February 2011

2010 SkiAmmy Nominations

By Stephanie Elhoffer

2010 SkiAmmy Nominations

By Stephanie Elhoffer

How to survive a Midwest winter.

“a guide to keeping your mind from exploding while you stare out the window of your miserable job in hopes of a warm sunny summer day"

December 2010

Congratulations to Stephanie Elhoffer, this years NCWSA Female Outstanding Leader of the Year.  

Looking at Stephanie's involvement and contributions she had made to the sport, it is easy to see why she won and is deserving of this award.  Stephanie is a senior and Entertainment Management major at Missouri State University where she is the President of her team, the Missouri State University Water Ski & Wakeboard Team. This year, Stephanie helped take her team to Midwest Regionals as well as Nationals, where Missouri State took 10th place. She also holds three different positions in the water ski industry; she is the MCWSA Awards Chairman as well as the Officials Chairman and she is the Media Coordinator for USA Water Ski. 

I asked Stephanie a little about herself and her experiences with collegiate skiing, as well as what she plans to do next. 

 Seth Stisher

Co-owner of H2Osmosis Sports as well as H2Oz Training Center, Seth Stisher is one of the first thirty skiers to run 39.5 off in a record tournament (2001). He has been skiing professionally for six years and coaching professionally for 14. An University of Alabama Alum, Seth now lives in Charleston, South Carolina where he coaches and trains at the H2Oz Training Center. 

http://www.waterskitrainer.com/index.php

http://www.h2osmosis.com/index.php

http://www.h2oproshop.com/h2oz-waterski-wakeboard-training-center.html

Here's what Seth had to say...

Cale Burdick

Recently graduated from Purdue University with his Doctorate of Pharmacy, Cale lives and skis outside of Detroit, Michigan. His career highlights include 7th place at the 50th Masters,  1st place at the 2008 World University Championships, and 4th place at the MasterCraft Pro Tour Championships in 2008.

http://www.caleburdick.com/Home.html

Here's what Cale had to say...

What/Who is your biggest inspiration:    

my parents, and Andy Mapple

The biggest challenge in your skiing is:  

finding quality practice time 

If you didn’t spend your summers skiing, you would:  

lift and mountain bike more

If you are in a slump, the first person you call is:  

 Adam Cord

If you could only do one exercise in the gym every day to improve your skiing, it would be:

Power clean, 6 sets of 6 reps to mimic a short slalom set

 If you had the opportunity to ski with one person, it would be (dead or alive): 

I’ve had a lucky life to be able to already have skied with everyone that I could have listed here.  I guess I’d like to spend more time with Jack Travers coaching.

The best piece of advice that you have received about skiing is: 

to remember to focus on your strengths, most of us spend too much time on our weaknesses and our strengths become weaker.

from Andy Mapple, through the mouth of Freddy Krueger

_______

Brooks Wilson

Brooks' list of accomplishments include the 2009 & 2010 Under 21 US Open Champ, a Silver Medalist at the 2009 Ukraine Open, and the 2008 US Nationals Champ. Living and skiing in Orlando, Florida, Brooks currently attends University of Central Florida. 

http://www.thewilsonbros.com/

Here's what Brooks had to say...

Billy Susi

Living and skiing in Orlando, FL, Billy Susi's personal best is 2 @ 41 off. Billy's sponsors include Malibu Boats and H2Osmosis.  

http://team.d3skis.com/?page_id=8

Here's what Billy had to say...

What/Who is your biggest inspiration:

I have a couple but watching someone ski really well or get a PB at any level, gets me everytime.  Before I ski I like to think about a really good practice set or Tournament that I’ve ski good at and try to get that good feeling again.

The biggest challenge in your skiing is:  

Trying to be consistent throughout an entire season.  The gates are the most crucial part to being consistent and skiing great.

If you didn’t spend your summers skiing, you would:  

Surf for sure.

If you are in a slump, the first person you call is: 

 I try to talk to everyone. I’ll usually take 2 days, and sometimes 3 days off and just regroup physically and mentally.  During that time I like to hear what my main problem is and then chat about it with a bunch of other skiers. Usually hearing advice from different people helps make sense of how to correct everything.

If you could only do one exercise in the gym every day to improve your skiing, it would be:

Lots of cardio, so I’d say running or playing pick up basketball.  Anytime I am in really good shape it helps me ski a lot more in practice which goes a long way to getting better.

If you had the opportunity to ski with one person, it would be (dead or alive):

Evangeline Lilly (aka Kate from Lost), and then we would get married.

The best piece of advice that you have received about skiing is:  

To not ever overthink the shorter line lengths.  If you go too hard it makes your skiing worse.

___________

Corey Humburg

After graduating from Clemson University in 2008, Corey attained his open rating and became a Professional Water Skier. Currently residing in Virginia, he spends his time skiing and coaching.  Corey lives by the motto Peace, Love, & Waterskiing. 

http://peaceloveandwaterskiing.com/

Here's what Corey had to say...

What/Who is your biggest inspiration:

Often times my biggest inspiration comes from my ski students who
bring the same passion and intensity to their skiing that I do.  They
remind me that I should never look at skiing as my job but as
something that I am privileged to have the opportunity to do so
frequently.

Also, my granddad is a huge inspiration to me.

The biggest challenge in your skiing is:

The biggest challenge in my skiing is making myself take a day off.
Skiing tired or unfocused can be counter-productive.  I have learned
and am trying to make myself act on the fact that quality is far more
important than quantity, when it comes to your ski sets.

If you didn’t spend your summers skiing, you would:

If I ever spend a summer not skiing it probably means I’m dead.

If you are in a slump, the first person you call is:

This is a great question.  I need to have a go too person. When I
trained in South Florida, last winter, Chet Raley was the man for
snapping me out of a slump. Perhaps I should call him more.

If you could only do one exercise in the gym every day to improve your
skiing, it would be:

Yoga

If you had the opportunity to ski with one person, it would be (dead
or alive):  

I would say Andy Mapple but as it happens, I will be
skiing with him next week.  I will also get the chance to ski with
Will Asher soon, which I am excited about.  I would like the chance to
ski with Women’s World Record Holder, Regina Jaquess sometime.

The best piece of advice that you have received about skiing is:

“Be a better person than you are a skier.”  - Chet Raley

___________

Freddy Krueger

Freddy is an 12x World Record Holder,  holds the current Mens Jump World Record with a leap of  247, has an amazing 72 professional tournament wins, and has been ranked number one in Elite Rankings for the past seven years. Freddy lives and trains in Winter Garden, Florida.

http://www.thenightmare13.com/Nightmare13/Home/Home.html 

Here's what Freddy had to say...

What/Who is your biggest inspiration:

Currently I would have to say my wife Karen.  I have worked very hard to get to where I am today, but its amazing to see a woman have to fight every day to get better, stay better, and do it for half the pay, if your lucky, as a man.  If you didn’t have a passion and love for it, there is no way you would continue to work the way she does and not go insane.  Every time I don’t feel like putting in the effort, I think of how hard she works and it gets my butt in gear.

The biggest challenge in your skiing is: 

Never letting up.  Believe it or not, I don’t have a real killer instinct.  If I have you down, I’m not going to step on your throat to prove it to you.  I have lost more than one tournament because of that mistake.  Some people would call it not staying focused, but for me this all began about proving to the world I could be one of the best.  I never thought I would have to work so hard to keep that motivation going.

If you didn’t spend your summers skiing, you would: 

I can’t even begin to guess.  I’ve been spending my summers skiing since I was born with my family.  I’ve never known any different, and since I’m living my dream, I’ve never sat around and wondered about that.  I guess I’d be working a day job, trying not to strangle a boss or co-worker.

If you are in a slump, the first person you call is: 

Karen.  Period.  I’ve had great influences in my life like Chris Sullivan and Jay Bennett, my family, Troy Zoellner, etc.  But no one knows me and my skiing better than Karen.  She can actually tell when I’m not skiing well in practice and see the slump coming.  She then gets me refocused and back on track before it all hits rock bottom.

If you could only do one exercise in the gym every day to improve your skiing, it would be:

Some type of ply metrics…probably burpies.  You can do like 8 – 10 of them and you’ll feel like your heart will explode if you do them right.

If you had the opportunity to ski with one person, it would be (dead or alive): 

You know I wouldn’t mind taking a set with God so he could tell me for sure what I’m doing wrong!  But seriously, one guy I met years ago, was a guy named Jimmy “the flea” Jackson.  I met him down in Miami at a slalom event and he was up in his age.  He was so excited to talk about jumping and later I found out he was a past world record holder back in like the 1950’s.  He was so bashful about it, he had absolutely no ego…amazing guy.  I got to talk with him a few more times, but apparently this guy just kicked the ramp like nothing you’ve ever seen.  I would have loved to see someone else that was known for their kicking like that ski.  He passed away a few years ago and just as quietly and unassuming as he could he left this world with few people around him.  When I read it in the magazine, it literally brought tears to my eyes that we had let a guy like Jimmy slip away from our sport.

The best piece of advice that you have received about skiing is: 

My dad once told me, frustrated, “if you keep falling the same way, do whatever you must to fall the exact opposite of that.  Then find your way back to the middle and you’ll have it”.  So if I’m early on my first jump, you can bet I won’t be early on my second.  I try to over correct so I know exactly where to be on the third jump.  Most often, I’m right where I want to be on that second jump!  And dad knew that!

My mom also used to say, “don’t throw your ass to God”, but honestly….that’s worked for me more than once, so I stick with Dad’s answer.  You can take all the fancy coaching in the world, and you’ll probably get where you want to go following this one little piece of advice!

The weather has changed. Time for off season training.

Tips from skiers...

Some of the best things you can do in the off season is build your core, and build up lean muscle. I have been doing a lot of cardio (running mostly) and hitting up the Concept II rowing machine. I swear by the rowing machine, it works the same muscles in your back, core and arms that you see when in the slalom course. It also adds to my cardio work out, which is also vital come spring. Two things I am starting to do are yoga and plyometrics. Anything that will promote explosivness as well as good balance and a strong core will benefit come Spring. Also, since we are in the Midwest, I use snow skiing to visualize and practice the same turns I would do on the water.

Brenton Triplett, Kettering University

I love I love I love to play racquetball in the off-season. Its a game of action reaction, you don't have a lot of time to think and react to the game. I get a great cardio workout and my heart stays up there for mostly the whole match. I don't know many cross overs between the water skiing but I do you know your legs get a great workout because of all the cutting around and your obliques and core gets a good work out too from all the variety of odd shots you make.

My next favorite thing to do in the off-season is to go the the steam room and stretch my mind out. This is not your everyday stretching that you do before a work out. I like to do I use this as a calm down session but ultimately I do this to increase my overall flexibility. I like to start off with a nice 10-20min session of stretching legs and lower back followed by 10 min cool down session out of the steam room doing the same stretches to prevent tightening of the muscles. After that I will usually go in and try to get a set of push-ups, sit-ups, standing squats, and calf lifts inside the steam room, DON"T FORGET TO BREATH in there. I will usually go back and just sit back in the steam room for another 15-20 minutes to cool down and just sweat. I have done yoga probably 5-8 times here at the university and after a session of steaming I generally feel more flexible than when I would leave a yoga session.

 Paul Ogren, Iowa State University

Our whole ski team likes to go for thursday night diving. We all get together and go to the school athletics building and hit up the diving boards for the last hour of open swim. Not only is it a great time to attempt a bunch of outrageous inverts and see who can smack themselves against the water the hardest, but it also serves as a nice workout, especially for the abdominals, a core skiing muscle group. I'm sure it also helps to improve air sense for trick skiing flips/spins and for long distance jumping.

 Tyler Lorenz, University of Wisconsin, Madison

The latest and greatest...

P90X

You’ve heard about it, seen it on TV infomercials, but does it work? Can it really put you in the shape of your life?

What is it?

Sometimes referred to as, Power 90 Extreme, is a home exercise system developed by Tony Horton. It claims to improve physical fitness in 90 days through a rigorous segmented training program combined with a nutrition and dietary supplement plan.

P90X's advertising emphasizes "muscle confusion", a method of cross-training and periodization achieved through switching the order of exercises and incorporating new and varied movements. Muscle confusion prevents the body from adapting to exercises over time, resulting in continual improvement without plateaus.

P90X combines a variety of exercise techniques including strength training, cardio, yoga, plyometrics, and stretching. The program consists of a nutrition guide, fitness plan, calendar and series of DVD videos featuring Horton as instructor. For workouts that require weights, for example, one of the models demonstrates the exercise using elastic resistance bands.

What the skiers said...

P90X is a great off season workout. Jimmy & I used them last year and felt great. Plus I have never started a ski season without being sore, and this Spring I can honestly say that I was not sore after my first few sets. If you want an intense all over body workout that works muscles you didn't even realize you had, I highly recommend P90X. I am starting up again this week!

Abby Schmitt, Purdue University

Great workout for your lungs and balance training.

Jimmy Tranchita, University of Life

P90x is an over all physical conditioning workout that incorporates all the necessary keys for skiing cardio, core strength, flexibility, balance, and mental toughness.

From experience it will put you in the best overall shape of your life and when it comes to trying to improve your skiing if your strong limber with stamina you can take more passes and train harder with less injuries.

You may wonder how P90x improves your mental toughness but when you have to press play every day for 90 days it teaches you to get into a focused mindset fast and not focus on anything but the workout or future ski set your attacking right at that moment.

Dan Warner, Central Connecticut

 Awesome program, especially great for those looking for a change up from the standard boring 3 reps of 10-15 reps workout at the gym. Just as much of a mental challenge to find the time in your day to do it EVERY day as it is a physical challenge. The plyometrics are awesome, can't say enough good things about them. It would be nice if Ab Ripper X had some sort of alternative, or at least some variety. It gets old after awhile. The Yoga is kind of miserably long, I personally recommend just going to a class. I do think it is an awesome program for skiing in general though just because of the focus on what in my opinion is the most important single exercise you can do for skiing with is the pull up.

Ryan Christopher, University of Georgia, Athens

Yoga

Misconceptions put to rest, Yoga rocks.

What is it?

Refers to traditional physical and mental disciplines that originated in India. The word is associated with meditative practices in Hinduism, Buddhism and Jainism. Within Hinduism, it also refers to one of the six orthodox (āstika) schools of Hindu philosophy, and to the goal towards which that school directs its practices. In Jainism, yoga is the sum total of all activities — mental, verbal and physical.

The goals of yoga are varied and range from improving health to achieving Moksha. The goal of yoga takes the form of Moksha, which is liberation from all worldly suffering and the cycle of birth and death (Samsara), at which point there is a realization of identity with the Supreme Brahman. In the Mahabharata, the goal of yoga is variously described as entering the world of Brahma, as Brahman, or as perceiving the Brahman or Atman that pervades all things. For the bhakti schools of Vaishnavism, bhakti or service to Svayam bhagavan itself may be the ultimate goal of the yoga process, where the goal is to enjoy an eternal relationship with Vishnu.

What the skiers said....

I attribute my clean track record with skiing injuries to my flexibility. I danced growing up, and when I stopped dancing I started yoga to keep my muscles supple. Yoga is a great way to stay flexible, and it also challenges you to control your thoughts and breathing, which really helps in skiing. We all know skiing is sometimes more mental than physical, so you can practice reigning in your mind and stay in shape all at the same time. Try Power Yoga to add a little cardio into your yoga routine!

Suzanne Nanney, University of Georgia, Athens

Yoga is a two fold, mind and body. It is an awesome way to unwind your mind while bringing you back to what is really important. Related to skiing, it helps with balance, strengthens total body, and body awareness. A simple warrior sequence can help learning stillness and control, two very important aspects of skiing, espiecially slalom, but really all three events. I have even done sun salutations before a set and it has helped warm up my muscles (total body), improve my flexibility, and focus my mind. Highly recommend for skiing!

 Shelly Tranchita, Illinois State University

Pilates

Core strength, core strength, keep your core tight! You’ve heard it, coached it....how to do it?

What is it?

Pilates is a physical fitness system developed in the early 20th century by Joseph Pilates in Germany. Pilates called his method Contrology , because he believed his method uses the mind to control the muscles. The Pilates method seeks to increase the strength, flexibility and control of the body.

The Pilates Method of Physical and Mental Conditioning, in 1980 and in it they outlined six "principles of Pilates". These have been widely adopted - and adapted - by the wider community. The original six principles were: concentration, control, center, flow, precision and breathing.

What the skiers said...

Pilates is unique type of exercise involving a series of motions targeting the core and lower back while stretching and strengthening the body. Doing a regular routine will help with maintaining proper alignment of the body and will develop strong lean muscles. There are many benefits from Pilates for the body like many other exercises. The first thing that comes to mind that water skiers can benefit from Pilates is the head position while doing Pilates. Pilates is usually done a mat with the head and shoulders lifted off the matt. This is the only type of exercise that works the core while incorporating the same head position as skiing does. When skiing, it is important to have a low chin and good head position. Pilates will help keep these smaller muscles strong for skiing. 

Another thing Pilates creates throughout an exercise routine is body awareness. As a water skier it is key to understand you body position while skiing. Having a better understanding of body position while doing any type of exercise and/or sport, the athlete will understand what is the correct position verses the incorrect position. As a water skier, we only have seconds to correct our body position. During the off-season it is crucial to exercise our mind with body awareness. Pilates is a type of exercise that will build awareness of the different body position in space. It is important to have the correct body position while practicing Pilates since it is the only way to receive benefits when in the correct body position. These are just the first two reasons why Pilates is an amazing exercise routine during the off-season.

Anna Willard, Eastern Washington University

Indo Board

Developed by a surfer, this simple balance board maybe the training you have been looking for!

What is it?

An Indo Board is a lever similar to a see-saw that the user usually stands on, usually with the left and right foot at opposite ends of the board. The user's body must stay balanced enough to keep the board's edges from touching the ground and to keep from falling off the board.

Using the Indo Board for fun or as a serious workout helps develop balance, coordination, and increased leg strength, while enhancing the all important core fitness. It also improves motor skills making the Indo Board a great cross training tool for a variety of sports, from extreme boardsports to all mainstream sports which require agility and innate balance and coordination.

What the skiers said...

Indo Boards are great for working with balancing and keeping your eyes up when slaloming. The best thing is once you get comfortable on the board have someone throw you something while you balance on it. Another great thing that just helps with balance is try and do 180's and keep doing tricks to improve balance. 

On other off season work outs, a great one that is easy is take your ski handle, tie it to a milk jug full of water and then spin that around keeping the handle as close to your waist as possible. It works the muscles you use for slalom. Also, tie up your handle to something and then practice your form by just leaning back. Don't do it to door handles though, they will pull off. 

Steven Greene, Illinois State University

Check it out here:  http://indoboard.com/tv_fitness/  

Wondering where the best places are to ski...or some great advice? I sent out an email to a few skier friends with five ski related questions on their Top 5's.

Here's what they said.

Midwest Collegiate Water Ski Association Newsletter

October 2010

Coble Ski School, October 2010

2010 Season has come to an end. Congrats to all the Midwest teams for a great season. Check out the tournament summaries all on mcwsa.com.