SUMMER SCHOOL
skill in steeps and moguls.” It only took Warren a few moments to see exactly what we were doing wrong. “Felix – your stance is too close. Caroline – your bum is sticking out. Alison – your shoulder initiated the turn. Toby – your knees are A-framing.” Toby and I in particular struggled
with the braquage exercise, repeatedly failing to keep both skis on the piste. It was to mark only the beginning of our humiliation. Next up was trying to carve and link our turns, which only reinforced that we had a really antique style. Among our many faults, the most obvious was skiing with our legs too close together. In contrast, our swotty wives,
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who’d had far more ski school experience, might have been less gung ho but, judging by Warren’s encouraging comments, were more technically sound, to the girls’ great amusement. Alison couldn’t help rubbing salt into the wound, saying, “I always thought you two were the best skiers I knew. This is priceless!” By the time we got down to the
resort at 2pm we were exhausted and could manage little more than a walk round the pretty, car-free village with the kids. The older two had spent the morning in the hotel’s creche, where they got to explore the woods, enjoy face painting and learn magic tricks, while the two babies were cared for by a babysitter. On subsequent afternoons we
took the kids to the adventure park and went flying across the gorge on a zip wire, took walks in the woods or swam in the village pool, where the kids loved the water slides.
It was a great balance between ski and family time, although it did mean we missed out on the regular volleyball matches between the other guests and instructors. That first evening over communal
dinner – all the academy students were staying at the same hotel – there was a great vibe as we swapped tales about our many experiences on the slopes. The other groups were a real mix,
some families with teenage skiers, a couple of father and son combos, plus couples and solo skiers.
Clockwise from above: When
Warren says jump turn...; Race teams
stake a claim to the piste; “Yes, you’ve definitely shrunk” – Warren measures
ankle flex; Getting a leg up with post ski stretching exercises
ON THE SECOND DAY, AFTER another morning of exercises on the slopes, we got to see how we looked on film. Warren had videoed us each attempting braquage turns and also skiing freely down a section of piste. We met in the hotel bar in the evening to see the results. But before we were given the chance to watch ourselves, Warren first gave each of us a biomechanical assessment – checking the flexibility of our ankles and hips. Warren said that lack of flexibility restricts the body’s ability to move into the correct position to ski most effectively, and is one of the reasons why pre and post-ski stretching is a vital part of the course. The assessment revealed that all
of us needed to become much more supple in these areas and Warren
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