Coaching adults vs. coaching young children probably require a slightly different approach. When working with children, it is probably common to focus on the fundamentals of skiing rather than speed and tactical skills. If a child develops good skiing fundamentals at a young age, it will probably set them up for success later on, so that learning to develop speed and good tactics will become much easier. For adults or masters, the approach might be slightly different, in this case you might want to focus on the factors that are limiting their speed in gates. The focus might be more on tactics and speed development as opposed to "technical or fundamental skiing." This doesn't mean that you don't focus on technical skiing at all, it just means that you might give them a couple of technical pointers in the beginning of the season and work mostly on tactics and speed development once they get in gates. Most adult racers prefer to spend most of their training time in gates because they feel they get a better return for their investment on race day. For this reason it might be better to focus the tactical issues that may be limiting their speed in gates. Here are some examples of what is meant by this approach. Let's say you are working with an athlete, a 65 year old woman. It is probably correct in assuming that she might have issues with strength and she may have a certain "comfort zone" with respect to how fast she would like to ski. Upon watching her ski, you notice that she goes directly at the gate and then checks her speed by skidding sideways past the gate to slow down. This speed check at the gate not only "dumps a lot of speed" but also makes it difficult for her to set up for the next turn. A good focus for her would be to ski a rounder line where she makes a round turn between the gates with a lot of methodical pivoting, finishing her turn just as she goes by the gate. This will keep her speed more consistant and make it easier for her to set up each turn as she descends through the course. Now let's look at a second example. Let's say a 30 year old woman. This woman may be a bit stronger and able to hold a tighter arc, however she may also have a limited "comfort zone" with respect to carrying speed. Upon watching her ski, you notice she carves the beginning of her turn and goes directly at the gate, but then to check her speed she will jamm on her edges just after the gate to slow down. For this skier you might want to teach her to make a rounder line between gates with a bit of pivoting at the beginning of the turn. This will allow her to travel at a speed at which she is comfortable enough to carve a cleaner line in phase three. If she can do this she will finish her turn at the gate and easily be able to set up for the next turn. The goal for any masters racer is to learn to maintain a consistant speed through a course. This speed should be the maximum speed of their "comfort zone" and become their "race speed" The focus on tactics will help the adult racer experience more success on race day. Then when you have a chance to free ski with your athletes, work on their technical skills, keeping in mind how it will link with their tactics once inside the gates.
