Ski Racing on a Budget

By Mark Wolcott

As a coach and a parent, I have been an advocate over the years for making alpine ski racing more affordable to improve accessibility and grow our sport. The high cost of alpine ski racing can place a lot of stress on racers and their parents. The good news is there are a wide range of options available for training and racing. Regardless of your financial situation, the key to success in ski racing is not how much you spend, but the time and effort you put into the sport. As a coach I enjoy some of the drill options Mikaela Shiffrin has posted online and no doubt her success can be traced to her focus on fundamental skiing. Junior racers can practice those same drills at virtually any size ski area.

The first step is to establish a realistic plan for training, and racing.  For example, if you’re weekend skiers your kids may not have the opportunity to ski every day, but maybe you can find a smaller area near your home that has night skiing for after school training during the week. Skiing in the evening after school is probably one of the most cost effective and efficient ways to train. Sweden has traditionally been a ski racing powerhouse. Many of their ski areas are fairly small and due to their northern latitude nearly all of them have lights for night skiing. The best racers may not always come from a high profile program, but they make good use of the time they do have on snow.

Another easy way to keep costs down is to free ski as much as possible. Many season’s passes now offer multi-resort access and though some resorts are expensive to ski at, there are still plenty that are relatively affordable. Far too many kids go out and train gates for a few hours and they’re done. However, most great ski racing champions like Julia Mancuso would spend many hours free skiing. It would be hard to find a downside to more freeskiing.   

Although ski racing is a costly sport, there are ways to be creative and use the systems and resources available to keep costs down and construct a quality program for your junior ski racer.

Another great way to improve your skiing and keep costs down is by playing other sports.  Skiing is still primarily a winter sport and other than a week or two at Mt. Hood, most of us will be off snow for at least five or six months. The vast majority of World Cup racers are not just good skiers, but great athletes. Kids become better athletes by playing a wide variety of sports.   Playing other sports also pushes your boundaries in a competitive environment, where just working out on your own may not have the same intensity. While sports specialization may be the trend, in reality nearly every major sport in the United States is made up of multi-sport athletes from soccer’s Alex Morgan to the NBA’s LeBron James.  

Many ski racers have a dream to become the next superstar like Lindsey Vonn or Bode Miller.  Once ski racers move into the U16/U19 ranks, many think about whether they should be racing at the High School, USSA, or FIS level. No doubt it’s a big decision, but it’s much more important to just ski the best you can in whichever circuit you pursue. For example, it can often be difficult for many U19 racers to gain access to FIS competitions. In that case, USSA is a great circuit with many opportunities for advancement and invitations to development projects. If you’re consistently winning local races at the USSA level eventually the development system will take notice and more FIS opportunities will arise. While we all want to compete at the highest level, it’s much more important for racers to have success at their current level and then move up the development ladder as their skills progress.  

In addition to training and travel, equipment purchases can be very expensive. As a parent I worked closely with our local ski shops to purchase equipment either during their annual “racer nights” or late season sales to match my budget. The vast majority of junior racers only need one set of race skis for the season. According to a number of ski reps I have consulted, each pair of race skis should last at least 100 – 125 days if they’re well maintained. The best way to make your skis fast is to wax and ski on them. Your race day skis are not getting faster stored away in your locker. For example, if you ski 100 days per season, that’s probably 50 days on both your GS and SL skis. Add in super-G skis and most racers probably ski less than 50 days on each pair of skis. While top racers may have multiple sets of skis, many of them have ski sponsors to off-set the cost and once again you have to be realistic in what you can actually afford.   

As a long time club coach, it’s frustrating to see the high attrition rate among promising racers who leave the sport once they reach the U16 or U19 level due to overwhelming expenses. However, there are so many opportunities for advancement in ski racing whether you race at either a grass-roots club or a more elaborate academy based program. Either way, if you’re really fast there will be plenty of opportunity for advancement regardless of your point profile or training program. Many of my former athletes tell me NCAA or USCSA college ski racing is so much fun and they’re glad for the opportunity to continue racing, even when most of them will be going pro in something other than sports. Either way, the door may still be open if you want to give international racing another shot after college. Even better the new World Pro Ski Tour does not utilize FIS points and is another avenue for former junior and college racers.

Remember ski racing is ski racing and anyone regardless of their budget can be a “gym rat” on snow by working hard to reach their goals. Whether you’re racing for your high school team, USSA, or FIS, once you get in the starting gate it’s all the same. So, while the cost of ski racing may seem daunting, the good news is there are ways to creatively approach creating a program that works with your budget which will also result in success and a healthy, effective path for improvement. There are many opportunities within U.S. junior ski racing and if you’re really fast regardless of your budget you’ll most likely break through to wearing the red, white, and blue.

How to be the Best Ski Racing Parent Possible

Dr. Jim Taylor

In my recent ski racing articles, I’ve been focusing on how racers can use the fall to get maximally prepared to perform their best when race season begins. Well, with winter approaching, there’s another stakeholder in our ski racing community who also needs to get ready for the demands of the race season: Parents! As I can attest to first hand as the father of two ski racers, being a ski racing parent is no walk in the park (or the soccer field). It is demanding mentally, emotionally, physically, and interpersonally.

So, now is also the time for you to begin to prepare for the upcoming season as ski racing parents. This is no small task because the life of a ski racing parent is, in my view, much more difficult than that of, say, a tennis or soccer or football parent. There’s the ski tuning, the early morning drives to races, and, of course, the freezing weather and the inevitable agony of seeing your ski-racing child ski out of a course on the first run after spending $100s of dollars to get them there. On the upside, at least you’re in a beautiful mountain setting where you can ski before and between race runs. In contrast, imagine the joy (said sarcastically) of those other sport parents having to sit on the side of a court, field, or course in places such as Des Moines, Fresno, and Trenton (no offense to people from those cities), but they aren’t exactly Stowe, Winter Park, or Sugar Bowl (or even Buck Hill or Hunter).

So, you need to get yourself mentally and emotionally ready for the rollercoaster that is junior ski racing. Over the past years, I’ve offered you many insights and perspectives and much information that are intended to help you put on your “race face” and provide the best support possible for your little (or not so little) ski racers. But, knowing many ski racing parents, all that highfalutin’ stuff is nice, but what you really want are clear guidelines of what you should and shouldn’t do with your ski-racing children this winter so that both you and your children come out of the winter not only surviving, but also thriving.

Well, your wish is my command. In this article, I will describe what I believe you should do with yourself, other parents, coaches, and your children to win the Ski Racing Parent of the Year award (or at least make it through the season without driving yourself and your children crazy!).

DO FOR YOURSELF:

1. Get vicarious pleasure from your child’s ski racing. One of the great joys in life is sharing your children’s experiences, both their ups and downs.
2. Enjoy yourself at races. If you’re having fun, your children probably will too.
3. Be positive and calm when watching your children race.  Your attitude and demeanor influences how they feel and ski.
4. Have a life of your own outside of your children’s ski racing. If you have your own life that’s enjoyable and satisfying, your children will be free to find enjoyment and satisfaction in their ski racing.

DO WITH OTHER PARENTS:

1. Make friends with other parents at races.  Socializing can make races more fun for you.
2. Volunteer as much as you can. Junior ski racing depends on the time and energy of involved parents.
3. Police your own ranks. Work with other parents (particularly on your children’s team) to ensure that all parents behave appropriately at training and races.

DO WITH COACHES:

1. Leave the coaching to the coaches. Remember that they are the experts and you are paying them to coach your children.
2. Give coaches any support they need to help them do their jobs better. Your children’s coaches can have a really positive impact on them, so make sure that influence is maximized.
3. Communicate with coaches about your children.  You can learn about your children and help meet your children’s needs when you talk to each other.
4. Inform coaches of relevant issues at home that might affect your children at training and races, for example, family or school problems. When your children head out onto the hill, they take their personal lives with them.
5. Make coaches your allies. Coaches work very hard for your children (for relatively little pay), so treat them with respect and kindness, and make sure you’re both on the side of your children.

DO FOR YOUR CHILDREN:

1. Provide guidance for your children, but do not force or pressure them. Your input is invaluable, but they need to have ownership of their ski racing.
2. Assist them in setting realistic goals in their ski racing. Young racers need your help in deciding what they should focus on and how high they should aim.
3. Emphasize fun, skill development and other benefits of ski racing and downplay results. The chances of your children becoming superstars are slim, but ski racing can be a wonderful life experience that can positively shape their futures.
4. Show interest in their ski racing, for example, help them get to training, attend races, ask questions. Let your children know that you care (but not too much) about their ski racing.
5. Provide regular encouragement. Win, back of the pack, or DNF, always be positive and supportive.
6. Provide a healthy perspective about success and failure. Your children will likely come to define success and failure the way you do, so ensure that you’re sending them healthy messages that will foster their personal development and ski-racing achievement.
7. Emphasize process and reward effort rather than results. Ironically, if you focus on process and effort, your children will likely have better results than if you focus on results.
8. Intervene if your child’s behavior is unacceptable during training or races. Establish your priorities related to be good sports by setting expectations and enforcing consequences when your children behave badly.
9. Understand that your child may need a break from ski racing occasionally. Ski racing is intense and physically demanding. Your young ski racers need time to rest, recover, and recharge their batteries during the long winter.
10. Give your children space when needed.  Part of ski racing involves their figuring things out for themselves. Whether they have a good or bad race, don’t rush up to them, but rather let them sit with it alone for a while. When they’re ready, they’ll come to you.
11. Keep a sense of humor.  If you are having fun and laughing, so will your child. There are few things that kill the joy of ski racing for children than a parent who is too serious and intense.
12. GIVE YOUR CHILDREN UNCONDITIONAL LOVE. SHOW THEM YOU LOVE THEM WHETHER THEY WIN OR LOSE!!!