Nutrition

• Eat meals as a family as often as possible and use Canada's Food Guide to help you plan healthy meals that the family can eat together.
• Plan meals ahead of time help to ensure you have all the required ingredients to prepare a healthy meal in your allotted time frame. 
• Plan and pack healthy meals and snacks to take to the ski hill to eat during and after training. 
• Ski racers are encouraged to have a full water bottle of water with them at all times. Cold weather is dehydrating. Encouraging ski racers to sip on a warm, water - light electrolyte drink or tea will help to maintain hydration throughout a day on the slopes. 
• Trust that your ski racer knows how much they need to eat. Listen and respond to signals of hunger and fullness.
• During growth spurts, ski racers may eat more. 

Encourage ski racers to learn how to read nutrition labels along with learning how to prepare basic meals on their own. 

Relative Energy Deficiency in Sport (RED-S)

Sport performance lags when available energy stores are low. For ski racers during this stage of development, it's vital to assess intake needs and adjusting intake to meet the energy needs of training and competition.

Decreased energy intake can promote the development of osteoporosis resulting in reduced bone growth, weakened bones, reduced peak bone mass, increased susceptibility to stress fractures and premature osteoporosis. Stress fractures can lead to the loss of participation in on-snow training and competition for long periods. 

Ski racers with RED-S are at an increased risk for injury, decreased endurance, and reduced muscle strength, along with reduced coordination, impaired judgement, irritability and depression (Mountjoy et al., 2014).

In female ski racers, poor and inadequate energy intake can also lead to delayed menarche and other irregularities due to the decrease in estrogen. Parents and coaches must be on the watch for girls who are now more susceptible to low moods, which can lead to depression, eating disorders, and low self-esteem. Iron levels should be checked by a medical professional and monitored if required. 

Supplements

At the end of this stage, ski racers should be educated about the use of performance enhancement substances and their possible side effects. Research supports a balanced diet as a legitimate means to top performance. 

The Canadian Centre for Ethics in Sports (CCES) does not promote the use of supplements but recognizes that athletes often use them. Read the CCES supplement message to protect your ski racer against an anti-doping rule violation if they are using nutritional supplements.

In the spring of 2014, the CCES conducted a study of youth between the ages of 10 and 18 to determine the attitudinal drivers that set youth on the path to using performance-enhancing substances to assess associations between beliefs and drug use. 

They found the strongest associations were observed in three category areas: steroid acceptance, social technology and self-image. 

Common triggers to use performance-enhancing substances include; "If a close friend offered me a drug that would make me do better in sports, I would try it" or 
"It is okay to try steroids once."

​While many youth are unsure of the side effects of most listed substances, they are confident that energy drinks, caffeine, and alcohol have side effects (CCES, 2014).

• A quarter of Canadian youth stated that in the past 12 months they had taken vitamin and mineral supplements to help them do better in sports. Energy drinks, protein supplements, and caffeine were also popular substances.
• Most commonly, Canadian youth do not think that vitamin and mineral supplements, protein supplements, caffeine, and asthma inhalers will not hurt them if used.
• They are more wary of creatine supplements, narcotics, thermogenics, nitric oxide boosters, cannabinoids, and alcohol.
• Among those youth who say they have used steroids to perform better at sports or change the way they look. There are a variety of sources of the drug; for those looking to perform better, friends, the internet, teammates and even parents are common sources and for those who want to change the way they look, friends of a friend or teammates are most common, followed by coaches and close friends. (CCES, 2014)

INJURY PREVENTION

Ski racers can prevent most injuries by being physically fit and literate, and by wearing the appropriate and adequately adjusted equipment for the activity including skiing.

Risk factors for injury include:

• Physical fitness, ski racers need to be fit enough for the challenges presented during training and competition.
• Are the ski racers coming back from injury?
• Properly fitted and adjusted ski equipment. Poorly functioning, poorly fitting, or improperly adjusted equipment can cause more harm than good.
• Protective equipment including properly fitted helmets can prevent head injuries. 
• Skiing while fatigued and not taking enough breaks for rest or stopping when tired. Often only a short break at the top of a course that includes a short warm-up routine is all that is needed. 
• Skiing outside of the skill level and comfort zone of the skier. The level of challenge is dependent on the skier’s current technical and physical capabilities or inabilities.  Proper course setting to match the experience level of the ski racer correctly is vital. Exposing skiers to activities significantly higher than their abilities can result in frustration, failure, a decline in motivation along with increasing the chance of injury.
• Skiers should be well rested, hydrated and fueled before arriving at training. Proper hydration and nutrition throughout the day will decrease the risk of injury.
• Changing snow conditions can affect ski racers depending on their ability level. Check in to see how they feel about the terrain and snow conditions. 

Injuries can be prevented through the creation of well-planned training sessions led by professional coaches. Well planned training sessions should include the following activities: 

• A proper introduction to the activity and skills ahead of the training session. 
• A warm-up that includes supervised physical fitness movement preparation. 
• Well, planned skill progression is matching the skill and development age of the ski racer. 
• Course and terrain inspection. 
• A proper cool down.
• Conclusion. 
• Debrief with the ski racers to gain feedback on the session in preparation for the next training or competition bout. 

In a study conducted by  Müller, et al. on long term athletic development in ski racing they found no single fitness parameter responsible for determining the risk of injuries, a comprehensive fitness regimen starting at a young age is crucial for coping with the physical requirements of alpine ski racing and minimizing the rate of both traumatic and overuse injuries (Müller et al. 2017). 

Regular documentation of growth and maturation and physical fitness is crucial to help to prevent injury in youth ski racing. Neuromuscular, core and reactive strength training should be incorporated into the training regimen of youth ski racers to avoid injuries (Müller et al. 2017). 

RESOURCES:

STOP Sports Injuries: Skiing and Snowboarding

Alpine Responsibility Code

Müller L, Hildebrandt C, Müller E, Fink C and Raschner C (2017) Long-Term Athletic Development in Youth Alpine Ski Racing: The Effect of Physical Fitness, Ski Racing Technique, Anthropometrics and Biological Maturity Status on Injuries. Front. Physiol. 8:656. doi: 10.3389/fphys.2017.00656

MAINTAINING BALANCE & EDUCATION

Maintaining a balanced family life that fosters the development of healthy habits includes:

• Scheduling family time and activities where the family can be active together.
• Ensure that everyone in the family has time for rest and regeneration. 
• Finding a balance between school, sports, and encourage ski racers to participate in other sports as desired. 
• Working in partnership with your ski racer to develop a simple monitoring routine to assist ski racers with their recovery between training and competition bouts. 
• Allow time for social interaction with other ski racers and friends in an unstructured environment like the park or ski area.
• Reduce screen time.  
• Getting involved, as a parent, through volunteer activities at the ski racer's club. 

Education balance varies between grades 8 & 9 and 10 and includes some of the following preventative activities: 

Grades are part of the process to reach the outcome goal of academic success. Ski racers should view school like they see a sport where homework equates to training and exams compare to competitions. To be successful academically and athletically, ski racers must prepare before taking the test. Success never comes easy; it requires hard work and careful planning and preparation to succeed in sport and school. 

• Encourage active study breaks where the ski racers can complete a little physical activity from 5 - 15 minutes. Activities can include preventative and mobility exercises, core exercises, a spin on a bike, or a quick run around the block to raise the heart rate. 
• Encourage the use of a student planner or calendar to assist with maintaining balance.
• Encourage the ski racer to communicate with their teachers; parent communication should reinforce the student contact when necessary. 
• Provide appropriate notice for school absences. 
• In grade ten (U16), ski racers seeking the competitive pathway are recommended to take one course online. Math is a good option for an online course. 
• Parents of U16 ski racers must also maintain an open line of communication between teachers, school counsellors and coaches.  
• Each school and ski racer is different; it's essential for the coaches, parents and teachers to be aware of the individual ski racers goals and aspirations on and off the snow. 

Finding the right balance between sport and education is one of the hardest challenges for a young ski racer. It requires coordination and collaboration between sport, school and parents.

 

EDUCATIONAL REFERENCE:

Adams, K. BC Alpine AGM Presentation: Education and Ski Racing - Finding a Balance