This year’s British National Championships
(in Tignes, France) were a fantastic end to the season, it was great to see
everyone come together once again for some good training and racing.
To get it out of the way I will first explain
that for me the races themselves didn’t exactly go to plan. I did not race the
Giant Slalom, as I am still working on my control on the longer GS ski,
although I did inspect the course which was good to get a bit of an insight
into what I will be doing in the near future. When it comes to the Slalom race,
that was a complete flop!
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| Waiting for the start of the slalom race - a bit cold! |
This was mostly due to factors outside of my
control though, after a week of glorious bright sun, the weather decided that
heavy snow was just what we needed for a day of racing. Still being relatively
inexperienced, and lacking the core strength necessary for fine control, I
found it really difficult to keep myself upright in the deep powdery snow, and
ultimately fell about a second after leaving the start gate. This was a similar
story for all the other sit skiers, and even the able-bodied racers struggled
too. It became apparent during the inspection that the race wasn’t going to go
as well as I would have liked, (as I fell about 20 times!) and I got rather
annoyed both with the situation and myself. Eventually I came round and decided
to at least give the race a go (even though to get me to the top of the course
it took one of the coaches attaching a bungee cord to my monoski as a sort of
lead to stop me from flying out of control), as expected I fell pretty much
straight away, but this did highlight what I need to work on for next time
(maintaining balance on steep slopes and handling unfavourable conditions such
as difficult terrain and poor visibility).
And now on to the more fun things, the
exciting week of training prior to the races! This particular camp consisted of
most (a few are currently injured) of the invitational athletes for the
Development Squad of the British ParaSnowsport Team, this was great for me as
we are all at a fairly similar level skiing-wise which means we can easily
learn from each other.
The week began with a bit of slalom training,
during which I worked on getting my turns tighter and more precise, which will
ultimately help me to get around gates in a race course without veering out too
wide and wasting time. I also became much happier with my ability to stay
balanced whilst skiing (on my slalom ski) on steeper slopes. After the first
day I also made the decision to alter the configuration of my outriggers from a
recreational position to a set-up more suited to racing. This also meant the
skis of my outriggers lay flatter against the snow, reducing the amount they
bounced around when the snow became uneven, as well as giving me the ability to
reach further out when skiing, allowing me to increase the angulation of my ski
and body, to make turns tighter and smoother. The benefits of this were noticed throughout
the week, both in and out of gates.
This
training camp also provided an opportunity for me to continue the work on giant
slalom I had begun in Pitztal late last year. I found myself having a much more
successful time on the GS ski than the previous attempt (during which I took
more than a few knocks to the head), with much more control over the somewhat
longer-than-I-was-used-to ski, although I did struggle with confidence on the
new ski, which led to me stiffening up my entire body (which didn’t exactly
help matters). I did find that skiing on the GS ski took a lot more energy and
strength than it did to ski on my slalom ski, so to conserve my energy I
interspersed training on my GS and slalom skis, allowing me to make the most of
my time on snow. However, that somewhat backfired on me as I did manage to have
a significant crash whilst skiing on my slalom ski, I escaped largely without
injury (with the exception of a black eye and a grazed chin) but it did shake
me up a bit. Nevertheless I did get over this and managed to continue with the
rest of the training. By the second day of GS training I was able to relax into
it a bit more and I was starting to work more on making my turns longer and
beginning to use my edges as opposed to just trying to stay alive!
When it came to the end of the week, and the
races rolled around, the rest of the team joined us and we had a fantastic time
watching each other race and celebrating the end of the ski race season. I
can’t wait to see what the next season brings!
