Ski Club of Great Britain // Inside Edge // THE CASE TO RACE

Our race training guru Phil Brown sets his sights on summer and how to use it to your advantage to get fit for next winter…

As winter draws to a close, we look towards the summer and consider how to keep physically sharp to ensure we hit the ground running next season.

FITNESS

You can help yourself get the most out of your skiing next season by keeping fit over the coming summer months. While aerobic training, such as cycling or jogging, can help maintain and build your fitness, skiing is a largely anaerobic sport, where we exercise in short bursts that can be heavy on muscle use. Exercises like sprints (bike or running) and High Intensity Interval Training (HIIT) workouts are excellent training for skiing, so I recommend using these throughout the year to keep in optimum shape.

SKI TRAINING AT HOME

There’s nothing like practicing the sport to keep ‘match fit’ and there are multiple opportunities for this in the UK, either at one of the country’s many outdoor dry slope facilities or in one of our six indoor snow facilities. And don’t forget the indoor rolling carpet facilities which, while they feel odd to begin with, give the longest ski run to practice on. To get the most out of training on your skis in the summer, sign up to some training or coaching rather than just free skiing (as much fun as that can be!). Not only will this help improve your skiing, it will also make your trip to the slope much more interesting and give you focus. The appeal of skiing without a focus like this on short artificial slopes can be short-lived.

A WEEKEND AWAY

Indoor training over the summer is by no means limited to the UK – there are some great facilities just across the Channel with 300-plus metres of indoor snow, such as Snow Valley in Peer, Belgium, and SnowWorld Landgraaf in the Netherlands.Impulse Training have been visiting SnowWorld Landgraaf with our clients for 15 years – with eight lifts, five slopes (some measuring 30 metres wide and half a kilometre long), and a fun park, indoor temperatures are set to -5°C, even when it’s 30 degrees outside! Located around three hours’ drive from Calais, SnowWorld features a hotel, gym, bars and restaurants on site, making it a truly self-contained, year-round resort. And, thanks to its guaranteed conditions, it’s ideal for improving your ski technique. A weekend here can yield as much skiing as some people get in a week on a mountain, but it also serves as a fun social trip.

WHAT TO DO? AND HOW?

If you’re eager to maximise your summer potential, you can pop along to your local snow centre or dry slope and book a freeski or coached session, or join a local ski club. Together with my team of instructors at Impulse Training, I've been working with Ski Club Members at our Alpine base in Pila over the winter and we’re happy to announce that we’re finalising a series of personal performance sessions in the UK, with dedicated client coaching, for Club Members. Keep your eyes peeled on the Club's social channels for updates on these sessions. We will also be hosting several fun-packed training trips to SnowWorld Landgraaf over the summer(May to October). If you’re keen to join us, simply drop me a line at phil@impulse-racing.co.uk

THE DRILL: THE WALL SIT

Here’s a great drill to keep your legs strong through the off season – a variation on an old favourite, the wall sit:
- Stand with your back against a wall and lower yourself until your shins and thighs are at 90 degrees to each other, with your thighs horizontal. If you can’t reach the full 90-degree angle at first, decrease the angle and slowly build up to the full exercise.

- Traditionally, you would sit here for a set time which, although challenging, is static. So, in order to add some activity, alternately lift each heel or, if that’s too much at first, a toe.

- Build up to lifting your whole foot off the ground while still in your wall sit position, aiming to hold it in the air for between one and five seconds.

MY STORY: PHIL BROWN

Phil Brown, race coach and instructor, shares his journey from disappointed primary school kid to Programme Director of the National Schools Snowsports Association

I’ve been lucky to be involved at many levels of skiing and race coaching for over 30 years, but my journey into skiing was more a happy coincidence than a planned pathway. In my final year at primary school, I wanted to go on a school trip to Northumberland. Unfortunately, my parents couldn’t afford the trip but my mum said that I could attend the first trip that came up in secondary school.

As luck would have it, this was a ski trip, announced in term one to take place in the second term of the following school year. I was subsequently packed onto a Laker Airways flight to Malpensa, to ski in Foppolo, near Bergamo in Italy.

Having had a few lessons on a dry slope in the UK leading up to that trip, I had a great time, at least until day three, when I injured my ankle. Though not serious, it kept me off skis until the last day, when I skied through the pain to make the most of that last day.

Fast forward to five years later. I hadn’t skied since that school trip and had a place lined up in the RAF as a weapons tech, when an advert placed in the local paper for trainee ski instructors at our local dry slope caught my eye. Intrigued, I applied and was invited to an interview.

As luck would have it, I was offered the job – thanks less to my (poor) skiing ability and more to my personality, I was told. As soon as I started work, I was asked to join the race club and my life direction was set.

More than 30 years on, with a life rich in ski coaching, attending major international events and founding a national body to build participation in snowsports through schools involvement, I look back on that happy coincidence fondly.

THE CASE TO RACE

with Phil Brown