www.conditioningcentre.com

"Working with a ski team presents many challenges. During the season the race schedule is very tight making it difficult to get a volume of dryland (off snow) training in. The last trips coincided with gaps in the technical training and race schedule that allowed for a week of high intensity dryland training each time, they were the last opportunities for some adaptation before the race program started in earnest. I took the guys for their strength and conditioning sessions and assisted with some of their on snow technical training.

A typical day began with technical on snow training, it would be an early start aiming to be on the hill for 8 (which takes a certain amount of travel; a drive and then gondolas and lifts to the training course). The guys would go through their warm up routines while the course and timing gates were set by the coaches. After that they would take between 6 and 8 timed runs (for giant slalom) and that took them to lunch. The late afternoon generally consisted of a strength and conditioning session of lifting, conditioning or a lighter stretching and core session before dinner and video analysis of the day’s training.

There are a number of key qualities that we look to develop with the team. Neuromuscular patterning and movement skills are vitally important, once that base is there it’s much easier to build the other necessary qualities. Lower body and postural strength are also important as, particularly during the longer speed events, some very large ground reaction forces are generated through the turns and technique has to be maintained throughout.

A coach will generally have an exercise or two that they would consider a key component of a training program for a particular sport. For me with the ski team that would have to be the clean and it’s derivatives. It’s a very versatile exercise, for example by putting different loads at either ends of the bar, it’s easy to increase recruitment of core musculature or by changing to a split catch position target knee mechanics and move it to a more unilateral exercise. Also from a logistical point of view, the guys don’t always have a fully loaded gym to lift in, the bar and plates go in the van and often it’s a garage or an underground car park that becomes the gym, they may not always have a squat rack but they always have a floor to lift from.

It's this variety and the need to adapt that help to make it such a rewarding sport to work with."