Key Focus

Ski Racers continue to refine their technical skiing skills, develop their overall athleticism, physical fitness capacity and begin to apply their technical skills in a competitive SX environment which includes the European cup circuit, World Cup circuit, World Championships and Olympic Winter Games. Ski racers continue to develop their tactical strategy in ski cross starting with an individual qualification time trial leading up to the 4-up heats at this level of competition.

SX ski racers in this stage continue to train cross train in GS and SG along with practicing their technical free skiing skills as part of their SX training progression. 

AGE RANGE

Dependent on skill skills, SX experience. 

SKI CROSS PERFORMANCE BENCHMARK

SX ski racers will refine the tactical application of their technical skiing skills through participation in Europa and World Cup ski cross events, World Championships, National Championship events and Olympic Winter Games. 

SX competitions will occur on purpose-built, FIS legal courses meeting the minimum standards for safety. Terrain feature size will vary between large-sized features to extra large features dependent on the level of competition. 

A formal training day before the day of the event is required. SX ski racers need the opportunity to sample a variety of lines, gain mileage on a ski cross course, and familiarity with the different features through several laps before the qualification rounds and heat-racing.

Initially, SX ski racers can perform at a high level in all events contested including:

• Top 4 Europa Cup and National Championships
• Top 24 in World Cup races

By the end of this stage, SX ski racers are to perform and consistently finish in the:

• Top 8 at all levels of competition including Europa and World Cup ski cross events, World Championships, National Championship events and Olympic Winter Games. 

SX ski racers continue to participate in FIS racing in the giant slalom and super g events, aiming to obtain sub 30 FIS point results consistently; aiming for sub 15 points in both ski racing disciplines. 

SKI CROSS COURSE & TERRAIN PARK FEATURE RECOMMENDATIONS

Ski racers will continue to explore and discover large to extra large features in terrain parks and ski cross course features including start features, bank turns, varying fall lines, rollers, spines, blind turns and jumps where skiers leave the ground for a varying amount of time and distance to develop their body awareness while skiing. SX ski racers are aiming to link wave track (roller) sections together in a variety of ways: single, double or triple.

Ski racers continue to practice their ski cross starts using a starting gate with varying difficulty levels of start features. 

Ski racers are encouraged to continue skiing arrhythmical open giant slalom courses on wide intermediate trails with a variety of terrain changes. 

Course inspections skills become more refined. SX ski racers can recognize a variety of features and the different strategies or "line" options available to them during an inspection. SX ski racers will test the various lines during training runs in preparation for finding the fastest line for qualification. Testing different lines and tactics will also increase an SX ski racers knowledge about the track and enhance their "on the fly" decision-making process that occurs when 4-up heat racing. 

SKI RACERS CONTINUE TO EXECUTE JUMP PROGRESSION AS LISTED:

• Rolling over small jumps while maintaining snow contact
• Learning how to "pop" a jump.
• Keep a tuck position over a jump.
• Performing fun tricks (i.e., spread eagle, 180° spins, 360° spins and tail grabs).
• Ski racers take off jumps with “kick style” take off ramps.