For nearly as long as there has been athletic competition, no doubt back to the days of early Greek athletes, there have been coaches.  So too, in ski racing.  The advice of early alpine race coaches remains fundamentally valid, even taking into account dramatic changes in equipment, course conditions, and safety.

Walter Prager was the Dartmouth Ski Team coach in the 1930s and famously coached Dick Durrance.  His 1939 book, Skiing, discussing downhill racing, noted that "downhill courses are a playground for young and old, men and women.  The steeper and more dangerous they are, the more attractive they become.  Everyone thrills to the nerve-tickling velocity, the leap from one bump to another, the flight around curves with shoulders almost touching the snow. Downhill skiing has captured the hearts of skiers." 

Prager advised training downhill by running in the fall and stretching Achilles tendons so extreme forward weight could be achieved, something particularly essential in those days given the equipment then available. He recommended practicing ski technique to the point it was "taken for granted," so the racer “could concentrate on control of his skis at any speed, so that in the excitement of a race he will not wake up hanging on a tree."  He suggested that one way to overcome obstacles in a race course without losing speed was a Galandesprung, or jump: "It is effective in leaping stones, bare spots, a brook, or a path which crosses the course."  The list says something of early course conditions.

He advised warming up before a race, but warned: "Don't use whiskey to warm up before a race, for you need a clear head and an undisturbed sense of balance.  After a race a little firewater does less damage." He cautioned that the downhill racer "should have only one thought in mind: go onward. Don't let yourself be discouraged by a fall or some other misfortune. . . .  Skiing is like any other competition in life, and requires persistence and grit for success."  

As for slalom, he notes that "the hot-blooded man may take victory from the more sluggish, phlegmatic one because he possesses much more fighting spirit."  Nor have competitors changed much in discussing courses:  Prager observed that often "a runner stakes everything on slalom, and then criticizes the work of the course-setter in working out the gate combinations.  Never are the flags responsible for a mishap, but rather the runner himself, who is not equal to the task."  (A note of explanation for racers born after 1990 or so:  slalom gates used to have little triangular flags - originally of three different colors and later only two - and there were even outside poles at all (!!) gates.)    

What would Prager make of modern slalom racing?  Buffed courses, single poles for most gates, no hickory saplings or bamboo, no flags, and for young skiers, only stubby gates.  Some things haven't changed: persistence and grit and going onward.  And forward pressure.

A very non-sluggish U12:

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Packed powder courses, with no stones or brooks to jump: BY1I9713

Fighting to stay forward (or getting forward again):

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Persistence and grit pay off.  Always "go onward."

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