Promoting, Recruiting, and Motivating Your Ski Team

By Pat Horgan

Sure we all love cutting freshies through the trees or pulling Gs arcing warp speed turns down a section of untracked corduroy.  But, at some point in your skiing career, you may find yourself in a rut.  The same old turns down the same old trails will lose their zing, and you may even put away the boards and become one of those folks who say, “I USED to ski all the time...”  Don’t let this happen to you!   Now is the time to change gears and become involved in alpine racing.  God bless America for providing endless opportunities for us washed up “wanna-bees” and “never-has-beens” to participate in any number of “competitive” venues for alpine racing.  You may become involved in the racing scene via some random and unanticipated coincidences that include your children, your co-workers, your cousin’s, sister’s, brother’s team or even some nut on an internet chat board trolling for local talent.  Racing opportunities range from simple (bless them) NASTAR runs, to your kid’s school program, to adult beer league organizations, and sometimes even Masters and FIS events.  A niche “league” that has a growing following in the northeast is N.A.D.S...  The “North American Downhill Series” holds “real” DH races throughout the northeast and the courses will give the speed freak in you ALL it can handle!  It does not matter HOW you get involved.  Once you have taken the plunge and embarked on your racing “career,” this little diversion can quickly become an ADDICTION!  There is just something about the wand, the gates, and the clock that gets your heart beating - if only for a minute or two per week – like nothing else. 

So...you have made the decision to give racing a try.   But this is only the first step of getting your team off the ground and keeping it running.  My long and undistinguished beer league career has give me some strategies for recruiting, motivating, and retaining your team AFTER you get the bug, pony up the league fee, and sign on the dotted line.  While I have geared this article more toward an adult race league, many of the same principles can be applied to youth leagues and high school programs as well.

Recruiting

This can be one of the more vexing propositions the prospective, recreational ski team organizer faces.   Young and old alike, we are all pressed for time.   “I really just do not have the time,” is the #1 objection I hear when courting a prospective racer.  However, the simple fact is that there is exactly the same number of hours in the day as there was when Michelangelo painted the Sistine Chapel, Dostoyevsky penned War and Peace, and Bill Gates took over the world.   That said; think about how you would otherwise spend four hours on a weeknight if you were NOT on the local hill.  Allow me to paint an all too familiar picture.  Chances are a weeknight finds you snug at home watching American Idol or some other brain-numbing tripe being beamed to you in high def while munching Funions and scratching.   Not that spending an evening thus makes you a bad person, but you should try to mix it up.  Spending a few hours in the cold fresh air racing some pals down the local bump, while carving yourself out of your ski rut is good for the mind, body, and soul.  Studies have shown that organized ski racing lowers cholesterol and blood pressure while increasing muscle mass, IQ, and sperm count.  Actually… I just made that up. I have no idea if it does any of things.  Probably not.  However, it MUST be better than four hours of NBC and Doritos! 

In addition to the obvious health benefits, there are social benefits as well both on and off the slopes.  At work, instead of discussing the latest episode of the The Office at the water cooler, casually drop the fact that you DVR-ed the show because you were in a ski race last night.   

“Yeah – got a gold – missed a plat by a 10th.  Tweaked my knee a bit on the second run. I’ll be ok.” 

Then limp back to your cube.  Your co-workers will see you in a new light and you will appear to have more sweet, sinful layers than a Kit-Kat bar. You will become more than the friendly, flabby, and flatulent co-worker you have been for years.  You will become the fast, fascinating, freakshow you have always wanted to be!

I could go on and on about the other bennies that rubbing elbows with sexy, young (and old) ski fanatics can provide: condos, equipment swaps, car pools, guided tours of the mountain, hunky pals, and pretty gals to name a few – but I think you get the gist.

Sponsors and Swag 

What ELSE is in it for ME besides fresh air, exercise, thrills, spills, pals, gals, news, brews, and actual human interaction on a school night?

Answer:  Cool stuff.

Napoleon said “I can make men die for scraps of ribbon.”  Ditto for ski team!  Schmooze around for a “sponsor.”   In many cases, this may even be your own company or firm.   Race fees, corporate passes, and promotional items can be a marketing deduction.  Put together some T-shirts, hats, visors, fleece vests, etc, etc for your crew.  You cannot buy cheaper advertising.  In most cases, you can even get your gang to cough up their own cabbage for team gear.  Even a key chain or stickers can get the gang fired up.  Flashlight carabiners are a hot item and darn handy.  A super inexpensive and simple bit of promotional team gear that you can make yourself is stickers.  A .jpeg of your logo, your favorite publishing program, some inkjet sticker paper, and you are in business.  Our league has a kick-off party in December each year.   We usually have a spot or 2 to fill to round out a team.  I make sure to print out a bunch of fun, business-card sized team stickers with my cell number on the back.  Over the years you cannot imagine how many of those I have passed out or stuck to a bulging ski sweater on request!  Nothing like your logo stuck on a properly fitted under armor product to peak one’s interest in your team! 

Point is…a little can often go a long way!  Your organization gets exposure, a tax deduction, and perhaps even some fun and competitive new teammates for mere “scraps of ribbon.”

A final thought on reaching out to kindred ski spirits:  use the internet.   Spam is the scourge of the 21st century but dog-gone-it, it works!  You can easily send a broadcast e-mail to friends, colleagues, and business associates advertising an opening on the team.  A note like this gets your name in front of people letting them know: 1. You are alive and still in business.  2.  You are cool enough to have a ski team!  So shoot out those annoying e-mails.  Attach some kind of chain letter or cute kitty pix to make things “special.”  Just kidding about the chain letter and kitties.  What I DO suggest you include in the e-mail are: a (small) racing photo, link to video, a link to the home mountain’s website, AND the DIRECT link to the Race League page if available.  Attach .pdf of the application and include YOUR address and fax number.  

The internet, in addition to providing free pornography and volumes of dubious facts and figures, is an excellent tool for spreading the word about your team.  There are a lot of talented folks out there trolling the web, and ski oriented chat boards attract some of the most pathologically obsessed.   Reach out – there are others like you.  Stalking the internet chat boards like Pee-Wee (er…if he were an aspiring alpine racer) can be pretty productive.  Just post what amounts to a “Help Wanted” advert.  Paint a rosy picture of your league and perhaps include some of the same links I mentioned above.  Last season, in response to a posting I placed, I received a PM from a guy who was looking to hook up with a team.  So I get “random internet guy” on the phone and start the “interview.”  Height?  Weight? Ski race experience?  The answers were as follows: 6’3”.  220#.  Raced in college.  Some FIS points.  Did some downhills last year. 

Yeah.  He made the team.  Very little cyber effort conjured a stud racer out of cyberspace.  He is a great teammate, family man, and consistent platinum medal performer.   Score! 

Personnel:  “Who do I want on my team?” 

There is but one absolute truth in the universe: Wrinkles equal beer league gold.  One of the most competitive teams in my league has been called “Geritol Junkies” for years.  They AIN’T getting any younger but still remain very competitive.

League scoring often incorporates a handicapping system akin to NASTAR that incorporates both age and gender when calculating scoring.  Therefore, when building a team, it is often good to anchor your personnel with a solid, MATURE, female athlete.  In many cases, female representation is REQUIRED or team scoring is penalized severely.  The ideal woman is someone who has decent ski chops, maybe some racing experience, but just as importantly, will attend regularly!

I will be blunt; you cannot go wrong by starting your recruiting efforts by securing a “cougar” or two.  “Cougar” is defined by urbandictionary.com as (among other things): Cougar: (n.) 1. An older woman that is still totally hot and may or may not be down for the cause.

I thought this was pretty spot on, but note that - at least when it comes to ski team – while “totally hot” is a nice bonus, athleticism, dependability, and guts are far more important! 

The proverbial ski cougar with grown kids and empty nest syndrome can be considered prime-time talent and should be courted aggressively.  I cannot stress enough how important consistent female scoring can be for your team.  In our league, many of the best teams try to have TWO women on their roster in order to account for inevitable grown up scheduling conflicts, weather/travel restrictions, and occasional DNFs etc.   Freshly recruited female racers will often prove to be one of the team’s most valuable assets.  I have consistently observed that rookie women will show meteoric improvement over the course of a season.  This improvement is enjoyable in itself for the racer, but the women on our team quickly come to understand and appreciate how much they bring to the team as valuable, point scoring athletes!

On the male side of things, the same “wrinkles=gold” theory applies to the “Silver Fox” set.   Silver Fox: (n.) An older gentleman who, despite his gray hair - or maybe because of it - is dead sexy.

Hate to say it but the recently divorced fellow in his late 40’s – early 50’s is a valuable player.  Once you get him off his day-glow 210cm K2s and onto some modern shapes, he will generally score quite well.  He has the time, the wherewithal, and the desire to cultivate a new social circle.  Further, he still has enough snap in his girdle to post some pretty good times!   An added bonus is that occasionally his college age daughter and her roommates will show up to see Daddy and his lame-o pals ski. 

Rounding out the roster you should consider the washed up jock in his or her mid 30s.  You would be shocked how many talented ex HS and college racers are walking around disguised as sales managers.  Stick a logo sticker (e.g. “Acme Inc Alpine Racing”) on your cube or wear your team fleece to the lunch room.  You will be surprised at how many of the sales gang will wander by and say, “You know, I raced in HS but have not been in gates in years.”  Cha-ching!   These skiers are just itching to show the old moves.  Close it!

I do not want to scare off the younger demographic.  League racing is a great venue for 20-somethings.  Even if you are a “grown-up” assembling a “grown-up” team of Foxes and Cougars, keep an eye out for younger athletes just out of college or grad school.  Despite being somewhat “handicapped” by their age, most of these “kids” are single, athletic, do NOT have children, DO have disposable income, an appreciation for alcohol, and a lot of time on their hands.  Helloooo??  Do these attributes just scream “ski team” or what?  You would also be surprised at the relatively high percentage of his age group that includes some collegiate NCAA racers, but more collegiate club racing veterans.  Young people, remember that if you care enough about skiing to be on a team, then you are likely to be pretty “into” skiing.  News flash: so are your teammates – even the old ones.  This means condos, time-shares, sweet used equipment, free coaching, free hand tuning, ski clubs, car pools, etc, etc.  Lots of networking opportunities with toni grown-ups!  Beer league teams are a little like a depraved, alpine Free Masons’ club.  Young or old we are all in this together and are driving each other to improve every race!

So… All you Gen X and Y-ers, step away from the X Box, put the computer in sleep mode, jump in the Prius, and hit the slopes.  Make like Bode while chatting up REAL girls as opposed to the cyber-babes on the Simms.

Alas – youth is wasted on the young.

Motivation and Retention

So you have cobbled together a team.  Here is a representative line-up: a Cougar, a 25 year old dental hygienist, a network engineer (they are everywhere…), a lawyer (Fox), a recruiter, and a landscaper.  Everyone is a competent skier, accomplished social drinker, and is looking forward to the season.  Great – they are signed up.  But that is no guarantee that everyone is going to show up consistently OR be back next year.  Remember we are all grownups and life has a funny way of pulling us in a million different directions. Unfortunately, most of the squad also have jobs, kids, and other commitments vying for their time and attention.  It is up the head cheerleader – aka “general manager“- to keep everyone fired up and motivated.  There are volumes of texts written on sports motivation, but in our organization I have found the following strategies to be particularly useful for keeping up the esprit de corp.

Newsletters

This is an easy, quick and FREE way to make everyone feel “special” and recycle some yux from race night.  Make sure you have everyone’s e-mail address and shoot out a quick re-cap of the evening’s results.  Touch on everyone’s performance.  Be humorous but supportive.  Some rookie racers– particularly ex athletes - can be very sensitive about what they perceive to be sub-par performance.  So make sure to stroke egos appropriately while offering constructive feedback.  Make a note of everyone’s progress.  Motivating the rookie racer will be particularly easy as their stats will improve rapidly.  For a competent skier, a few miles in the gates will result in quickly dropping times and more and more team points for your squad.  Of course the individual racers will notice this themselves, but it will stoke your athletes to have their successes and progress exhibited to the entire team.  If you are the author of the newsletter, make sure to keep your own re-cap self deprecating and humorous.  If you have some talented racers, do not be afraid of having some fun with them, but again, make sure that your remarks do not offend or bruise fragile psyches. We all know what a mental game ski racing can be.  Confidence can make up for an awful lot of physical short comings. What did Yogi Berra say? “90% of the game is mental.  The other half is physical.”

One word of warning when it comes to these newsletters: they can be addictive.  I was surprised at the number of angry emails I received this season when commitments kept me from writing up the summaries in a timely fashion – usually the NEXT day before noon!  In addition to giving everyone a boost, these letters also serve to strengthen personal and professional networking connections amongst the team. Several follow up comments by team mates usually follow the initial e-mail via the “reply to all” button. Encourage this camaraderie!  Remember that there are a lot of benefits to running a team above and beyond medal points – again - : condos, ski gear swaps, car pools, fishing pals, ski boats, cookouts…)

Statistical Tracking of Results

Anyone who deems to call or to have called themselves an “athlete” always gives it their best.  But… win or lose, in the shower, on the bus, and even in those fleeting, dreamy moments before falling asleep at night, the gnawing and narcotic conundrum remains:  Did I do any better today?

We all want to see ourselves improve, but in a weekly league it is often difficult for your racers to track their progress. This can be frustrating for some, especially at the end of the season when it is hard to recall what your individual results were.  The obligatory few beers after the races do not help retention.   Fortunately, thanks the cult of Microsoft, it is quite simple to create professional looking charts for your racers to track their progress.  MS Excel allows even the most computationally challenged individuals in the western hemisphere to use a legitimate and sophisticated business tool to track beer league stats.  I am a big fan of the charting features of Microsoft Excel.  I usually track and chart 2 stats per athlete:  Handicap and Medal Points.  Use your imagination.  The chart is hideously simple.  In our league, we take 2 runs on two courses set in tandem; one run on each course.  In the example below, the X (horizontal) axis is race number 1-8 and the Y (vertical) axis is simply the handicaps for the two separate courses.  You can use anything you like for the Y axis.  The obvious alternative to HCP would be actual times run on the course.  I find HCP to be a slightly more accurate measure of performance as times on the same race hill can vary considerably according to set, conditions, and pace setter. 

As GM, I track stats for 4 teams of 6 racers for our organization; 24 athletes.  Keeping the stats updated is very simple. If you prefer NOT to track the stats yourself, simply set up the Excel doc and e-mail to your racers.  They can track their own progress.  Here is an example of the chart with the raw data and the then the graphical representation which Excel creates for you.  In our league, we have eight weeks of scored racing – two runs per night.

Raw Data:  

Chart:

You can see that this athlete is pretty consistent.  He had some injuries in the second half of the season, but the final race ends on a high note.

In the case of your less experienced racers, the season charts often look considerably better.  Here is a season breakdown of an athletic young woman we recruited who had not raced since junior high.  Check out the curve of that chart! 

This chart is actually fairly typical for a rookie beer league racer in that the data shows steep initial improvement (high 38 HCP) leveling out in the low 20s.  For the racer, it is obviously very encouraging to see these tangible results at the end of a long tough season and motivates participating again the following year!

In the middle of the season, it is a pretty good idea to shoot this table and graph to your racers to give them an idea of how they are progressing.  If you are a true statistic nerd, a HUGE stat for motivating your racers is to show them what achieving a higher medal/score will take.  To do this, show the athlete the results of their last race.  Show them their time and HCP.  THEN show them a league or NASTAR handicapping chart to determine what HCP they need to move up a medal category.  Finally show them the time of a racer who finished in that HCP range.  The difference in time is often negligible – a second or two. 

Now…I grant you - in the ski racing world - 2 seconds is an ocean of time.  For the more experienced and consistent among us, “working on” picking up 2 seconds on a 30 second course is akin to “working on” dunking a basketball.  However, for the rookie racer on that steep improvement curve, 2 seconds is merely an instant of time that can achieved EASILY.  Illustrating that small improvements represent big scoring milestones is highly motivating for new racers.

On a darker note, I also use these stats to shuffle around personnel from team to team.  We have 4 teams and faulty memories.  Therefore, as next season approaches, it is helpful for me to use these figures to put together the “line-up” that is most likely to maximize the individual and team success of the talent pool of 24 racers.

Photo and Video

The narcissistic nature of human kind is universal.  People love to see themselves. Unfortunately, taking photos or video is a little tough if you are racing yourself.  However, today’s high (6-10) megapixel compact cameras are so user-friendly, itty bitty, and cool; it is difficult to justify NOT slipping them into a pocket.  An injured team member or non competing significant other makes a dandy photographer.  We are not looking for the cover of Sports Illustrated.  Just snap away.  Encourage your gang to take snaps and e-mail to you for editing and analysis if they lack the time or expertise.

Most point and shoot cams have a “sports” mode with a “rapid fire” feature.   Do not worry about focus or zoom.  A basic photo editor can pull a great shot from a tiny black speck in the middle of the hill.  I extracted this nice looking turn of my pal from a 3 mp still snapped by his team mate from across the hill.

This is an action packed, colorful, and lucky shot.  All it took was a warm body pushing the shutter button!

Technophobes, remember too that your digital still camera will also take semi – ok- kinda - sorta - decent video.  Read the manual and get familiar with the operation.    Trust me, if I can figure it out, so can you.  

Video

There is perhaps no greater training tool for motivating ski racers than to see themselves in motion.  We can talk all day about angulation, counter rotation, steering, weighting, un-weighting, blah, blah blah….  For most, however, only seeing is believing.  How many of us out there have been instructing someone and had an exchange like this?

Coach:  “Great job but you are not getting your hip into the gate enough.”

Student:  “YES I AM!!”

No they really are NOT, but they will not believe it until they see it for themselves.

So much for the negative.  The POSITIVE nature of video review is huge and can give new racers massive boosts in confidence.   Even if they make one good turn out of 10, the ONE good turn shows them they CAN do it!  For more accomplished racers, video is still very important as we chase those tenths.  Breaking down a run and studying line can help even very solid racers get over a performance hump. 

If you have thick enough skin, you should consider posting your training video on the web via a free hosting service like youtube.com or similar.  The WWW is a HUGE resource for the aspiring skier.  There is a giant pool of talented ski racers and coaches out there on the web that will offer motion analysis, tactical breakdown, and objective criticism of your skiing.  I have found the Barking Bears on the Epicski.com forums to be an excellent resource for evaluating my own skiing as well as that of my racers.  The NASTAR.com forums are also very active with a more “race” oriented flavor. 

It is a good idea to show your race or training run two times: once at normal speed and once in slow motion.  Add some titles and music to keep things interesting.  Watching film of anybody (besides yourself) skiing with nothing more than howling wind or icy scritch-scratch for a soundtrack is like masturbating with sandpaper: slightly amusing but mostly – painful.  So please, add some fun background music.  Here is a link to video I produced showing one of our racers at our league championship race in 2007.  He crashes on his second run. 

Bear in mind that this IS NOT a “retired” college or even high school racer.  However, this guy IS classic beer league material!  The (ahem) “gentleman” in the video is pushing 40 and wrestled in college.  He took up skiing in his 20s and racing in his early 30s.

Videos of your current racers can be a useful recruiting tool as well for future seasons.  Athletes considering ski racing are already likely to be avid skiers, but many are struggling to get over the “advanced intermediate” hump.  Such was the case of the racer in the first video.  League racing offers a focused, weekly format with a set schedule and accurate, quantifiable results.  Add video analysis to this program and you have a pretty attractive training package!  Don’t underestimate the recruiting power of the, “Hey if HE/SHE can do it, I can too!” factor!

So burn those turns onto a video disk, dub in some vintage punk, and SEE what you do well and what you can do better!

Make It Happen

League racing is an opportunity for all ages and genders to get outside mid-week during the deepest darkest days of a long winter.  Skiing gates in all kinds of conditions will pull you out of your comfort zone and improve your skiing tremendously if for no other reason than it means logging a few more ski miles on the local bump.  It does not matter how much vertical your local venue offers.  I guarantee that it is more vert than the stairs leading down to the home theater in the basement!  So draft up those broadcast e-mails, print that logo on some baseball hats, find some warm bodies, and put together a squad for ’09!  

Pat Horgan is General Manager for the Skichair.com alpine racing organization and has been involved in the Wachusett Night League for 7 years.  He has coached at Cushing Academy and Kimball Union Academy from 1994-2000.  Pat is the proud dad of two aspiring skiers.