Dryland Training

Last week I talked about the many reasons why winter is not the best time to improve your skiing. I discussed the reasons why out of season skiing can be better for improving your technique. The other side of this equation is that the off-season is also the best time to improve fitness. Whilst skiing every day in the winter is undoubtedly good for you, it is not likely to be as good as a serious fitness programme. Living in a ski resort it can be hard to keep fit. Gym facilities may be limited or expensive and it is often difficult to get motivated to run or cycle when there is snow on the ground. Plus there is always the temptation to go for an apres-ski drink straight after skiing.

Spring, summer and autumn give you a good seven or eight months to get ready for next winter. There are many approaches, several of which I have written about before. The ideal combination would be a balance of strength and power training, aerobic training, balance and flexibility training. It is best to begin with building an aerobic base at the start of the off season, then gradually introducing weights work to build up strength particularly in the legs and core, before adding speed/power training at the end of the winter. Balance training can be added into the mix at any point.

I have mentioned slackline before - it is great for balance and core strength and you can make up exercises or tricks to train particular muscles. I like to try one legged squats on it for example.

Another unusual training aid is the unicycle - great for balance and working legs and core.

Gym work is also important for that strength training. I wrote a series of posts on ski fitness a while back which are still relevant.

Being creative and imaginative can really help. There are many exercises using different equipment, or none, such as swiss ball exercises, plyometrics, balance boards, jumping or hopping over a ski pole or line. Search YouTube for some top skiers' training routines if you need inspiration.

Finally I will leave you with Jonny Mosely dryland training bumps. The video is a little old now but it is still awesome to watch, and demonstrates how a good training session can use the same movements as skiing.

Why winter is not the best time to get better at skiing

Glacier training in the sun

If you are serious about getting better at skiing - for its own sake, to pass instructor exams or to do better at competitions of any sort, then doing some training over the summer period is vital. For those readers that only manage a week or two of skiing each year then I am not going to suggest that you spend those in the summer. Winter is undoubtedly the most fun time to go skiing, with the best snow conditions.

I am really speaking here to the people who live in ski resorts all winter, or who take extensive winter holidays. Working and living in a ski area is a fantastic lifestyle, lots of fun and will improve your skiing to an extent just by doing it. But ask yourself how much do you really work on your skiing in a winter? Be honest with yourself. There will be some people who are really dedicated to their skiing but most find it hard to train when there is so much else to do. Cruising around the mountains with friends, fun skiing, mountain lunches, and nights out drinking - it's easy to have a great time on the slopes. Then there is work - daytime work gets in the way of skiing and night-time work makes it hard to get up early and perform. Ski jobs (instructor, ski patrol, ski host, video-cameraman, photographer) keep you on your skis all day but you are rarely going to be pushing yourself. The only people who will make really significant improvements over a winter are those who are super motivated or those in an ongoing training programme several days per week. Perhaps a third exception is those who are beginners, or doing their first few full winters, so that they are getting far more practice time on the skis than they have ever had before.

The other problem in winter is that most resorts are not focussed on developing skiers so much as delivering a fun time to holidaymakers. This is natural as holidaymakers bring in the money but it can be frustrating for those trying to train. The spaces to set gates are limited, the pistes may be crowded and the park will be full. In the other three seasons of the year the ski areas that are open know that they are catering mainly to competitors, instructors and others who are serious about developing their performance. The main business for resorts in this period comes from training camps of various types: race camps, freestyle camps, performance courses or instructor training. Because of this, large parts of the skiable terrain are set aside for race courses and snowparks, and these areas are well maintained. There can often be the added bonus of training alongside national teams from all the Alpine nations which is pretty inspiring.

To relate my personal experience; in 2012 I spent three weeks taking instructor courses in Hintertux April/May after my resort had closed, two weeks race training in Les 2 Alpes in June, a weekend in July, six weeks  autumn race training in Tignes in November/December and a final week of Race training in Alpe D'Huez. After all that I finally passed the Eurotest, but not by much. In those twelve weeks of training, even though some of the days were quite short, I made far bigger improvements to my skiing that I could have done in several seasons of teaching every day.

It is possible to practise alpine ski racing, piste skiing, bumps and nordic skiing on glaciers in spring, summer and autumn in Europe. Off-piste skiing is harder to work on in summer, although the spring is the best time to do many descents and I have done some great ski touring in August in France such as my ascent of Mont Blanc in this post.

The other side of summer training is dryland training - gym and fitness sessions - which are essential if you want to achieve your winter potential. More on that in the next post

Bad Weather, Great Skiing

As the title says, the weather has been pretty poor lately, so no photos I'm afraid. We have had a lot of rain lately, which is generally pretty miserable to ski in and being here for the whole winter it can be hard at times to keep the motivation to go skiing in less than ideal conditions.

However, we have the ski school race approaching tomorrow and Flopi (an instructor here by winter and race coach in Argentina in the winter there) planned to set practise courses Tuesday to Wednesday this week. So I headed up the mountain early each day, despite the weather.

On Tuesday morning I looked out of the window at 8am to see fog and rain. On the mountain it was snowing and there was zero visibility so no race practise. Steve (another instructor) and I drove over to Arcalis to ski some powder. The snow was deep, warm and heavy - hard work but it makes you ski properly just to stay upright. We ticked off a couple of chutes I have had my eye on for ages, had a run in the trees, stopped for a coffee then did a bit more off-piste exploration.

Wednesday morning was again rain and fog outside my bedroom window, and on the mountain it was still raining. So we trained some GS gates in the rain for a while, had a good time since we don't get much time in the gates here.

Thursday was again zero visibility and no racing so Steve and I headed to Soldeu and the bump stadium. The sun tried to come out, the rain stopped for a while and the bumps were soft and well shaped - the sort to make you look good. Plenty of people were on training courses and it was quite pleasant to watch them all under pressureA whilst having a relaxed day skiing about - my turn will come later this month with the next Eurotest attempt.

Today there has been slow and steady snow, but with better visibility so we had another day in the gates. The snow was better so it was much more productive this time.

All in all it has been a good four day's skiing when I could quite easily have looked out of the window each morning and gone back to bed. A lesson I need to keep in mind I think.

Arrived in Tignes

Well, I've arrived in Tignes, and found a bar with wi-fi so I'm back online for the minute (as long as I keep buying drinks). We have had two days of race training so far - today would have been the third but the resort stayed shut due to the weather. The good news is that there is plenty of snow. The bad news is that there is a lot of wind as well. Still it is all looking a lot better than last year.

I would post some new photos here but I have forgotten my USB lead. D'oh. I have posted an old photo of me racing (ski school race, March 06) to illustrate where I need to improve (and hopefully have improved since then). You can see that my inside ski is turning but the outside one is heading away down the hill. This is because my weight is too far inside (notice the inside hand and shoulder dropping) so I cannot pressure the outside ski effectively. The principles are not that different from any other sort of skiing, but for someone unused to racing, the gates really do add a new dimension. Looking at a photo can help to analyse and pick out faults, but using a video is even better. If you get the chance to watch yourself skiing on video, especially with your instructor or coach, then it really is a useful learning tool.

Anyway, I had better sign off now. As I said previously, posts will be sporadic until the end of the month when I get to the flat in Andorra with steady Internet access, so please bear with me.

Back to the Espace Killy

Well, I am all set for my autumn race training session. I have a fortnight booked in Tignes - I would have liked to have spent longer, but time and money constraints precluded that. I am looking forward to returning to the Espace Killy area after a six year absence. My first ski season was spent working in a hotel in La Daille - the cheap end of Val D'Isere, just over the hill from Tignes - over the 99/2000 season. I returned to visit a couple of times the following season when I was working in Meribel, but have not been back since.

The ski area is truly world class - one of the best places I have ever skied. It has everything for the good to expert skier - fast reds, tough blacks, huge areas of accessible off-piste, steeps and couloirs as extreme as you want them and plenty of back country to explore. The lift system is excellent, with many high speed lifts. However the number of good and expert skiers in the area means you have to get up very early, or hike, if you want fresh lines and untracked powder. The nature of the terrain also means the avalanche risk is quite significant, and care is always needed when venturing even a short way off piste.

The town of Val D'Isere is not one of my favourites in the Alps. The nightlife is all there, including the legendary (according to them) Dick's Tea Bar and I did have a great season there, but I have found other resorts are friendlier, more down to earth and less cliquey. It will be interesting to see how Tignes compares - I have skied through it many times but never stayed there.

Eurotest Training

Well, it's somehow taken me over two months to write a post, so maybe the spring wasn't the best time to start a winter sports blog. Having said that, one of the reasons I've been less than productive is that I've been away skiing. A fortnight on the glacier in Les Deux Alpes helped to satisfy the snow addiction for the moment. As I've said elsewhere, summer skiing is a really nice way to spend time in the mountains, and the fact that the skiing finishes at one leaves the afternoons free for other activities or just chilling out.

Not that this was a holiday - it was all training towards the Eurotest, which is part of the ISTD - the top European ski instructor qualification. To pass the Eurotest a candidate has to ski a GS race within 18% of a zero FIS points time (equivalent to being within 18% of the World number one). The test is required by French, Austrian, Italian and British instructors to gain the highest qualification in those countries. To gain the right to teach in France (even temporarily), an instructor has to pass either the Eurotest or a similar slalom test - the Test Technique .

The result of this is a lot of hard work for British instructors wanting to work in France, but it has also led to quite a lot of tension between the various governing bodies of skiing in Europe, particularly as the rules for working in different countries change regularly. Also, until recently, the only way to teach snowboarding or any other snowsport legally in France was to pass the Eurotest - on skis. This is a result of the French refusing to recognise 'Snowboard Instructor' as a separate profession to 'Ski Instructor'.

It is for these reasons that many (non-French) ski instructors loudly criticise the French system as elitist, nationalistic and with an inordinate bias towards racing (particularly as few customers of a typical ski school want to learn to race). However, it is their country and if we as foreigners wish to work there, it is only natural that we are expected to follow the local rules. So, I'll be in the gates doing GS training at every opportunity until I get through it.

The photo at the top right shows Steve W enjoying some summer powder after the day's race training had been abandoned due to too much snow.