VARA Programs and Coaches,

I sincerely want to thank those coaches who participated our VARA-USSA age appropriate skill development program on October 10th! This forum, as well as our forums and clinics being delivered to you on November1st, 8th, 27th, 28th, 29th and December 2nd, are brought to you as part of the new eastern USSA "Program Development Project". USSA needs your participation, we are confident that you and your program will benefit from these forums, we know the eastern region will benefit from your participation and the sport will ultimately benefit from your participation now and your support for this in the future. The more that attend our initial offerings the quicker we will generate the communication and consistency that will be critical to drive this as a successful approach. Visit www.ussaeast.org for more information and www.vara.org for schedule details. For those who did attend I want to thank you again and recap how this fits into our program development matrix and review the systematic purpose for the content that was delivered. For those that weren't able to make it I hope this lends you some insight into our trajectory and may prompt you to attend our other sessions that are described and listed below:

October 10th: Age Appropriate Skill Development-Review

***This session had a very clear purpose and the content was delivered with a systematic intent. We looked at age appropriate biological windows in which we should develop certain physiological skills. With that in mind we worked to identify the bottom line movements needed to drive a great turn. We then looked at an age appropriate sequence to develop each of those skills, with a hypothetical timeline for those skills to be developed within our optimal biological windows. Through that timeline we looked to create the highest possible expectation for what the those movements should look like. As we as a region dive into a multiyear process we want to build foundational blocks that will allow us to then maximize any resource that we will have available to work with. In terms of technical skill development, this session aimed to create the initial dialog to build a broad sequential timeline to develop the highest and most consistent expectation for the elements of a great turn. Through our collective and continued work on this foundation, we hope to create a stronger platform to better utilize the drills and progressions that we have available to us, all through a more parallel vision of what we are looking to get out them. We will build out and deliver progressions and drills to meet those expectations through the on-hill opportunities that are highlighted below.

November 1st & 8th: Current State and Forward Direction of Eastern Ski Racing.

(ALL COACHES WILL HAVE THE ABILITY TO RECIEVE NATIONAL CONTINUING EDUCATION CREDIT)

***THIS IS OUR MOST IMPORTANT FORUM! COACHES AT ANY LEVEL PLEASE ATTEND IF YOU ARE AVAILIBLE!!! This session will establish an understanding of a recently conducted regional evaluation of our eastern programming. This evaluation was conducted over a 4 month period and we will highlight that evaluation process and the regions subsequent response. The eastern USSA office in conjunction with the eastern development committee will highlight the work completed and subsequent initiatives that have been driven out of our eastern evaluation. That response will be detailed, in part, by our new approach to develop our eastern programs. We look forward to the opportunity we have to convey how we feel this will benefit your programs, coaches and ultimately your athletes. This will mark the beginning of an annual two way dialog between the regional governing body and our state based programs. Through our dialog we will gather critical information as we guide our membership through a simple evaluation process of their own. That evaluation will help us better determine and accommodate for the needs of your programs.

November 27th, 28th, 29th & December 2nd: Skill Development and Skills Assessment

***These on & off snow clinics have clear target, our VARA J3,4,5 coaches. Each day being offered will deliver the same content, building on the foundation and concepts developed in our recent October 10th session. We will utilize our morning sessions on snow to build out progressions and drills that will allow us to best develop our highest expectations for the components of a great turn(s). For the sake of quality these morning on-snow sessions are limited so please sign up early. The afternoon in-door session, open to all coaches, will take a look at a newly developed eastern skills assessment as a tool to evaluate those components that we have identified as the foundation of a great turn.

I look forward to our collective opportunity to blaze a new trail toward our collective vision to make the eastern region, through your programs, the strongest development program in the world!

Kind Regards,

Shaun Goodwin
U.S. Ski Team--USSA
Eastern Program Manager

sgoodwin@ussa.org
585-519-5358 -- U.S. Cell
603-358-6644 -- U.S. Office
603-358-6646 -- Fax
+43 676.721.10.37 -- Euro Cell
www.ussaeast.org
www.ussa.org

Mailing:
39 Central Square
Suite 304
Keene NH, 03431

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