After what was a long and demanding winter, the 2023-24 race season is now over. You\u2019ve had some down time to catch up on school and get some much-needed rest and recovery, both physically and mentally. You may also be already looking toward next winter. But before you file the 2023-24 race season away, you want to act on a famous saying, \u201cThose who do not learn from history are bound to repeat it.\u201d In other words, if you don\u2019t reflect back on last season, you may miss out on some important lessons that you can use for next season to continue to progress toward your ski racing goals.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Evaluate This Past Season<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n The first thing you want to do is to look back on the recently completed race season and evaluate how you did. Here are 8 essential questions to ask yourself (and your coaches):<\/p>\n\n\n\n With these questions answered, you can, in collaboration with your coaches, decide what in your training worked and what did not. You can then use this information to create an off-season training program to build on your strengths and alleviate your weaknesses, so you will ski that much faster next season.<\/p>\n\n\n\n It\u2019s About Preparation<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Physical training. <\/strong>How you ski next season depends on what you do this spring, summer, and fall. The physical-conditioning gains you make and the technical, tactical, and mental skills you develop in the off-season will determine how much you improve and whether you reach your competitive goals next winter. There are three areas in which you must focus to maximize your preparation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n First, Commit to an intensive physical conditioning program. Ski racing has become a sport of \u201cbeef,\u201d meaning you need muscle, strength, and power (plus, of course, agility and mobility). The only way to develop these areas is with an organized fitness program that may involve weight training, plyometrics, speed work, and stretching.<\/p>\n\n\n\n On-snow training. <\/strong>Second, most highly committed ski racers spend at least part of the summer and fall on snow. Summer and fall skiing is essential for your technical and tactical development because you\u2019re able to focus exclusively on improvements in your skiing fundamentals without the pressures of getting ready for races. It also enables you to test and adapt to new equipment (though my motto is: \u201cIf it ain\u2019t broke, don\u2019t fix it,\u201d meaning if your equipment works for you, don\u2019t mess with it. Testing distracts you from training and can cause you to question which equipment is best for you).<\/p>\n\n\n\n Mental training. <\/strong>Finally, and just as importantly, the off-season is the best time to engage in mental training. Just like physical conditioning and technical skills, mental aspects of ski racing (e.g., confidence, intensity, and focus) take time and effort to develop. An organized program of mental training can have huge benefits when you enter the new race season.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Getting Going<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Getting going for next season starts with that first step of deciding how important ski racing is to you. Here are some questions to ask yourself:<\/p>\n\n\n\n The key to achieving your goals next winter is to start now! Talk is cheap. It\u2019s easy to say you want to be a great ski racer; it\u2019s an entirely different thing to actually do the work necessary. If your goals are at all high, the only chance you will have is to commit to intensive off-season physical, on-snow, and mental training programs. Your goal when you get in the starting gate of your first race next season is to be able to say: \u201cI\u2019m as prepared as I can be to ski my fastest.\u201d And, with all of that hard work in the off-season that you \u201cdeposited in the bank,\u201d the chances are you will be successful and reach your goals.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" After what was a long and demanding winter, the 2023-24 race season is now over. You\u2019ve had some down time to catch up on school and get some much-needed rest and recovery, both physically and mentally. You may also be already looking toward next winter. But before you file the 2023-24 race season away, you […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":18984,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1516],"tags":[1240,150,153,1265,235],"class_list":["post-18201","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-ski-racing","tag-prep-period","tag-preparation","tag-ski-racing-2","tag-summer-training","tag-world-cup"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.drjimtaylor.com\/4.0\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18201","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.drjimtaylor.com\/4.0\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.drjimtaylor.com\/4.0\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.drjimtaylor.com\/4.0\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.drjimtaylor.com\/4.0\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=18201"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.drjimtaylor.com\/4.0\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18201\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":18203,"href":"https:\/\/www.drjimtaylor.com\/4.0\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18201\/revisions\/18203"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.drjimtaylor.com\/4.0\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/18984"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.drjimtaylor.com\/4.0\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=18201"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.drjimtaylor.com\/4.0\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=18201"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.drjimtaylor.com\/4.0\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=18201"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}\n
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