Effective Ski Racing Overview
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Racing is skiing at the expert level but with a lot of energy, turning not when you want to but when you have to, on whatever terrain is there (usually icy rutted and bumpy). Put another way, racing is not only expert skiing, but the fastest most effortful skiing you are capable of on the worst of terrain and the worst of conditions.
It requires the most technique and the most mental and physical preparation and athleticism. Trying to be the fastest down the hill puts you on the limit of your capability and often on the limit of what is humanly possible, so it is as much about violent recoveries as it is about smoothness.
You won't learn a lot of ski technique at this level - you are already an expert, if you followed the main progression - if not, you'll have to continue refining your technique in parallel, by working on both progressions at the same time - racing and effective. We will instead focus on refining the technique and putting this expert technique we got into gates and look at tactics and how they all tie together.
Audience
The racing section is meant to benefit coaches, racers and parents as well as anyone interested in learning about ski racing.
Parents get a detailed understanding of technique and tactics elements as well as athletic and psychological preparation, so you can not only have an intelligent conversation with the coaches but benefit from many ideas to complement training at home or in freeskiing. Also, you'll know what to expect and demand from a good program and a good coach.
Masters racers and club racers, besides the advanced technique refinement sessions, get a lot of details on tactics, understand environments and how the technique relates to tactics, so you avoid any misunderstandings and get a lot more value from any training session you attend.
Coaches will find detailed discussions on technique and tactics, ideas for improvement and training session plans.
After the introductory Ski racing parents handbook, there are 2 levels in the racing section: basics and advanced.
Racing - basics
This is a basic intro to alpine ski racing, tactics and environment training elements. We review the fundamentals of skiing and look at how skiing in a race course differs from recreational skiing.
One issue with race training is that you're generally not able to just buy gates and drills and go out, set them and train. You need to join a ski school or race club.
We intro to a 360 training model, looking at athleticism, mental and psychological training, ski tuning, understanding equipment etc - all you need to know to be a competent racer.
Racing - advanced
After establishing a basic competency in race training and dealing with gates, we look at the more advanced aspects of racing, tactics, dealing with terrain etc.
We focus on SL and GS training and not on speed training. Speed training requires specialized courses, environments and professional coaching with direct supervision. So does all race training, but speed training even more so, given the much higher potential for injuries.
We look at and analyze racing videos with different scenarios and see how the technique plays a role in tactics and results.
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