Listening to the weather forecasters this week convinced me that this was not a year to follow routine. Most recent years have found me waiting until the demo days at Sunday River, Thanksgiving weekend to make those first turns, but with a perfect day Tuesday and forecasts of warm wet weather the rest of the week, I decided that I could not wait. I headed for Sunday River arriving around 9 a.m.

Under brilliant blue skies we took a couple of quick warm-up runs on a corduroy boulevard on the Mixing Bowl. From there it was off the top for three runs on the newly opened and freshly groomed Ecstasy and Cascades. A couple of runs on Risky Business finished the morning and it was off to the Jack Frost shop to get some bindings mounted and meet the new owner.

Fred and Deb Cowin are taking over the shop and I found Fred in the process of tracking down some last-minute product additions in time for opening.

With a background that includes race coaching, race tuning, boot fitting and retail, Cowin is well prepared to take over a ski shop that has a history dating back to the 60s. A lot of us who skied Sunday River in its earliest days remember Paul Kailey and his son, Peter, at Sunri Ski Shop up beside the Barker Base Lodge. That’s where Bill Tinkham, the current owner of Jack Frost, started and Cowin assured me that we would see familiar faces through this year’s transition season. Through all these years a number of these guys have kept my feet comfortable on the mountain even in winters that saw 100-plus days on the hill. It’s good to know the regulars will be back.

Getting that first day in was a real treat, but there is still a lot of preseason prep going on. On the 12th I joined about 60 skiers, mostly coaches and instructors, along with some aspiring to those positions at the UMF Lincoln Auditorium to hear coach Tom Reynolds talk about his new book “Effective Ski Coaching.”

In 1974, Reynolds poured the knowledge gained from 20 years of coaching into a book titled “A Guide To Alpine Coaching.” He coached soccer, tennis, baseball, football, basketball and skiing and he combined those experiences to produce a thorough guide that covered everything from conditioning and motivation to fine tuning technique.

Sometime in the 80s, I was in the office of Rik Dow, at that time the head ski instructor at Mt. Abram. When the subject of Reynolds came up, he reached to a shelf behind his desk and pulled down a well worn copy of “A Guide To Alpine Coaching.” He kept it as a reference.

Now Rik is ski school director at Sunday River and Reynolds has a new book for him. The new book includes that additional experience along with how the new equipment has influenced ski technique. The book should be available within the next week or two, and Reynolds will be putting on a number of clinics which will not only explain the book, but provide valuable insight into the subject to which he has devoted a large part of his career.

While the clinic I attended was to introduce the new book, Reynolds filled the hour with plenty of information. One point he made was that we have a lot of effective coaches today, “You don’t produce a Bode (Miller) and Kirsten (Clark) on talent alone. To get to the top level it takes a lot of people,” he said.

Discussing the three categories of coaching, volunteer, part-time and professional, he advised: “Find a mentor, learn and pay your dues. Care for equipment, build starts, carry gates, do airport pickups, make copies, be an all around gofer. And read anything you can get your hands on, on all sports.”

That last was one of the coach’s most important points. As he put it: “Coaching is coaching, preparing athletes to participate and win.” He noted that this is as important for the parent teaching little league as it is for the coach at the World Cup level.

With overhead projection he showed some of the world’s top ski racers and explained their technique, using the sequence pictures to demonstrate position. On the new trend in racing (and recreation) toward the two edge turn he noted that the “outside ski is still dominant”.

Throughout the presentation coach hammered the importance of fundamentals saying: “An athlete without solid basics is standing in a bucket trying to pull himself up by the handles.” His advice for working with children: “Take them out and have them ski the whole mountain with good modern technique”.

Over the years I have watched Tom in action, coaching University of Maine at Farmington skiers and I have been fortunate to ski with him. He told his audience that night: “You’re only as good as the books you read, videos you watch and the people you surround yourself with”. That has been good for my skiing and when I get the book I’ll have the details on how to get your copy in my annual column on gifts for the skier.

Dave Irons is freelance writer who lives in Westbrook.

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