There a are many challenges when working with alpine ski racers. Obvious challenges which lie within the sport come from travel related issues like managing sleep, minimising jet-lag, training with compromised facilities, and accessing good nutrition. Challenges related to the environment include performing in the cold, in bad weather, or at altitude. There is a culture of trying to mimic the sport and its movements when on land. Breaking down the ski training into smaller parts of skill development, instead of always practicing the whole ski run, would be beneficial. This way the athlete has the chance to isolate skills and improve them in a closed environment, and not just when skiing a run, when there are too many variables to consider. This would perhaps help prevent the desire to try to mimic the ski action and develop on land what can only be developed on skis. Clearly the advice given here will be much more effective if the athlete has already developed physical literacy over a long-term approach to physical education. One of the key mistakes with conditioning for skiersis that there is often a misguided focus on early specialisation. A better understanding of long-term athlete development within the spo round athletes with well-ingrained physical competencies. More studies are needed to determine what physical qualities significantly impact the outcome of ski races, or what physical qualities are most prominent in ski champions. This could help towards a clearer emphasis on what qualities make the biggest difference once an athlete has developed all areas of general athleticism and conditioning. There is generally a poor culture of recording and quantifying training. More monitoring of internal and external loads is needed, to find what makes a meaningful change, and to track the athlete`s wellbeing over the season. Smartphone applications, daily self-evaluation questionnaires, GPS, load cells in ski boots, and other such technology can help with moving this forwards. Skiing has a very traditional culture, and it is recommended that a strength and conditioning coach seeks to understand that culture first, before trying to influence big changes based on their beliefs of best practice in high performance sport. Some of the cultural practices that are carried out are merely tradition; however, some are there for a good reason, and a clear rationale for certain practices can be justified.
© Copyright 2018 Routledge handbook of strength and conditioning: Sport-specific programming for high performance. Published by Routledge. All rights reserved.