WikiCoaching: Cam Smith Checks In

Cam Smith mailed this update in from his new dorm room at CU.  Got tips to help him become a better athlete or a better skier?  Let him know in the comments:

I planned my summer skiing under the basic idea of getting some races in, so I ended up going to Australia and staying with the Aussie brothers Luke and Harry Laidlaw at Mt. Hotham. My trip consisted of two weeks of training and then seven races.

I started my trip in the DIA airport. I forgot how annoying it is to travel with all my ski stuff: duffle bag, ski bag, backpack full of bindings, two pairs of boots, and my computer bag. I strategically picked out the nicest looking lady so I could woo her into not charging me for my overweight bags. Mission: accomplished.
I flew to L.A. and was running around trying to get to the right terminal. Holy crap, that airport is huge. I finally found the right bus and got streamlined through the Qauntus check-in line. There’s nothing like running around LAX at midnight with a 50 pound backpack and two pairs of boots hanging off it, not to mention everyone looking at you because they’ve never seen ski boots before. My first night, I stayed in Melbourne and went out with Luke and some of his mates. A friend from the U.S. was in Melbourne that night because he is studying abroad this semester, so we met up with him.  We thought we were meeting him at a nightclub, but it turned out to be a strip club. It was hilarious. Then, we then drove up to Mt. Hotham the next day.

The first couple of days I just free skied and did some drills to get my feet back underneath me. Nothing like doing drills in the rain.  Character building, you could say. The first week was classic Aussie weather: rain and fog. I couldn't help but think,  “What did I just get myself into?” But we had a couple good sessions, especially in slalom.

The next week was blue bird and absolutely perfect. We had a pretty exhausting schedule, a couple of sessions of skiing followed by dryland. We were basically on the ragefest express for two weeks. Techno beats in the gym and lots of high fives can get you through any workout. We went skeet shooting one day as a “release” from skiing. We also went to the Onsen Center. It’s a spa with basically an artificial hot spring outside and a cold pool inside. This was great to do a little recovery in. As a matter of principal, I like to rock a speedo, so it's nice to swim down there because I fit right in.

I was able to jump in with the Australian National Team prep camp before the Mt. Buller races, and we were joined by some of the Swedish men's team. This was for two days prior to the race , and we had timing and race simulations. My nerves were pretty high because I hadn’t timed at all up to this point. The Swedes are pretty intimidating at first with their perfectly slicked back hair and their constant snusing ability. But I held my own and actually did better then I anticipated. Unfortunately the races weren’t the best for me. I had a couple good runs, but I couldn’t put two together. A ski race is two runs and I think a lot of people forget that sometimes.

The second race was pretty crazy. There were high winds when we woke up so they couldn’t run the bottom lifts. Finally, at noon, the coaches decided that we would hike up to the upper lift that we were using. It was on the backside of the mountain and just protected enough that it could still run. So we threw our stuff in snowmobile trailers and started hiking. Second run started at 4, so it was a little bit of a late start, but all was well.

At Thredbo, we stayed in some epic cheap housing. I have never been in such a cold apartment/place. I got sick, and felt terrible for the series, which, frankly, sucked. In the slalom races, it was the same story, just didn’t put two together. However, in the GS I didn’t think I skied that well, but I managed to have a little bit of a score. The second GS was cancelled because it rained all night and they weren’t sure if they could put cats up on the hill. A bit of a bummer for me because I only had one race left.

Back to Hotham we went. We were back at Club Laidlaw enjoying our Internet and lattes. It was so nice to get back to there after being in such a cold apartment. The next morning the daily wrestle mania ritual broke out. I was lifting Harry (Luke’s little brother) up on my back to body slam him, and felt something tweak in my neck. I basically strained my neck muscles and couldn’t move my neck around with out pain. I tried to train the next day but it did not make it feel good so I stopped after two runs. I got a massage and that seemed to help it. I was hoping that I could make it feel okay for the GS race. On the morning of the race it was still a little bit sore, but I was confident and it felt great to be racing on the same hill I had been training on. I had a good race that day and scored a personal best 33.

A couple things that I have been focusing on are ankle flexion at the top of the turn and the same old moving forward in the transition. Being static is one of my nemeses, especially in SL. I can feel a big difference in my skiing when I am consciously moving forward and pushing off of the old ski to maximize the amount of speed I can obtain from each turn. Something that I haven’t talked about before this trip is the angle of my spine. The thought is that if you maintain a slightly forward spine angle then your shoulders will be ahead of your hips and knees, and thus maintaining ankle flexion comes naturally. I liked it.  Also, I have been told that my hands are like a Tyrannosaurus Rex’s arms. I have been working on keeping them up and more extended throughout the whole turn to help me stay forward, to keep my ankle’s engaged, and to not lean in. I worked a lot with a thera-band in my hands and keeping it stretched out. A great little drill. In SL, the biggest thing for me is staying active, tall, and always moving. While in GS it is driving forward with my hands. When I focus on these things everything seems to come together. This was a great trip because I was able to work on technical aspects of my skiing, get some races in, and workout heavily.

Now its time to hit the books as I am starting at the University of Colorado.  I moved in to the dorm today and am fired up to get going with some school.  I have a meeting this week with Richard Rokos, the ski coach here, and I'm hoping that I can convince him to let me walk-on to the team.  They're pretty stacked, as always, but I'm hoping for the best.

-Cam










(WikiCoaching is your chance to weigh in on what our subject needs to address in his/her skiing.  Post your suggestions and observations in the comments.  The goal is to come up with some things to help Cam improve upon going forward.)
-