Where Small Mountains Fit into Today’s Skier

Featured Picture: Kents Hill Winter. Supplied by Kents Hill Athletics

Authored by: Andrew Willihan

For generations, small mountains have been the place many skiers first fall in love with the game. Whether or not that zeal evolves into racing, freeskiing, or just having fun with the outside with family and friends, it usually begins on a modest slope with a rope tow.

My very own profession began at a big ski space in Maine, the place I coached athletes who superior to the U.S. Growth Workforce, NCAA, and USCSA packages. Later, I led a varsity USCSA workforce to nationwide success. However in the end, I discovered my method to the O’Connor Alpine Coaching Middle at Kents Hill College – a smaller venue with a big impression.

Right here, on the shores of Torsey Pond, student-athletes prepare on a 70m homologated hill with two rope tows and a 30% pitch. Kents Hill College, a 200-year-old impartial faculty ranked Maine’s #1 Personal College by Area of interest.com, is residence to 220 college students who stability lecturers, athletics, and group life. Skiers and riders from everywhere in the world come to Kents Hill to be taught from caring and educated college, additional develop their expertise on skis and snowboards, and be coached by passionate adult-mentors.

Snowboarding on the O’Connor AlpineTraining Middle is a novel expertise as it’s a non-public facility designed for the scholars of Kents Hill, but in addition companies the larger group. It’s residence to the native center and highschool groups, the Kents Hill Junior Program (U8-U12), visiting school groups, and golf equipment from as far-off as Boston. Races vary from center faculty competitions to USCSA collegiate occasions. It’s just a little hill with an enormous function in a skier’s journey.

The design of the ability is intentional. The lodge sits on the prime of the hill, permitting athletes to strap on their gear and step straight onto the highest of the run. The format naturally helps development: a flat warm-up space leads right into a instructing zone, earlier than cresting onto the 30% primary pitch which exams your talents earlier than flattening out in direction of Torsey Pond. A fast rope tow turnaround means athletes get extra reps in much less time – an enormous benefit for coaching and training. Pupil-athletes take pleasure in lap after lap on the course, within the terrain park, or laps of pleasure for our leisure skiers and riders. 

For coaches, the setup is equally environment friendly. Gates are staged on the prime, programs run 40-45 gates, and athletes can reset shortly. Timing? No downside. Video? One stand-still place can get the entire hill. Coaches can coach from the hill because the skier goes by on the rope tow – direct and speedy, so the athlete can go into their subsequent run as quickly as they’re recovered. Tools will get hauled out with a snowmobile whereas athletes head again to the lodge for tuning, video assessment, and group time. The whole system is constructed round effectivity, care, and connection.

Our philosophy is easy: Care → Educate → Coach. Each element, from snow floor preparation to teaching suggestions, is designed to help the student-athlete expertise. When athletes really feel cared for, they carry out higher. When the setting helps development, improvement accelerates.

Throughout the nation, massive resorts are constructing world-class venues for elite competitors, and they’re spectacular – Mittersill, Solar Valley, Copper Velocity Venue, to call just some. They’ve all been constructed and orchestrated to perfection. However in relation to technical and tactical improvement, small mountains are priceless. They supply the managed setting wanted to show, refine, and experiment. They’re nimble, accessible, and deeply private.

The dialog throughout alpine coaching is more and more about turnaround—maximizing time on snow whereas minimizing time on the elevate. The perfect coaching setting blends fast laps with terrain that each challenges and teaches.

That is the place small venues show priceless. They permit coaches to actually train, management the setting, and adapt shortly. At Kents Hill, we put care first, and athletes interact extra totally. Educate nicely, and expertise will strengthen. Coach intentionally, and efficiency follows.

Do that constantly and also you don’t simply develop athletes – you create lifelong skiers and riders. That’s the ability of smaller mountains like Kents Hill: they’re not simply a part of the snow sports activities ecosystem, they’re important to its success.