SUFFOLK VIKINGS

As a dry slope racing club it is sometimes easy to get stuck in a routine, you turn up to coach, the athletes turn up to be coached and in some cases this becomes a stagnant cycle. That’s close to where we found ourselves, past glories of national level athletes are just memories to the older members and the youngsters don’t even recognise the names. In national terms ‘Suffolk Vikings Ski Race team’ is probably known to a handful of local regional racers. But with new impetus and a young crop of potential this sad story comes to an end.

We now find ourselves, as a club, becoming more ambitious, more focused and driven to allow our grass roots athletes to express themselves freely on the slopes and develop to become the best skiers they want to be. On a weekly basis, training at our home slope Suffolk ski centre, Ipswich, the progress is clear to see, the growing enthusiasm from all is clear. The last piece of the puzzle, the next step in the expressive growth of our athletes is to get some good honest time on the planks and get miles under the feet. For many clubs, this is a problem that needs solving. We, like many, have coaches qualified to run such a trip but like many other volunteer based organisations it relies on the time of individuals to organise all the aspects of a holiday along with the specific needs of ski racing which is something we do not have.

So, the solution? Find someone to do everything for you! Impulse Racing/ NSSA and their partners are the solution for any club looking to go further to give opportunities to all, to see what a future in ski racing could be like.

We arranged to take a group of about 10 athletes ranging in age from 8 yrs to 43 yrs old, plus parents, for a weeks training at their base of operations in Pila, Aosta, Italy. This is like no other training camp, with a combination of training and family holiday, a difficult balance in many cases. After meeting and having a bit of a general ski together we were split into groups. Each day started with warm up exercises, a combination of technical exercises and exercises design to get the body moving. Not all race training is about skiing gates, technique and experience is a necessary base to build on. We started the week with some giant slalom training, running drills outside the gates before moving into a pre set course, courses designed to practise what had been learnt in the warm up sessions. Then a few days of slalom training following the same pattern gave the athletes an opportunity to practise something that they all do weekly at home and develop the stamina and mindset required to ski gates for up to a minute and beyond. We were supported and encouraged by the coach the whole time. For the children this was their first experience of snow race training and it is with great credit to the coaching team of Impulse Racing that the kids had such a great time and came away making significant developments not just in their racing but in their all round skiing. Running such a trip at Easter quite often puts a limit on the length of day available so with this in mind we spent the mornings working on technique and getting some time in the gates, over the course of the week working on both slalom and giant slalom. After a decent meal on the hill the afternoons would see the snow conditions deteriorate and this was a good time to explore the mountain with the coaches, a time to develop other skills and express ourselves, laps of the snow park, little runs through the trees, all develop skills and for those experiencing snow for the first time, confidence.

Now back on plastic and those involved have continued to grow, it is clear to see how the fun experience and expert education has opened their eyes to another world, a world more than 15 seconds long and a world of future enjoyment.