Monday, October 14, 2019

Snow Sport England Rollerski Skills Course - October 2019

What a year since I last attended this course!

 In that time I joined Manchester Cross Country Ski Club and started semi-regularly attending the autumn/winter coaching sessions. In spring I took the plunge and bought myself some second hand SRB Skate rollerskis.

The booking process for the course had become so much slicker, as well as paper based application you could also book and pay via the Snow Sport England website.

Saturday



As a member of the club I volunteered to be one of the  many 'Gear Elves', sorting out the rental equipment for the attendees. Colin handed us a spreadsheet which had each person's name and rental requirements. Names were taped to chairs, and our best matches of equipment put next to them.

When the beginners arrived, we helped get the people fitted up with the correct equipment and try to get them a good fit. Everyone was checked that they had the mandatory protective equipment (cycle helmet, gloves) and then given access to knee and elbow pads if needed. I always go with all the protective gear I can wear, so in addition to the above I included a pair of rollerblading crash shorts in case I had an arse/pavement interface. I had so much gear on that one of the coaches affectionately (I hope!) called me Michelin Mel.

There was a course briefing, everyone was introduced to their coaches and then we moved out to the track to get started. In addition to the beginner/intermediate/advanced groups there were also groups of coaches honing their skills.

The intermediate group was assigned Dagmar as their main coach for the weekend. Dagmar is a wonderful coach - she always arranged exercises so that she could watch everyone participate and provide individualized feedback. This sounds daunting, but she was so good at highlighting the positive alongside what you could do better.

The half day was split into 2 sessions - initially we put on classic skis and refreshed ourselves on the techniques there, and then there were skate sessions. We were working on a part of the track that had a slight uphill (ok - it felt like Everest to me) so we could practice both uphill and downhill techniques. There was a tea break mid afternoon, and we went back to the club house and could choose from tea/coffee/vimto to drink and biscuits and delicious home baked cakes.

 On  the evening there was a meal at the Cottam's Field pub next to the Premier Inn. The restaurant was very busy (I think there was a cyclo cross team there also) but the food did arrive quickly and was a good way to build up the energy stores for the busy day on Sunday. There was a great atmosphere at the table, with people sharing, tips, tricks and generally offering encouragement.


Sunday


After a hearty breakfast at the Cottam's Field restuarant it was back to Salt Ayre. The first session of the day was on skate skis with a different coach, working on skate 2 and double poling. I'll be honest, this first session really confused me, and I didn't feel that it helped with my technique. I had a real crisis of confidence after this session which haunted me the rest of the day.

After the morning tea break it was back to working with Dagmar. She spent time explaining the different skate paces that we were likely to use (Skate 1, Skate 2 and Skate 3) and showing the subtle differences in timing. I took my only fall of the weekend here, when I tried to double pole, missed planting my poles and then just hinged forwards on my skis, landing on my breast bone. Oooops! No harm done in the long term, but I was shook up for a while.

We had our lunch break back in the clubhouse, where we ate our packed lunches and then it was back out to the track to do more work on classic skis.

While my crisis of confidence held me back, Dagmar was wonderful at designing drills to make us progress in this session, and tailoring our individual goals so everyone made positive steps. My happiest moment was receiving a the ski coaching equivalent of the "Paul Hollywood Handshake", a Dagmar hug! As we were being coached until the absolute last second we didn't have time to do any extra full laps of the track, but to be honest, I don't think I had the energy to do full laps of the track safely.

Wrap Up

I found this session tougher than the previous year - but it didn't put me off roller skiing and I'm booked onto the first regular coaching session organized by Manchester Cross Country Ski Club http://www.mccsc.org.uk/documents/201910_roller_ski_course_details.pdf The weather wasn't as quite as favourable as last year, but it didn't rain heavily at any point.

The home baked cakes were spectacular!