Late January race training in Serre Chevalier

Previously in our updates from Serre Chevalier, our trainee instructors had been working heavily on their slalom race training. While on holiday in Serre Chevalier last week I hooked up with Ryan and Adam to get an insight on how it’s all been going. They were both buzzing with excitement and were having an amazing time pushing themselves to the limit. The enormity of the Test Technique had become a reality for them but they were fully dedicated to giving their all.

Over the last couple of days they had had some of their slalom runs filmed and were given lots of points to work on by Vincent and their other instructors, so they were really looking forward to getting out again to iron things out. Here’s how the day’s training went for Adam:

“We started off the same as always, a few warm up runs then straight to racing. I knew what I needed to work on today and made some improvement on the first set of gates but really struggled on the last one. My back has been really sore over the last few days so has made it difficult to create the angles needed. Really could not get it in the morning and for the first time was getting a little down hearted and frustrated that I could not do it. On the other hand Ryan was really coming into his own and started to look really good. He was getting some good feedback from the instructors and just had to keep working on the same things. Was quite a frustrating morning but was looking forward to lunch and coming back a little fresher.

“After lunch we split into little groups and did some technique training. This is what I needed as I was struggling with the gates today. We just worked on some fast carving movements and making sure we used our outside ski as always. In the afternoon I felt so much better and was definitely a lot better than I was in the morning. We did a couple of technique exercises, one of which where we skied on one ski and jumped over onto the other I did really well and Vincent said it was perfect and why could I not do this when I skied on both skis, (this is an answer that I will have to search for over the coming days). Was a much better afternoon and got a little bit of confidence back and am looking forward to our timed race tomorrow, BRING IT ON!!!!”

The next day wasn’t quite what the guys hoped it was going to be. Adam was a little worse for wear after a very heavy night. The last time I saw him was at 3am playing pool in The Grotte bar and apparently he went to a house party after that. I didn’t even mange to drag myself up the hill until midday, so it’s quite impressive that Adam made it out of bed in time. Unfortunately though, as he made his way over to Briancon for the planned races he realised that he’d left his lift pass back home along with his will to live, so he headed back home to bed!

The road to Briancon was very misty and it was looking like light was going to be a little flat, but as Ryan ascended the chair lift he broke through into a stunning inversion, with a bright blue sky above and a sea of clouds.

Ryan collected his race number, 44 out of 47, so he jumped around to keep warm for a while.

“When my time eventually came I found myself slipping badly around the first and steepest turns, it was really icy and all my technique seemed to have gone out the window, I managed to get it together in the middle section and had an ok run to the finish in a time of 51.75 seconds, still 12 off the time set by the pace-setters but this was a much more challenging course.”

Later in the day Ryan tried to focus less on time and more on technique:

“A new course was set and we took it all in, where the flash gates were (doubles, triples, bananas) and where the turns were tight or narrow. The pace-setters went and finished in around the same time as the first run, so the difficulty was the same. I started feeling positive, hitting each gate as I was yesterday morning when it felt good, on the last turn of the steep section however, I made a sharp skidding turn and lost all my speed going into the flatter section of the course, my technique still felt good but I had lost the speed and crossed the line in 50.17 seconds. This was obviously another progression but I knew that if only I kept up my speed, I could have shaved another second or so off that time, as I was stretching for the next run Vincent came up behind me and gave me a pat on the back and a thumbs up, which was all I needed to fill me with confidence for the next run.

“When the time came to go again, I knew what to do, I was positive about it and started well, somehow though on the 7th turn which was a double, I managed to hit the gate with my skis which sent me backwards down the slope and into the race net in a very unspectacular fashion. I had slowed right down before hitting the net and got my skis and poles tangled amongst, to the applause of the rest of the competitors at the top. Missing out on that time was very frustrating but still, I progressed from last week and should just think about how to get better again!”