Challenge & Redevelopment of Alpine Ski Racing in GBR

unaChallenge & 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.