The past two months have flown by in such a whirlwind — it’s tough to believe that summer is almost officially gone and the competition season is just around the corner! I’ve been savoring every moment in this calm before the storm…but I’m excited for what the next several months hold and to kick some ass this season!
The vast majority of my July and August has been dedicated to water ramping and Mount Hood camps, where I’ve had the pleasure of honing in on the fine details of consistency in all of my tricks and moguls technique (on a relatively easier venue). Though the Mount Hood snow pack was melting like nothing I’d ever seen before (…courtesy of climate change 😔), Timberline Lodge and my coaches did an incredible job of pulling together a safe venue for us to practice our new stuff on. In the most unpredictable of times — whether it be involving the pandemic, travel hiccups, or ever-changing camp and competition schedules — I’m thankful that we have a team that is consistently getting better at working together cohesively, being flexible with whatever comes our way, and figuring out how to operate in everyone’s best interest. It certainly isn’t easy, but our support crew sure is working hard at getting the job done!
Photo: Sarah Brunson/US Ski Team
Though these two months have largely been comprised of snow specific training, I took these past two weeks — and our final break of the season — as a moment to return to the fundamentals and ensure that my strength foundation is the best it can possibly be before beginning competition season. For me, that meant having a remarkably productive in-person strength training camp with my strength coaches, Bill and Matt (with Knowles Athletic), in Philadelphia, PA. I had worked with Bill and Matt in-person last September and the experience was remarkably rewarding, so I was super excited to return for another camp! (They programmed my strength work all season and helped me have a very, very successful competition season returning from injury!!) I can’t speak highly enough of them, their dedication and passion to the craft, and attention to detail. They’ve helped me to understand not only the ins and outs of getting my knee back to top performance shape, but also how to generate quality movement as a whole. The strength work I’ve completed while in Philly has been challenging in new ways — most notably mentally and neurologically, as most of the strength work I do these days is still intensely focused on connecting my brain to my left quad and repairing the neural inhibitions that still remain from my ACL injury. Despite this, though, I feel as “normal” as I’ve ever felt in my entire life — and my entire body feels absolutely primed to compete. I’m leaving Philly with lots of new cues and methods to continue to improve this aspect of my training so that I can be as strong and powerful as possible going into this upcoming competition season!
As this summer quickly comes to a close, so is the summer period of my competition preparation (woohoo!!!)! Over the next two weeks, I’ll be water ramping in Park City, putting the final touches on the tricks I’ll be taking to snow, as well as spending time with my family and friends before hitting the road. Our next trip to find snow will be to Zermatt, Switzerland in early October! As days get chillier and snow starts to fly, the anticipation for the season ahead becomes more and more tangible. This update was short and sweet, but I’m very thankful for the simplicity that my life is holding at the moment.
Here’s a collection of other random moments from the past two months: featuring my 21st birthday, two trips to NYC, having family friends watch my jumping, my first time wakeboarding/waterskiing, sunsets, nonstop summer Olympics-watching, and so much more!!
Until next time,
OG !! ☺️
