Skiing the corridor

The rule in GS is that you have to break the imaginary line between the two gates of the same colour with both skis, when passing through the gates.  When racing GS, focus on passing through the two gates of the same colour in the corridor.  Running a direct line may not always be the best approach if you do not have the tactical skills to manage your speed.  If you focus on skiing through the gates, instead of around the turning gate, you may actually be faster, even though your line may not be as direct.  Sacrificing speed for line, unfortunately doesn't always get the best result.  It is easier to see the problems associated with this approach in a master's race verses a world cup race.  In a world cup race, every skier skis a direct line reasonably effectively.  Where as in a master's race, a direct line doesn't work out well for everybody.  The photo below shows a view of a GS corridor.  Next time you are in a race, try thinking of passing through the corridor as opposed to around the turning gate.  If you have better results, it may be more helpful to think of it that way.

Why is tactical skiing important?

Below is an example of a video that shows why it is important to improve your tactical skills and develop tools for managing speed.  Notice how the skiers have different approaches to managing their speed.  Note that some of the methods are more effective than others.  Also note why.

Maximizing speed

When I first started alpine ski racing I had stronger technical skills than tactical skills.  It would probably be realistic to say that my technical skills were almost non-existant.  I remember my first season racing, many times I would stand at the top of the course very nervous, mostly because I was afraid of picking up too much speed.  Because of my age, I had a fairly high number in the race and therefore by the time it would be my turn to go, the course already would have deteriorated to the point of where it would be much more difficult to ski.  Usually at least 80+ racers would have already gone down the course, and if it were just one of those days, it was likely icy or rutty and I would find myself in a situationn where I would lose control or my skiis would come off.  In fact, in my first season, I was injured racing because that happened.  I should have stopped racing after my first season, until I learned proper tactics through training gates, but I continued for another three years.  I haven't officially been in a timed race for a few years because I have been trying to improve my tactical skills.  It is not something that people often specifically train for, however it is very useful to focus on improving tactics.  A focus on tactics can foster success because it can prevent injury and instill confidence in a new racer.  One of the key concepts of tactical skills is understanding how to manage speed.  The ability to manage speed is crucial to having a successful run.  One reason why I struggled in racing when I first started is because I knew how to ski fast.  In fact if there isn't anybody on the hill and conditions for skiing are perfect, I could ski really fast.  I call this speed, my maximum speed.  When I first started racing, I tried to approach my maximum speed in a race course.  This is why I got into trouble.  Many times it is not possible to ski at your maximum speed in a race course.  At least not for GS and SL.  In most courses you ski at a percent of your maximum speed.  There are many factors which affect the percent, these include: terrain, visibilty, course set and course conditions.  The most successful racers are able to maximize their speed within their own personal range from skiing slow (10% of maximum) to skiing fast (100% of maximum).  If you want to learn how to do this, the first thing you should do is ski on the hill where your race will be held.  Ski as fast as you possibly can, under good conditions, making roughly the same amount of turns you would make if there were a course set on the hill.  Call this speed your maximum speed.  Once the gates are set up, ski through the course, as fast as possible, while maintaining good control (ie. no speed dumping).  What percent of your maximum speed did you ski at?  For example, if you estimate that you skied at 60% of your maximum speed then this would be your race speed.  Where does that put you in your age category?  For example, is that time at the top of your age category or at the bottom?  This is important, because how well you do in the race depend on the times of the other people in the race.  You also have to consider your competition.  It isn't realistic for a 70 year old woman to compare her times with a 20 year old male, for obvious reasons.  That is why it is important to focus on improving your results based on your maximum skiing speed.  If your race speed puts you at the bottom of your age category, then it good to focus on improving your tactical skills and maximizing your speed within your own personal range of skiing speeds (0% to 100% of maximum speed).  When you are training, you need to start from your bench mark (race speed) and in my example it was 60% of maximum, and try to improve from there as opposed to just trying to reach your maximum speed each time.  A focus on the latter will cause speed dumping and result in possible injury if course conditions are less than ideal.  For example, on any given training day, you might have 10-15 runs through a course.  After a good warmup, the first run should be a fast but controlled run through the course.  This run will be skied at a percent of your maximum speed, say 60%.  The next run, you should try to ski just a bit faster, maybe 65%.  Each run you try to up the speed by small percentage, until you have reached a point where you can't reasonably ski any faster without sacrificing some control (ie getting late, reactionary speed scrubbing etc.)  This will become your race speed.  At this speed, you will begin to work on tactics and techincal skills that will increase this percentage of your maximum.  Some examples could be changing your line or making a change in your technical skiing.  For example, if you bash every gate in GS, you might find more speed by not touching as many gates.  This is possible only if you are racing at a percentage less than your maximum speed.  This will be determined through investigation of your race speed verses your maximum speed.

Cross-blocking in Slalom

I remember about 6 years ago I took a masters ski course and one of the coaches was talking about the purpose of cross-blocking.  He said that cross-blocking is a function of body position.  If you watch closely in world cup slalom skiing, you will notice many different styles of cross-blocking.  Some skiers reach out and place their pole in front of their face to cross-block and some keep the arms low and touch at the same time they "boot" the gate.  The style of cross-block may depend on the particular style the skier uses when they approach a SL course.  One thing they all have in common, which differs a little from master's skiing, is speed.  Many of the world cup skiers ski very fast through an SL course as compared to masters racers.  Speed facilitates cross-blocking because of the amount of lateral movement required to complete a turn on SL skiis at a high speed.

Cross-blocking becomes natural because in SL you ski fairly close to the gates, however it is not always fast, especially in masters racing.  I remember when I first learned to cross-block.  I started out making the same mistakes every master's racer makes when they are first learning.  I would reach out across my body with my outside hand to brush the gate out of the way.  This mistake is simply corrected by starting your turn earlier and skiing a little closer to the gates.  After about a season, I finally got the line right and cross-blocking became easy.  The funny thing was that when I entered my first SL race at the end of that season, my race time wasn't all that fast.  Even though, I cross blocked every gate perfectly and made all the gates easily, I didn't have a fast time.  Another strange thing, was that there were a couple of racers who beat my time, who just skied around the gates and didn't touch them at all.  I thought this was really interesting because skiing a wider line should be slower in theory.  So why is this?  Recently I have been taking the time to watch other master's racers ski through SL gates.  Most cross-block.  Some even have the technique down so well that every turn seems set up so perfectly that the cross-block looks so natural.  However again, it isn't all that fast.  When you watch world cup SL, very few of the racers look like they are skiing in control.  And the ones that do look like they are in control, usually don't win the race.  This is not the case when you watch masters.  Most look like they are skiing completely in control, every turn set up perfectly, every cross-block easy.  Which is great if you are trying to look good and save yourself from losing teeth.  But if you ski an SL race like that, you might as well stay home.  I stopped trying to cross-block a year ago.  Now, I just raise my hands and touch the gate wherever it happens to be.  Sometimes I brush it with my inside hand, sometimes with the bar on my helmet, sometimes with both hands, sometimes with the inside shoulder and sometimes I cross-block (outside hand).  What I don't do is compromise my speed, my body position, or turn shape in order to set myself up for the perfect cross block.  For me this approach is always faster.  When I do cross-block, it usually means my line and timing just happened to be accurate for that turn.  It's a consequence of good tactics.  Although, I do have to wear a lot of protection, with this approach.  (arm guards, shin guards, pole guards, thigh padding and my personal favorite: lacrosse gloves)  Some day I am sure that my timing will be accurate enough that I will be able to cross-block every gate.  But right now, I am more concerned with speed.  I often take my first run or two to ski classic.  I saw this done on a world cup training video once, and wasn't sure why they did it, but now I understand.  It is to get a sense of the rhythm of the course at speed, so the speed doesn't end up getting sacrificed for cross-blocking.  The series of photos below show examples of cross-blocking at different speeds, compare the body positions of these four master's racers with the world cup SL photo above on the right.

Turn shape and gate skiing

Wouldn't it be great if every course was set up perfectly to match whatever the turn radius of our skiis?  It would be good if you could just carve your turn from edge to edge, and cross the finish line as fast as possible  Then what would separate faster skiers from slower skiers is the ability to get on edge as quickly as possible and maintain that skill through the course, regardless of conditions.  It would sort of be the same thing as putting everyone on the same ski and telling them to get to the bottom of the hill as fast as possible, requiring that they make a certain amount of turns.  But that isn't the reality in ski racing.  A master's racer is most likely going to be faced with a course that has a rhythm where the turns have a different turn radius than the skis that they are skiing on.  For example, a FIS GS ski might have a turn radius of 23 m, but in a course the turns might have a 19m radius.  What do you do then?  If that is the case then you will not have the time to ride out the arc of your 23 m radius ski.  This means you will probably have to shorten one of the three phases of your turn.  To decide which one, probably depends on the following factors:  What speed your are comfortable with, course set, your technical skills, and terrain conditions.

What happens when you lose a good coach?

If you have been racing for years, and you have had many coaches, and then one day you get a coach that just works well with you, it feels like you have just won the lottery.  Everything goes great.  You experience success over and over again.  And then what happens when one day that coach leaves?  What do you do then?  Quit racing?  Complain about every coach who comes afterwards?  Fling yourself off the nearest mountain?  You could, but there really isn't any point because it doesn't change the fact that you lost a good coach.  And with that, your chances of improving along with it.  That is what has happened to me recently.  As a result I have some new coaches, along with coaches I have had before.  I am not going to give up on the fact that my skiing won't improve this year because I have lost a coach that made a big difference with me at one time.  One thing I know is that when you get to a certain level of skiing it is really important to know how to coach yourself.  It was great having a coach that could make a big improvement in my skiing in such a short period of time, but realistically you can't completely rely on someone else to decide your fate; whether you will improve this season, or whether you won't.  As a master's racer who is experienced, you have to learn to be your own coach, and use your coaches as tools in your learning process.  For example, if you feel that all you get from your coach is an opportunity to run gates, then that is what you capitalize on.  Set your own focus, what are you going to get from the experience of running through gates?  If you can't verbalize your focus, then you aren't coaching yourself.  Not all the feedback you get may be of the same quality.  You might have to distinguish the difference between helpful feedback and "not so helpful" feedback.   And if you find your coach isn't making a difference with you, you might have to actively develop the relationship you have with your coach to get to the point of where you can get the coaching relationship to work better for you.  If you have been working with the same coach for years, and you find that their coaching style doesn't work for you, you might have to invest more time into the coaching relationship to get it to work better.  After all, there is a lot to be said for a coach that sticks by you.  They not only know how you ski, but they are motivated to see that you improve, as loyalty grows with time.  So what happens when you lose a good coach?  Review your notes, remember what they said, and figure out how to transfer their strengths to the coaches you have now.  And most importantly, be your own good coach.

Ski slower to race faster

Every heard this phrase before?  If so, what do think about it?  Is it true?  I hadn't heard this phrase until a couple of years ago.  I'll tell what it means to me, then you can formulate your own opinion and leave your comments.  A coach told me a couple of years ago, that you can cheat when you ski fast.  ?!  I didn't believe him then, but I do believe him now.  When you ski down a hill fast, there are a certain number of forces that act on your body.  You can actually feel them if you go fast enough.  You can actually feel them to the point of where you can't ski at all, unless you ski with these forces.  It is similar to the effect that you feel when you are on a roller coaster, going upside down and around corners.   Ever wonder what would happen if your seat belt came undone on a roller coaster?  Actually nothing.  The G force acting on your body would keep you pressed into your seat and you would arrive safely when the ride was finished.  It is the same way in skiing.  The faster you go, the less accurate you have to be with adjusting your balance.  Why?  The G force will make these adjustments for you, allowing you to stay in balance and get down to the bottom of the hill unscathed.  So then isn't that a good idea, to ski as fast as possible, so that staying in balance is easy?  You would think, but the problem with that is that you are not are not in control.  The force of gravity is in control of how you ski.  That is fine, if you have the hill to yourself and ski conditions are perfect.  But how often is that the case in a race course?  You can't afford to be "less than accurate" with your balance adjustments in a race.  You have to learn to make accurate balance adjustments so that you can always take over control if you need to.  This is imperative if you have to check your speed, change your rhythm, negotiate good terrain choices, adjust your turn shape.  You can't learn this, if you are always skiing at a speed where you allow the G forces to take over and throw your body into the correct position.  Even though that is what is fun about skiing fast, it won't help you on race day.  When I first thought about posting this, I wasn't sure about posting under "masters racing" or "alpine ski racing."  I decided it was more of a master's issue.  That is because, as a masters racer you will probably never reach the point of where you are skiing at top speed in a race course.  For this reason I feel it is more of an important master's skill.  If you are normally someone who skis fast enough that the G forces normally make your balance adjustments for you, I recommend speeding 3-4 weeks, skiing slow enough so that you have to make your own balance adjustments, regardless of the terrain.  Once you are confident that you can do this own your own, transfer this same skiing speed to gate runs.  What was the result?  Come back and post your thoughts here.

A word about gate skiing....

So this week I ran gates 2x.  Tuesday morning it was GS and Thursday morning SL.  This is after almost 3 years of no gate training.  The coaches are yelling at me (in a friendly way of course) "get more aggressive," "remember you are racing, not skiing." "you are being too nice."  Don't get me wrong.  I love my coaches, after all, if it weren't for them, I wouldn't be skiing the way I am now.  But truthfully, this is the wrong focus for me at this time.  I have just turned 40.  I missed my window of opportunity to become a competitive racer years ago, and I did race masters 4 years ago, in a semi competitive league.  It was a great experience, but it got to the point where it really wasn't the place I wanted to be.  What it did get me was to "ski fast", with confidence.  And also it gave me a taste of racing. It taught me the importance of tactics and conquering the mental aspect of being timed.  I had some good races, and some bad races.  I even won a few.  But then I got to the point where I realized I was at a plateau, and it was time to change my focus.  For the last three years, I have been working on my technical skiing, outside of the gates, and skiing very slow.  Then this season, I decided to introduce gates again.  This week reminded me of how fun it is to run gates, and how great it is to be a part of masters racing.  I like meeting people who like running gates as much as I do.  So what is the problem?  I don't really want to "race" gates.  I want to "run" gates, yes, but not "race" them.  So how the heck to I avoid falling back into the mindset of "you are in a race."  Already I talked to one of my former teammates, who is a lot more focused than I am with respect to racing.  I felt the pressure of being influenced back into "races" and the mindset that goes with it.  But that isn't what I want out of the sport.  How do I respectfully communicate that to those around me, who are also a part of that world?  I have one sole purpose this year which is the reason I decided to re-introduce gates back into my ski training repertoire.  I want to ski "in gates" the exact same way I ski "outside of gates."  This means no "racing" of the gates.  What does this mean?  Probably the following:

• free skiing more slowly
• looking down the hill through the course similar to how I look down the hill when free skiing
• Making the exact same number of turns on the hill when free skiing as the number of gates there are
• skiing the same speed outside the course as inside the course.
• Taking up the exact same space on the hill horizontally when free skiing, as the corridor would dictate on course
• copying what is done in free runs, that was done in course runs.
• planning the phases of the turn the same way in free skiing as in course.
• distinguishing the difference between a technical free run and a course preparation free run.
• recognizing that gate training isn't "racing"

What is the point of there being a difference between the way you ski inside the course and the way you ski outside the course anyways?  If anyone can give me a good answer to this I will change my focus.  Until then, I plan on being "too nice."