Delaney: Physical skills important for sliders
USA Luge team manager Fred Zimny said the physical skill tests are very important to determining a young athlete's success in luge.
Fifty-eight boys and girls ages 11-to-14-years-old participated in the USA Luge slider search program in Utica over the weekend. In 24 years of the slider search, this was the first time Utica was a stop on the schedule. The success of Remsen's Erin Hamlin had a lot to do with the sport coming to her home county so area residents could get an idea of what luge is all about.
Sliding down the Cornelia street hill on rollerblade sleds wasn't the only activity for the young sliders who came downtown Saturday and Sunday. Zimny and other USA Luge staff members also administered physical skills tests: pull-ups, flexibility, medicine ball toss and a standing jump.
"They're important," Zimny said. "Through the years, we've started to weigh the physical scores more."
Zimny said Hamlin is smaller and not as heavy as many of her competitors. Hamlin is listed at 5-feet-7 inches and 143 pounds in her bio on the USA Luge web site. Zimny said for singles sliders, which Hamlin is, athletes should be taller with lean weight. Hamlin's strength is the way she handles a sled.
"She is extremely good on a sled," Zimny said. "She is so soft (smooth) on a sled, she does well."
Fifty-eight boys and girls ages 11-to-14-years-old participated in the USA Luge slider search program in Utica over the weekend. In 24 years of the slider search, this was the first time Utica was a stop on the schedule. The success of Remsen's Erin Hamlin had a lot to do with the sport coming to her home county so area residents could get an idea of what luge is all about.
Sliding down the Cornelia street hill on rollerblade sleds wasn't the only activity for the young sliders who came downtown Saturday and Sunday. Zimny and other USA Luge staff members also administered physical skills tests: pull-ups, flexibility, medicine ball toss and a standing jump.
"They're important," Zimny said. "Through the years, we've started to weigh the physical scores more."
Zimny said Hamlin is smaller and not as heavy as many of her competitors. Hamlin is listed at 5-feet-7 inches and 143 pounds in her bio on the USA Luge web site. Zimny said for singles sliders, which Hamlin is, athletes should be taller with lean weight. Hamlin's strength is the way she handles a sled.
"She is extremely good on a sled," Zimny said. "She is so soft (smooth) on a sled, she does well."
posted by Anne Delaney at
10:24 PM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home