Every coaching session is different and depends on a number of factors. The abilities of the skiers, the weather and the number of skiers in the group all play a part in deciding how the session will run.
Typically, in an open group session, the winter is the busy period with summer having lower numbers. This in turn governs how I run the sessions and the customer experience will be very different in winter compared to summer. With larger numbers, it’s not possible to give as much individual feedback and exercises have to be geared towards the majority, whereas in summer the opposite is typically the case and the session can be dictated so much more by individuals rather than the group as a whole.
The weather plays an important part in how each session works. On a hot day the slope won’t be running as quickly as a rainy or icy day so it would be difficult to work on edge technique for example. Conversely, a wet day would be ideal for this type of skill development.
The abilities of the skiers play an important part in deciding how to run the session. With a larger group it is less practical to give a snowplough skier different exercises to the confident parallel skiers whereas smaller group sizes could be managed as two or more sub-groups under the one umbrella, giving each skier individual tasks.
My philosophy is to think of the coaching process as a circle. Imagine that each degree of the arc of the circle is a different aspect of skiing. It could be that the first segment represents edging skills but each degree that we work through is a slight variation on the theme until we reach the next segment which could be leg rotation for example. As we travel around the arc, we gradually move from one skill to the next seamlessly. When we have completed the circle of skiing skills, we start the whole process once again, but this time I aim to increase the level of difficulty for the skiers that have done it before. I find that a skier may not understand the full picture as we are taking the journey but it almost always becomes clear second time around.
Video feedback plays an important role in coaching sessions. Watching yourself ski can often make you feel as though it wasn’t as good as you’d thought it was. But, with a bit of explanation followed by having a go, the improvement is usually significant.
Taking these points into account, I have designed the private coaching sessions to give the best of both worlds scenario. Small group sizes (up to six people) allow bespoke coaching and individual feedback. I also use video analysis in the longer sessions to give a clearer overview of the skier’s performance. The session is designed around you, the skier, and if there is something that you want to focus on, I can easily accommodate your requests.