Mar 6 (2011)
Sweden actually presented three on-snow ski workshops at Interski. Scotty Dagg checked out the third one, which followed the same concept as their snowboard clinic, and wrote this post as a summary…
Clinic title: Will, Hill, Skill approach to High-end technique, based around race coaches and problems that they are experiencing.
Clinic synopsis: To discuss modern high end technique and relate this to the ‘Will’ of the coaches, The ‘Hill’ or terrain that is being used and the ‘Skill’ of the athletes.
Our summary: Kicki was the clinic leader. We discussed the stance that Sweden has adopted. This is pretty standard except for the rounded back. We had some great exercises presented to us for the transition phase to promote forward movement along the length of the skis. Kicki used one exercise called the nutcracker. Pretty hard to explain but is easier to show, it involves some rope.
We discussed how you work on tactics/line or technique but not both together. Kicki said that they are trying to develop the coaches to have the skills to identify the problems and then identify why it’s happening. They want their coaches to be more open-minded and to base ski coaching on ski function.
This clinic was very informal and became a discussion between the PSIA, NZSIA and Sweden. The groups were small which was a nice change from some of the other countries that went out with 20 plus. We only had five people in our group. I felt that Kicki could have lead the discussion of the group more towards ‘what’ Sweden was doing, however the focus seemed to be more about what our thoughts and opinions, not theirs. Kicki skied well and the powder runs between discussions made all the difference.
