2019 AST Coach Journal: Darin McBeath

After a hectic Nov/Dec racing schedule the Alberta Ski Team has been enjoying some high quality local training and racing in January.  The first couple weeks saw the majority of the ski team training locally at Nakiska, C.O.P., Lake Louise and Norquay.  We are so blessed here in Alberta to have so many high quality training venues and I would like to take the time to acknowledge the support of our local club coaches, program directors and ski area managers.  The Alberta Ski Team has taken the initiative to vary it’s training locations and to try and work with local FIS teams as much as possible and these clubs and ski areas have been great in accommodating that.

Ashleigh Alexander getting back into race form at Nakiska in early January

The racing season has been a mixture of successes and setbacks, as is normal in any sport endeavor.  As athletes and coaches we all want to perform our best at every opportunity, but in reality our plans don’t always go accordingly.  For the second year in a row Ashleigh Alexander sustained an injury early in the year.  Ashleigh took some time off over the Christmas break to recover, then slowly and methodically trained to get back to a confident level of skiing to be race ready.  This culminated with back to back victories at Lake Louise in the GS races last week.

Ashleigh Alexander with a GS victory in Lake Louise

After another 5 day training block the Alberta Ski Team is looking forward to the next series of races in Western North America.  These races will be a good mid season prep before travelling east for the National Championships, our largest event of the season.  I look forward to seeing our committed athletes achieve their potential in these series.  From Leslie, Jonas and I, as well as all the AST athletes I would like to thank you for your encouragement and support and please feel free to stop and say hello on the hill and even jump in for a lap on our course!

Darin McBeath