Helmut Grassl, Swedish Race-Coach at Stjerne Skigymnasium Torsby

We met Helmut Grassl in late April, 2012 in Sälen, Sweden where the annual Ski Funtastic, the Swedish Alpine Finals. (Ski Funtastic is perhaps the largest ski race in the country). Other celebrities included Anja Pärson and Ingemar Stenmark.This year’s winner was Andre Myhrer finished over a second ahead of the competition.

Helmut Grassl is a well-known Swedish Ski Academy Race Coach at Stjerneskolan, Torsby, Sweden. During his active years (1980′s), Helmut represented Sweden as a Racer on the National Team. Helmut is renowned for his result-oriented training methods and the success of his program seems to run in his family; Helmut’s daughter, Paulina Grassl, just won the Junior World Championship silver medal in Slalom in Italy last month.

Helmut knows what he is doing. As we talk to him, he makes a great comparison between timed turns in the slope to that of the golf swing. Helmut gets more detailed as he explains to us how his racers use Pole Position in the gates; the strap prevents racers from over-rotating the opposing arm, which in turn force the racers to concentrate on a more square position as they hit the gates.   Helmut says: “…racers understand, intuitively, how to control their upper bodies in each turn.” Helmut explains how his slalom racers practice timing to maximize speed. In slalom, racers are faced with about 60 gates, or possibilities, as Helmut rather put it. Each gate is an opportunity to accelerate thru timing. In GS, Giant Slalom, this aspect is even more important to improve upon as the gates are fewer – hence fewer opportunities to make up ground. Helmut continues to explain the how´s and why´s to the group as he hands out Pole Position straps to his racing team. Thanks for your time Helmut!

Emma Hector practicing with Pole Position, April 2012

Evelina Eråker 16, gate training with Pole Position

Red Girl

Daddy Cool

Ingmar Stenmark and Anja Pärson

The Pole Position is gaining more grounds among the racing community and their chiefs. Just for the record; the function of Pole Position is not a new method even if it looks like that when visiting this webpage. The method is quit old, since early 60´s ski racing coaches from France, Austria and US used cords and strings in order to stabilize upper body. The Pole Position is a refined and userfriendly version and here are some fresh comments:

Takuji Kambayashi Ski Racing Director, Japan FIS Racers (published in March 2012 issue of Ski journal)

“You can sense your own position in the run that will lead you to the optimal position. By keeping upper body tension the direction of rotation is fixed, which leads to real-time orientation of the arms and control and possible modification of lower body.”

From Canada WC Team:

“The team tried out the Pole Position during some freeskiing in in Hinterreit, Austria. It seems like a great tool. It attaches to the pole effectively and the grip maintains its position. The construction is solid and the buckles allowing it to detach during the ride up the hill are great. It is a little restrictive for some athletes that need to move their arms, but in general I think that it’s current format is perfect for its purpose”.

Tim Gfeller, Canadian Alpine Ski Team, Women’s World Cup – Technical

From Finland WC Racing:

“While using Pole Position and keeping upper body tension a consequence is the dynamic balance. Especially for young ones it’s a good instrument to teach basic position of the arms.Pole Position is a support for the upper body to get the basic position of the arms. From a technical view it´s important to know that stability also depends on the lower part of the body – knees, ankles, edges and snow contact.”

Christian Thoma, Head Coach Women’s WC team Finland

Also a warm welcome to new Ski schools in St Moritz, Grimentz and Airolo Switzerland and new Austrian Schools in Maria Alm, Bad Hofgastein, Mittersil, Dorfgastein and Mühlbach. Finally we got Snow.

A demo in a sunny Kitzsteinhorn in Austria with Johan Larsson president of Swedish National Asscociation of Ski instructors and Ola Rockberg, Mathias Rutgersson from Åre Resort Skiinstructor and snowsport Education. Thanks for positive feedback and we look forward to then end of the season.

Also Included in the picture, Pelle Stenbäck, Stefan Andersson and Mr X. Photo: Peo Sjöberg.

My opinion is, that this tool certainly can help pro-skiers to improve their skills (balance, hands position, prevent rotation-improve position of the skier in the turns), but we have to be patient with them, because “fixed” hands are not typical in skiracing. Skiers must get used to Pole Position and they must accept it as a tool.

We will use Pole Position in the future for:

• On the first trainings in the start of the season, to improve basic position
• For corrective exercise in the start and during the season

Brane Ceferin, Slovenian Head Coach EC-team Women

We just got a fresh comment in our inbox from the trainer Mauro Pini of Switzerland. Jakob Svensson, f.m. Swedish Freestyle and partner of Pole Position did talk to Mauro about basic training and this is his comment on what Pole Position really does after training with Pole Position in New Zeeland:

I found Pole Position an interesting tool. It helps the skier:

• To find the best body position, especially those who have problems to get easily into the turn.
• To get rid of bad habits on upper body position (shoulders, arms and hips).
• To keep focus on details.

Thanks for your comments Mauro and we will see you

In August 2011 the Russian Coach of Women’s Alpine Team Marian Cernigoj trained with a Slovenian ski demonstrator and incorporated Pole Position in different exercises with four Russian girls. You can see the racer Dario Kolomova and how Pole Position stabilizes and is completely leveled to the hip and shoulders aiming straight into line of gravity.

Thanks for comments and picture Marian and we do like your skiing Darja, and we are looking forward to see you on a podium.