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In relation to coaching, Mikaela Shiffrin has a status for being as intense because it will get. That’s a part of the rationale she’s received three general World Cup titles, 5 world championships and two Olympic gold medals, all earlier than she turned 25 this previous March.
And Aspen Valley Ski & Snowboard Membership coach Eric Colon came upon firsthand simply how legitimate that status is when he had the possibility to work with the famous person ski racer this summer time.
“One of many huge takeaways I had from attending to expertise working together with her up shut was simply how skilled she is and the way exhausting she works,” Colon mentioned. “She’s obtained an unbelievable work ethic and it’s extremely disciplined and extremely targeted. Each single run counts. She doesn’t ever take a run off. She is all the time engaged on particular targets. She by no means wastes a meter of vertical house.”
Colon is coming into his sixth season with AVSC, the place he’s the top U14 alpine coach. He doesn’t have any direct ties with Shiffrin, per se, however does with Shiffrin’s coach, Mike Day. The 2 truly went to highschool collectively at Carrabassett Valley Academy in Maine, the place Colon was a few years older than Day.
Nevertheless, the 2 hadn’t seen one another in roughly three many years till not too long ago, with Shiffrin making extra frequent journeys to Aspen to make use of the Stapleton Coaching Middle at Aspen Highlands. And Colon has typically been a serving to hand for Shiffrin and her crew after they make the trek to make use of AVSC’s premiere training venue.
“He got here out with Mikaela to coach in November and I sort of reconnected with him then and had a few conversations,” Colon mentioned of Day. “He was mainly right here by himself as a coach, so he simply wanted an additional hand setting programs, sustaining the course and all that sort of stuff. So I went up and helped them out. Then he requested me on the finish of that point if I’d be taken with doing a visitor teaching camp with them over the summer time, if one thing labored out.”
Seems, regardless of the coronavirus pandemic, one thing did work out. With lots of Shiffrin’s standard worldwide coaches and workers not allowed to journey due to COVID-19 restrictions, Day was left scrambling to seek out further assist for a non-public camp at Mt. Hood. And that’s how Colon snagged a spot inside Shiffrin’s seven-person bubble for her three-week camp from July 17 to Aug. 4 in Oregon.
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The elite skiers are sometimes snowboarding in locations like South America and even Europe this time of yr however due to the pandemic, U.S. Ski & Snowboard athletes have been left looking for snow right here at dwelling, and Mt. Hood is likely one of the solely locations that also has any to supply this late into the summer time.
Many different members of the U.S. nationwide staff have been there coaching on and off concurrently Shiffrin, however they did their finest to maintain the teams separated.
“We tried to not journey the chairlift with individuals outdoors our bubble and it appeared to work very well,” Colon mentioned. “We actually remained in our bubble. Didn’t work together a lot with individuals outdoors the bubble, and if we did we have been very strict in regards to the 6-foot distance and sporting masks.”
Shiffrin hasn’t spent a lot time on snow not too long ago. She was on tempo to win her fourth consecutive general World Cup title — her first got here in 2017 when Aspen hosted the finals — however noticed her season finish abruptly after the death of her father, Jeff Shiffrin, on Feb. 2.
About 5 weeks later, and after a short coaching stint in Aspen, Shiffrin was in Are, Sweden, preparing for her return to racing earlier than the season was canceled due to the spreading coronavirus.
Apart from a short camp in June at Copper Mountain, Mt. Hood was her first alternative to essentially get again on snow.
“She doesn’t simply slide right down to the carry. She is engaged on one thing,” Colon mentioned. “She is doing a drill or she is looking for engagement in her skis. She is all the time targeted. It’s such a brief period of time for a ski racer to have the ability to practice; to seek out coaching house is tough. She makes use of her time as a lot as she probably can.”
As intense as Shiffrin is whereas coaching and racing, she additionally has a status for being very pleasant and fascinating, particularly together with her followers. Colon plans to take that a part of Shiffrin again to his AVSC athletes this winter, in addition to her coaching prowess.
If there may be one factor that stands out in regard to coaching youngsters, Colon mentioned it’s getting them to decide to specializing in the basics. And of the numerous traits that make Shiffrin stand out is how exhausting she continues to work on the fundamentals, even after 66 World Cup victories.
“It’s exhausting to get them to concentrate on a few of the minutia of their basic snowboarding. And I believe it’s actually vital for them to see and to know that the very best ski racer on the planet remains to be engaged on that very same stuff we’re asking them to work on,” Colon mentioned. “She is unbelievable. She is such particular person. She is wise, stylish, type, personable, humorous, beneficiant and, most significantly, humble. She is all the time prepared to flash a younger child a smile and a wave and a whats up and take an image.”
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