In early October, I was lucky enough to take part in a 2-day training session at the Olympic Jumping Complex in
For those unfamiliar with the complex, there is an aerated swimming pool with three launch ramps of varying degrees of steepness and size aimed towards the pool. The ramps are coated in a sliding surface conducive to year-round sliding on skis and snowboards. The aerated water in the pool breaks up the surface tension of the water to soften the landings in the pool and to maximize safety. Flanking the pool are three trampolines to work on body control and air awareness. It is truly a sight to behold. Oh, and the one fact I forgot to mention is that the swimming pool is not heated. Seeing as how we were there in the first week of October, the pool water definitely got your attention.
On the morning of day 1, we suited up in neoprene wetsuits, personal flotation devices, helmets, and snowboards. Definitely a funny sight to be seen, snowboarding gear and wet suits do not win a whole lot of fashion awards. Up the stairs we went towards the jump ramps, and we proceeded to stretching, being briefed on safety and the complex protocol, and getting used to the sliding surface in general.
Snowflex is an artificial sliding surface that resembles white Astroturf. Every so often, jets mist the surface with water to decrease friction on the surface. It is a cool surface to create year-round snowboarding for sure. I had some previous experience with an all jib terrain park surfaced with Snowflex at Snowpark Niagara, so it wasn't my first rodeo. That didn't mean that I was comfortable on the surface by any means though. Edging on the sliding surface usually results in going down. So, what does a snowboarder do when you tell them that they cannot edge? Well we point it straight and flatbase! And that's exactly what we needed to get comfortable doing, and quickly. We spent about half an hour hiking up to a point that would allow us to slide as much of the surface as possible, slide up the takeoff ramp, but not carry enough momentum to carry us skyward towards the swimming pool. After deciding as a team that everyone felt comfortable enough to give it a go, we took the hike up the stairs to the drop in spot. I was elected as the test dummy and so I strapped in, stood up, jumped 90 degrees and straight pointed it towards the jump. Up, up, away I went, straight airing into the pool below. The aerated water then pushes you to the side of the pool where you unstrap, climb up the ladder, and stand there with an ear to ear grin ready to go again. I think that a combination of my grin and a thumbs up or two encouraged Tommy, Bonnie, and Tom Vickery to feel at ease and ready to charge. Unfortunately, KC was only weeks out of major surgery, and so he was going to be spending the 2 days coaching, filming, and providing movement analysis for us folks instead of riding. I know it was killing him to not be able to be on a snowboard, but he was an awesome asset to have poolside! The rest of this 2 hour pool session progressed with those of us riding getting comfortable on the ramp, beginning to push each other, and beginning to feed off of each other's progression. I think the highlight of the morning pool session would be Tommy Morsch's backside 3's off of the jump. Very stylish and smoothe (especially seeing as how you can't edge to initiate any part of a spin on this surface). My personal "What the heck was I thinking?" moment came when the US aerials coach, Joe, convinced me that if I went all the way to the top of the drop in, that speed would help me get comfortable on the ramps and give me more airtime. His justification was that I wouldn't need to do a jump 90 turn to drop in, but rather could just rock over the coping of the drop in, already aiming at the ramp. You see, we had been dropping in from the normal snowboarder drop in spot, but there is an extension that adds about 30 feet of drop in straight line run to your surface. As a team, we all walked up to explore the top drop in. And despite my brain saying that it looked terrifying, the stunt dummy in me trusted our newly friended expert coach. So I strapped in, and went rocketing down the drop in, easily hitting the jump at twice the previous speed, and clearing 50 or so feet across the swimming pool before splashing down. WHAT was I thinking. Terrifying is a great descriptor. I was also greeted by a definitive, I've never seen a snowboarder go all the way to the top before pat on the back from some of our coaches on the side of the pool. Ha! Comforting to know I could put on a show for the crowd. The nice thing about this small experiment though was that it allowed the lower drop in to no longer be intimidating in the least after dropping from all the way up top.
After the pool session, we headed inside, got dry, and changed into warm and dry clothes. We then headed to the trampolines for 2 hours of tramp work. This was the part that I had been looking forward to the most. We spent 2 hours spinning, flipping, and flopping. We examined the what ifs of what happens when you move body parts in different directions while in the air, and as a group, we learned a lot about air awareness. Personally, I set up my afternoon pool session with some new goals. I was getting comfortable with backflips and rodeo flips on the trampolines, and I was ready to take them into the chilly waters of the pool.
So after a quick lunch, we climbed back into some soggy boots and some cold wetsuits. We had some moments of complaint about the cold and wet gear until we realized that we were about to go jump into a chilly pool with it all on anyways, and so we went back after it. The afternoon jump session saw some progression really emerge. Tommy and Bonnie were dialing in spins and grabs, while I focused on getting upside down. After dialing in straight backflips off of the jump, I moved on to some bigger and more challenging runs. With some coaching, I saw what could have been my first double backflip ever come around. All with a small move of brining my lead knee up quickly coming off of the jump. Crazy how such a small move can generate such an awesome end result. I decided to finish this pool session with a backside rodeo off of the jump. I climbed up the stairs, strapped in, and dropped. I got a little heel edge heavy a little too early and slid out, clipping my butt off of the lip of the jump as I went air born. I completed the flipped rotation anyways and landed in the pool, but decided it was a good run to end on for the session. Back to the trampolines we went, and I really focused on back flips with grabs, rodeo flips, and grabbed rodeo flips.
Day two saw us spending our day in a similar fashion with 4 hours of pool time and 4 hours of trampoline time broken up into 2 hour shots at a time. There were some sore bodies in the morning, but we fired up the day, and everyone saw progression in their own air awareness and riding. Team Coach Tom Vickery got geared up in the afternoon and told me that to help me dial in whatever tricks I wanted to get, that he would do them with me and give me an opportunity to do some Movement Analysis by watching him and talking it out between us. I jumped at that opportunity, and very quickly he and I were getting upside down and doing rodeo flips off of the jump.
As the day wrapped up, we all packed up our cars and headed our separate ways towards home. I took away from this training a long list of things; 1. The opportunity to bond with fellow Eastern Team teammates and coaches, 2. Early season jump specific training in an environment perfect for progression, 3. Movement Analysis conversations as we figured out maneuvers on the trampolines and then directly translated them to the pool jump, 4. Getting my brain cranking on snowboard thoughts and the wheels working in snow related ways, and many other valuable skills, lessons, and conversations.
I feel totally comfortable taking some of my newly learned tricks to snow this winter, and I feel lucky to have been given an opportunity to train at this complex.
I definitely anticipate return trips to this complex in the future to push this progression even further. And, I can't wait for winter! I highly recommend signing up for the PSIA-E/AASI Jump Camp next September at the Lake Placid Olympic Jump Complex. I'll be there for sure! Thanks everybody for checking in! See you on the snow soon!
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