Coauthors: Matt Brown & Sean Sullivan
Introduction
The low season is commonly seen as a time to “simply get stronger,” however at Rowmark, we see it as one thing much more vital. Power & Conditioning is the place younger athletes first be taught ideas resembling producing drive, controlling it, and shifting with rhythm and precision. The steady core, quiet higher physique, and clear leg drive developed within the fitness center are the identical qualities that seem when skis meet snow. Research present that serving to athletes perceive this connection early, and reinforcing it because the season approaches, is likely one of the most important components of long-term growth. Athletes who deepen their understanding of motion can shift their focus at older ages to utilizing these patterns to successfully construct energy and muscle mass.
The place Motion Begins
Watch a younger skier heat up earlier than a exercise and also you’ll usually see hints of how they ski. A powerful push via the legs, a steady core, arms that steadiness reasonably than distract. When that very same athlete will get on snow, the patterns seem once more: cleaner steadiness, higher management, much less wasted effort.
Power & Conditioning is not only about health. It teaches athletes how drive travels from the bottom via the physique. For instance:
A squat teaches the right way to load drive.
A leap teaches energy era.
A dash teaches rhythm and timing.
These qualities later turn out to be edge strain, ski bend, and switch rhythm.
The floor modifications from floor to snow, however the motion rules stay the identical. Understanding motion in house helps athletes grasp mechanics resembling drive software, drive absorption, the conversion of potential vitality into kinetic vitality, momentum creation, and explosive output. As athletes develop, they construct a neurological framework for making use of energy in the best path with the best timing. In return, they learn to make the most of floor response forces and resultant vectors that affect the middle of mass and form the ultimate motion final result.
Constructing Drive the Proper Means
Good snowboarding begins with studying to make use of the bottom and ship drive via the physique in the best order: legs provoke energy, the hips and core arrange it, and the core stabilizes the path of vitality.
Power & Conditioning builds this basis via easy, basic actions:
Flexion–extension energy workouts
Working mechanics
A-skip and B-skip drills
Observe work
Gymnastics patterns
Leaping and touchdown progressions
These actions develop motor abilities lengthy earlier than athletes understand they’re changing into higher skiers. From a younger age, athletes construct these patterns as they develop, progressively refining:
how they apply and sequence muscular drive,
how they encode motion
how they regulate (and later speed up) the rate of drive software
On the similar time, their physiological structure frequently adapts in response to this long-term course of.
A robust instrument for constructing this consciousness is Deep Follow, an idea from Daniel Coyle’s The Expertise Code. Deep Follow is a deliberate, extremely targeted technique the place athletes function on the fringe of their skills, make errors, right them, and reinforce neural pathways via elevated myelin growth. It slows motion down so the mind can’t gloss over errors. Expertise are damaged into small, manageable “chunks,” and athletes progress solely when every chunk is mastered.
Repetition creates ability; clear repetition creates high-quality ability.
Transferring Energy to the Skis
Many younger athletes get stronger with out ever connecting low season motion to what they do on snow.
A leap teaches the identical leg drive that masses the ski.
A touchdown teaches the identical absorption that bends and releases the ski.
A dash teaches the identical rhythm that hyperlinks turns.
This method aligns naturally with Self-Willpower Concept (SDT)—the athlete-centered mannequin highlighted within the U.S. Ski & Snowboard Alpine Improvement Assertion (2019). SDT emphasizes autonomy, competence, and relatedness, underscoring the significance of teaching athletes, giving them possession, and serving to them discover private that means of their coaching.
When athletes really perceive the “why,” they turn out to be extra engaged, intentional, and self-driven.
Usually, a single cue creates the breakthrough:The push you’re feeling on the bottom is the push you utilize within the ski.
As soon as athletes really feel that connection, motion turns into smoother and extra environment friendly. They work with the ski as an alternative of in opposition to it. They waste much less movement and keep stacked over the surface ski. That is when the low season and snowboarding cease being separate and turn out to be one built-in coaching system.
Motion, Adaptability, and Play
Power and rhythm matter, however athletes additionally want adaptability. That is the place play turns into a strong instructor.
Play doesn’t imply abandoning construction or targets. As a substitute, it could function a strategic coaching instrument. Recreation-like actions can bridge athletes into a brand new coaching cycle with out psychological fatigue. They’ll additionally act as a reset after a demanding block of energy, conditioning, or technical work—permitting athletes to decompress whereas nonetheless practising abilities.
Even throughout peak preparation, quick bursts of play—relay races, inventive challenges, small-sided video games—stimulate problem-solving, adaptability, and workforce cohesion.
Tag, foursquare, impediment programs, relay races, response video games, variable-terrain snowboarding—these actions train athletes to maneuver in unpredictable conditions. Play retains athletes free reasonably than inflexible, develops timing and decision-making, and retains coaching emotionally constructive. In a sport the place no two turns are the identical, adaptability is crucial.
Play doesn’t change coaching; it reinforces it. Used deliberately, it strengthens motion patterns in-built dryland and helps athletes turn out to be resilient, versatile movers.
Drive That Flows
Power & Conditioning builds the motion. Snowboarding makes use of it.
When athletes be taught to make use of drive on the bottom and switch it into the ski, all the things improves. Motion turns into cleaner, studying accelerates, accidents lower, and coaching turns into more practical.
The facility an athlete builds in sneakers is identical energy they depend on in ski boots. Higher Power & Conditioning creates higher snowboarding as a result of the motion constructed on the bottom turns into the motion trusted at sixty miles an hour.
When the season begins, what story will your athletes’ motion inform?
Coauthor: Sean Sullivan was born and raised on Lengthy Island, New York, and grew up ski racing at Okemo Mountain in Ludlow, Vermont. He attended Okemo Mountain College for 3 years earlier than ending his FIS racing profession at Carrabassett Valley Academy in Sugarloaf, Maine. After graduating, Sean joined the Plymouth State College ski workforce. Following a brief stint at Plymouth, he transitioned into teaching, spending two years with the Eldora Mountain Ski Membership in Boulder, Colorado. He then returned to Carrabassett Valley Academy, the place he coached for 3 years at his alma mater earlier than becoming a member of Rowmark in 2024. In his free time, Sean enjoys fishing, mountain climbing, and spending time with family and friends.
