Hello Everyone [click to see me on video],

    Since the Paralympics, I have still been active in a lot of things. In the beginning of June I attended a ski camp in Mt. Hood, Oregon and it was one of the best camps that I ever attended. It was an optional camp for the team but I felt it could benefit me because only three athletes were scheduled to show up. My two teammates and I had a chance to work with two coaches and that was the best thing that could happen to my skiing. We spent seven straight days skiing, working on tactics and mechanics. I left the camp feeling like a new man.

I also attended another Mt. Hood camp in late July and I carried over all of the good habits that I worked on in June. I studied video every day and analyzed my skiing with my coaches. They were very happy with the way I was skiing. My main focus was to be able to continually deliver great skiing from camp to camp and then into the season.

Back from a camp in Hintertux, Austria, I proved to myself that I am focused and I am ready for the season to start. My first day was a little suspect because my leg was hurting very bad from doing squats the day before. Note to self, I will never do squats the day before a camp or race starts. After the first day I turned it on. Although my leg was sore, I bit the bullet and told myself that I was going to train hard. I was consistently finishing runs and they were very fast. I had a chance to train on some forgiving terrain and some steep terrain as well. By the end of the camp two athletes were awarded pins for great skiing. I was one of the two. The other pin went to one of my teammates who’s a sit skier. I left the camp knowing that I am getting closer and closer to that World cup podium.

One thing that I didn’t mention is I had a chance to fly my little brothers to Colorado and try to give them an experience of a lifetime. One of my little brothers loved Colorado but the other one got homesick and he decided that he wanted to go back to N.Y. early. For my younger brother who stayed out here, I took him to Moab and we camped out for five days. Besides that, I got the chance to do a lot of Big Brother things. In a nutshell, my summer was awesome.

                      Ralph Green
                      United States Disabled Ski Team

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