2012 Training Overview
After the successes of recent years our training groups will continue to be decided each week largely on the basis of the results from our end of week races and skills contests. The weekly group selection is designed to engender a spirit of competition amongst the trainees who will appreciate that the faster they ski in the races and develop their skill base, the higher their group placing for the following week. However, we are keen to offer consistent support to our trainees, and the Head Boys and Girls coaches will seek to ensure that the younger trainees in particular have one main coach overseeing their development.
Each coach will be responsible for the ski and fitness training, video work and ski prep of their small group. Each group's video sessions will be hosted by their coach and attended by other BSA coaches to ensure a consensus-based input of high quality to ensure a range of input as well as continuity.
On the schooling side I would like to congratulate Brendan McCormick and his tutorial team for delivering such a strong programme in recent years. I am delighted that Brendan is returning full-time for the 2012 season. We have had many reports of students returning to school with improving grades. This demonstrates that with hard work children can excel at both sport and school with the proper support from coaches, tutors and families.
Malcolm Erskine,
Programme Director
About us
The British Ski Academy is an educational and ski training base set in the French Alps at Les Houches in the Chamonix valley. At the ski academy we develop self-reliant responsible young ski racers who are professionally coached and educated to their full potential.
For all ski racers the target is to hit the senior level of the sport as hard as possible. The International Ski Federation (FIS) allows racers over 15 to join the senior international ranking lists. For the BSA the mission is to maintain the optimum educational support of young British ski racers heading towards their GCSE's while sustaining an elite athletic programme.
Students attending BSA in 2012 will benefit from our continuing commitment to exceptional tutor:student and coach:athlete ratio.
British Ski Academy Staff 2012
Head of Boys’ Coaching – Scott Bryson |
Educational Liaison – Brendan McCormick House Mothers Head Cook - Lee Parker |
BSA Coaching staff
Head Boys’ Coach: Scott Bryson, 5th year at BSA. 2nd year as senior coach. Former British ski team slalom specialist
Head Girls’ Coach: Ali Morton, 5th year at BSA. Former British dev team, technical specialist
Head Minis’ Coach: Bori Hristova, 6th year at BSA. Five time Bulgarian ski champion. Twice senior organiser of World Cup events.
Director of Operations: Malcolm Erskine. 16th year at BSA. Former British ski team downhiller
Ruslan Nachkov: 1st full year coaching at BSA. Former Bulgarian head womens’ coach, twelve years experience at Europa Cup and World Cup level.
John Campbell: 1st year full time at BSA. Former Scottish Team FIS racer.
Gian-Luca Eydallin: Top Italian coach, 2nd year part time at BSA
Alex Abbott: 3rd year as BSA part time assistant coach.
Jaz Taylor: British Telemark team and former BSA trainee, part time assistant coach.
Lynn Sharp: Lynn is taking time out from British ski racing to build up her portfolio and experience as a private coach and instructor. After the BSA October camp she hands over to Ali Morton, our new Girls’ Head Coach. Lynn plans to help coach at the BSA on an occasional basis in the winter, making flying visits from her new base not far away in Val d’Isere. Good luck, Lynn!
Short History of the BSA, from its founder and director
15 years ago the academy was set up with the goal of providing an Alpine winter base for ambitious young ski racers. A dedicated winter-long training centre. I knew what I wanted to do – deliver the volume of training, school support, and the guidance not available to British children when I was a nipper – but not where to do it. In May 1996 I drove round Savoie and Haute Savoie visiting resorts and speaking to contacts from my ski racing days in the eighties. Les Houches fell into place thanks to Fabien Saguez (now head of the French ski teams) who introduced me to the amenable lift company and a friendly hotel with ready-made classrooms. As for the name of this new centre, Mike Jardine, then chief executive of the British Ski Federation suggested it to me on the principle of do-what-it-says-on-the-lid. Next I scrambled together the start up money (thanks Dad) and with the helpful advice of my colleagues Martin Bosher and Malcolm Howard (London Performance Centre and Ski High School), set up the company and wrote the prospectus. (Old hands will know that this hasn’t changed much!) Graham Bell, the UK’s no 1 racer, kindly lent his name as patron.
We started small, lost money, and soldiered on to establish BSA as a viable business and a valuable asset to the sport. Trainees became younger and younger racers and we established a reputation as a training foundation for 10 to 15 year olds. Over time the age of the average trainee went from 14 to 12. We employed top British coaches, frequently ex national team racers themselves. The results followed.
Sadly it proved impossible to garner recognition for our work without registering the BSA as a club, and after five years, as we moved to our own exclusive premises at the Etoile des Neiges, we finally upgraded to full club membership of the English Ski Council. (In the interest of Britishness we also tried to register as a ski club with the Scottish National Ski Council, but were turned down. Though nowadays, mind you, our links with Scottish ski racing are stronger than ever.) Thomson Holidays helped from the start with bursary support. I was delighted when Thomson, BSA and ESC set up a scheme to award BSA bursaries to the top children racing in the Grand Prix series on England’s dry ski slopes. Having won this series as a 17 year old in 1980 (and a cheque from Thomson for £400, quite a sum in those days) things had seemed to come full circle.
We’ve seen a lot of changes. For ten years my brother has been a pillar of the organisation, keeping the books in order and much besides. And the divine Ali Jubb has run the Interschool Ski Challenge so well that it has become an important fixture on the skiing calendar with concurrent boys’, girls’ and minis’ events and three hundred entries. Many experts and enthusiasts have contributed to the success and reputation of the British Ski Academy, and many young adults now look back with happy memories of their junior skiing days in les Houches.
Thanks to messrs Angus MacDonald, OBE, and Anthony Travers, OBE, who deserve a special mention. Tony and his lovely wife Mary Anne are the most understanding and charming of landlords. The BSA could never have grown to become a hub of UK children’s ski racing without their commitment and kind support. For six years Angus has made heroic contributions to a fund that he set up for deserving Scottish racers to attend the BSA. (When the Scottish team return to les Houches with coach Ross Gardner, it’s rare now to see an unfamiliar face.) Thanks also to Bill Aitken and Tim Noble, who give generously of their personal time and capital to support the Rannoch Fund and its splendid work.
Here’s to many more winters launching little British speed demons down Alpine slopes.
Malcolm Erskine
