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WEDNESDAY February 14, 8:00pm EST NBC
THURSDAY February 15, 7:30pm EST NBC

Practice runs Tuesday 2/13. Video at 0:17 and 1:37

Author Topic: Ask AJ Edelman Anything: DDF Member And Member Of The 2018 Israel Olympic Team!  (Read 77475 times)

Offline davidrotts63

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Promise I'll get to all the questions at least post shabbos. I have to pack up and leave the village b4 shabbos so all I can say right now is thank you for the support.
In terms of the pain, in honor of shabbos, a Kal vachomer on bishul "ayn ptzia achar pziah". Or is that a gzayra shava. Man I've been away from yeshiva for too long

Do you mean a gzayra shava from bishul?
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Offline hgeek23

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    • Israel Olympian AJ Edelman / Israel Bobsled BobTeam Edelman
  • Location: A bobsled track going 90mph, or in a plane doing 500.
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Ayn bishul achar bishul. Whatever the term, it connects with Ayn petzia achar petziah. Can make an "all the more so" or just a connection. If I messed up the terms it's been 8 years since yeshiva I have catching up to do

Offline gingyguy

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Ayn bishul achar bishul. Whatever the term, it connects with Ayn petzia achar petziah. Can make an "all the more so" or just a connection. If I messed up the terms it's been 8 years since yeshiva I have catching up to do
you did as good a job making your point as you did in the race.
good job!!
May you slide down the banister of happiness & get many splinters of success up your career.

Offline davidrotts63

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Ayn bishul achar bishul. Whatever the term, it connects with Ayn petzia achar petziah. Can make an "all the more so" or just a connection. If I messed up the terms it's been 8 years since yeshiva I have catching up to do
Hey, need a chavrusa?
(Quit) pulling out the flowers, and watering the weeds. -Peter Lynch

Offline Dan

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Save your time, I don't answer PM. Post it in the forum and a dedicated DDF'er will get back to you as soon as possible.

Offline davidrotts63

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Can't seem to find it.
Not playing by me to be able to find it...
(Quit) pulling out the flowers, and watering the weeds. -Peter Lynch

Offline @Yehuda

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Offline Dan

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Save your time, I don't answer PM. Post it in the forum and a dedicated DDF'er will get back to you as soon as possible.

Offline Dan

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Awesome run AJ, keep holding your head up high!
Made us all proud!
Save your time, I don't answer PM. Post it in the forum and a dedicated DDF'er will get back to you as soon as possible.

Offline gingyguy

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Awesome run AJ, keep holding your head up high!
Made us all proud!
maybe post 1 final update on DDMS
May you slide down the banister of happiness & get many splinters of success up your career.

Offline coralsnake

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Awesome run AJ, keep holding your head up high!
Made us all proud!
Yup! Great job!
"Here at DansDeals we don’t do buses." -Dan

Offline Yammer

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Only top 20 continue, so no run 4 for AJ. But if you want to see who wins, it's scheduled for 9:15.
What number did he end up being?

Offline davidrotts63

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Now that there is no need for cash donations, we will start donating HT's for AJ. I will start by donating my HT that Dan won't give me.
(Quit) pulling out the flowers, and watering the weeds. -Peter Lynch

Offline @Yehuda

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What number did he end up being?
28/30

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Offline Aaaron

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Offline hgeek23

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    • Israel Olympian AJ Edelman / Israel Bobsled BobTeam Edelman
  • Location: A bobsled track going 90mph, or in a plane doing 500.
  • Programs: Sleeping-on-couches (Hachnasat Orchim) Diamond
Awesome job AJ, I don't think I've ever cared to watch the skeleton before let alone being glued, watching the entire 2 heats! You are certainly accomplishing your goal, even the announcers say so :). Good luck in the next heat.
 I assume you cant answer now, but the announcers kept talking about how difficult this track is, are they right? Where would this track rank on our list of most difficult tracks?

The track isnt so difficult per say--it isn't whistler, where you risk death if you get it wrong.  What it is, is hard to get down fast.  the fast lines are very difficult to find, driving fast lines are hard here.
On the list of tracks that are hard to drive fast, this ranks up there because it's new.  For someone who had no coach at the Games, being sub-53 seconds on a 5.13 push was massive for me.  Really huge.  Being 52.35 on that final run while going airborne in the chicane was also huge.

Offline ckmk47

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Really proud to 'know' you.
Great runs!!
My favorite cause: cssy.org

Offline hgeek23

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    • Israel Olympian AJ Edelman / Israel Bobsled BobTeam Edelman
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Would you say that most crashes/bangs are because of lack of experience/skill or rather the athletes at the back of the pack are trying to catch up which leads to riskier steering?

Also, is there a difference in the track if you go first or last? I would think the slit of ice at the sprinting section would be more broken into and will be easier to glide if you go last, while the rest of the track would be rough to ride due to it being ridden 29 times before you.

A crash is due to a number of factors, but generally problems start a corner or two back.  If you dont get the correct entry into a curve (lets say you enter a little too far left or right, the pressures can come on quicker/harsher/differently, or you might have steered wrong and caused a problematic exit.  In the Olympics, with the exception of Ghana we are all experienced and decent drivers (although Jamaica's times were helped immensely by his sprinting start, he was significantly outdriven by the remainder of the field).  Even the best drivers have problems on corner 2 and 9 on this track.  I'm a good driver (couldn't make the Games without driving well given my slow sprint), and I went airborne in 9-->12 chicane on the last run.

A good observation on over-driving--generally people overdrive when they get into trouble and they make things worse.  It happens to all of us--you get into trouble and your brain thinks it can extricate itself by just finding the fast lines.  But every time you steer you cut ice and slow yourself. Sometimes best thing is to just lay there.  I will remember of all the times in my career on a sled, this was the race i executed that well.  I went completely airborne on that last run, and managed to completely regain my position and cancel out almost all steering in the subsequent corners to try and get some speed back.

Going first/last also makes a huge difference, I was disappointed when I got last in the draw of 30 the evening before the race.  Generally the track deteriorates over the course of a race.  Going early you get the benefit of the fresh spritz they put on the ice--it's generally quicker.  the ice can deteriorate as the weather warms, or it can play games with your equipment setup, if you've set it up for colder and it goes warmer over an hour etc.

Offline hgeek23

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    • Israel Olympian AJ Edelman / Israel Bobsled BobTeam Edelman
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Also, how do they resurface the ice, and how frequently is it resurfaced? Is there some sort of Zamboni?


The ice goes through deterioration due to warm air temp, as well as sleds going down, taking off ice from the wall.  It also frosts due to the mixture of the refrigeration pumping under it and the humidity in the air.  Special scrapers are used to remove frost and even a corners surface, soft ice-snow mix is leveled over gouges into the ice so it freezes into hard ice, and a spritz of water from a hose is sprayed over as well, providing a new top-coat of ice.  Closest thing to a zamboni is snow-blowers used when it's snowing outside and the snow comes in.