Why I teach skiing

I’m often asked why I still teach/coach skiing. I have an engineering job that I do midweek, I am in school part-time and I’m trying to maintain my running fitness, but every weekend there is no where I’d rather be than teaching skiing. So why do I teach skiing?

The simple answer is that I love it. But that doesn’t really tell you much.

This year I moved to coaching Nancy Greene Racers and I think this has been my most rewarding season, and the season is only at the midway point. I am not one of those coaches that teaches just racing skills, racing to me is about ski skills and life skills. To date this year I have not spent one morning or afternoon session standing on the hill, either watching athletes in a course or free-skiing, every run I go ski with my kids and do the same drills I ask them to do.

Why do I love it so much?

I guess if I break it down I love teaching because I get to teach others about something I love so much in life and often they share the same feeling. I also think that having an active lifestyle is also an important part of life and every time I teach a lesson I get to pass that on. I love teaching for the personal satisfaction of knowing you have taught someone something new; whether that is just the skiing basics, how to go from snow-plow to parallel, how to run a faster line in a course, etc.

Stories From the Hill

I thought I would share some of the stories from my season so far and why it has been the most rewarding season I’ve ever had.

It’s Never to Cold for a Friend

This year has been one of the coldest ski seasons I can remember. At one of our racers one of my little athletes missed her second run because she had to go to the bathroom. After a long-slow ride up the chairlift she arrived at the top in tears. We shook the tears off and convinced the start official to let her race out of order. I started watching her run from the middle of the course and then realized that if I didn’t get to the bottom fast enough that there may not be anyone cheering for her since I thought most of the team had gone inside since it was so cold. I missed her finishing but it was ok. Her best friend on the team waited in the cold and was only from the team left at the bottom. She cheered as loud as she could for her friend and was there to give her a hug at the end of the run. It had gone from tears at the top to a grin from ear to ear at the bottom.

There Will Always Be A Helping Hand

This weekend we had some wacky weather. A warm day followed by below freezing temperatures making for some very icy conditions. I had been given space to set a course on hill that is very steep at the top and flattens out part way down. I didn’t set on the top, steep, icy section but started the course closer to the flats.

Some of the younger kids on the other team were very afraid of the top, steep, icy section and panicked and sat down on the snow trying to get to the top of the course. Their coaches were already at the top of the course and were not making much of an effort to help the struggling kids. Knowing that my team was strong I started to help some of the struggling kids on the hill. But it wasn’t just me helping. The next thing I knew my little athletes were helping some of the younger kids down the hill. One would stand above and one below and they were ‘talking’ them down the icy section. I was so proud of how my team worked in unison to help another team get over their fear.

It’s All About Relating it to a Skill

You never really know how much someone remembers when you’re teaching and if they can take away what you are doing with them and apply it to their skiing all the time. I have been working with various drills and tactics this year with my team trying to get them to have a centred and mobile stance, to turn with their legs and to be balanced on their edges (the three core competencies of skiing). Every time I do a drill or tactic with my team I explain to them the competency or skill that I am trying to relate it too, although I never expect them to remember. Most of the athletes in the Nancy Greene Racing Program tend to be back and inside from the centre of their ski. Over the year we have been working on trying to correct this. I had an athlete ask me, “so when I touch my downhill boot you are trying to get me to be more on the downhill ski, right?” Kids want to have fun, to ski fast, to jump high and to get lots of runs in. I didn’t really expect them to remember what competencies I was trying to relate to but was completely impressed when asked this.

And these are only a few stories; I have so many of these from the year. When I eventually do retire from coaching and teaching it won’t be the little things I remember but it will be stories like this that will remind me why I loved teaching skiing. Hopefully I can inspire more people to teach and love skiing and teaching as much as I do.