Next week starts our annual push championship competition and our combine testing. Although the bobsled track doesn't open until October 10 (my birthday!), this is our first competition of the season. How are you competing if the bobsled track isn't open? Well, glad you asked!
Each summer we train- sprinting and lifting- to try to improve our start times. A start time is the first 50m of the race, where the athletes- both brakeman (aka push athletes) and pilots (aka drivers)- push the sled as fast as they can before hoping in. The start time is the only accelerator of our sleds, so it's very important this is as fast as possible. Although both the brakeman and driver push, the driver gets in before the brakeman, and the start time is the major responsibility of the brakeman.
As the push start is the only accelerator in the sport, it is essential to make sure you are improving your start times and getting the fastest pushes possible. The only way to determine which brakeman is the fastest is to race them against each other. Ideally, this would be done on ice, however, team trials are fast approaching and there is no ice available- but we must know how the brakeman rank and how fast the pilots are pushing in order to select teams. So how do we do this? The answer is push championships...
So the first thing that happens during push championships week is the combine. The combine is a series of 8 athletic tests to determine your athletic ability and how successful you may be at pushing a sled. The tests are a 15m, 30m, 45m dash, a 30m fly, a 3 rep squat max, a power clean max, broad jump, and a shot put toss. Each test gives an athlete a certain amount of points, and then athletes are ranked against each other based on their overall combined score on all the events. Although the combine is an indication of who the top athletes may be, nothing compares to pushing- which is why we then have the push competition.
For push championships this season, we will push in Lake Placid on a dry land push track. Instead of ice, we push a sled on wheels down a rail system. We measure out 50m, and take the time when the sled hits that mark. Each athlete will push the sled by themselves to determine who is the fastest. Most often, the difference between athletes is only a few hundredths of a second! It's always a very close competition and a great start to the season to see where everyone is at in their training. In the video below, you can see me pushing at the push track in Lake Placid- the same one we will use for the push championships.
For the past three seasons I have won push championships- all three years as a brakeman and also last season as a pilot as well. This will be my first season competing only as a pilot, and I am training hard to take home another title in that division. For pilots, push championships is the opportunity to show the brakeman that you have been training hard all summer so that they want to push with you when it comes time to select teams for team trials (a process which I'll get into later). As you can imagine- it's quite a big week coming up, so wish me luck!
Each summer we train- sprinting and lifting- to try to improve our start times. A start time is the first 50m of the race, where the athletes- both brakeman (aka push athletes) and pilots (aka drivers)- push the sled as fast as they can before hoping in. The start time is the only accelerator of our sleds, so it's very important this is as fast as possible. Although both the brakeman and driver push, the driver gets in before the brakeman, and the start time is the major responsibility of the brakeman.
As the push start is the only accelerator in the sport, it is essential to make sure you are improving your start times and getting the fastest pushes possible. The only way to determine which brakeman is the fastest is to race them against each other. Ideally, this would be done on ice, however, team trials are fast approaching and there is no ice available- but we must know how the brakeman rank and how fast the pilots are pushing in order to select teams. So how do we do this? The answer is push championships...
So the first thing that happens during push championships week is the combine. The combine is a series of 8 athletic tests to determine your athletic ability and how successful you may be at pushing a sled. The tests are a 15m, 30m, 45m dash, a 30m fly, a 3 rep squat max, a power clean max, broad jump, and a shot put toss. Each test gives an athlete a certain amount of points, and then athletes are ranked against each other based on their overall combined score on all the events. Although the combine is an indication of who the top athletes may be, nothing compares to pushing- which is why we then have the push competition.
For push championships this season, we will push in Lake Placid on a dry land push track. Instead of ice, we push a sled on wheels down a rail system. We measure out 50m, and take the time when the sled hits that mark. Each athlete will push the sled by themselves to determine who is the fastest. Most often, the difference between athletes is only a few hundredths of a second! It's always a very close competition and a great start to the season to see where everyone is at in their training. In the video below, you can see me pushing at the push track in Lake Placid- the same one we will use for the push championships.
For the past three seasons I have won push championships- all three years as a brakeman and also last season as a pilot as well. This will be my first season competing only as a pilot, and I am training hard to take home another title in that division. For pilots, push championships is the opportunity to show the brakeman that you have been training hard all summer so that they want to push with you when it comes time to select teams for team trials (a process which I'll get into later). As you can imagine- it's quite a big week coming up, so wish me luck!
