Wendy Sullivan for the whoopie pies and of course all the pie makers.

We had racers from as far away as New Hampshire and Fort Kent, and of course most were from Southern Maine.

The Lobster Roll race on Saturday wore out the college teams so the numbers were lower than last year but we still had some great racing.

The hills proved to be challenging, as the eventual winner Raleigh Gosling from MWSC found out. Raleigh took the downhill corner just a bit wide and found out that grass is not as smooth as pavement, though a lot softer.

And if anyone wonders how soon you should eat before a race, just ask Tom Sullivan. :)

Results will be posted on the NENSA website and SMBC blog site.

Thanks again to everyone who raced and volunteered.

The next event we are working on is a weekend/day camp in the Bethel/Bryant Pond area Nov 13/14 and a Thanksgiving camp in Fort Kent.

More details soon.

Eyes for the Pies Results

Eyes for the Pies 2010 Results, click to enlarge

Pictures by Jackson Hall will be posted in the next few days

Thanks for a successful event, participants and volunteers!

Last Thursday HS Practice

Great high school shooting practice today with 8 athletes (wow!) and three coaches. Zeroed, shot some metal, and then 1 clip relays, finished with shoot to the middle. Remember that there is no practice until NEXT Saturday (Nov. 6) at 3PM. After that shooting practice will be on Saturdays only. Rollerskiing practices will be on Mondays right after school meeting at Yarmouth High School. Good job today, athletes! XC runners good luck at states and hope to see everyone at EYES FOR THE PIES on Sunday! Keep up the dry firing! Check the blog post before last for the dry firing schedule.

Spread the Word

Schools in Southern Maine Looking for Nordic Coaches:

Greely Middle School
Greely High School
Portland High School
Freeport High School
North Yarmouth Academy
Waynflete Middle School
Waynflete High School
Telstar High School

Spread the Word!!!

Dry Fire

Dryfire program SMBC

Safety first!

Always point rifle in a safe direction. Never point it at anyone!

Always treat the rifle as if it was loaded

Never point the rifle at anything you do not want to destroy

When leaving the live fire range, make sure all magazines are unloaded, extra round holders are empty and all ammo is separate from rifle case. New IBU rule!!!

Before entering dryfire room, make sure no ammo is in the magazines or on the rifle.

When dryfiring, keep ammo in a separate room

Discuss with your parents the proper location in your house for this activity. Contact a coach if you have questions.

Program:

20 minutes 5 days per week. When dryfiring, only fire from the half-cocked position on the bolt.

Day 1 Series of 2 minute holds on the target. Get in position. Relax. Find your Natural Point of Aim first, Sight Alignment second and perfect Sight Picture last. Prone then standing.

Day 2 Series of 20 prone then 20 standing full range procedure one shot drills. Use unloaded magazines to practice mag switches. If space or equipment does not allow for this, do more drills with a complete break in position between each. Focus first on perfect alignment toward target then work on speed!

Day 3 Series of 2 minute holds on the target. Aiming and Breathing focus. Focus on front sight as it moves up and down naturally with breathing. Exhale should end perfectly on the target. Movement in prone should be a straight line up and down. Movement in standing should be smooth and rounded. Try holding your breath at various intervals to hold perfectly on the target. When is the movement the most still? When does it finally break down?

Day 4 Series of 2 minute holds on the target. Adjust finger position on the trigger to the finger nail area. The trigger finger should not touch anything else on the rifle but the trigger. Following a two breath cadence, close your eyes, take up the first stage (the floppy part) and smoothly squeeze straight back until shot is fired. Time the shot so it comes after an exhale and during a held breath. Second half of workout with eyes open and watch for any movement during or after trigger squeeze (can’t blink). Where does the follow thru go? Try prone and standing.

Day 5 Perform 8-12 perfect stages with imagery training. Close your eyes. Imagine* the perfect stage. Get in position and perform the perfect stage. Close your eyes and quickly analyze the stage for any deviation from what you perceive as perfect. Repeat.

*Take any re-occurring issues you have during races or training and imagine them to be solved and perfect and done correctly. Only pick one to work on per stage.

Upcoming Events

Sunday October 24: Bryant Pond Shooting Camp, Bethel

Saturday October 30: Lobster Roll Roller-ski, North Haven

Sunday October 31: Eyes for the Pies, New Gloucester


SMBC one day camp details:
Sunday Oct 24
Bryant Pond, Maine
Fee - $10 Members
$25 Non Members
What to bring:
Rifle if you are leasing one. We will have a couple extra to share.
Food for the day, lunch and snacks.
Water bottles, full
Warm clothes to be outside all day, it may be snowing or it may be 60 degrees.
Rain gear, bring it and hopefully we will not need it.
Running shoes

Schedule - We will be shooting and doing some dry land training.
7:30 meet at Yarmouth park n ride, across from Delorme Map.
9:30 Warm-up hike/run/tour of the area.
10:30 Shooting range procedures
12:00 Lunch
1:00 shooting practice
3:00 optional 2nd hike or head home.

SMBC North Haven trip- watch collegiate rollerski race and ski on beautiful North Haven

Saturday, Oct 30

7:30am leave the Yarmouth area drive to Rockland

9:30am Catch the North Haven ferry

11:15 Roller ski race

There will be time to go for a roller ski after the race and before catching the ferry back to Rockland.

3:45 Ferry back to Rockland

You should be back by to the Yarmouth area by 7pm.

Eyes for the Pies... see below!

Rollerski Race

Mark your calendars:

Eyes for the Pies Annual Skate Roller-Ski Race!

Hosted by the Southern Maine Biathlon Club
When: Morning of October 31, 2010
Where: The beautiful campus of Pineland Farms, New Gloucester
Who: Anyone from experienced middle school skiers (who will race up) to masters
Also a great training opportunity, and chance to win a delicious pie!

Volunteer Opportunities:
Timing organizer for the race
Pie and prize organizer for the race
10 Race volunteers: road marshals, timing, start/finish, etc...

So don't forget to mark those calendars! See you on the 31st!
More specific details to come.
-Southern Maine Biathlon Club

Snow Dance

http://www.mainewsc.org/pdf/Snowdance-0910.pdf

MWSC newsletter September 2010

Check out page 6!!!

Coaches 9/16/10

Today's practice was dark and rainy. You've got to be crazy to be a biathlon coach, right?

Norway Blog

http://humphriesnorge.blogspot.com/

Check out Sam Humphries' blog about his year abroad in Oslo, Norway!

Skadi Nordic

http://fasterskier.com/2010/09/southern-maine-biathlon-club-wins-skadi-nordic-contest/

Check it out; SMBC wins Skadi Nordic Contest- Fasterskier.com

Jericho

Last week 3 SMBC athletes, Chester, Jack, and Tara went to biathlon train in Jericho, Vermont for the week. Seth, a MWSC coach, took them, along with two county athletes, and coached them for the week. It was lots of training; shooting and skiing combos every day. The roller skiing there was tough, but a lot of fun. It was also really cool to be training and living at the same place as many high caliber athletes, some who have been to the olympics before. Saturday and Sunday were the races, a sprint and a pursuit. Our SMBC athletes represented So. Maine very well and did a great job. Aside from the horrendous food, it was a wonderful week of training and learning. Thanks Seth and Gary!

MWSC Fat Tire Mountain Bike Festival

After breakfast on Saturday we packed up the vans for the day and drove to Presque Isle. The first event was the mountain bike biathlon race. Our athletes did really well! The next event was the downhill mountain bike. Kellan and Jack did this race and did a great job. We drove back to Fort Kent in the late afternoon and when we got back we went for a swim, had dinner, and did an evening rollerski, some athletes did intervals. We all went out for ice cream before bed.

On Sunday we packed all of our stuff up in the vans. We drove to Presque Isle and some of the athletes had mountain bike races. The rest either watched, did some shooting, or tried mountain biking. Chester got a lot of shooting in over the weekend, and in all he shot about 900 rounds. A new club record! We had a long but great trip home.

Biathlon Camp: Friday

Friday was our last day training in Fort Kent. We slept in a little and drove to Long Lake to do an over distance roller ski. Some skated and some did classic. After lunch we had a rest and watched technique video of ourselves from the past few days. In the afternoon we did shooting and skiing relays at 10th Mtn. Tracy Colliander, a very accomplished biathlete who has been to the olympics, took the girls out for ice cream after the shooting which was really cool. Thanks, Tracy! After dinner we went to the movies at the little theater in Fort Kent.

Biathlon Camp: Thursday

Thursday morning we split into groups and either went for a mountain bike, jog, or walk to get moving. After breakfast we did a strength test in the UMFK gym. It was a series of exercises that you did as many as you possibly could for a minute with one minute rest in between, and the middle schoolers did 30 seconds. The exercises included pull ups, push ups, dips, box jumps, and curl ups. It's a good way to test your strength so you can do various tests throughout the year to see improvement. You can also compare yourself to other skiers around the world doing the same test.

After strength we did a skate rollerski with technique and video. We swam, had lunch, did rollerski and shooting combos, and after a short break the high school athletes had a 5k skate time trial. That went well, and after dinner we went back to the lodge to watch a movie.

Saturday and Sunday

Biathlon/nordic day clinic!

WHERE: MT.BLUE MIDDLE SCHOOL, MIDDLE ST., FARMINGTON

**** SATURDAY, AUGUST 14TH, SKI/BIATHLON CAMP! ****

TIME: 9 A.M. TO 4 P.M. (one hour lunch break)
WHAT: ROLLERSKIING, SHOOTING (PELLET GUNS/MINI-TARGETS), DRYLAND
DRILLS, STRENGTH DRILLS, GAMES, RUN & SHOOT RELAY.
COST: NONE (yes, it's FREE!), BUT MWSC TRAINING SHIRTS FOR SALE AT COST
(hi-vis color)
BRING: HELMET, TRAINING CLOTHES (HI-VIS TOPS), SKI BOOTS, POLES WITH
CARBIDE TIPS, WATER, FOOD, SWIMSUIT & TOWEL, DRY CLOTHES (POST-SWIM).
WHERE: MT.BLUE MIDDLE SCHOOL IN FARMINGTON, MAINE.
WHO: ALL CROSS-COUNTRY SKIERS, ESPECIALLY THOSE ENTERING 6TH TO 9TH
GRADES, BUT THROUGH HIGH SCHOOL, ARE WELCOME!

PROVIDED FOR YOU: ROLLERSKIS (IF NEEDED), AIR RIFLES, TOP-NOTCH
COACHING FROM MAINE WINTER SPORTS CENTER COACHES & ATHLETES!!!!

QUESTIONS? EMAIL tony@livingacres.com or gary@mainewsc.org ,call Tony at
cell 207-491-6657.

I AM PURCHASING SEVERAL PAIRS OF "PURSUIT" BRAND SKATE ROLLERSKIS FROM
MAINE WINTER SPORTS CENTER, I SHOULD HAVE TWO EXTRA PAIRS TO SELL AT
COST ($120, I THINK), NO BINDINGS. LET ME KNOW IF YOU ARE INTERESTED,
FIRST TAKERS GET THEM.


Tony Ramsey

I will be away from internet for the next week so I will finish the blog updates on the training camp with lots more photographs when I get back

Biathlon Camp: Wednesday

Drew and Tom mid-jump

Seth and Connor

Raleigh

speed ball, Carter takes down Jack from behind

speed ball game

Wednesday started early with a walk/jog/stretch led by Joel. After breakfast we hiked up to the lodge for a rollerski. Everyone worked on technique, particularly balance, and the high school skiers did video with coach James as well. Everyone jumped in the river after the workout to cool off. After lunch we drove back up to the lodge for shooting practice. The high school athletes shot .22's with James and some of the MWSC athletes, and the middle school athletes shot air rifles with Mike, Joel, and Connor. The air rifle shooters did relays. After a long shooting session, we had a giant game of speedball. Then everyone swam again, had dinner, and played a game of soccer until it got dark.

Biathlon Camp: Tuesday

shots are a bit blurry, it was getting dark

Gary blocking

Drew getting ready for a toss, in motion

Tuesday morning the group left Yarmouth in the morning and arrived at UMFK mid afternoon. We hiked up, as a group, to the 10th Mountain Lodge, had a tour, and then had dinner. After dinner there was an ultimate frisbee game, coaches and girls v.s. the boys, which was a fun way to end the day.

Training Camp

For those signed up for the July Fort Kent training camp, here is the packing list and some details. For those not attending camp, there will be no .22 or air rifle practices this week.

Packing list

Sleeping bag and pillow
Toothbrush, toothpaste, shampoo, SUN BLOCK, bug spray,
Towel
Roller skis- both classic and skate if you have them.
Roller ski poles with ferrel tips and gloves to prevent blisters if you want. Bring skate poles even if you do not have skis
Ski boots
Bike helmet
Running shoes
Athletic clothes for 5 days. It may be hot or it may be cold, you never know so be prepared.
Mt bike if you have one. We only have room for 10 bikes.
Bathing suit
Hat
Sunglasses
Water Bottles
Bars or snacks you might want during the day

Pack to carry stuff during the day

Saturday and Sunday will be in Presque Isle, optional mountain bike racing at the Fat Tire Festival, or roller skiing on their paved loop.

Meet at the Park and Ride in Yarmouth, across from Delorme, on Tuesday morning at 8 AM

See you then!

6/30 High School Shooting Practice

Worked more on our range procedure and prone shooting and introduced proper standing positioning- great shooting today!