Tune up for Winter sports!
Effective Training away from the mountains
Whilst we are all gearing up for winter and, perhaps, one or more trips to the mountain, it’s important to be ready for your trip to get the most from it.
As a schools snowsports organisation, we look at how to keep yourself sharp throughout the year, at times when you cannot be in the mountains, to ensure that you ‘hit the ground running’ when the next trip begins.
Fitness
You can help yourself get the most out of your skiing each season by keeping fit for skiing and, whilst aerobic training such as cycling or jogging can help, skiing is a largely anaerobic sport where we exercise in short bursts which can be heavy on muscle use.
Things like sprints (bike or running) and HIIT are really good training for skiing so I’d recommend these types of training throughout the year to keep fit for skiing.
On Ski Training
UK:
There is nothing like actually practicing the sport to keep ‘match fit’ and there are multiple opportunities for this in the UK either at one of the many outdoor, dry slope facilities or in one of the six indoor snow facilities. And don’t forget the several indoor, rolling carpet facilities which, whilst they feel odd to begin with, give the longest ski run to practice on.
To get the most out of training on your skis away from the mountains, rather than just free ski on the UK facilities, get some training or coaching. Not only will this help improve you, it will make your trip to the slope much more interesting and give you focus. Just skiing without focus on 150-170 metres might not keep you enthused so look into this.
Further Afield:
There are some great facilities not too far across the channel with 300+ metres of indoor snow. Landgraaf in the Netherlands is one that we have been using for 15 years, with three slopes of 30 metres wide and half a km long, this really has to be tried. At -5 indoors and, in the summer, maybe 30 outside, it’s certainly something to experience.
Landgraaf is 3-3.5 hours from Calais and has a hotel on site, a gym, bars and restaurants to make it a self contained year round resort.
A weekend here can yield as much skiing as some people get in a week on a mountain. With guaranteed conditions, It’s great for improving skiing and as a social trip.
Outside the winter season, there is also the choice to head to one of the European glaciers – these are dotted about the alpine countries with varying dates for opening and closing. To give a true alpine trip. Beware that the conditions can be tough, variable and, with the glaciers being high and exposed, prone to closure for a day or two. That said, the conditions, weather and skiing can be amazing!
What To Do? And How?
You can pop along to your local facilities and just book a session or a coached session, join a club or just take some time to practice.
We run some coached sessions at numerous facilities in the UK and private training at both Hemel and Manchester indoor centres.
We are also visiting Landgraaf for a few trips in summer between May and October to avail of that great facility. Why not join us? Drop us a line – Office@schoolssnowsports.co.uk
We are looking forward to the coming season with schools now able to travel and take part in training and events. We will be attending and running numerous race and training events throughout the winter - contact us for more details.
This article was brought to you by National Schools Snowsports Association
National Schools Snowsports Association, Programme Director, Phil, has been coaching and instructing for over 30 years, working with athletes from grassroots all the way to the International world-class level. He has held numerous posts from club coach to National Team Head Coach, attending world class events with athletes and, latterly, Programme Director, Phil, has been coaching and instructing for over 30 years, working with athletes from grassroots all the way to the International world-class level.
In 2016, Phil was one of the founders of the National Schools Snowsports Association (NSSA) after seeing a need for an organisation to work better with schools across all snowsports and this has built a number of successful schools snowsports events and raised the profile of the sport through the school’s pathway.
Phil’s ethos is simple and comes from a wealth of experience and knowledge across the years which has served his athletes and clients well over the years, whether novice skiers or international racers.
