nanny” who skied with the boys in the morning and helped homeschool them in the afternoon while Ross and Jill ran their guide service. “It’s been fantastic for our family,” says Ross. “Kye wants to be a pro skier and qualified for the U.S. Freeskiing Junior Nationals. He looks at everything from a competitive standpoint like ‘where’s my line’ and ‘how can I ski it fluidly?’ Jamis loves to ski and hang out with his friends.” Along with lots of family ski time, Ross and Jill put a
premium on their sons’ ski education. “We picked instructors who were technically very good and saw what our kids needed to work on,” says Ross. Since Jill had a strong race background, they encouraged their kids to do a little racing. “It teaches them
QGuide, don’t push: Whether it’s skiing big terrain or deciding whether or not to compete, we let the kids make the decision. I see parents taking their kids to places just because they want to ski it. If you constantly over-terrain children, they will figure it out but with bad habits. Also, don’t expect them to do what you have done: Kye wants to compete like his mom did, but Jamis is way into soccer so we expose him to that.
as he moves into the turn.
SET REALISTIC EXPECTATIONS, SAYS NORDIC TEAM ALUMNA
Former PSIA Nordic Team member Megan Mary Corazza has logged many miles on cross country trails. She grew up in Alaska and raced for Colorado Rocky Mountain School in Carbondale, Colorado, as well as Whitman College in Walla Walla, Washington. After college, she returned to Alaska and started a women’s nordic program in Homer. “I needed training partners, so I started working with women to teach them how to race,” she says. “A strong community of female athletes was formed who not only ski but do other sports as well.” Along with building a community, Corazza is raising two sons:
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how to turn a ski, especially at the top of the turn. For skiing steeps and controlling speed, that’s critical,” Ross says. Here are
three more tips that Ross and Jill implemented around the globe. QTeach top technique: Technique is judged in freeskier competitions, but some kids who gravitate toward freeskiing tend to be pivot skidders and can get away with it. From a turning standpoint, however, if you can control your speed at the top of a turn, you’re more in control and have better turn shape. Our general message has been ‘ski with the center of mass over your feet,’ and when the boys were younger, we worked with instructors who had similar philosophies.
Q Te boot is the root: We spent money and attention on making sure we bought the right boot for the kids so they had ankle flexion. We’ve seen so many kids lack flex in their ankles, especially if the kid has big feet and someone sizes them in a stiff boot that fits, regardless of the flex index. Our kids were in soft-flexing boots from an early age and I think Kye developed great touch and pressure control because he can flex his ankles
40 | 32 DEGREES • FALL 2016
Mason, age 14, and Fischer, age 4. Mason prefers alpine skiing. “As a cross country skier, it was hard for me to get him away from the gravity of downhill and learn how to diagonal stride,” says Corazza. She put him on skate skis, stuck to flat terrain, taught him how to jump as if he were downhill skiing, and then enrolled him in an alpine race team. Now Corazza occasionally goes alpine skiing with him. “He wanted me to huck cliffs and drop rock ledges, but I didn’t know how to ski well so I had to teach him how to ease me into it,” she says. “I taught ‘new trick, old terrain’ and I think it made him a better teacher and person.” Fischer, however, loved cross country skiing from the start. As an 18-month-old in diapers, his parents towed him with a climbing harness connected to their waists, designed to get him to stand up straight. “We did little out-and-backs – using every PSIA trick we could to make it all fun-and-games the whole time – and then got him off skis before he grew tired,” says
Megan Mary Corazza and her 4-year-old son, Fischer, hit the trails.
COURTESY OF ROSS MATLOCK
COURTESY OF MEGAN MARY CORAZZA
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