10th January 2012 at 09:05AM

Back due to popular request..... the Ambition Blog...!

In 2012 so far from what i can gather someone, somewhere is not too keen on us getting the races in with the juniors! A mix of weather has made it pretty difficult but as we speak we are entered and ready for an onslaught on Turnau CIT series and as of yet... nothing has been cancelled.

So January, well the kids went to the Anglo-Scottish and i'll let Benn tell more on that one but from what i saw, we had a few good runs but overall not as strong as at BARSC. Back here in Austria, we had some great training to start off with - Barney, Kieran and Imi all present and making good improvements. We had a few days on Hinterreit training next to the like of Shiffren, Vonn amongst others, we also had a day of timing with the British Team athletes, putting Barney, Kieran and Imi up against it to push them. Roy Steudle also mentioned his powder day last week where he turned up to find that his coach's sister (Marles Schild) would be joining them for some fun skiing. All in all we are surrounded by some of the worlds best skiers here and if that is not enough to inspire you then nothing will be.

The new set-up at Haus-Tirol is also working well, with Paul Epstein and the GMVS 94/95 birth team staying with us through January, again great to be training alongside some of America's talented youngsters. We have also had one of the Icelandic Junior Team girls staying with us for some races and we are looking forward to welcoming the Ontario Womens Team on the 14th Jan. Already the vision for the base is working well and we are now able to create a stronger peer group around our own athletes to help their development.

What else..... oh yeah, seems one team is trying some 'fanstasy football' style tactics with Ambition athletes, not sure if you can call it bribery but let me say that there is a certain satisfaction in working for success rather than trying to buy it. I personally find it rewarding to develop athletes through coaching and finding ways to get them to achieve.... each to their own i guess.

Anyway, anyway, with Barney out and about it has meant we had the services of professional photographer about - Paul Lewis.

Enjoy.