Performance Tips

Thank you for the opportunity to introduce myself in this season’s Skidoodle. My name is Louis Florjancic, and I am very excited to be part of the Alpine family. I started skiing around the early age of three or four; like most of us I don’t remember any of this, but some photos SKI still get passed around to remind me. Our family is almost always the first people to teach us on our first days on snow. I was very lucky to grow up with a father that loved skiing and I can honestly say that the love that he has for the sport was infectious for me and many of RACING

TIP his friends. Between the ages of 10-20, I was enrolled in racing programs at Georgian Peaks and was Coach Louis Florjancic lucky to have a bunch of coaches that were fun and engaging. We continued to work on my U16 OCup Head Coach craft and I was able to move up the ranks, and when my family felt the National Ski Academy would provide the best opportunity for my future goals we enrolled. I was thrilled as I knew many other successful athletes had come out of the Academy. From there I advanced to the Provincial Ski Team and competed for a couple more years until it was time to go away to school. I feel grateful that most of my friends today I met through my years of ski racing. Ski racing and skiing, in general, provide lifelong friendships that only grow stronger at clubs like Alpine. Many of these friends I’m speaking about are current Alpine members. These members will be teaching their kids the basics very soon. Creating an environment so that it is fun (at any age) is most important, in my opinion. A fun environment engages an athlete to do their best. You will not accomplish much in 20 one-minute runs if it’s not any fun.

For instance, I like to set the focus for each day’s session and then ask the athletes what drill may work best with this focus. Example: “This morning’s session will be focused on the downhill ski. What is a good drill that isolates this?” A common response would be lifting the inside ski. Then I may ask the group “what slope would be appropriate for this?” Now they have chosen the drill and the slope within the framework I have set. Lastly, I would ask my group to remember to keep their tip lower than your tail as that will keep your body stacked and balanced. The goal here is to enable the athlete to take some ownership over the lesson while keeping them engaged.

So, if you understand my story, I truly believe the coach, instructor, family member or friends’ duty is to create a fun environment to learn in, keep it simple, and share your love of the sport. When we do this, we will have talented lifelong skiers, creating lifelong friendships.

SNOW Before becoming a coach, I spent 12 years racing at Alpine. Since the time I joined the small team, Alpine’s program has developed into one of the premier racing programs in the country, with athletes competing in local races all the way to World Cups. If I could describe myself in one word, it would be competitive. I like to compete; to push the limits of what I am capable of – and to find success. As athletes, we spend a lot of time BOARD TIP thinking about winning, imagining the feeling of standing on the podium, and dreaming of the competitions we will attend, but oftentimes we fail to consider the question: what does it take to win? In order to improve at alpine snowboarding, or any sport for that matter, Coach Richard (Rich) Moss athletes need to stop focusing on winning, and become masters of looking to the future, NorAm Snowboard Team Head Coach and developing a plan to achieve their goals. My focus for the racing program this year is on helping our racers understand what it takes to improve and become the best snowboarders they can be.

One of the first things any snowboarder should do when setting their goal is to clearly define what they want to achieve. Do they want to win the Provincial Championship, Nationals, or the Olympics? Each of these goals requires different commitments, processes, and time, but until we know what we want to achieve we cannot start the process of working towards it. The next thing I ask my athletes is this: is your goal attainable, and realistic? This is NOT to say, “are you good enough?” One of my favourite quotes shared by coach Tim Notke is “Hard work beats talent when talent doesn’t work hard.” If the goal is to make it to the Olympics, I will support my athletes every step of the way, but in order for that goal to be attainable, they need to put in more work than someone whose goal is to win provincials. If two athletes both want to make the Olympics, and both train three days a week on snow, it’s the remaining four days of the week, and how those athletes spend their time that will determine who meets their goal. Finally, every athlete needs to set a timeline for their goals. When someone says, “I want to go to the Olympics,” that’s a great goal, but the Olympics in Beijing are in 4 months, and those athletes competing have been preparing for the games for 10 years. When we set a timeline for our goals, we can avoid disappointment from unrealistic timelines, and celebrate the small successes we meet on the path to achieving the end result.

Everyone has different goals in snowboarding, but a well-crafted goal can help riders of any level be the best boarder they can be.