TECH TALK/BACKSHOP
The Bold on Baldy
I spend most of my time working with alpine racers and following alpine racing. But recently, I began to notice that there was
something different happening with the freestyle division of Sun
Valley Ski Education Foundation (SVSEF). The kids were not only
having a ball skiing, but they were also ripping up the whole of
Sun Valley’s famous Bald mountain, and skiing with a technique
that didn’t appear to be a “traditional” bumper technique. So I decided to investigate further — and was excited by what I learned.
“The basis of our team is the turn,” says Andy Ware, director
of the SVSEF freestyle team. “The reason why? Someday you
may not be sliding a rail, but you’ll still be a great skier.”
Ware also credits Sun Valley’s coaching staff and terrain (
consistent fall lines, natural moguls) for the success of the freestyle
team. In the early 90s, the program was founded by John Zuck
with six athletes. Now there are 85 athletes, and Ware has a
goal of reaching 160 by the start of the 2012/13 ski season.
Ware’s approach — building athletes first, and competitive skiers second — is complemented by a “quick carve turn” technique
implemented by Joey Cordeau, the team’s head moguls coach
and a four-time moguls world champion in the 1980s. Instead of
a “style”-based pivot/slide bump technique, it focuses on fundamentals.
WHAT EVERYONE CAN LEARN FROM SUN VALLEY’S
FREESTYLE PROGRAM BY DAVE PESZEK
“Today the best skiers get their skis engaged and carving before
the fall line,” explains Cordeau. “By carving more in the fall line,
the skier is using gravity to the utmost, thereby gaining speed. If
the skier has basic skills to load the ski and feel it from tip to tail
using fore and aft movement, he will be a skier for the rest of his
life and will always have the tools to progress himself.”
Nearly every mogul athlete on the team is skiing a GS race ski,
not a mogul ski. Cordeau points to the greater sidecut, stronger
edge grip, and increased rebound as compared to a traditional
mogul ski. Plus, skiing a GS ski in the bumps clearly requires
a solid fundamental carving technique, not a sloppy pivot/slide
technique.
With half of a mogul skier’s score coming from the quality of the
turn, and another 25 percent coming from the speed, SVSEF
Freestyle athletes are being well prepared for not only compe-
At Sun Valley, freestylers get grounded in
fundamentals and freeskiing before taking flight.
The basics of this technique are:
• Athletic stance
• Powerful edging
• Pressure control
• Tight turns and carving in the fall line
• Higher speeds due to carving
SVSEF
SkiRacing.com APRIL 7, 2011 | 61
