VARA Education Series - Knowledge is Power

VARA/Vermont has seven academies and a plethora of educated and experienced individuals working their dream jobs within our state! It's time we tap into that knowledge and spread the wealth. Full of informative, educational, and thought-provoking writings from ski racing, fitness, and psychology experts, The VARA Education Series - Knowledge is Power will provide tools to help competitors progress in alpine ski racing and parents better understand their child's journey in the sport.

Or this?

For most U14 to U18 athletes, your training age resembles the first picture. You are off to a great start, but there is plenty of room for further growth and development. Left alone, the great sand dunes would remain, in essence, the same, only “re-arranged” by wind and storms. Without attention and care, the small pile of sand would likely vanish during the same wind and storms. The accumulation of physical training acts in a similar fashion.

As a developing athlete, it is important to keep adding grains of sand to your “pile” of physical capabilities. The larger the pile, the more durable and stable the performance. The smaller the pile, the less durable and stable the performance. Athletes are made through time and experience.

What to train depends on your relative strengths and weaknesses. The SkillsQuest Fitness Assessment helps measure and track your physical fitness. The SkillsQuest Fitness Assessment (SQF-A) was designed to measure your general fitness in seven physical domains; Aerobic Endurance, Anaerobic Endurance, Speed, Strength, Power, Coordination and Mobility.  

Your SQF-A overall result gives the big-picture perspective of your general athletic capacity. You can look at each specific test to measure performance and progress in each of the seven domains giving you direction for what type of training is necessary.

The image of the gas stove below can provide further context for what to train and how much.

All four burners are on, but each flame has a different intensity. During the winter months, the big flame represents skiing. The winter provides the most consistent opportunity for technical and tactical skill development, and competitions fill up the calendar. Rightfully, the skiing burner has the most emphasis and biggest flame!

 The other flames represent physical characteristics that you worked to develop during the past spring, summer, and fall; Aerobic and Anaerobic Endurance, Strength & Power, Mobility, and Coordination. These “burners or characteristics” may be turned down but are never turned off. Consistently training these physical characteristics, though at a reduced level, is the equivalent of adding “grains of sand” to your pile throughout the year. 

Here are some suggestions for off-snow training during the competition season.

Strength Sessions

The strength training during the winter season can duplicate the work completed during the preparation period. Reduce the total volume (less exercises, sets, reps, and sessions per week) but keep the intensity on the high/heavy side. Consistency is important to ward off DOMS (Delayed Onset of Muscle Soreness). Aim for 1-2x strength sessions per week during the competition period on average. 

Body weight training (pull-ups, push-ups, lunges, core routines, etc) can be completed several times per week and are easily incorporated into warm-ups to help prime the body for the force demands of on-snow training. A strong core and upper body helps with pushing out of the start, warding off gates and assists with maintaining athletic balance.

Conditioning

Aerobic Endurance tends to fall off during the ski-focused competition period. Adding 1-2 aerobic-focused sessions per week will help keep the aerobic capacity topped off. Aerobic training can be completed indoors on stationary bikes, rowing ergs, treadmills, etc. Now that the days are getting longer cross country skiing, running, and snow shoeing can also be great options for aerobic training. Maintaining your aerobic capacity helps your ability to recover from run to run and day to day throughout the winter.

Anaerobic Endurance is likely trained through the on-snow gate training environment assuming the intensity of effort is high. It is not uncommon for high-level skiers to see their highest box jump scores in the spring. Thus the focus from a conditioning perspective is aerobic in nature.

Coordination

Agility, balance, and coordination work can also be added to your pre-training warm-up routine. Varying the coordination challenge weekly or daily, adding complexity or challenge along the way.

Improving your on-snow coordination through free skiing is a no-brainer. Add free skiing drills, mogul, and/ or glade skiing to your weekly on-snow sessions or ask your coach to set challenging drill courses as a part of your training sessions. A more coordinated, balanced skier is a faster skier.

Mobility

Mobility can be maintained through quality full range of movement in warm-ups, off-snow training sessions, and cool-downs.

Your Assignment

For the remainder of the winter plan to peak for the Championship Season by restoring physical capacities that may have dropped off through neglect the past couple of months. Pick a couple of SQF-A tests, complete them, and compare them to your past results. Improving? Great! Holding steady? Alright! Declining a bit? OK, let’s get to work.

It doesn’t require a lot of time. A little work done consistently adds up. Finishing the season physically stronger than you started adds confidence for the season-ending races and provides momentum into next year’s off-season.

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Thank you, Darrell, for contributing to the

VARA Education Series - Knowledge is Power.

Darrell has a B.S. Appalachian State University, Graduate Studies North Carolina University.

The U.S. Ski Team Domestic Coach of the Year in 2006, Darrell has his Level 400 coaches’ certification and also runs the strength and conditioning program at BMA. He is an NSCA-certified strength and conditioning specialist and also has his USA Weightlifting Sport Performance Certification. 

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