Off Snow Preparation

Your preparation for skiing or riding is a fundamental aspect of developing your career in snow sports. Back to back days, weeks and probably seasons of work on the mountain places immense stress on the body, mentally as well as physically. As an Instructor, you would be classed as an “athlete” as your work, which is your sport, depends upon your body being physically fit to “do the job” and succeed.

The Rookie Academy exceeds all other instructor training programs because it drives forward the importance of being healthy and strong so you can enjoy long lasting careers! They have put together a talented team of therapists to oversee your off snow well being both before and during your stay.

When you sign up to the Academy, you will be issued with your pre season training program. This is to help you prepare your body’s strength and fitness for the course. You will also receive regular tips and updates through the quarterly newsletter and the Sports Therapist will be at the end of an email or phone line for any questions.

On arrival, there will be a biomechanical assessment. The main objective for this is to analyse each of you and identify any areas of weakness throughout your body. This will be done through individual screening of your biomechanics, muscle strength and joint range of motion. By identifying and fixing any problem areas, we equip you with a greater understanding of your body. Therefore potential injuries, which might have occurred throughout the winter season, are avoided.

This assessment will enable the team of therapists to see if you are able to adopt and maintain your optimal skiing or riding stance. A podiatry check and possible modification of your footbeds may be necessary to change the position of your foot in your boot so you can achieve those perfect turns.

During the season, spending 4 – 6 days a week on snow will develop your skiing or riding fitness. To make sure you maintain good muscle balance it is important to do some off-snow training as well. The weekly core and stretch classes will help to strengthen your body and improve joint range so you won’t develop any muscular discrepancies. These will also improve your knowledge on biomechanics, injury prevention and the complexity that is core training! The team will continue to care for you in terms of chiropractic, remedial massage treatments and nutritional advice. They will also be attending some of the Academy’s evening seminars.