How to Train For Skimo Part 3: Downhill

TLDR: ski more, turn less.

This is Part Three of a Three Part series on how to train for Skimo (Part One is Here, Part Two is Here). Today we’re going to talk about the downhills.

NOTE: I’ve never been a ski instructor (well, on downhill skis), and so I’m not going to give you “well you need to angle like this” type shit. If you need that kind of advice, go get some ski lessons!

Let’s go back to the performance model of skimo:

1. Uphill (We already talked about this in Part One)

2. Transitions (We already talked about this in Part Two)

3. Downhills

   1. Physical

   2. Psychological

   3. Technical

   4. Tactical

For arguments sake, let’s say that there are two general types of skiers in skimo (in reality, it’s more like ends of a spectrum):

1. The Downhillers. They come from an alpine background, either lots of freeride, or racing, or something similar. For them, the challenge is to adjust big ski skiing onto little skis. This is easy for some, but quite challenging for others. The blind-spot for these athletes is “this gear is too flimsy to go fast on.” It isn’t.

2. The Uphillers. They come from running, or triathlon, or cycling. For these athletes, the challenge to skiing faster in many cases is about how to manage risk. Their blind spot is “skiing faster takes a level of risk that I will never be able to handle.” It doesn’t.

I’ll be giving advice to both of these ends of the spectrum in each of the next segments, because sometimes it’s different.

Downhills:

1. Physical Factors of Skimo Downhill:

Power and muscular endurance. Oh and being good on uphills. When I’m generally quite fit, my downhill skiing improves.

Training the Physiology of Skimo Transitions:

The Gym. Sessions should start with some jumping and landing shit. Then they should have some lifting-heavy-shit in the middle. And they should be regular, especially in the fall and the early winter. This is largely the same for Downhillers and Uphillers.

Ride lifts. Show me a fast skimo downhiller, and I’ll show you someone who has spent likely hundreds of days riding lifts, and a decent portion of those actually on skimo race skis and boots. If a skimo race is ~3,000 to 10,000 feet of climbing (and thus descending), then going out and skiing 20,000 feet of descending on lifts is going to be great for your legs!

2. Psychological Factors of Skimo Downhill:

Yeah, this is probably the big one. I’d say this breaks down into two things:

1. Confidence in your equipment. This is often the challenge for Downhillers.

2. Managing risk. This is often the challenge for Uphillers.

A quick aside on risk: I know a few true adrenaline junkies. One is missing some teeth because he no-look jumped a cliff in 2011, smashed his face on the landing, and for some fucking reason thinks missing a tooth looks cool or something. An “adrenaline junkie” is someone who seeks risk. It makes them really fun to ski with, and really fun to drink with, but they are shit in a race because they explode in an acme-tasmanian-devil cloud of snow every 30 seconds. Good skimo downhillers are not this kind of person.

A common refrain I’ve heard from many uphillers is “I know those fast skiers, they’re just don’t care about risk.” I assure you that’s (mostly) not true. Do they have more risk tolerance than someone who came up through a sport where the nastiest acute injury was a sprain ankle? Yes, yes they do. But neither are they completely oblivious to risk. They can’t be. They’d all be in the hospital all the time like my toothless friend. Pretty hard to train when you’re in the hospital. Mostly what good skimo downhillers are is skilled. More on that later.

Many uphillers think that the risk curve just looks like this. That the faster you go, the riskier it is. You might also think that people who are fast on skis are so simply because they’re comfortable living on the far right side of the curve.

But that’s not really true. Sure, generally as you increase speed you increase risk, but if you’re just a much more skilled skier, then all risk is lower. And while a skilled skier can get up to high-risk speeds, they’re at lower risk at all lower speeds, and at similar risk levels to a less skilled skier they’re going much faster.

Thus, you can get faster in one of two ways:

1. Increase your risk tolerance. Take more risk. “Push your comfort zone.” OR, you could:

2. Become more skilled, so that you’re faster at the same risk. “Change your comfort zone.”

Training for the Psychology of Skimo Downhill:

Uphillers: You probably need to increase your risk tolerance, yes. You can’t be a fast skimoist with basically zero risk tolerance. That’s never going to work. BUT, neither should you accept tons of risk by being a low-skill skier! Most of your gains in speed are going to come from increasing skill. If you started skiing late in life, you’re never going to have the risk tolerance of someone who’s been skiing since they were two years old (yeah, that’s how young we start ‘em here). You aren’t going to get faster by willing yourself to be faster. But you can be just as fast if you’re more skilled. Note that just skiing groomers that you just skinned up and backcountry are not going to make you more skilled. You will likely need to buy a season pass for a downhill resort and use it. You’ll probably need to spend money on lessons. You’ll need to become a very skilled skier so that you’re able to go very fast in your comfort zone.

Downhillers: Holy shit, you probably don’t need to increase risk tolerance. You already have plenty! Mostly what you’re going to need to do is change the way you ski. Tiny little skimo skis do not ski the same way as alpine gear, but you can absolutely haul tons of ass on them. You just can’t put a lot of force into the boots or skis. You’re used to a broad sword, and now you have a scalpel.

Additionally, downhillers, you need to go ride lifts on little gear. Go send it on your favorite off-piste runs. Learn to trust it! If race gear can hold up to how aggressively I ski at ~200lbs, it’ll hold up for you if you ski it properly/differently from your alpine gear.

3. Technical Factors of Skimo Downhill

Like I said, I am not a downhill ski instructor. Additionally, I learned to ski long enough ago that I don’t really remember how I learned. As a result, I’m not the best coach of skimo downhill technique. But here are a couple things I think to be true.

1. The gear skis well, but it skis differently.

2. You can’t “pressure the cuff” like on alpine gear.

3. You can’t “initiate the turn” in softer snow like you do on alpine gear.

4. Want to ski faster? Turn less!

5. Because of #’s 1-4 above, you’re going to be faster taking big long turns and using up a really wide area of the run.

   

   One of the things you’ll see elite skimo downhillers doing is being super creative around line choice. Because the gear doesn’t handle hard turns at high speeds very well, elite racers will very rarely just ski straight down a line. Instead they’ll be using parts of the terrain to slow them down without turning, and then finding a softer or safer line that they can straight-line. A good (and yes, very extreme) example of this is this clip of Roberto Antonioli. See how he crosses wayyyy off the straight line to find different snow, which allows him to straight-line safer, and likely make up a lot of time over someone who just tried to go make a ton of turns through the chopped up center.

Training for the Technique of Skimo Downhill:

1. Watch good skimo racers. Here’s a whole youtube playlist of skimo racing.

2. Ride lifts on your race gear.

3. Practice finding other different lines that allow for fewer turns.

4. Try to ski the same run in fewer turns.

4. Tactical Factors of Skimo Downhill

Some of this is equipment selection:

1. Have well fitting boots. Sloppy boots are going to make you slow.

2. Use goggles, damnit. It’s pretty rare that glasses are going to do you well. If you can’t see, you can’t ski.

Some of this is race day decisions!

1. Don’t destroy yourself on every climb! If you’re “in the pack” going up the climb, and you get to the top at 90%, then your legs will likely have more in them on the descent. If you get to the top and you’re blown, you’re going to have a rough ski!

2. EAT, damnit! Every single contraction on the downhill is burning carbohydrate. Zero fat. Thus, you need to have eaten a ton of carbs in the 48 hours before the race, and the morning of the race, and during the race. A true bonk (running low on blood sugar) will decimate any chance you have at skiing fast.

Training for the Tactics of Skimo Downhill

Practice eating. Make sure your boots fit.

Summary

To get faster at skimo downhill, some skimo racers need to change a little how they think about risk. Some need confidence in their gear. Almost all need to spend more time riding lifts on race gear.

I’m sure I’ve missed some things in here! Please comment and let me know what you think I’ve missed.