133.66

[Ski]

'Dude, there must be something wrong with the USSA stats computer. How does some hack J2 from PA cut points in the first year to 133?

 

 

We gotta figure out a way to get you to WVA...

[AtomicSkier]

'Dude, there must be something wrong with the USSA stats computer. How does some hack J2 from PA cut points in the first year to 133?

We gotta figure out a way to get you to WVA...

 

but that means we wouldn't see the dude anymore on the other hand, that means the dude is doing really well.

[skidude]

[jamielynne611]

have you seen the MEN he races with? Blaidsdale, Randi, Gibb has like ten points...get off me

 

i wish we had girls like them cuz then my points wouldnt suck out lound like they do

[skidude]

So Greg has 20 points...and Randy has about 60...Makes for a great points race when Greg sees how slowly he can ski it...

[skidude]

Woot I just did some looking around....Next year I will have the lowest GS points of anyone on the team....(Assuming Tyler P. goes off to college)...Even if Tyler doesn't, I am only 3 points behind him.

 

 

Got some work to do on my SL points tho...And of course...more work on my GS

[Glenn]

Not sure what any of this means, but good job anyways dude. Just remember, french fries not pizza

[jamielynne611]

Just remember, french fries not pizza

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

 

haha...i have to tell myself this all the time too!! haha

[Papasteeze]

Not sure what any of this means, but good job anyways dude. Just remember, french fries not pizza

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

 

Could I get an explanation of the penalty system. I think I understand to mean that each course starts with a number based on length, slope and... am I close?

[skidude]

Ok I will try to explain it. The quick vesion...Its complicated, use a computer.

 

 

Basicly the penalty is supposed to reflect the difficulty of the race. It involves the top 5 people going into a race, and the top 10 people who finish.

 

Err lets try this...I am going to post a screen shot of how it is calculated..give me a few minutes...

[skidude]

Maybe this will help....

 

 

The race points are calculated a different way, which is different for each type of race.

 

 

This was for Friday at Elk. As you can see the top 10 have points at or below 130...Mine are now at 133...Not too bad.

 

Hope this helps...

[skigurl]

i race and i don't understqand the points. all i know is you wanna see "how low you can go"

[Papasteeze]

i race and i don't understqand the points. all i know is you wanna see "how low you can go"

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

 

So the penalty system assumes that the top 5 going into a race are going to finish in the top ten? What if one of them DQ or DNF? How are the race points figured? How is an individuals point score then calclated - How do you lower your score? is it an average based on your finish score?

 

How are the race points calculated?

 

Questions, questions, questions....

 

It may be easier to send me a USSA link to study..

 

I am going to have to visit this another time...

Edited March 11, 2005 by WeSki

[Ski]

Basically, the race penalty is calculated by the points held by the best five that finish in the top 10. Then each discipline (DH, SG, GS, SL) have an additional set penalty added in. As Jamie mentioned, the better the racers are in your race, the better the opportunity to lower your points. The winner of a race will get 0.00 race points, but the penalty is then added to that. Randy won in 'Dudes example and ended up with 72.84 points. The closer you are to the top racers, the lower your race points are. Race points plus penalty points equal your USSA points for a given race.

[Papasteeze]

Basically, the race penalty is calculated by the points held by the best five that finish in the top 10. Then each discipline (DH, SG, GS, SL) have an additional set penalty added in. As Jamie mentioned, the better the racers are in your race, the better the opportunity to lower your points. The winner of a race will get 0.00 race points, but the penalty is then added to that. Randy won in 'Dudes example and ended up with 72.84 points. The closer you are to the top racers, the lower your race points are. Race points plus penalty points equal your USSA points for a given race.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

 

Ok - I think I got it!

 

So, when shopping local junior ski teams, would it make sense to see which team has the lowest USSA points in each division? How can I get those results? I would think that the association brings about assimilation with developing racers. I hear that Elk is very "strong" then Blue, then CB. Curious - which US junior ski team is considered the best? Canada probably produces the most juniors ,any idea of who is the best?

[Ski]

So, when shopping local junior ski teams, would it make sense to see which team has the lowest USSA points in each division? How can I get those results? I would think that the association brings about assimilation with developing racers. I hear that Elk is very "strong" then Blue, then CB. Curious - which US junior ski team is considered the best? Canada probably produces the most juniors ,any idea of who is the best?

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

 

You pick which USSA local club your kid joins by geography more than anything, especially with J4/5's. Not much difference in coaching. If BB is close to you, then the J4/5 program there is fine. But limited terrain makes it hard for J3 and above training. Elk, CB, and Blue all have good programs. If you were close to Montage, then the program is great from J5 through J1. Their only problem is participation. Shawnee recently lost their head coach (to Montage), so I imagine they will continue to struggle.

 

Which club is best? It's academy racers that are the best. Not local programs. Go to

 

http://www.skiracing.com

 

and click the link for acadamies and camps. The Canadian Ski program sucked over the last five years. They just fired all the senior coaches. They now have a good DHer and some decent kids coming up.

 

When you have a kid in Pennsylvania, you have two directions to take. Assuming they are good, they can be a big fish in a little pond and do really well in PARA (Pennsylvania Alpine Racing Association), but struggle up north; or, they can take a shot at the big time and perhaps be a very little fish in the big pond, which is New England.

 

The future of a kid that stays in PARA through their junior race career will go on to college and race for a second or third tier competition program. That's NOT a bad thing. They will race among other kids that love to compete and are also getting an education. UPenn, Penn State, Princeton, are among these. They also may decide to ski in NCAA competition, rather than USCSA, which are the two separate governing bodies of college ski racing. They'll get to race as a team, scoring team points. That's great for some kids, who have only competed as an individual.

 

One kid from each sex and from each birth year are invited to a development camp each year. Not the Ski Team, just a tryout camp. That's two kids a year, on average, from the thousands enrolled in amazing programs like the Holderness School and Waterville Valley Academy.

 

Can a PA kid make it to "The Show"? Not directly. Currently, there is a very talented ex-CB racer who spends her winter high school semesters at WVA. She races in 40 or more extremely competitive races each season, including Eastern FIS.

 

It's not a cheap process, either. Tuition last year for my daughter (who ultimitely decided to pursue track and is, as a matter of fact, running at the Nike Indoor Nations this Sunday, then the Penn Relays next weekend---GO KAT!!!) was $34,000 to attend an academy at Sunday River.

 

PA kids also spend two to eight weeks every summer skiing at Mt. Hood.

 

And it isn't the talent pool in PA. Great ski racers are made, not born. Academy kids ski seven days a week, before classes. The talented ones travel nine hours by van and miss so much school that at least one traveling coach is more of a tutor than coach.

 

Boys have it much worse than girls, simply by numbers. There are the same number of World Cup start bibs, but about 2.5 boys for every girl that races.

 

The annual Nations Cup winner is Austria because they are the most ruthless. Kids are plucked from local teams at the age of 11 or 12. They are enrolled in the National Academy and given the highest level of training possible. As soon as they show a weakness, they are "dismissed". Kicked out of school and sent home. Only the best stay in that environment.

 

Hermann Maier was kicked out of the academy due to an ilness when he was a teen, btw. He had to strike off on his own and prove he deserved a spot on the Austrian Team. He was one of only a few that have ever made it that way.

 

So if you ask me which local club will be best for your kids, I suggest you pick one that they'll be among friends and is easy to get to. It's all about fun.

 

When I knew Jamie, I remember a kid that was always having fun. I think that a big part of her success has been due to her supportive parents that never seemed to push her, yet let her change programs mid-stream. Jamie went from an unbeatable J4/5, to a struggling J3 and-- at one point-- just couldn't seem to find the finish line. But she never gave up and kept having fun and ended up having a season a lot of kids only dream about.

 

I left this as a REPLY, rather than making it a PM, in case anyone else might be interested.

[ThinkSnow]

You pick which USSA local club your kid joins by geography more than anything, especially with J4/5's. Not much difference in coaching. If BB is close to you, then the J4/5 program there is fine. But limited terrain makes it hard for J3 and above training. Elk, CB, and Blue all have good programs. If you were close to Montage, then the program is great from J5 through J1. Their only problem is participation. Shawnee recently lost their head coach (to Montage), so I imagine they will continue to struggle.

 

Which club is best? It's academy racers that are the best. Not local programs. Go to

 

http://www.skiracing.com

 

and click the link for acadamies and camps. The Canadian Ski program sucked over the last five years. They just fired all the senior coaches. They now have a good DHer and some decent kids coming up.

 

When you have a kid in Pennsylvania, you have two directions to take. Assuming they are good, they can be a big fish in a little pond and do really well in PARA (Pennsylvania Alpine Racing Association), but struggle up north; or, they can take a shot at the big time and perhaps be a very little fish in the big pond, which is New England.

 

The future of a kid that stays in PARA through their junior race career will go on to college and race for a second or third tier competition program. That's NOT a bad thing. They will race among other kids that love to compete and are also getting an education. UPenn, Penn State, Princeton, are among these. They also may decide to ski in NCAA competition, rather than USCSA, which are the two separate governing bodies of college ski racing. They'll get to race as a team, scoring team points. That's great for some kids, who have only competed as an individual.

 

One kid from each sex and from each birth year are invited to a development camp each year. Not the Ski Team, just a tryout camp. That's two kids a year, on average, from the thousands enrolled in amazing programs like the Holderness School and Waterville Valley Academy.

 

Can a PA kid make it to "The Show"? Not directly. Currently, there is a very talented ex-CB racer who spends her winter high school semesters at WVA. She races in 40 or more extremely competitive races each season, including Eastern FIS.

 

It's not a cheap process, either. Tuition last year for my daughter (who ultimitely decided to pursue track and is, as a matter of fact, running at the Nike Indoor Nations this Sunday, then the Penn Relays next weekend---GO KAT!!!) was $34,000 to attend an academy at Sunday River.

 

PA kids also spend two to eight weeks every summer skiing at Mt. Hood.

 

And it isn't the talent pool in PA. Great ski racers are made, not born. Academy kids ski seven days a week, before classes. The talented ones travel nine hours by van and miss so much school that at least one traveling coach is more of a tutor than coach.

 

Boys have it much worse than girls, simply by numbers. There are the same number of World Cup start bibs, but about 2.5 boys for every girl that races.

 

The annual Nations Cup winner is Austria because they are the most ruthless. Kids are plucked from local teams at the age of 11 or 12. They are enrolled in the National Academy and given the highest level of training possible. As soon as they show a weakness, they are "dismissed". Kicked out of school and sent home. Only the best stay in that environment.

 

Hermann Maier was kicked out of the academy due to an ilness when he was a teen, btw. He had to strike off on his own and prove he deserved a spot on the Austrian Team. He was one of only a few that have ever made it that way.

 

So if you ask me which local club will be best for your kids, I suggest you pick one that they'll be among friends and is easy to get to. It's all about fun.

 

When I knew Jamie, I remember a kid that was always having fun. I think that a big part of her success has been due to her supportive parents that never seemed to push her, yet let her change programs mid-stream. Jamie went from an unbeatable J4/5, to a struggling J3 and-- at one point-- just couldn't seem to find the finish line. But she never gave up and kept having fun and ended up having a season a lot of kids only dream about.

 

I left this as a REPLY, rather than making it a PM, in case anyone else might be interested.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

 

Thanks, good information.

[NJSkiFamily]

Wow - that was really interesting to read. Thanks for not making it a pm.

 

Okay....a couple of dumb questions: what's the difference between J1, J2,... J5? Is it age or ability?

 

Even worse....what's the difference between SL and GS?

 

And anyone can join any USSA club?.... you don't have to qualify to join?

[skigurl]

J1-J5(J6, 7....depending on where you are) is age. J1 is the oldest, and the higher the number the younger the racer.

SL is a single gate, the set up is a little different, and it's a "tighter" course, with more turning. GS is two gates with flags conecting them. they are more spaced out and have you making larger turns.

Yes anyone can join USSA, it's not free. but you don't have to quilify to join it, but you might have to be on a registered team but i'm not sure

[NJSkiFamily]

Many thanks Racerchick.

 

How's that physical therapy going?