AVSC Alpine Director’ Blog
Think about what you expect from yourself. In ski racing it is likely that you expect speed. You expect to ski faster than many if not all of the other people in the race. But there is one main problem with that expectation; there are probably 140 or so people in the race also expecting the same thing of them. So the question of expectation turns to something else. And that something else is consistency. The person who wins races is not always the person who chooses to go fastest, who takes the greatest risk. It is usually the person who is consistently fast. Who minimizes risk while maximizing speed? Who is the fastest on each of the 40 or turns in a GS race. Think about it in simple math. If you are .01 seconds faster on each turn for 40 turns, you are .4 seconds faster at the bottom. If you can be .1 faster per turn, you are 4 seconds faster at the bottom. And .1 seconds is a blink of an eye, literally. So then the question becomes what do I do to be .1 faster on each turn? Remembering that risk on one turn can cause trouble on the next turn, dumping far more than the gain in the gate above. The tactical risk can also be an end to your day of racing if you are not consistent from turn to turn. So the decision to risk is really about where on the hill to take the risk and where to ski solidly without taking line and terrain risk. Where is the maximum reward to propel me through the flat and carry the most speed?
So if consistency is key, how do I develop it? Some of the answer is or should be obvious. Repetition of quality technique using conservative tactics and course setting that allows for the development of consistent technique. Using hills that allow for consistent technique development also needs to be part of the approach. I once did a study when I was with our Men’s World Cup team about race splits and where the races were won. It was a pretty revealing statistic. That season, the average qualifying time in men’s World Cup GS for the second run was 2.6 seconds out from first place. Of that time, the flat splits accounted for 2 seconds of the differential! In every case, at every hill, the winners were fastest on the flat. Whether it was from a dead start or on a flat after a pitch, the flats were the difference.
But anyway, how do you get there aside from repetition of quality training? What other factors would become important in the search for consistent speed? Understanding turn shape and its relationship to the fall line obviously is important. Shaping the turn more above the gate than below is where the speed is. So you can switch more in the fall-line than across it under the gate. And it takes the gravity factor to a minimum resistance which allows for greater consistency in repeating turn quality and shape.
Consistency also applies to your approach to training. Someone who cleanly completes many runs clearly skis more gates, so therefore gets more repetition, so therefore develops better consistency at speed. Also, setting shorter sections that are easier to finish and stacking sections on each run increases quality repetition and therefore, your consistency. But even more than that, as an athlete, the approach you take should be consistent every day. You should have a plan, a focus on your skiing. Understand your use of fundamental skills and whether you are executing them. One of the most basic needs for consistency that is often not paid attention to is simply being there for all the sessions your coaches schedule with a solid focus. When you can get to the point where you are correcting problems on the fly, during the course of a run, or even during a turn, you are far ahead of the pace for creating consistency at speed than someone who only relies on input from run to run or from video at the end of the day. When you can feel things happening that you like and dislike, and fix them while skiing, your training quality and increase in consistency rate is much higher. So your improvement accelerates beyond good or normal. That is why we so often see these huge breakthroughs in rankings and results. It is usually from someone who has done the homework. Who has worked extremely hard on fundamentals and has the base from which to grow. And when all the pieces come together, you can make the leap. It is not about the magic race or the magic training scenario. It is always about solid fundamentals, consistent input, daily focus and plain old hard work.
The other pieces of the puzzle are your program and your equipment situation. Equipment is the same thing as your daily focus. Take care of the stuff you have every day. Get your skis set up very well at the beginning of the season, then keep them up daily. Touch up the edges and wax every day. Then there is no big work to be done on race day and the skis feel the same as they do every day. Again, consistency in preparation is paramount. And what of the program? What is to be expected and what role does it actually play in the growth of consistency? For me, as the Alpine Director, I need to put a bunch of things into play to ensure consistency for all of us involved in AVSC. I need to hire and retain quality staff that provides a mix of experience and youth, calm and energy. I need to work hard to pay them well and train them appropriately so they want to stick around, even when other career opportunities come calling. I need to create a philosophy of coaching and a teaching methodology so we are all using a similar point of origin with our coaching and are shooting to meet the same technical, tactical and personal goals with our athletes. I need to create an atmosphere where we are us. Where all of us in alpine and in AVSC as a whole are working in harmony to make us the best and most consistent we can be. Our consistency within AVSC and more specifically in alpine, needs to be reflected in everything we do, daily. And last, the best thing that you the athlete can do for yourself is to use one program to get to where you want to be. The most successful skiers I have ever worked with have been 1 program kids. Athletes who were in their program until they made the national team or went to college. All of the most successful guys I coached with the World Cup team were one-program guys. Ligety, Miller, Knight, Rothrock, Sullivan, Cochran, Spencer, Lanning, Weibrecht. They are all one-program guys. And as they got older, their coaches looked for opportunities to create variety and pace. And we will do the same here. But that extra motivation skiing with other good skiers needs to be mixed with a solid base of consistency and trust. In the end, the model of consistency of focus by all parties creates the consistency in skiing needed to unleash the speed necessary to succeed all the way up the pipeline and beyond. Decrease crashes and DNFs, increase finish rate and consistency. If you want to go fast, you will always want to go fast.
