So what do we do? In the fall the team does what are called dryland activities: roller skiing, a variety of ski simulation on running shoes in the form of bounding, running with poles, ski walking and technique and strength work on hills. We also run on trails. During this time of year we mostly meet at the Triangle Park hills in Northeast Green Bay, or at Hillcrest Elementary where we start our roller skiing practices.
New skiers start in our “ski school”, a carefully guided introduction to skiing on roller skis and running shoes. The goal of ski school is to teach you all the basic techniques. You will “graduate” when you can demonstrate the basic techniques, can climb a hill, can safely go down a moderate hill, can turn and can stop. These are essential safety skills as well as being the basics of cross country skiing. Once you have graduated, you will join the other kids in normal practice.
The high school team has an emphasis on competition as it’s primary events. It’s practices are like most endurance sports in that it has fitness training and progression built into a carefully designed set of activities. These include distance training, intervals, specific strength work (climbing hills with your poles only as an example), sprints, games on skis and strength sessions at Bellin XL. Events include both high school and Junior Olympic races. They also include camps that give you a great opportunity to improve your technique. There are training camps to catch the early snow in November up to the Lake Superior snow belt. There is a large camp between Christmas and New Years in Houghton with many hours of ability appropriate instruction from coaches around the state. Then there are races beginning in mid December until the end of February. Our high school team has been very successful over the years producing state champions and top ten finishers, JO national team members, and college scholarship awardees.
The middle school program is similar in many ways to the high school program but spends more time on technique work, games on skis (Ultimate frisbee anyone?) steep hill climbs and descents, back country skiing and sprints than longer endurance related work. The MS program will also participate in the camp between Christmas and New Years and is highly recommended for both learning and cementing your interest in the sport and your teammates: kids love this camp! The team does participate in races, though not as many as the high school group does. It is possible for middle school skiers to participate in Junior Olympics races. Please talk with your coaches if you are interested.
During the summer a subset of both high school and middle school kids get together and roller ski, run, bike, kayak, swim, whatever we can think of. This starts in early June and continues until the cross country running season starts in mid August. During the CC season, the high school will try to get kids out once per week to keep you acquainted with skiing specific skills and muscles as well as to help you improve your running ability through cross training. These sessions are easy distance skiing, the low heart rate work most kids don’t get in their cross country running workouts.
