Challenge & Redevelopment of Alpine Ski Racing in GBR
Why we are making the changes and selling this vision
 Safety
 Create more training time
 Improve quality of training and accelerate progress
 Increase longevity in the sport, reduce drop out
What we are going to be changing
 Provide best practice information to all from BSS
 Introduce changes to competition structure
 Incentivise racing community to follow
How we are planning to change this is being headed by changes to the
competition structure, but has to be implemented by the coaches and
the coaching system that we will be putting in place
 Advertise goals
 Align coach education
 Create new entry-level competition structure
 Short (stubby) gates for U14 SL
 Put in place limits on race entries
The rules and the details must follow the changes that are absolutely
vital to the future of the sport in GBR
Step by step process
 Detail the changes
 Create the rules
 Test the product
 Alter as necessary
Proposals:
1. Adopt new FIS age ranges and nomenclature for snow, indoor
snow and artificial racing.
2. No slalom races on snow for U12; slalom with stubbies only on
plastic for U12
3. Stubby gates for Slalom on snow for U14; also in ALL
artificial/indoor snow races for U14, U12 and anyone below this
age group* including all Schools events, qualifying races, Grand
Prix races etc on artificial surfaces. *detailed reasons below
4. Offer multi-faceted events on snow for U12 and U14 (as with the
Combi ‘agility’ race that was run for minis in Meribel). There are
already comprehensive rules for Combi races in the children's
section of the Alpine ICR. These races do not have to be
complex, but can be set up simply on ‘normal’ slopes (obstacles
etc!). Races on artificial surfaces can also include obstacles, etc.
5. Head-to-head races. Parallel events with GS or slalom turns
(stubbies U14 if slalom)
Parallel format can be judged from start and finish and run like
knockout tournament (no timing and less cost) - WC format is
both racers timed...
Dual/Parallel format – how many runs?
Knockout tournament
6. A recommended limit of 6 snow race starts for U12, and a limit of
8 or 10 technical snow race starts for U14 (considering, for
example, a Giant Slalom start as one, though actually 2 races).
SG not to be included in the start limits. Say 10-12 snow race
starts for U16, again exclusive of SG. Coaches to monitor.
7. A strong recommendation that the plastic season should follow
the snow. At present, it starts long before kids have moved into
the next FIS age category, even before the end of the snow
season. We accept that this will take a year to implement.
8. When is Slalom introduced? Difficult to do just GS on
artificial/indoor slopes
Parallel could be run with stubby gates or smaller GS panels
Course specification
Stubby gate distance between 6m and 8m and GS panel distance
between 8m and 10m
*Slalom
With the introduction of rapid gates in the eighties, Slalom by definition
became a contact discipline. To ski Slalom well, you ski through the
gates not hit them – but you have to be a top skier to do this and you
have to have the perfect line. The first problem for young children
without the skills is that their perception is that they need to reach to hit
the gates. The first and final challenge for all is to develop the perfect
line.
Before rapid gates were introduced, the focus was on skiing around
solid poles and therefore it was arguably easier for children to focus on
sound technique.
Problems
1. Rapid gates can intimidate children; the focus for many is on
the gate not on sound technique.
2. They ski defensively, lean in or use their arms as though they
were conducting an orchestra.
It is clear that many of our young athletes go into Slalom
competition when they are clearly not ready. Some come into the
sport at a later age the first thing our competition structure does is
put them into a discipline they are not ready for (Slalom).
3. Skiing rapid gates when young skiers are not ready encourages
poor technique poor posture and can create long-term problems
that are often compounded when a child is in a growth spurt.
Even some of are best skiers who skied Slalom well before a
growth spurt end up with major problems after they grow because
they have continued to train and race Slalom.
4. As coaches we are not always in control of what are athletes are
doing. There is a big schools programme, many have to ski for
their schools in order to get the time off to compete with their
clubs/academies. In these competitions they are often subjected
to rapid gates. They went off skiing quite well and then come
back with problems.
5. It is recognised that slalom has been the biggest single negative
to long term child development, not because there is a problem
with the discipline itself, but because many children are
introduced to the long gate version too early on artificial slopes,
indoor snow slopes and in snow competitions.
Summary
In other words kids need to learn to ski first before they are subjected to
long gate slalom.
Have fun - ski powder, all terrain skiing, learn to jump, to play in the
snow...
While the competition structure stays the same as it has been for the
last thirty years, we will not produce the standard and quantity of
athletes that can perform at the highest level. If we change the training
and competition structures, there is no reason why we should not be
able to compete against the best in the future, and in so doing will help
to safeguard the health of our young racers.