AVSC coach experiences firsthand what it’s like inside Shiffrin’s training bubble

On the subject of coaching, Mikaela Shiffrin has a fame for being as intense because it will get. That’s a part of the explanation she’s gained 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 discovered firsthand simply how legitimate that fame is when he had the prospect to work with the celebrity ski racer this summer season.

“One of many massive takeaways I had from attending to expertise working along with her up shut was simply how skilled she is and the way exhausting she works,” Colon stated. “She’s received an unbelievable work ethic and it’s extremely disciplined and extremely centered. 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 area.”

Colon is coming into his sixth season with AVSC, the place he’s the pinnacle 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 high school collectively at Carrabassett Valley Academy in Maine, the place Colon was a few years older than Day.

Nonetheless, the 2 hadn’t seen one another in roughly three many years till lately, with Shiffrin making extra frequent journeys to Aspen to make use of the Stapleton Coaching Heart 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 stated 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 eager about doing a visitor teaching camp with them over the summer season, if one thing labored out.”

Seems, regardless of the coronavirus pandemic, one thing did work out. With a lot of Shiffrin’s regular worldwide coaches and employees 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.

The elite skiers are sometimes snowboarding in locations like South America and even Europe this time of 12 months however due to the pandemic, U.S. Ski & Snowboard athletes have been left looking for snow right here at house, and Mt. Hood is without doubt one of the solely locations that also has any to supply this late into the summer season.

Many different members of the U.S. nationwide group had been there coaching on and off concurrently Shiffrin, however they did their greatest to maintain the teams separated.

“We tried to not experience the chairlift with individuals outdoors our bubble and it appeared to work rather well,” Colon stated. “We actually remained in our bubble. Didn’t work together a lot with individuals outdoors the bubble, and if we did we had been very strict concerning the 6-foot distance and sporting masks.”

Shiffrin hasn’t spent a lot time on snow lately. 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 quick 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.

Aside from a quick 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 raise. She is engaged on one thing,” Colon stated. “She is doing a drill or she is looking for engagement in her skis. She is all the time centered. It’s such a brief period of time for a ski racer to have the ability to prepare; to seek out coaching area is troublesome. She makes use of her time as a lot as she presumably can.”

As intense as Shiffrin is whereas coaching and racing, she additionally has a fame for being very pleasant and interesting, particularly along 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 stated it’s getting them to decide to specializing in the basics. And of the various 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 give attention to a few of the minutia of their elementary snowboarding. And I feel it’s actually essential for them to see and to know that the perfect ski racer on this planet remains to be engaged on that very same stuff we’re asking them to work on,” Colon stated. “She is unbelievable. She is such individual. She is sensible, elegant, variety, 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.”

acolbert@aspentimes.com