5 Jan 2012 Sk8skool Members + Guests Camp is on the
way!
On the horizon is Sk8skool Skate Camp 2012.
(16th - 20th May).
Skate Camp
is a Speedskating experience you'll never forget! We offer masses of exciting activities,
training, games and challenges to those people that would like to develop
themselves, be in good company and relax after a hard days training.
Sk8SKOOL's home is Gerlev Sports Academy
and is only 5km south of Slagelse in Denmark. The school has
fantastic facilities for a wide range of sports including Speedskating training.
Need I say more?
The camp in 2012 is for Sk8skool members +
guests. If you want to come or know a friend who wants to come, then
please write to Coach@Sk8skool.dk to ask
for an invitation. Thanks.
See the video from 2011's camp below:
3 Jan 2012 Max and Lukas
return!
Last year Sk8skool played host
to 50 skaters form 8 countries at Gerlev International Skate Camp. It is
with great pleasure that we can announce that two of those guests will
be returning to Sk8skool and Gerlev for a longer, more in depth, stay;
Max Rothwell (England) and Lukas Benedik (Slovakia). Both have decided
to return to Denmark, they will be students at Gerlev Sports Academy
(Højskole); Max for 4 months from March until July, and Lukas for 6
months from March until July and from August until October. Both will
follow the “CrossFit and Fitness” line, and then have a choice of
one sports subject and two study subjects.
Both are looking to learn more
about how to train effectively for Speedskating, how to plan their
training programs and of course want to improve their technique. In
addition to this they have said they are excited to learn more about
sport in general at Gerlev Sports Academy. Their basic fitness,
gymnastic abilities and skills will be challenged, they will also learn
more about teamwork/co-operation, both social and sport oriented.
Whilst studying at Gerlev they
will be full-time members of the Sk8skool Elite Team, training 4 times a
week and taking part in races and competitions. We look forward to their
arrival, just 8 weeks away, on 24th February.
1 Dec 2011 Nadine moves
to Roller Derby
After 2 years as a Sk8skool
Masters member Nadine has decided to move to Roller Derby. Nadine’s
environment has not been especially conducive to Speedskating (poor
facilities, bad weather, training alone) so we completely understand her
decision. Her local town has a thriving Roller Derby scene and the bug
has bitten her. We’d like to take this opportunity to say thank you to
Nadine, it’s been a great 2 years working with someone so dedicated and
knowledgeable. We have great respect for those people that battle
through the hardest conditions, and Nadine was one of them. We wish her
good luck in her Roller Derby career, it looks like a lot of fun and a
challenging sport, and we’ll be following her new direction (probably on
Facebook).
1 Dec 2011 SRV develops
The latest SRV recruit is Klaus
Hestkjær. Klaus has only been skating for 12 months but has shown great
talent, finishing Berlin Marathon with the main masters pack in 1 hour
13min.
Klaus is a member of VRK and
Rolling Vikings, we are very happy to begin a new co-operation with VRK.
We welcome Klaus to the SRV (Sk8skool Rolling Vikings) team. Klaus is a
jolly and talkative person, outgoing and willing to train in any weather
conditions. This is exactly what we in Sk8skool are looking for; “people
who want it”.
It’s clear Klaus has a
fantastic ‘engine’ from his previous endeavors in cycling and running,
but now we hope to challenge and develop his anaerobic system and top
speed technique. He could be a serious contender if he can add speed and
acceleration to that fantastic aerobic condition which he has.
20 Nov 2011 Naija bows
out
It’s with great sadness that we
say good bye to Naija. Naija has decided to take a step down and
continue skating but only on a club level. Naija has been fighting and
making good progress for the last 2 years in the Sk8skool Elite team.
She feels she needs more time outside of skating to grow and develop. We
respect her decision and wish her good luck in the future.
24 Sep 2011 SRV at
Berlin Marathon
Since ‘Le Mans 24 hour’ the SRV
Team have been highly motivated and focused on Berlin Marathon. The
training has been going well, they have learnt a lot about interval
training, skating in a pack and in an ordered paceline. The speed has
been developing also thanks to some motor-pacing sessions behind a
scooter. Today was the test of all that hard work….
All 4 SRV guys started in the B
group (we’ll leave the A group to those 25 year young guys!) and all
either skated a personal best time or finished with the lead pack. We
had all of the team under 1 hour 18 mins.
This is a great result. It’s
worth mentioning that Tore’s bearing broke about 1km from the finish
line, so he had to stop and take a wheel off, then continue to the
finish line somewhat delayed. I’m very satisfied with their focus,
dedication and discipline in training and their results show that they
have worked hard and smart. Now we look forward to October (off-season)
then starting training again on 1st November toward the goals
of 2012.
1 July HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO SK8SKOOL!
Today Sk8skool
is officially 2 years old. (Although the development of the group happened 8
months before). It's been a great 2 years, Sara and I have enjoyed it immensely,
it's hard work sometimes and takes a lot of time and effort, but those special
moments when a student achieves a goal, wins a race or just learns something
special make it worthwhile. We continue training and teaching all we can, and in
the next 2 weeks we will be watching the internet videos and results from
Junior/Cadet European Championships. GOOOO Denmark! J
26 June DM Results
A successful weekend of racing for Sk8skool students again with
many medals from the Danish Championships on road. Oliver got his hands on some
gold, twice! and Mads proved to be the best sprinter with a gold in the time
trial and a silver in the 500m. Asta skated well to get a handful of silvers and
Naija had twice 4th place, so close to that illusive bronze medal. Nick placed
strongly in the longer races taking a silver and a bronze. I had food
poisoning early in the week, so couldn't race Saturday, Sunday I felt 90% ok, so
raced the senior 1500m and 10km points, taking gold in both races.
The total medal count is incredible for such a new group,
we've only been training properly for 2 years and already the good results are
showing both in Denmark and abroad. We will continue developing and I am sure
after a few more years training and with a little more race experience under
their belts they will achieve great things on a high international level.
Excellence takes time, hard smart work and dedication...
It is worth mentioning that Naija took 4th place 6 times this
year, sometimes only a few cm from a medal. A fantastic performance considering
she has only been on skates 3 years and that she has had 2 knee operations in
the past 18 months because of a genetic problem. Now she is healthy and we look
forward to see her REALLY develop her skills, speed and fitness ready for the
2012 season.
National
Silver : 27
Michael - Road - Junior - 1500m Oliver - Road -
Cadet - 200m
Mads - Road - Cadet - 500m
Nick - Road - Cadet - 5000m p
Asta - Road - Cadet - 200m
Asta - Road - Cadet - 500m
Asta - Road - Cadet - 1000m
Asta - Road - Cadet - 5000m p
Asta - Road - Cadet - 10000m e
Michael - Track - Junior - 1000m
Oliver - Track - Cadet - 3000m p
Oliver - Track - Cadet - 5000m e
Asta - Track - Cadet - 1000m
Asta - Track - Cadet - 3000m p
Asta - Track - Cadet - 5000m e
Sara - Indoor - Senior - 500m
Sara - Indoor - Senior - 1000m
Sara - Indoor - Senior - 2000m
Michael - Indoor - Junior - 1000m
Michael - Indoor - Junior - 3000m p
Michael - Indoor - Junior - 5000m e
Asta - Indoor - Cadet - 500m
Asta - Indoor - Cadet - 2000m p
Asta - Indoor - Cadet - 3000m e Nichlas -
Indoor - Youth - 500m
Nichlas - Indoor - Youth - 1000m
Nichlas - Indoor - Youth - 2000m
National Bronze
: 12
Michael - Road - Junior -
500m Oliver - Road - Cadet - 1000m
Oliver - Road - Cadet - 5000m p Nick - Road -
Cadet - 10000m e
Michael - Track - Junior - 15000m e
Mads - Track - Cadet - 3000m p
Mads - Track - Cadet - 5000m e
Michael - Indoor - Junior - 500m Mads - Indoor -
Cadet - 500m
Oliver - Indoor - Cadet - 3000m p
Nick - Indoor - Cadet - 2000m p
Nick - Indoor - Cadet - 3000m e
26 June Danish National Team calls!
We say CONGRATULATIONS to Asta Thorgersen, Oliver Lindenskov and Mads Eriksen
who today were selected for the Danish National Team for the European
Championships in Italy in July. We have only
been together as a training group for 2 years so this is a very good development
with such a young team. The athletes have worked hard and smart, a killer
combination and their results show, especially considering they are mostly new
in the sport. We look forward to watch their development in the coming years.
14 June
S R V Team
Sk8skool
Rolling Vikings
is a new initiative in Sk8skool that has grown naturally out of my relationship
with Tore Brynaa (Sk8skool Masters) and the positive reputation created in the
Danish Masters skating community, by working with Tore and Maria Carstensen.
(both Sk8skool Masters).
SRV is a group of skaters that have a common goal and a similar level of skating
ability. SRV
offers support to Elite MASTERS skaters that are also members in 'Rolling
Vikings'.
Anyone 30 years old or over may apply to Sk8skool to become a Sk8skool MASTERS
member, but it is the Sk8skool coaches that decide if that person is suitable to
go on the SRV Team. We take goals, values and skating ability in to
consideration. The conditions are the same as Sk8skool Masters membership, but
you get extra possibilities to train with SRV team.
Last Christmas I received an application from Mikael Arnskov to Sk8skool, but
Sk8skool was full, so I put him on the waiting list, then we received an
application from Jesper Færch, so then I had 2 on the waiting list. Finally in
May I received an application from Thomas Jensen and then it became clear that
there was a possibility to create a great “training energy” with these 4 guys.
They have similar goals, similar values and a natural companionship. So then I
took the chance and we had a meeting to discuss the project.
So then on 1st June 2011, SRV Team was born:
·
Tore Brynaa
·
Mikael Arnskov
·
Jesper Færch
·
Thomas Jensen
The advantages of a training GROUP are numerous. But the biggest advantage is
that a group paceline goes faster than an individual, therefore you learn to
skate faster because the group skates faster. But as I ALWAYS say to every new
member of Sk8skool, “IT TAKES AT LEAST 12 MONTHS BEFORE YOU SEE RESULTS”. I look
very much forward to see the results of the new initiative, in 2012.
The SRV team will also train with the Sk8skool ELITE Team on ROAD, maybe even as
frequently as once a week if the co-operation works well. This is an advantage
for the relatively young ELITE Team who will benefit from the pure strength and
determination of the Masters skaters on road. It’s also an advantage to the SRV
Team who may pick up some technique and pack skills from the youngsters. We hope
to have some good training sessions together as soon as the SRV Team have
recovered from ‘Le Mans’.
12 June 2011 World Masters Championships
Sk8skool went to the
World Masters Championships today and it went very well indeed.
Good results all round! Nadine has only been skating
3 years, she has a little "ice history" when she was in her 20's and
this has helped her develop her speed. She has worked very hard in
training on and off skates, despite having a serious crash in
February and serious illness in March she still managed to get a 6th
place at the Worlds. Lars T was in fine form looking relaxed
and in control through the whole race, he also had good speed at the
end, it was only a spilt second error of judgement in his
positioning in the pack in the final kilometre that meant he
couldn't quite overhaul the top 5. Maria fought her way to a
fantastic top 10 finish in her first big international competition,
she's only been skating 2½ years and is making great improvements.
Jeffrey was racing in a hard category, there were 103 men and the
standard was much higher than in previous years. The French national
team, German national team, Italians and others were all in
attendance and in serious skating mood. After only 2 years on skates
he did very well to get 49th place. He says he learnt a lot and has
renewed focus and motivation for his training and next competitions.
I'm personally very satisfied with my race, I've
prepared for it all year and the planning and focus paid off. The
course was a 2.2km circuit, the asphalt was 'not good' and in small
patches it was very bad. There was a slight rise in the road at one
end which some skaters used to launch attacks up, trying to sap the
energy from the main pack. Tactically it was a very difficult race.
The French national team had 5 men (plus some good quality
non-national skaters) and were well organised with break-aways and
the man power to cover any offensive move. Germany showed up with a
national team comprising 8 men and were very offensive in their
style. Also Italy had 4 national level skaters. It would have been
futile for me to attack. So I had to be patient. I watched some
break-aways but tried to only chase the "important ones", but it's
hard to watch people just skate away ahead of the main pack. So I
chased more than I had planned on chasing. in the middle of the race
it got really messy because we caught the AK30 age group, so the
pack was then double as big on a narrow road, and it was confusing
who we were actually racing against and who was not "the
competition". But when the final 2 laps (4.4km) came the speed
went up a bit, but I still felt ok, pretty comfortable. Then a
skater from the French national team launched a big attack - a "go-for-home " attack
(I still don't know if he was in OUR race, or in the '35-39' age
category) - he got a big gap, 150m, I knew I could
not chase or I would be just leading all the other guys to the
finish and serving the T'shirt on a plate for them. But I guess
everyone else thought that also. I was surprised the German or
Italian team did not chase, they had the manpower to do it, but maybe they were dead. So I had to wait while he just skated away
toward the last lap. When the bell rang he had at least 150m lead or
more, the pack was being led by a Frenchman who was in "no hurry"
to catch his team-mate. (of course) But I knew I still had to be
patient. We came down the back straight with 1.4km to go and the
pack started to speed up again and 3 lines formed side by side. I
was still holding 3rd place behind the strongest French skater and an
Italian. This was great positioning I thought, and I held it all the
way to the final BIG roundabout. I watched outside as the German
team started to come, then I made my move, I went outside with 3
fast crossovers and then dived in to the right-turn corner and made
2 right-hand crossovers and then it was just full speed to the
finish line. It was about a 700m sprint so my thighs were burning,
but I just kept going. I looked under my shoulder left and right, I
couldn't see anyone close, but I couldn't be sure, so I did a "half-dive"
for the finish line just to be sure. (We've all see the youtube
video of the skater who lost the Worlds by standing up and waving,
right?) Then it was over, happy but burning legs and lungs. I found
Lars T and then phoned Sara. What a day!
I want to thank Sara Aagaard for being a
great coach for me, she always says the right thing at the right
time, is very 'process oriented' and experienced beyond her years.
Thankyou Sara.
6 June 2011 GERLEV INTERNATIONAL SKATE CAMP 2011
Skaters from New Zealand, U.S.A., Canada, Slovakia, England,
Germany, Sweden and Denmark gathered at Gerlev Idrætshøjskole for 5
days of great training on road, track and circuit in fantastic
summer weather. Simply great people, great atmosphere, great days. I
could easily write 10,000 words or more.
.... but I think this says it all, click here.... (and turn up
the volume!)
20 May 2011 42 signed up from 7 countries!
Sk8skool and Gerlev Idrætshøjskole have attracted 42
skaters from 7 countries to come to Denmark for Speedskating. Gerlev
International Skate Camp starts in 12 days and will last 4 days.
It's going to be great to meet so many people on skates and from so
many different backgrounds. It's the last chance to register
if you want to enjoy the experience with us.
See the weeks program
here.
AND see the video
here.
Gerlev International Skate Camp 2011
Gerlev International Skate Camp is a Speedskating
experience you'll never forget! We offer masses of exciting activities,
training, games and challenges to those people that would like to develop
themselves, be in good company and relax after a hard days training.
Sk8SKOOL's home is Gerlev Sports Academy
and is only 5km south of Slagelse in Denmark. The school has
fantastic facilities for a wide range of sports including Speedskating training.
Need I say more?
It’s a tricky year for Sk8skool as 6 out of 8
of our elite team are ”first year” skaters in their respective age
category.
However, they still
managed to perform well. I’m very proud of their dedication to their sport and
their professional way to handle the challenging situations.
Michael Deleuran (1st
year Junior B - NIK) skated to a 4th place in his C final in GG, and
placed 26th in his ‘A final’ race at “The 3tracks”. He’s really
developing fast and we look forward to each race that he is in.
Oliver (NIK) and Mads (Ods.)
had a tough time in the Cadet category but Oliver managed to finish overall 20th
at GG with his best result 18th. He’s still “first year” so of course
it’s a tough category. Mads finished 21st overall at GG and had a
good 16th place in the 1000m.
Nichlas
(SIK) looked very promising in his first race at GG but unfortunately crashed
only 3 laps before the end, but the injured shoulder meant that he could not
race again. Naija Olsen (Ods.), also “first year” cadet and only in her second
international competition fought really hard and finished 48th out of
64.
A good start to her
career. She’s on the way up! Nick Volter (1st year Cadet - NIK) in
his first international race, and only his second Speedskating year raced well in my opinion. He learned a
lot from his experience at GG and will go on to improve with each race.
But the star of the show
for Sk8skool was Asta Thorgersen (1st year Cadet - NIK) who skated
just fantastically. In GG she was 16th out of 64 skaters! (Her best
result was 9th, but she “fell asleep” in the elimination and
thus was eliminated first. … I think that’s happened to every skater at least
once, right?) Then at “The 3tracks” she really “grew in” to the racing, and in
her last race was 10th place giving her an overall result of 11th
out of 80 skaters. Well done Asta. Fantastic!
I look forward to the
races in July and August, we have planned to be at our best then. It's
obvious to see that in April we are only just beginning out climb in
performance, the skaters get better every week as each race (high quality
training) has an effect. ROLL ON JULY! :-)
13 March 2011 Johannes
Johannes has decided
to take a break from Sk8skool, to
take some time to work with other
challenges in his life. We hope that
he will soon start skating again,
first in his club (SIK), and we
leave the Sk8skool door open for
Johannes when he wants to come back
to us again.
11 March 2011 READY!
Finally spring is on the way and Sk8skool cleaned
the track ready for the outdoor season. MANY
MANY thanks to the parents that came and helped us
clean the track. We had 15 people, so we washed it
TWICE. The weather forecast for tomorrow is +8
degrees, so we are "breaking out the sun cream"
and skating on a very white clean grippy track.
6
March 2011 National Indoor Championships
Back row: Michael - Sara - Asta -
Maria - Naija
Front row: Oliver - Mads - Nick -
Nichlas
Both Sara and I are very
proud of our skaters, especially since we have been busy doing other sorts of
training, so we have had almost no preparation for this event so early in the
year. We've chosen to focus our training toward the Euros qualification races in
May and Outdoor Nationals/Euros in June and July. We had no expectations of good results this
weekend, and we were surprised to get so many medals.
Youth: Nichlas (SIK) is a success story this weekend, he has been battling with pre-race nerves
since last April, but since Nichlas started in Sk8skool in June we have worked
intensely with his mental processes during Sk8skool personal coaching sessions
and Sk8skool Sports Psychology classes and now Nichlas seems confident, mentally
strong and FAST. He’s only 1st year youth, but managed to take home
silver medals in the 2000m, 1000m, 500m. Well done Nichlas!
Cadet: Asta (NIK) won the 1000m
and took silver medals in the other 3 races! This was a fantastic performance
form this 1st year cadet who only 20 months ago admits “I wasn’t
really focused on skating”. Now she seems to be motivated and “focused”
enough, and on the way to greater things if she can find that “power button”
when she needs it.
Naija (Ods.) has had a difficult winter, she has had an operation
in both knees in the last 12 months because of a problem she was born with.
However she has worked closely with Aktivt Velvære physiotherapists, she has
been dedicated to her rehabilitation training, core training, upper body
training and mental training homework assignments. This has meant that she was
working very hard even when she couldn’t do any leg training or skating,
sometimes for many months in a row. BUT NOW we can truly say she is on the way
back to 100% again. She managed to beat many fully fit girls, some of them 2nd
year cadets (Naija is only 1st year cadet). Her 4th and 5th
place results were especially pleasing both to her and us. Congratulations
Naija. You have showed your dedication and determination all winter and now you
showed how good you can skate!
Mads (Ods. 2nd
year) Oliver (NIK 1st year) and Nick (NIK) had a tough weekend against a strong group of
cadets. Mads picked up a bronze medal in the 500m and 4th place in the points race (but video footage
showed that he actually got enough points for a bronze medal). Oliver performed
well to receive 1 bronze medal. Nick (1st year) had an unexpected
nationals, 2 bronze medals in only his second race season. Nick (NIK) has been in
Sk8skool for only 7 months but has worked consistently every week. This guy
never seems to get tired, he’s an incredible “work horse” and I think this will
pay dividends in the future. When I spoke to Nick after the event he was very
satisfied with his races.
Junior: Michael (NIK) is only 1st
year junior but took 2 silver medals and 2 bronze medals; this was just an
AWESOME performance form a young man that has really changed himself over the
last 6 months. Michael came to Sk8skool 16 months ago as a B skater, not
especially fit and was only training once a week. He has transformed himself
mentally, physically and technically. I personally am most impressed in his
discipline, focus and the “drive to succeed” he has developed. He truly deserved
his medals this weekend.
Senior: Sara (HIT) managed to
come home with 3 second places and 1 win. A good performance from a skater who
has not raced for 5 years. A very welcome return to the sport Sara.
Masters:
While Tore was away in the sunshine in Texas, Maria managed to win the overall
"Masters B" title. Well done Maria.
If I had one wish
following this weekend, it would only be that we get some reasonable weather
this March so that the students can continue their fantastic work in warmish dry
conditions. We have some work to do, but we knew that and it is part of the
plan…. Did someone say “interval training starts tomorrow” ? ;o))
28 February 2011 Sk8skool students prepare (just a little bit)
It's Danish National Indoor Championships in 5 days time, so the
students started to taper down just a little bit for only 5 days. They were
allowed to miss their usual strength training session before skating today. So
they had fresh legs for skating fast. Unfortunately this left me alone in the
strength training room. Damn! But training continues for me. I will not be
racing DM because my peak is planned for later in the year (sept/oct) so I can
not use time on high performance in March. My first race will be in May.
After the training the atmosphere was good and we reviewed the times and there
were many personal record over the last 2 days, and many moreover the last
month. It's been a good winter training, we look forward to start with outdoor
training on Monday!
Training alone, boring, but necessary. (I miss
my Sk8skool students.)
(Squatting on the ball with a 18kg weight vest and 36kg in hand weights = 54Kg)
13 February 2011 Some facts are surprising...
In early
December last year, Sk8skool and
Frederik
Jimenez of
Inquisitive Photography, made a winter
photo-shoot, it was minus 4 degrees, a crisp cold winter day with winter sun
shine, and we skated until after the sun went down. Here's the first image
for you, just as a teaser of more to come later... hope you like,
enjoy ....
6 February 2011 It's all about Mads and Michael!
Today Mads Eriksen (1st year cadet) and Michael Deleuran (1st
year junior) were selected for the national squad. Congratulations to both of
them, they have deserved this because of their dedication to training AND
because both of them have successfully changed their life-style, their focus and
the mental skills. Well done to both. The next step is to re-asses their
goal setting for this coming summer season, we'll talk tomorrow and
"up-prioritise" the national team qualification races in April and May; Gross
Gerau, 3 Tracks, and Heerde Skate Off. To date Sk8skool have 4 skaters on the
national squad, this we are very proud of.
5 February 2011 This is Inline!
23 January 2011 Næstved International Indoor Grand Prix
Even though Sk8skool had not prepared for competition so early in the season, it
was still a successful weekend for most of the students. However the most
stunning performance came from Mads Eriksen who won 2 races in support of his
overall victory in the cadet boys class. A fantastic weekend for a boy who has
only been "in training" for less than 2 years. Other notable good performances
were Naija Olsen who skated her heart out in the relay with Asta Thorgersen.
Well done Naija! Asta had a good weekend in her individual races, only being beaten by 2 top class
German skaters. Michael Deleuran showed he has worked hard and disciplined
himself this winter. He looked sharp and ready and skated well in all races.
Oliver Lindenskov had a return to form after a difficult period before
Christmas, but he seems to be on the right track now and is improving almost
every week. Nichlas Åkesson came on the podium in the Youth class and again
looked promising, he's really improved since last summer and proved he is ready.
Nick Volter had a bad weekend, but he has learnt from his experiences, he is new
to the sport and needs some race experience (which he got this weekend). Look
out for him in the very soon future, he'll be back with the right wheels, the
right expectations, the right tactics and more experience.!!!
We are very happy with the results, especially considering ALL
our skaters (except Mads) are "1st year skaters", meaning it is their 1st
year in their respective categories, so they will still be in that same age
category next year also. It looks like 2011 will be a good year, but 2012 might
be simply AMAZING!
9 January 2011 Happy New Year, training continues
Today we skated on ice, it was very bad, very slippy and dangerous. Maybe we
should have had ice skates on instead! So after just 2km we decided to go for
"plan B", we went in to the "Movement House" at Gerlev and did some fun games
with stability and core training. The atmosphere was great, even though
the training was hard. The game was a lottery of exercises from our off-skate
and stability program. Including the "fire-alarm" random sound where upon we
should all run to the pull-up bars and take 5 pull-ups. Great fun, thanks guys.
The serious training video here: And
the "not-so-serious-training" video here:
25 December 2010 A Christmas present for you all
While on holiday in Egypt we developed a ".pdf" download for you guys. It's our
stability and core training program. Click on the picture of Sara to go to the
Danish download page, or on the picture of Sooty to go to the international
download page. It will take a long time to download because of the high quality
pictures, and it is 27 pages. But it's worth the wait. Have fun training!
10 December 2010 Nichlas is ELITE
Today Nichlas moved up on to the ELITE team in Sk8skool. He has
worked hard for the past few months, and the last few weeks he
has shown determination, skill, team spirit and raised levels
of will. He has thoroughly deserved his place on the ELITE team.
... NOW the hard work begins! ;) Congratulations to
Nichlas.
11 November 2010 No News is good news
No news in
Sk8skool since September because we are just training training training. All is
going well, no problems, motivation is high and the hard work is under way,
winter miles and many strength training repetitions. It's not that fun, it's not
that interesting, but it is "gettin' the job done". See you on the start line in
April, fit for fight. Right?
However, next week - Skate Ramp Park, VO2max Test, Tabata Madness in the
swim hall and more... :O)
12 September 2010 Oliver won in Zemst
Saturday on
the track in Eppegem was something Oliver liked, the track is technical
demanding with banked curves. After an hour where Nick and Oliver tested the
track, and wheelsthey found
the right combination before the races started. The club president Jaak Troch
told that the boys in Reko Zemst had said “Oh no, we have no chance of winning”
when they heard that Oliver competed, because they remembered him from
Zandvoorde.
Oliver showed
them that he liked the track and in the first race (a money reward race) he took
all the spurt rewards plus he came in first with more than 50 meters ahead of
number 2. Nick fought with the rest of the pack and ended as number 8 in the
first race among 12 skaters. In the Cadetten Jongens there was skaters from
Belgium, France and Denmark. Second and last race on the track ended like the
first with Oliver way in front of number 2 and this time with Nick as number 6.
Sunday
started with rain, on a closed circuit in Hombeek. As they went around the
circuit for warm up it was obvious slippery, very slippery. The rain stopped
before the road was washed clean, so as the races started the road was still
very slippery in the corners. To save time to make the circuit dry out, the
girls and boys raced together so the group was 26 skaters. The race started well
and all skaters paid attention to the wet corners. On the last lap in the last
corner Oliver felt, he lost grip in the tarmac and crached. Even though he was
fast on his feets again his lost his firstplace and ended fifth among the boys.
Nick ended first. A scratch was to be seen by a paramedic, but Oliver did not
want to have plaster on. Second race was again a money reward race, and Oliver
once again showed he was superior and took all the rewards. Oliver also helped
Nick advancing during the race and took the spurts for himself. The best girl
also learned to follow Oliver so they raced together. Third and last race was a
short race and because Oliver had not taken any firstplaces he hit the front
from the first lap and spurted so nobody could follow. He got the last and final
victory on road.
Every money
reward gave 2,- Euro each, and the overall winner also received 10,- Euro plus a
nice cup. Nick ended as 4th overall and was rewarded with 7,- Euro.
Besides money and rewards the trip also gave many new friendships, especially
the Reko Zemst skaters would like to see Oliver competing again in 2011, like
this the invitation was announced at the prize giving.
1 Sept 2010 Nick rolls in!
Another new member for Sk8skool ELITE team. Nick
Volter successfully passed his "test days" in Sk8skool, he starts on his 1 month
trial period today. Nick is a 13 years old (Cadet 1st year) and skates for
Næstved Inline Club. He's not been skating long, but has made very good progress
in skating already. He's got a background in Basketball which gives him good
strength, balance and co-ordination. We enjoy his presence at Sk8skool training,
he fits in the group well, and shows he has the desire to do the "necessary
work". See Nick's profile
here.
15 August 2010 Oliver wins in Zandvoorde!
Today was a great day for Oliver Lindenskov, and for Sk8skool.
Put very simply, Oliver won Zandvoorde Grand Prix! There was a high standard of
competition, with a total of 16 medallists form the recent EM in Italy, and many
more national team members. Oliver looked very strong all
weekend, he finished in the top 3 places in EVERY race, and he won 2 of the 5
races. There were over 30 boys in the competition, his main competitors were
Gerri van Lingen from Holland and Tim Seigl from the German National Team.
Before the final race all 3 boys were equal for the overall competition. They
all had 8 points from 4 races. Whoever won the last race won the overall!
It was VERY exciting and Oliver was obviously very nervous. But we had a talk,
and made a plan. Oliver dealt with the pressure very well. (The pressure comes
mostly from himself inside.) He stuck to the plan, was confident in his decision
making on the track and executed his tactic with expert skill. He hit the
front with 1½ laps to go, then just hit "full gas" and no-one could come past
him. This was a 'composed' and 'precise' performance from a young athlete who
has worked very hard and REALLY developed his talent over the past 2 years. He
is really growing both mentally and technically, as well as tactically. We are
all so proud and pleased for Oliver. He has earned this win! Well done
Oliver! :O))
Naija, Michael and Mads all skated well, all finishing
"mid-pack" which is a great development and a successful international result.
(Remember only 6 months ago they were all 'B class' on a Danish level, now they
are 'A class' and racing internationally.) So we are very pleased with their
performance, dedication and attitude to the "development tour" we embarked upon
this weekend. Unfortunately Mads took a bad fall in the last race, a German
national skater fell immediately in front of him, Mads tried to jump over him
but caught his skate and landed badly, he has broken his arm, and all our
thoughts and care go out to him. We wish him a speedy recovery.
I raced in the senior men's class, but "wow it was fast!". I
was 20th overall before the last race, but then had to leave to get my flight
home. But my main goal was to finish with the pack on the road race which is
notoriously hard. I did that! and I finished 16th out of 67. I am very pleased
with my performance considering I am 20 years older than some of the other
skaters in my race. It's fun to race and feel the speed and excitement, even if
I'm not as competitive as I used to be.
The trip was a very relaxed trip, there was some nice social
times, time for fun and laughter and even some shopping!! (skate wheels, skate
frames and skate bags of course). I would like to say thank you to Lis Deleuran, Pia
and Gert Lindenskov for their help and support. It's the support from the
parents that makes this all possible. This group of skaters and parents were a
delight to be with! Can't wait until next year....
8 August 2010 Sk8skool hit the
front
Today was "Troldeløbet" in
Næstved. It was a great training race for us, we just skated as
a "change from the usual" and enjoyed the day. Even though our
students are only Cadet and Youth skaters we were able to
control the race at the front and skated at the front as a team.
Great practice for these young skaters. I won the race by just a
few centimetres, Sara (Sk8skool Assistant Coach) was the first
woman, and we had 6 Sk8skool skaters in the top 10. (including 1st and 2nd Cadet
boys, 1st Youth boy and 1st youth girl) ... A nice "day off" from training... but still skating fast.
Perfect.
6 August 2010 European
Championships 2010 - Italy
Patrick is 1st year Cadet skater, so is mainly there to
learn the scene and get experience for next year. Patrick who has only raced 3 times internationally before.
Patrick finished 14th in the Time Trial. It's
great to see they are getting in the top half of the results
table at this early stage. Well done guys, we are proud of you!
I would just like to mention
the great performance that the Danish Team has made this year,
Sara Bak made two 5th places and Nikolaj Helmsøe had some top
10's also. But I would especially like to mention Stefan
Schmidt, he took silver in the points race and the marathon. A
truly GREAT performance as a 1st year Junior skater.
Congratulations to Stefan and his coaches!
Patrick in action on the track in the 300m
TT.
18 July 2010
Colombian Inline Clinic - IFK Göteborg
We (Naija, Asta, Patrick and
myself) just arrived home with smiles on our faces and new
information in our heads! The Inline Clinic was informative
and fun. The most focus was on structure of race preparation,
content of training and specific exercises for speed, endurance
and strength. The racing we took part in was great, the track
was smooth, fast and very technically challenging. The Colombian
skaters were very fast, and showed the difference between
Colombian racing and European racing. It was a great thing for
the SK8skool students to see and experience at such a young age.
We will certainly be planning our winter strength training, and
our competition preparation after te Colombian method. It's
exciting, racing specific and challenging.
In the free time we had we saw
some of the beautiful city, visited many cafés and saw the Tour
de France on TV (of course).
On the last day we all took a
"training tour" along the beach cycle path, about 30km, in to
the city park in Göteborg, then we had a picnic and relaxed.
Thanks to Monika, Ivan and Leo for making such a great event.
26 June 2010 National Road
Championships
Today were the final part of the
Danish Championships, on the roadtrack in Næstved. There was some
exciting racing and close finishes as normal, but there
unfortunately some prominent names missing from the line-up in
several categories. None the less SK8skool had a very
profitable day again winning 14 medals, including 11 golds.
The most powerful display was by Asta Thorgersen and Oliver
Lindenskov, both winning 3 golds each (all their races) in the Youth
Girls Boys categories. Nikolaj Helmsoe (VARK)
dominated the Cadet Boys category with ease, while Mads and Michael
fought hard, only just missing out on medals this time. Naija
returned to racing after a knee operation and proved she is worthy
of racing as an 'A' skater, it was National Champs AND she hasn't
done any serious training since April 30th. She got better and
better with each race,
(1000m line 6th, 3000m point 5th, 5000m elimination 4th)
gaining confidence and the feeling of the skates again. She showed
aggression, good passes and the will to fight, it was great to see
Naija do this for the first time! Johannes (Sk8skool KIDS) won
all his races in the Maxi Boys category! Myself, I was quite
satisfied with a gold in the 1000m and a bronze in the 10,000m
points race.
This year Sk8skool has won a total of 52 medals at National
Championships and 29 of them were GOLD! :O))
Well done guys, you earned it in the training sessions.
Sk8skool Top 3 Results:
Asta (Youth)
1000m line 1st
2000m point 1st
3000m elimination 1st
Oliver (Youth)
1000m line 1st
3000m point 1st
5000m elimination 1st
Johannes (Maxi)
1000m 1st
2000m 1st
3000m 1st
Sutton (Senior)
1000m line 1st
10.000m point 3rd
12 June 2010 National Track
Championships
It was a cold weekend, and showered occasionally, but the track was
perfectly prepared so it was clean and thus not too slippy. A big
"THANKS" to the supporters and helper from SIK and others.
Sk8skool took
a total of 19 medals; 10 Gold, 8 Silver and 1 Bronze
Medals form the National Championships. We are very proud of
the skaters performances and dedication to training hard.
The results in the right hand column show the medals. In addition
to these fine results, Tore (Sk8skool Masters) has been improving
through dedicated focus and attention to detail. He won all his
races in AK40B, congratulations to him. Christopher was able to
follow the older boys in Ungdom and managed a fantastic 5th place in
one race. Michael, in his FIRST A race, did better than expected,
followed the pack and gained a 6th place. Nice.
Patrick only raced in the Time Trial because of a broken elbow
sustained in training last week. Even though he had his elbow taped
up so it wouldn't move, and with a "kids rollerskate protector"
on his elbow he was able to win the 300m race by half a second!
I would like to mention that in my humble opinion, by far the
best lap of the whole weekend was skated by Oliver in the Ungdom
relay. Oliver had a difficult weekend, the first day he was on the
wrong wheels, then he changed to MPC Road War and got a 2nd place
only cm's behind Philip from VARK. But in the relay Oliver REALLY
found his form. Each turn he catching gaps and skating well. Then on
the final lap he had a 10m gap to catch and only 1 lap to do it in.
His lap was perfect, stepped up the banking, hit the apex and
accelerated out and again up the banking, his straight away steps
were punchy but effective technically also. He showed determination,
poise, aggression and a strong will to win in just one important
lap.
This ended in Oliver charging down the finish straight toward
the finish line and diving for the line against Gustav and winning
by about 20cm. (picture below) He really showed what he
is capable of when he gets his head right. "Poetry in motion!"
Sk8skool Top 3 Results:
Patrick (Cadet)
300m TT 1st
Mads (Cadet)
500m sprint 3rd
Asta (Ungdom)
2000m point 1st
3000m line 1st
Oliver (Ungdom)
3000m line 2nd
Nichlas (Maxi)
1000m 1st
2000m 2nd
3000m 1st
Johannes (Maxi)
1000m 2nd
2000m 1st
3000m 2nd
Sutton (Senior)
300m TT 2nd
500m sprint 1st
1000m line 1st
10.000m point 1st
30 May 2010 Crossfit Olympic
Lifting Education
At Sk8skool we believe the
coaches should engage in continued education in Sports and training
methods, both physical and mental. This weekend Head Coach of
SK8skool, Sutton Atkins, completed the "Crossfit Olympic
Lifting Certificate", in Copenhagen. The course gave great
information, both practical and theoretical, about functional
movement, biomechanics and techniques to safe and effective lifting
and thus strength development. it particularly focussed on use of
the hip complex and how effective proper hip explosion and extension
can be. This education was the perfect partner to last years "Crossfit
Instructor Level 1 Certificate" in Belgium in August.
This is certainly a good basis for when the Sk8skool ELITE team
start their strength training programs on 1st October. You can see
our depth of Sports Education below:
PGCE Physical Education,
Teacher Training Degree, University of East Anglia
Bachelor of Science Degree with Honors - Sport,
Nottingham Trent University
A Levels in Human Biology and Physical Education
Crossfit Olympic Lifting Certificate, Copenhagen
Crossfit Level 1 Instructors Certificate, Belgium
DGI træningskultur - Inspirationsseminar
Dartfish Video Analysis Software Training Course
Level 2,
Switzerland
Dartfish Video Analysis Software Training Course
Level 1,
Copenhagen
Volleyball Level 1 for Teachers
EBA Basketball Full Coach Award
British Gymnastics Teachers Award - Trampolining
GCSE PE for NQT’s – Keynote Education - London
UK Athletics Teaching Certificate (Secondary)
Basketball Inset Day, Catholic Partnership
NQT Training Day, Wet Weather/Top Skills
Hockey Coaching Certificate KS 3/4
BG Extra Curricular Gymnastic Teachers Award
LTA Nestlé Key Stage 3/4 Module, Tennis Coaching
Award
Football Association Teachers Coaching
Certificate
Outdoor Adventurous Activities Course KS 3/4
ECB Cricket Leaders Award 1
Preliminary Hockey Umpiring Award 1
Community Sports Leaders Tutor Award
GCSE Moderation Day, Eaton City Norwich School
NCF/GBHI Coaching Award Scheme level 2
NCF/BFRS Coaching Award Scheme level 2
Basketball Association Assistant Coach Award
International In-Line Skating Association Level 2
Football Association Coaching and Education -
Leaders Course
16 May 2010 Gera International
Criterion
Again I am very satisfied with the
efforts of the SK8skool students. They seem to be progressing nicely
and had good results this weekend in Gera International Criterion.
Asta made the podium in a fantastic 3rd place. She just seems to get
stronger and stronger! Congratulations to her. Oliver raced VERY well in the long distances getting a 3rd place in
the elimination race and a 2nd place in the points race. Great
results guys! :O) Your coaches are proud of you.
Unfortunately the Sprint Cup was washed out in the rain, so Patrick
didn't get his chance to show what he can do. But he made a
good showing in the 1000m taking 11th place (and remember he is also
a first year Cadet.) Oliver teamed up with 2other skaters form the
Talent Team and won the relay final! Congratulations to the Talent
Team coaches and the 3 guys!
The other Sk8skool skaters are fairly new in the sport and are
talking all their internationals as a learning experience. They
enjoyed the weekend and learnt a lot and look forward to each new
experience. (They have said they are already looking forward to the
WINTER TRAINING so they can come back to these internationals and
"kick some ass"... GREAT ATTITUDE! :O))
8 May 2010 Nadine visits Sk8skool
Sk8skool MASTERS member Nadine Currie is visiting Sk8skool HQ right
now. She is visiting for 2 weeks to learn the techniques, training
methods and philosophy of Sk8skool and to get to know the SK8skool
ELITE members. Nadine has been working with Sk8skool by
internet coaching (Skype video calls, email, messenger, YouTube
video swap and more) until now. During the 2 week trip to Denmark I
have tried to give Nadine a "toolbox" of information, drills and
techniques that will be useful to her in the next few months in her
training and progression as an athlete. We have had many discussion
about training theory, training planning, skating techniques, race
tactics etc. We've also looked at many many videos, both of
Nadine skating and of some of the worlds best skaters. But I am sure
the most valuable sessions have been skating with the Sk8skool ELITE
team, fun, hard and informative training for all of us. We really
enjoyed to have Nadine here as our first international member and
visitor.
25 April 2010 Gross Gerau
International Criterion
As expected
Gross Gerau competition was a very high level. However Sk8skool
students performed very well. The weekend started with the Sprint
Cup, Patrick Sørensen sprinted well and got 7th place (as 1st year
Cadet!). This meant he qualified for the national Team for
European Championships. Congratulations to Patrick!
Oliver
Lindenskov showed that he has learnt how to control his head, AND he
has learnt how to race tactically. In his first race he was second
and very close to winning it! He also picked up a 3rd place and 6th
place. This gave him a fantastic 2nd place overall on the podium
(see picture below!). We are very proud of Oliver, and he should be
proud of himself after all his hard work and dedication to training.
Asta Thorgersen crashed in her first race, so unfortunately didn't
finish that race and was officially recorded as number 26 in the
field. But then she had 2 great top 10 finishes; 6th and 8th. Well
done Asta! This gave her 12th place overall. Mads Eriksen and
Michael Deleuran both competed in their first international
competition, they found this challenging but had a great attitude
and in the 'C' final managed to pull off a great bit of team work to
give Michael the win. Well done guys.
I myself raced in the Senior Men Elite category. It's 14 years since
I raced in Gross Gerau, it was GREAT to be back there and competing.
The level was World Class, with Joey Mantia, Bart Swings, Matteo
Amabili, Scott Arlidge, Ferre Spryt and many more professional
speedskaters, and it was clear I lacked pure speed. I felt strong
and my condition was good, I finished in 55th place overall out of
118 skaters. I was dissatisfied with my races Sunday, but at my age
(39) I think my result was ok. I feel the whole of Sk8skool just
lacked SPEED. We will now work on finding faster asphalt and higher
quality training in the future weeks, maybe including motor pacing
and downhill top speed exercises. Overall it was a great
weekend, and we look forward to Gera International Criterion in 3
weeks.
11 April 2010 Sk8skool KIDS is a REALITY!
Congratulations to Johannes Neerup-Pedersen and Nichlas Åkesson. After 3 "test
training days" both boys were today invited to join Sk8skool, with Sk8skool KIDS
membership.
Sk8skool KIDS
membership offers support to those young kids that show just the beginning of a
burning desire for Speedskating. And these two boys certainly showed THAT! It's good to start early, but only with
an "introduction" to serious Speedskating at this young age. Sk8SKOOL
is a training group, that allows time for Personal
Coaching, gives extra training opportunities, and offers personal support to
KIDS who show that they have a positive attitude. At Sk8skool we focus mainly on
technique and co-ordination skills while they are young, and prepare them for
sport and life.
See Sk8skool KIDS membership details
here.
The Sk8skool ELITE team are very focussed on Gross Gerau International Criterium
right now, so training is fast and furious, and the coaches are very focussed on
the ELITE team. Thus the 2 young guys will start on Sunday 2nd May the week
after Gross Gerau.
5 April 2010 Good signs, but better
is to come...
Some good results so far from "Les
Trois Pistes" competition in France. Oliver 4th overall in Youth
out of 64 skaters, a good performance.
Asta qualified for the 'A' race easily, but then crashed in the
final. She finished 7th in her next race, but the n crashed in her
final race on the last day. But even with 2 crashes finished 29th
out of 75 skaters.
Les
Trois
Pistes
29 March 2010 5000 max!
Today Sk8skool's Facebook profile reached 5000 Friends, and this is
the maximum allowed by The Facebook system. Therefore we have made a
Facebook FANS PAGE, so you can now join as a fan o fSK8skool (this
has unlimited numbers) Click here to see our
FANS PAGE.
28 March 2010 Cold winter = Grippy track
Today we trained on the parabolic track for the first time after the
winter. It's the first "hard-cold winter" since the track was
built, this has been good and bad for the track. There is a
little frost damage to the foundations underneath and some small
cracks appeared in the surface, but it's not too bad. However
the BIG news is that the surface is now much grippier than previous
years. This is what we have been waiting for. Now the track is
grippier, faster and can be used properly for more "open" racing,
easier passing, overtaking and gives many more possibilities of
"line" through the corners. NOW it's a real parabolic track.
The track is still a little bumps in places, and at high speed this
is very disconcerting. However with a little training and many many
laps in the legs it's possible to get used to this. It
certainly challenges the stability of the legs and core. We trained
for 90 mins, mostly technical training and "understanding" the
parabolic curves of the track, and the possibilities it gives. Then
we did stability training and Off-skate exercises on the asphalt
road-track. We look forward to the National Championships on the
track in June.
18 March 2010
43 days to go!
Only 43 days to go until the beginning of "Sk8skool KIDS".
Sk8skool KIDS
membership offers support to those young kids that show a
burning desire for Speedskating. It's good to start early, but only with
an "introduction" to serious Speedskating at this young age. Sk8SKOOL
is a training group, that allows time for Personal
Coaching, gives extra training opportunities, and offers personal support to
KIDS who show that they have a positive attitude. At Sk8skool we focus mainly on
technique and co-ordination skills while they are young, and prepare them for
sport and life.
We have had 3 very successful 'try-out' days so far, then next "try-out" day
is Sunday 11th April.
See Sk8skool KIDS membership details
here. Or
click on the picture below to see the Sk8skool kids flyer in full size. (Also
downloadable)
Sk8skool KIDS Membership 8 - 12 years
7 Marts 2010 Danish National Indoor
Championships
Firstly I would like to mention the
most important thing about Danish National Indoor Champs this year; what a
great atmosphere between the clubs, skaters and supporters! This is surely
a great development! DRsU Speed Committee, Judges Committee and the Club coaches
all deserve recognition for this. The Sports Committee and Ethics Committee have
worked hard to make our sport a pleasant place to be, and they have
SUCCEEDED! Congratulations to them ALL!
Sk8skool had a good weekend both in terms of results and in the
way that the skaters performed and behaved. Firstly, their behaviour and
sportsmanship was in my opinion perfect, and I am very proud of them for that.
Secondly they were determined, worked hard and raced smart showing their
knowledge and experience. They made only small mistakes and have learnt some
valuable lesson this weekend. They take these experiences forward to the outdoor
season which is just around the corner.
In addition to the "Top 3" results in the right hand column, I
would like to specially mention the relay results and Naija's improved
performance. Naija has been injured a large part of the winter season, and had a
knee operation only 2 months ago, this weekend was Naija's first race in "A
class" and she had some great results; 4th, 5th and 6th. This was a great
achievement and should be noted as a great triumph for her! Congratulations to
Naija. In the relays the SK8skool students did really well, in the final
it was Ods. (Patrick and Mads) versus NIK (Oliver and partner) .... Sk8skool
vs. SK8skool... guess who won? YES! SK8skool!!!
:O) The NIK team of Oliver and partner won in a very close finish.
Good job guys. In the girls relay Asta and Nicole battled for as long as
they could to stay with the IFK team, but in the end finished 2nd in the final.
A very good performance.
Sk8skool Top 3 Results:
Patrick (Cadet A)
500m sprint 3rd
1000m line 3rd
2000m point 3rd
3000m elimination 3rd
Mads (Cadet A)
500m sprint 2nd
Asta (Youth A)
1000m line 1st
1500m point 1st
2000m elimination 1st
Oliver (Youth A)
1000m line 3rd
2000m elimination 3rd
Michael (Cadet B)
1500m Point 2nd
2000m elimination 1st
Sutton (Senior A)
500m sprint 1st
1000m line 1st
3000m point 2nd
4000m elimination 1st
22 February 2010 Sk8skool tour to Germany
Last
weekend 3 SK8skool students raced in Germany at an indoor competition. Here
is a short report from the trip manager Per Aagaard;
Hi Sutton
It was great to see the 3 sk8skool students in Germany, they skated the
track totally different to the other 117 participants, it was very obvious
to see at they had another view point over the demands of indoor skating. It
looked great and congratulations with the 2 first places and the 5th place.
Best regards, Per Aagaard
9 February 2010 Sk8skool Judo today!
Today was a big challenge for the Sk8skool students. Today we
were challenged like never before, we had to FIGHT, not just to train hard,
not just to win a race, but to physically contact each other and FIGHT each
other. With expert coach Martin Lykkegaard - centerleder
www.kampogkultur.dk, Pedagogic Diploma Education
in Sport from Copenhagens Uni, Judo Elite athlete from 1983 and 10
years experience with the Danish National Team, we were put through
many situations where we had to overcome our opponent with technique and
power combined.
Why Judo?
The aim of the training session was to make us better in "confrontation
situations", use our feelings as power, and battle "in the moment" -
to give 100% just for a few seconds or 1 minute. This will help us
with pressure on the skating track, and mean we are better prepared to give
100% of ourselves in the final sprint and find the "power feelings" at the
right moment. Aggression is a valuable part of sport, and essential to
winning, however only controlled and channelled aggression is useful.
Oh, ja.... it was
AWESOME fun also!
8 February 2010 ... and then there were 8
!!!
Today we welcomed Christopher Bruun, NIK,
in to Sk8skools' ELITE training group. Christopher is the youngest in the ELITE
group, but will turn 12 in 2 months. Christopher showed a great training
attitude and stubborn discipline in his 3 "test days". We look forward to
see Christopher grow over the next few months and years and follow in the
footsteps of Patrick and all the ELITE members. This means that the ELITE
training group is full, Sk8skool prides itself on PERSONAL
coaching, so we can not coach more than 8 ELITE skaters at any one time.
3 February 2010 Sk8skools network is
growing so fast!
SK8skool is only 7 months old, and has only
been on Facebook for 4 months and already has 3000 friends. It certainly
shows a lot of interest in the Speedskating Academy. We are very proud of the
reputation we have developed and look forward to grow even more.
2 February 2010 Sk8skool Values document
now online
Sk8skool students discussed "training group values"
for 90 minutes last month and developed a values document. Click
here to see it.
Sk8skool Values
1 February 2010 Tore joins the team
Today Sk8skool welcomed it's third MASTERS member. Tore Brynaa lives in Hillerød
and is the chairman of Rolling Vikings. Tore is aiming to improve his Berlin
Marathon time, beat a few "target people" in Denmark and generally improve his
technique, strength, stability and co-ordination skills through personal
coaching. Sk8skool aim to provide all Tore needs to achieve his goals and
even more. We are very happy to have Tore join our training group, he's positive
attitude and energy fit perfectly in with the rest of the group.
We have already set goals for Tore in 2010 AND 2011, as well as
intermediate goals along the way. Tore has already received his personal
training program and hast started with new forms of training. Tore's first
training session with Sk8skool elite was a great success and we look forward to
see him more in the future months. See Tore's profile
here.
This leaves only one more MASTERS place left at Sk8skool, and incidentally
only one ELITE place left also. And with many applications for the
SK8skool KIDS training group starting in May, it looks like Sk8skool will have a
FULL HOUSE very soon. (16 is the limit: 8 ELITE, 4 MASTERS, 4
KIDS)
25 January 2010 Sk8skool 'KIDS'
Today was the launch of another development in SK8skool growth. We announced
that from 1st May Sk8skool will have an 'introduction' team called Sk8skool
KIDS.
Sk8skool KIDS
membership offers support to those young kids that show just the beginning of a
burning desire for Speedskating. It's good to start early, but only with
an "introduction" to serious Speedskating at this young age. Sk8SKOOL
is a training group, that allows time for Personal
Coaching, gives extra training opportunities, and offers personal support to
KIDS who show that they have a positive attitude. At Sk8skool we focus mainly on
technique and co-ordination skills while they are young, and prepare them for
sport and life.
We have planned 3 'try-out' days so far: 31st January, 13th February and 28th
February. There will come more try out days in March and early April.
Followed by short personal interviews with the 'KIDS' and their parents.
Then the new Sk8skool KIDS training group will be selected in discussion with
the parents involved.
See Sk8skool KIDS membership details
here.
Sk8skool KIDS Membership 8 - 12 years
16 January 2010 Sk8skool perform at
International GP
It was a great weekend for Sk8skool students
at the Næstved international GP. Asta Thorgersen won her Youth girls 500m race and was 2nd place in all the other
races only being beaten by an excellent skater form Holland (if Asta could dive,
things might have been different ;) he he he ) Oliver
Lindenskov had a challenging weekend in a very competitive Youth boys division,
but proved his class and speed in the relay, winning their race by
10m. Mads Eriksen managed a good 3rd place in his first "A class" race, not so
far behind Nikolaj. Well done skaters, you make your coaches
proud. See video of the relay
here.
15 January 2010 Masters visit Gerlev
Idrætshøjskole - Home of Sk8skool
This weekend the Danish
National Masters Squad visited Gerlev Idrætshøjskole (Sports Academy), the home
of Sk8skool, for a training weekend. We started with stability training:
focussing on core muscles, holding the tension and spine in the correct position
for effective exercise. Then using the new found knowledge and skills we trained
a "circle training" using the fitness balls and BOSU boards. After a very
healthy evening dinner we had a Slideboard session. See video
here. It was great to see so many Masters
skaters really engaged and focussed on their training. The attitude was very
good, and they worked hard. Many Masters have now bought their own Slideboard
and are developing their skills and technique through the winter, it was very
clear to see!
Then we ended the first day with a cosy evening "get
together" and chat.
The next day we were up early and out on the road by 9:30, we skated 40 km with
focus on slow skating, holding good position and body weight transfer (which we
had practiced on the slideboards the previous evening) .... OH!...
and the last focus point was SURVIVAL! ;) It was -2 degrees, but the
road was only slightly wet and the team did a great job during the training.
Then it was back to Gerlev for a warm nutritious lunch, and then a short meeting
discussing "Masters issues". To finish off the weekend we then did 1 hour
"Off-Skate" training, then we were all thoroughly dead. Time for home!
It was a delight to be coach for this weekend, the energy in the group was
good and the 'work ethic' excellent. Thanks to all participants, I look forward
to next time in March.
10 January 2010 Sk8skool Gymnastics goes WORLD
CLASS!
Today Sk8skool Gymnastics had a guest coach; Morten
Zacho, earlier a "Verdenshold" gymnastics member and with a Masters degree in
Sport, gave the Sk8skool students a fantastic fun and inspirational 90 mins of
co-ordination exercises and basic gymnastic movements. We used the "air-track"
to learn body control, jumps, and somersaults. We even tried a full somersault
with a ½ twist at the end! It was great fun, challenging mentally and
physically. After 90 mins gymnastics we then continued with 45 mins
Off-Skate training. What a great day. We would like to say a special
thanks to Morten for bringing his skills and fantastic teaching atmosphere to
Sk8skool!
There are no pictures or video of the Sk8skool gymnastics this time...
We were all too busy with somersaults, other challenges and having FUN!!!
he he he he ;)
1 January 2010 NEW YEAR TRAINING
11:30am Sk8skool students were out on the road looking like bank robbers with
clothes over their faces to keep warm. 30km on skates then 40km on Mountain bike
was enough in the minus 8 degree weather. A great way to start the year!!!
HAPPY NEW YEAR
23 December 2009 What are holidays for?
...TRAINING!
With the Christmas holidays underway, snow on the
roads, and the weather decidedly wet, Sk8skool were out training for over 3
hours this morning. The mood was good and the group laughed and chatted
all the way. Nothing seems to be able to stop the motivation of these
kids! They keep surprising me again and again of how tough they are and what
they are willing to do to succeed and achieve their goals.
22 December 2009 Sk8skool Gymnastics!
SK8skool students (and coaches!) are developing their body co-ordination
skills, core strength and self confidence using gymnastics during the winter
period.
Some of the winter training time we use on developing the students for the
long term future. Over many years coaching I have seen many speedskaters
(including myself) reach their limit because their basic "body control" and
"body feeling" is not developed enough. So in SK8skool we use many different
sports and challenges to raise the students sense of their own body and increase
their long term potential. This can only been done when they are young, so
I feel it is the right time to spend time on it.
... and watch out for "Sk8skool Judo" in February with one of the top Judo
coaches in Denmark, and ex-national team member, Martin Lykkegaard.
18 December 2009 Sk8skool Masters grows
Maria Carstensen will become the second skater to take up "Sk8skool Masters"
membership. Maria is Head Coach in Odsherred Rullerødder, she has been
skating and training with Sk8skool since some of the skaters in her club started
in SK8skool earlier this year. Her role was to be at some of the training
sessions to support the skaters from her club and to learn what their personal
focus points are and how to help them develop the best way possible. Also,
she should take knowledge from Sk8skool back to her own club training sessions
in "Odsherred Rullerødder". This has worked very well for her club
(Patrick is Double DM champion, and both Mads and Naija will now be A
skaters - and the club is less than 2 years old!) It has also worked out very
well for her, the "side effect" of her attachment to Sk8skool is that
Maria has improved her "flying lap time", indoor by 6 seconds in 1 year, and
improved her marathon time drastically. From the 1st January 2010 Maria
hopes that Masters membership will give her even more structured training, a
training program and goal setting so she can go on to achieve even more.
We look forward to see her race in summer '10. See Maria's profile
here
13 December 2009
MINUS 2 degrees
The winter training continues
in Sk8skool. There were high spirits and great positive atmosphere when we met
at Slagelse Skating Stadium today at 10:15 in the morning. But as we very
quickly realised there was ice all over the roadtrack. So we quickly
changed plan and went out on the road. It was great to get out and do some
REAL road skating. The Sk8skool kids did 30Km on skates and 35km on bike,
and the Sk8skool coaches and SK8skool Masters did 40km on skates and 70km on
bike. It was dark when the coaches + masters got back home. ... and
15 minutes later it began to snow!!! Great training, great
atmosphere, great fun. Thanks guys!
1 December 2009 Christmas is cancelled
Today Sk8skool Head Coach cancelled Christmas. The training will continue
in SK8skool through Christmas with indoor skating, Aerobic training on skates
and bike, stability training 'Sk8skool gymnastics, and off course lots of hard
'Off-skate' training. Of course all training is voluntary, but already
most of the students have said that they will be there at nearly all the
training sessions. It's great to get such support from the students (and
parents) even in the holidays!
18 November 2009 Sk8skool at the Skate Park
Today Sk8skool visited the Skate Park in Slagelse. It's important for elite
speedskaters to have good "All-round" skills, so today was a great opportunity
for the students to try something new and different. They challenged themselves,
and challenged each other. It was also a nice team building activity for the
Coaches to just "relax and have fun" with the kids. November is the
perfect time to do this, there are no races right now and of course the kids
should also remember how to have fun and not train hard ALL THE TIME. It was a great evening and everyone went home with smiles (and no injuries
:O) ...thankfully)
7 November 2009 Sk8skool INTERNATIONAL!
Today Sk8skool went international and welcomed a new member to the Academy.
Nadine Currie lives in Fredericton, New Brunswick, Canada and races for the
skates for the Skate Farm Team. Nadine has been searching for
expert coaching and has signed up to the newly developed "Sk8skool Masters
membership" See Nadine's profile
here. Nadine is a Marathon/Ultra Marathon skater, her goals in 2010
range from marathons, New York 100km and Athens to Atlanta 150km race! Our
aim is to prepare Nadine physically, mentally and technically for the challenges
she has set herself.
Read HOW Masters coaching can work for you ...
5 November 2009 100,000 Hits on Sk8skool
website!
Today the Sk8skool website received it's 100,000th
hit. It's a big milestone in the short life of a small Speedskating
website. There has been great interest in the Academy since the beginning with
hits from over 40 countries, from all over the world. Sk8skool has
received very positive comments by email, Facebook, MSN messenger and directly
by the website page. Also, serious applications to Sk8skool have been
received from Cameroon, India, Venezuela and Canada.
It's very exciting to be involved in such a successful project, and it is
very motivating that so many people show interest. We are very proud of the
coaching we are doing, and extremely proud of the skaters we have produced so
far (... and we've only just started!)
We look forward to the next race season with much anticipation.
100,000
Hits
1 November 2009 Michael Deleuran joins
Sk8skool!
Today Michael Deleuran started training with the
Sk8skool group. Michael said he was very proud and excited to be training with
us. He received his training program and goal setting and we discussed his
development in the future. We are glad to have Michael with us, he is a fun guy
and fits in to the group very well. Last week we all visited the Skate/Ramp park
just outside Slagelse, with over 30 ramps and a 4m "half-pipe". It was
great fun, and good for skill development. Michael was one of the best in the
group and shows talent on skates!
We are 7 Full-time students, 4 guest members and 2 coaches. This means there
is only 1 more full-time place left at Sk8skool. ... It's a great
atmosphere at training right now because everyone is so focussed on pure
speedskating! - "no games, just sport!"
Michaels profile will be uploaded soon...
14 October 2009 Already
over 1000 Friends!
Already after only 9 days on Facebook, Sk8skool has received over 1000 'friend'
connections. ... HELLO!!!! to all our new contacts :)
"Live to skate, Skate to Live!"
The power of Facebook continues to take over the world! You can see
our Sk8skool Facebook profile here: www.facebook.com/Sk8skool Enjoy!
14 October 2009 Sk8skool Spinning at FitnessDK
Each Sk8skool student attended a Spinning class today. Gerlev Idrætshøjskole
"Fitness Team" have spinning each week, and this week one Fitness student was
"Personal Coach" for each Sk8skool student. They were given advice on Bike
set-up, Pulse while training, body position, resistance and foot cadence. (They
also learnt how important a good atmosphere and high energy in a group affects
intensity.) After the spinning they were instructed in Technical lifts and
Olympic lifts, as well as core stability. It was a great afternoon of training
and coaching. The Gerlev Fitness students enjoyed the chance to coach, and the
SK8skool students enjoyed working hard in Spinning and learning some other
techniques of how to use their bodies.
12 October 2009 A Successful trip
The final outdoor race of the season for me (Sutton Atkins, Sk8skool Head Coach)
was the British Track Championships at Tatem Park in North London. The
track is fast, 247m per lap, asphalt and banked. The weather on Saturday was
dry, but on Sunday was typically "British" with intermittent showers, so
it made the track slippy for some races; especially the 500m final and the 10 km
points race.
I managed Silver medal in the 300m, but then Gold medal in the 500m, 1000m,
10,000m Points, 15,000m Elimination, and our team took Gold in the 5,000m Relay.
This brings my Senior Men Individual Championships to 33. I flew home to Denmark
a happy man, very satisfied with my training plan and preparation for this year.
Now I will take a well deserved rest from my own skating and training. The
Sk8ksool students have just started serious winter training, so I have a lot to
focus on... THEM! :O) Thanks to Sara, assistant coach for helping me
prepare for the Championships, keeping me calm and "getting my head in the right
place". Also thanks to her for taking over my coaching responsibilities while I
was preparing, and while I was away in London.
5 October 2009 Sk8skool on Facebook
Sk8skool has now got a profile on Facebook with pictures, videos and many
skating friends. You can see our Sk8skool Facebook profile here:
www.facebook.com/Sk8skool Enjoy!
2 October 2009
Autumn Test day
Test day in the autumn was Thursday
24th September. Everyone was
a little nervous becuase they had invested so much time and energy in to their
training. Sk8SKOOL students tested well, the most improving their maximum oxygen
uptake and their threshold power. (Even the old coach). It was a very satisfying
day for everyone. See video of the test
here
The Test
results have now arrived (VO2max + Threshold Power): Sooty
65.7/445, Sara 42.0/200, Patrick
54.2/244.6, Oliver 50.1/165.1, Asta 48.2/161.6, Naija 46.2/152.8, Lars 55.6/385
It was a good development for most of the students, others
gained weight because they are growing taller!
1 October 2009Mads goes PRO!
After training in the dark, the rain, swimming pool,
dance studio, gymnastic hall, Copenhagen, Slagelse, Gerlev and training
very hard, Mads has decided it is EXACTLY what he wants. He's seen an
improvement in his skating in just 2 months as a Half-Time member and
Mads WANTS MORE! ... Mads has officially signed up to
be a Full-Time member, and we are happy to have him. Next thing for
Mads? Go pro??? ;)
Mads skates on the speed team in Odsherred club and is
a part of the Talent Team, he's 13 years old and will be 1st year Cadet
in the 2010 season.
...Who will be next to join the Sk8skool group and see
improvements in their form, technique, strength and understanding of
themselves and the sport??? Are YOU ready to join Sk8skool?
.... There is only 2 Full-Time places left before Sk8skool is FULL.
:O)
25 September 2009 Training continues... EVEN IN THE DARK!!!
Sk8skool training is continuing in the evenings in to the
autumn/winter time. Even the dark nights can not stop the enthusiasm and
motivation that the students have right now. I'm so proud of them, they
are just "in the zone" right now. It's great to coach them, and
great to train with them. :O) Well done Sk8skool, let's keep
it going all winter! :)
20 September 2009 Aerobic Capacity Training begins
Today summer came back to Denmark, it was 21 degrees and
sunshine, perfect! SK8skool started their winter training preparation
with their first "pulse controlled" Aerobic capacity training session.
This consisted if 1 hour skating on the roadtrack in Slagelse, with a 1
lap sprint every 5th minute, then straight on to the bikes for a 2½ hour
controlled ride (1½ hour for youth skaters). It was a great
session, at the end the skaters looked tired but satisfied with their
mornings work. Today I had the pleasure of coaching
(and not training) so for the cycling part of the training I was
coaching from a chauffeur driven car - "Tour de France" style :O)
13 September 2009 Sk8skool develops Aqua-Stability training
Today we trained stability with focus on
core tension and control of the 'transvers abdominus' and 'external
oblique's'. Just for fun we decided to do it in the swimming pool. This gave an
extra dimension to the training. The students said it was challenging and hard
but fun! :O) During the off-season and winter we will be making many
types of fun training that will give NEW and DIFFERENT challenges to the
students. Keep checking
back here to see video of Sk8skool's training trip to the Skate/Ramp
centre.
13 September 2009 Personal Development and Evaluation Questionnaire
This morning the students arrived for training, but were
shocked to find a "Exam style" classroom waiting for them. The
"Evaluation Questionnaire" was full of questions aimed at making them
THINK and find their own opinion about their sport, their training and
their goals for next year. Personal development is very important
to an athlete's growth, and in SK8skool we prioritize it highly. In
addition to regular "maintenance chats", each student will have an
official 'end-of-season' personal conversation with the SK8skool
coaches. We hope to challenge the students both mentally and physically
ready for hard winter training in preparation for next summers races.
9 September 2009
Core and Stabilisation training continues
Rudi visited Sk8skool again, with new exercises for core,
stabilisation and co-ordination. It's getting pretty challenging, but
the students are motivated to do their best. Some of the students
already report that they can "feel their body" better, and I myself have
a feeling of better power and acceleration on skates.
Rudi will visit SK8kool training on Skates on Friday to analyse their
"stability performance" on skates. We hope to see strengths and find
weaknesses we can work on this winter.
18
August 2009 Sk8skool Crossfit Instructor
This weekend I was in Brussels at an American air force base
on a "Crossfit" Instructors course. This was a part of my
continuing education at Gerlev Idrætshøjskole, and I am very
thankful for their support in sending me on this course. The
weekend was extremely informative, teaching us about
movement technics, mechanics and intensity. We had 16 hours
of lectures, physical workouts and practical skill sessions.
It was a very hard intense weekend, I'm totally exhausted
and very sore in some muscles. With new inspiration and a
better understanding of movement mechanics combined with a
new outlook on intensity scales, my aim is to pass on all
this training knowledge and experience to the Sk8skool
students (and the Gerlev students). ... Oh, and I will try
to pass on the sore muscles to them also :)
12 August 2009
Stability is HARD!
Rudi's second training session with Sk8skool got mean! :O)
The next step in core stability and stabilization training
was much more difficult than the "introduction" last week.
We were mentally exhausted after the session, and physically
it was challenging to the smaller muscles that we didn't
even know we had before. It's really great to learn
new techniques, understand more about the body and learn to
make more efficient movements. Our plan is to develop a new
Speedskating training circuit, specifically designed for
core stability, co-ordination, body control and strength. It
will be available as a .pdf download on Sk8skool.dk soon.
6 August 2009
New
Track in Copenhagen - Sk8skool Test
Today Sk8skool coaches tested the new track in Copenhagen.
VRK have worked very hard to make this track happen.
Congratulations to Sune Jensen and all of VRK! Another
great development for Danish Speedskating.
The track is 200m asphalt. The surrounding area is filled
with other sporting facilities, football, basketball,
parkour etc. Everything is built to a very high standard
with good quality. The shape of the track is excellent, the
corners are not too sharp and the banking is quite high to
hold you in the corners at top speed, but it is still a
technically challenging track! It's something in between
Gera and Zandvoorde tracks. The asphalt has good grip
and is fast. The only small problems are the "undulations"
or "bumps/holes" in the asphalt, but Sune Jensen from VRK
says these are just "teething problems" and will be sorted
out before the first competition on the track. This is great
news, as this track has great potential. See video
here
5 Aug 2009 A
stable start
Sk8skool made a very successful start to their stabilization
training today. Rudi Hansen brought new ideas and a mass of
information to the training. We spent 2 hours focussed on
core stability and "feeling our body". We all agreed it was
a great training session and our heads were tired due to the
concentration necessary to learn the new skills. Rudi gave
"homework" in the form of core/breathing exercises. He will
test us next week to see if we have learnt to do the
exercises properly.
26
July 2009 Zandvoorde
calls…Sk8skool replies!
Sk8skool students Oliver Lindesnkov (NIK),
Patrick Sørensen (Ods.) and Asta Thorgersen (NIK)
answered the call to race in Zandvoorde International
Criterion this weekend. It was a hard weekend but there
preparation in training paid off as the other skaters got
tired, Sk8skool got stronger and each race we got more and
more comfortable with the track. There was 6 races in 3
days (between 1000m and 5000m), plus a relay for the boys.Overall results were good;
Patrick
was an amazing 3rd place in his first international
competition, Oliver a good
11th as first year ‘youth’. Asta is also
first year ‘youth’ and struggled in the beginning but
by Sunday was in the pack and battling well. She was 19th
overall, a performance that shows there is more to come
from this young girl in the future with a little more
training.
The boys relay was the most exciting race all weekend,
Patrick raced with Oliver as NIK relay team. The race
was mixed category so that they raced with the Cadets,
some of them were over 3 years older than Oliver! There
were 12 teams in 2 heats. First 3 teams qualified to the
final. The boys fought REALLY hard to keep up and
eventually came 2nd in the heat…
and so to the final.
After only 6 minutes rest, the final started, the
battled again trying to follow the big guys, doing really
well, the finished 4th in the final and were
totally exhausted but proud of their effort!In this race all 3 boys showed 2 things….pure
talent and determination. It was great to see such
personal development in athletes like this.
Sk8skool
coach Sutton Atkins raced in the Senior mens class just to
re-live the “good old days”. It’s 18 years since he
last raced at Zandvoorde but he said it ”was fantastic
to race there again”. He especially enjoyed the night
racing Friday, the atmosphere was great! He got 11th
overall and was 9th in one of the races. “I
was very satisfied with that, but even more satisfied with
the way that I raced, and my movement on the track was
“pretty good for an old guy”. ‘His
main
motivation to race was to show the Sk8skool kids how to
prepare for races, how to move on the track and how to use
tactics in the races.
While he was racing, Sk8skool assistant coach Sara
Aagaard gave commentary to the Sk8skool students
explaining why I was making certain moves on the track
etc.A great learning experience for Sk8skool students.
In
the evaluation meeting the Sk8skool students said they
were positively motivated and ready for a hard winter
training in preparation for summer 2010.
23 July 2009 Zandvoorde calls!
Some of the Sk8skool students have decided to travel to Zandvoorde, Belgium
with their clubs,
for the international Criterion on banked track. It's
a club trip, the students (as always, will race for their
clubs in their club skinsuits). We hope to have a
good time and experience some great racing. The Sk8skool coaches will travel to Holland
afterwards to skate on "Summer ice" and on a USA style
indoor floor. Then travel back to Zandvoorde to watch
the European Championships.
21 July 2009 New Coach
- Rudi Hansen
Sk8skool welcomes a new coach. It is planned that Rudi Hansen, "Stability and
core training expert", will visit Sk8skool once a month to help the students
learn about stability, learn to FEEL their body and teach them better
balance/stability/co-ordination and a greater understanding of their body. His
first "Stability/Co-ordination" clinic will be on Wednesday 5th August.
Educated in 2002 from Næstved Physiotherapy College, has since
worked at the clinic in Kørsør as well as being physio for among others Slagelse
premier league women's team in Handball, and the Faeroe Islands national team.
Rudi has since taken the Danish Physiotherapy education in Sports Physiotherapy,
Kinetic Control (stability training) and many more courses in manual therapy.
We look forward to his visits....
20 July 2009
Summer Test
day
Sk8skool
students tested well today, all students increased their
VO2max and Threshold power. (Even the old coach) A very
satisfying day for all.
19
July 2009 See USA
Sk8skool website
shows live feed from USA Indoor Nationals. Click
here to see.
15 July 2009 Sk8skool welcomes
a new member
Mads Eriksen (Ods.) joins Sk8skool as a
Half-Time member. Mads is talented and has a great "work
ethic", good attitude and always has a smile. We are glad to
have him join the training group. There are only 3 Full-Time
places left in Sk8skool.
14 July 2009 50,000 HITS !
50,000 hits on the Sk8skool website.... Wow that's a lot of
interest for a small speedskating academy in Denmark.
Including hits form 19 different countries!
01 July 2009 Sk8skool
is born!!!
Original members are:
Sara
Aagaard
Oliver Lindenskov
Patrick Sørensen
Asta Thorgersen
Naija Olsen
Sutton Atkins (me)
is the coach and
Sara Aagaard
is assistant coach. We look forward to train together and work hard toward gold
medals. :O)
27 June 2009
Opening day
Sk8skool opens in
Vallensbæk at the Danish Championships with a group warm-up
and plenty of smiles.
20 June 2009
Sk8skool develops a
girls team
With the addition of Asta Thorgersen and Naija Olsen it
means the value of Sara Aagaard as the Assistant Coach
became vital.
April 2009
Supporters
I
approached the Danish clubs, some parents and friends...
almost ALL agree it is a GREAT idea, they will support it.
So I start to plan, build the website, design the skinsuits,
logo, training plans for the students, set up agreements for
testing every 3 months, work out an agreement with Gerlev
Idrætshøjskole, build slideboards, make off-skate programs,
set goals, target times for skaters, pictures, posters,
brochures... this was A LOT of work. I only
accomplished this due to the help and support of the parents
and Sara Aagaard. 1000 THANKS to
them!
March 2009 The seed grows
The
SK8skool seed has been growing in my head, and although I
have doubts about the concept, I go forward with organising
it and planning. The training is going well, the group
has a great feeling, we are focussed, work hard and achieve
success. However, the concept of a skating ACADEMY is very "DIFFERENT"
for Denmark.
February 2009 The spirit of
skating lifts us all
We train
together and more people want to join us, Patrick comes
training. All our friendships grow and we enjoy training
together, there is great atmosphere in the group and even
though we are all in different clubs it goes well. The
training group continues to grow and it is obvious it is
necessary to make this more formal and organised.
January 2009 A spark of light in
the dark
One dark
Saturday morning in January 09, myself and a friend were
out on a long long cycle ride in the dark grey cold Danish
winter, the rain was going sideways, and the wind was
blowing us nearly backwards, we were hungry and exhausted
but we still kept chatting to each other, keeping each other
going... and we got talking about the training group that
was growing around us. He said "it's like we have got a
little school for skating, he he he" (... and
the Sk8skool seed was planted in my head)
January 2009 Here comes Oliver!
Oliver
Lindenskov comes training with us just for fun, he did well, we enjoy
having him with us, so he comes more often.
Autumn 2008 A favour for a
friend
A parent sked me if I could give
his son a little extra coaching occasionally. We did
this, I enjoyed it, he enjoyed it, so it became regular.
He became faster and was good enough to train indoor with Sara and myself.
Today we skated on ice, it was very bad, very slippy and dangerous. Maybe we
should have had ice skates on instead! So after just 2km we decided to go for
"plan B", we went in to the "Movement House" at Gerlev and did some fun games
with stability and core training. The atmosphere was great, even though
the training was hard. The game was a lottery of exercises from our off-skate
and stability program. Including the "fire-alarm" random sound where upon we
should all run to the pull-up bars and take 5 pull-ups. Great fun, thanks guys.
