Thanks for the 1st visit

Hi. Below is the photo of the ski tunnel and shooting range in Torsby, Sweden . Thank you for letting me share my trip to Sweden with you in the class room. I am headed off to Utah next, and wanted to introduce to all of you our blog and I we can stay in touch while I am traveling and you are here in Lake Placid. In this blog, along with an article, I will post photos and video like below. And at the bottom of each post there is a spot to add a comment. There you can post questions, your experiences, etc. to start a discussion.

This video is during training at the new shooting range near the ski jumps last week. You'll notice I am wearing a helmet and you can see my ski poles and rollers skis. A paved ski trail leads right up to the 4-point shooting range and is perfect for biathlon training. My coach took this video for me to watch my prone shooting process from start to finish. And now you can see it too:

This second video is from another training session last week and shows my teammate, Laura Spector (http://blogs.fasterskier.com/lauraspector) and I (on the left) on the last climb up to the range. (You can see the roof of the shooting range at the end.) We use video analysis a lot during training to evaluate our ski technique. It helps to see what you are actually doing while you ski. Often in your head you think you must look great, when in reality you might move your limbs in odd ways that you don't even notice. Together, being able to visualize your movements in your head and have them match what your body is actually doing can improve your body awareness. This skill is key to improving and mastering the different ski techniques and your feel for the snow.

Enjoy and let me know what you think of these blogs!