How our racing system is designed
The different ski disciplines for the Children Categories are Slalom (Sl), Giant Slalom (GS), Super G
(SG), Downhill (DH) and Super Combined (SC)
Children categories are:
U10, U12, U14, U16., the U meaning Under the specified age. So U16 are all those 14 and 15 years old.
|
2015/2016 This Season |
LTAD Stage / Principles | Competition & Rankings |
| U21
YOB (Year of Birth) 96-98-99 (18,19,20) |
Train to Race/Train to Win 4 event Alpine or Ski Cross Focus Mastering all | FIS WJR, NorAm and Europa Cup Junior titles at Canadian Championships and Canadian Championships FIS Points |
| U18
YOB 00/01 (16,17) |
Learn to Race/Train to Race 4 event Alpine & Ski Cross exposure Competition and Skill focus | Junior Canadian Championships, US JR Nationals, Canada Games
U18 Western FIS provincial and regional FIS Points |
| U16
YOB 02/03 (14,15) |
Learn to Race SG, GS, SL, dual and Ski Cross exposure Intro to DH elements and skill development | Whistler Cup , U16 Can Am Westerns, Provincials Zone National Point Races
ACA National Points |
| U14
YOB 04/05 (12,13) |
Learn to Train/Learn to Race GS, SL, Kombi, Dual, Ski Cross exposure Sport Specific motor skill and coordination | Whistler Cup
U14 Can Am Westerns/BC Games U14 Provincials/Zone National Point Races ACA National Points |
| U12
YOB 06/07 (10,11) |
Skier Essentials/Learn to Train GS, SL, Kombi, Dual, Stubby & intro to S-C elements Focus on movement and love of the sport | Zone Races Festivals Skills competition |
| U10
YOB 08/11 (5-9) |
Gliding Start/Skier Essentials GS, SL, Dual, Stubby, intro to S-C elements & Games Focus on balance, movement and FUN | Local events Festivals Skills competition |
Slalom has the most turns with the slowest speed while Downhill has the least amount
of turns with the highest speeds. Slalom races are usually the shortest in distance and
time while Downhill is the longest in both distance and time.
Athletes are ranked on points with 0 being the lowest point and 999.99 being the
highest. The lower the racer’s points, the faster he/she is.
Athletes receive points based on how fast they go in the races. So how do you
determine the number of points you receive at a race? There is a points ranking set up
for the race, called the penalty of the race, which is made up of the average of the best 5 competitors in the race.
Obviously the penalty would be really low at the Olympics (0 to 5) and very high at a
zone race (280 to 350). This penalty is added to the race points obtained by
each racer who completes the race. Race points are based on how far behind the
winning time the racer is. They average about 15 points per second in GS to 8.5 points per
second in Slalom. So what does it all mean? Well if you had 300 GS points and
Mike Janyk had 0 you would be about 20 seconds behind him in a GS race ((300/15).
What National and Provincial ski team member have for points? On average National
Ski Team members have between 0 – 30 points. National Development Team
members would be between 30 – 40 points and Provincial Team members would be
between 40 – 60 points.
Canadian National Ski Team
0 – 30 points (appr.)
BC Ski Team
40 – 60 points (appr.)
Racing within the U14/U16 world:
For our kids, races are broken into three levels : zone races, provincial races and Whistler Cup. Zone races are local and require very little travel, Provincial races require slightly more travel. Whistler Cup is an international race with the some of the best U14/U16 athletes from across Canada and the world.
In the Coast Zone races athletes have an opportunity to see how they fair against other clubs within our zone. There are six clubs within our zone Whistler, Mount Washington, Cypress, Grouse/Tyee, Seymour and Hemlock. At a provincial level there are about 25 clubs consisting of 4 zones (Coast zone, Okanagan zone, Kootenay zone and North zone). When we race at a provincial level our athlete’s start in order of their zone ranking which is based on their national points.
You can find information on National Points at http://www.acapoints.ca/
The organizations that control alpine skiing are:
Provincial level: BC Alpine http://bcalpine.com/news/
Alpine Canada Alpin (ACA): http://www.alpinecanada.org/
Federation International de Ski (FIS): http://www.fis-ski.com/
You can find a lot of info, statistics, historical info etc. on Alpine Skiing competitors here http://www.ski-db.com/
I recommend you go to the BC Alpine web page and familiarize with it. You will learn how to look for race results, technical info and other resources that will help you understand the sport.
Another page where you can find info is the Canadian Ski Coaches Federation web page: http://www.canskicoach.org
So this is a short summary on how the system is designed. Feel free to ask questions etc.
Raul Anguita
Program Director
