THE CASE TO RACE
with Phil Brown
Ski coach and instructor Phil Brown, Programme Director of the National Schools Snowsports Association, launches a new Ski+board column in support of raising awareness of the benefits and accessibility of competitive snowsports
WHAT IS RACE TRAINING?
For those who enjoy racing and skiing gates, the feeling of ‘slapping plastic’ in slalom or getting a shoulder to a GS gate can be exhilarating. For the uninitiated, however, ‘ski race training’ often conjures up images of Lycra-clad athletes skiing steep pistes. And this is often enough to intimidate and deter skiers from trying what is actually a great way of improving their skiing.
Over the years, I’ve worked with many skiers, both adults and children, who were surprised to discover that it’s a lot easier and less intimidating than they first thought. Parents typically get their children involved to make them better skiers and, often, to compete at club level, while many adults get involved to make step changes in their skiing.
In my training organisation, Impulse Racing, we have a tagline: ‘Build the skier – create the racer’. This is key to improvement as too much time skiing gates will actually slow progression as skiers are, in the main, not focused on their skiing but on completing the course, hitting the gates,
or even just staying upright.
Effective race training is essentially focused coaching. Training through poles can be part
of it, but actually improving takes place outside the poles and mainly on terrain conducive to building confidence and ensuring effective movements. Repetition of those effective movements is also important to make any positive changes permanent.
As we learn or develop in anything, we go through various stages of skill acquisition, and these need to be understood by the coach in order to develop anything that is movement or skill based. How many of you have been learning something and, as soon as you show success at one stage, you’re swiftly moved on to the next, perhaps feeling as if you haven’t really mastered the previous movement or skill? Well, the saying ‘practice makes perfect’ could have been made for perfecting ski movements.
PRACTICE TIME
Something that can often be missed in the pursuit of a skiing goal, or indeed any sports goal, is allowing sufficient practice time to consolidate a newly learned movement, enabling it to become intrinsic. Only when the skier and coach are satisfied that progress is being made and the movements are happening with consistency, do we look at putting this into the course, and adding in the challenge of skiing the poles.
The success of translating these new skills to the course can be a great indicator of how training is going. It can also go the other way; putting obstacles in the way can cause the newly learned movements to be ‘dropped’ in favour of surviving. But this is one of the gauges of improvement that we work with and adapt to. After all, the challenge of skiing the poles is a buzz and it’s important to have some runs in the course to simply enjoy it!
“Effective race training is essentially focussed coaching”
Phil Brown has been coaching and instructing for more than 30 years, working with athletes from grass roots all the way to world class level. Phil has held posts from club coach to National Team Head Coach, and holds the highest UK Coaching level currently achievable, along with the International Ski Instructor Association (ISIA) and European Mountain Safety qualification.
Phil has been running the year-round Impulse Racing coaching programme since 2008 and co-founded the National Schools Snowsports Association in 2016.
THE DRILL
ILLUSTRAION AMANDA BARKS
This month’s drill is an off-ski one that focuses on your core. Critical for skiing, a strong core allows good control of your movement and aids balance and recovery skills.
Find a partner to assist you.
Lie on a matt or carpet on the ground and get your partner to stand with one foot on either side of your head.
Grab your partner’s ankles and lift your legs straight up so that they are at 90 degrees to your body and your feet are directly in front of your partner.
Ask your partner to push your feet away from them while you resist, trying to keep your feet where they are.
Start with short, gentle pushes directly away from your partner before building up the duration and strength of your partner’s pushing.
As you continue to practice this drill, ask your partner to start pushing your feet away in any direction, which will work more of your core muscles.
MY STORY
Getting involved with competitive snowsports can open up diverse and often unexpected pathways. Here, 15-year-old twins Danni and Nikki Bateman explain how their experience of competitive skiing enabled them to take the first steps towards becoming professional instructors.
"We’ve been skiing since we were three, and it's been our main sport for the past 12 years, whether we’re racing for our school in National Schools Snowsports Association (NSSA) events, enjoying weekly freestyle meets at The Snow Centre in Hemel, or cruising around on the white stuff. Approaching our 16th birthday, our thoughts have started to turn towards weekend jobs and, to some extent, the future. This is where our luck kicked in as we can utilise our love and experience of skiing to our financial advantage!
Cue the next stage in our skiing story, and the IASI (Irish Association of Snowsports Instructors) Level 1 Ski Instructor’s Course. All IASI Level 1 courses follow the same structure and require the same level of skill, but the course we joined, run by Impulse Racing for the NSSA, is designed with younger, experienced skiers in mind. In our case, this enabled us to get our qualifications before our 16th birthday, meaning we’ll be licenced on the day itself.
The IASI instructor’s week was held at the Snow Centre in Hemel. Spanning five days, it started with a group meeting with our instructor, Ali, who set out the on-snow training and the off-snow lessons we’d be doing over the week and discussed our goals for the final appraisal. We were a group of four experienced skiers, including the two of us, Tallulah (16), who was doing her exam to start instructing at the Snow Centre, and Angelo (15) who wanted to share his love and passion for the sport, meeting new people along the way. If we’re honest, the money isn’t bad either!
The course was well planned and made us think about our technique as well as how to help others with theirs, whether they be total beginners or seasoned skiers.
It was surprising to us all just how much the course gave us, even as experienced skiers. The week flew by and, while it was a serious endeavour, we had a great laugh, enjoying our time on and off the snow.
Would we recommend this as the next level to aspire to? Yes, without question. All we need now is for the next couple of months to fly by so we can start passing on our knowledge (and earning). Then, onto IASI Level 2."
The NSSA has been instrumental in setting up this course with the IASI and has recently introduced an assistant instructor course, which can be taken by children aged 14. Together with the NSSA, Impulse Racing seeks to enable children to take their skiing skills and use them to broaden their horizons.