Warm Weather and Winter Sports

Unseasonably warm weather combined with wind and rain has closed the track for the last couple days. We've carried on with our scheduled push training and off track education and filled our sliding time with stuff like volleyball and football. The people running camp have been apologetic, but that's how it goes in this weather.

The sliding sports are very complex despite how easy the athletes make it look sometimes. Sliding theory is very interesting and is well-founded in physics. Track knowledge and experience play a huge role as there is virtually no time to react to what you see coming at you on the track. Coaches can offer a new slider advice, but the athlete must learn largely by trial and error/ self teaching and time.

The photos above are from the giant treadmill at the Olympic Training Center that we used today to get a better feel for being relaxed on the sled and driving. Hopefully we'll be back on the ice tomorrow.