Welcome back to the Next Level Skiing podcast, brought to you by Wagner Skis. Willie Volckhausen started skiing when he was 2 and raced with Sunlight's local ski club for over a decade. He spent 18 years coaching young skiers with the Aspen Valley Ski Club, developing not just ripping racers but athletes with a lifelong passion for skiing. And now he’s a ski instructor with the Aspen Ski School who spends his summers working his family’s farm near Paonia. Over his decades of being coached and coaching, Willie’s picked up more than a few techniques for improving our turns. Listen in and hear Willie talk about critical drills, his description of the best coach in the world, how farming has informed his skiing and when to find the perfect turn.

Topics:

1:00: 18 years skiing with the Bad News Bears of ski racing at Ski Sunlight

3:10: Transitioning to alpine racing coach for U12s for the Aspen Valley Ski and Snowboard Club

6:20: Balancing performance and victory with sustaining a passion for skiing

7:00: The best year for winning at Aspen Valley Ski Club wasn’t about the podiums

10:10: No pedestals for elite skiers

12:10: What coaching and young racers taught him about skiing

16:00: “Skiing is the easy part” about being a ski instructor

17:00: Standing on the outside ski

19:40: The up and over drill

20:20: The best coach in the world “should be totally deaf and totally mute.”

26:00: How learning patience through farming helps with skiing

30:50: How can you identify the perfect turn? Wait.

Quotes:

“Ski racing is an individual sport that is dominated by teams.” - Willie Volckhausen

“It’s not all about that one person. Only one person’s gonna win and there’s ten of us. So what are the other nine kids supposed to do the day that so-and-so wins the race? That’s what we focused on a lot.” - Willie Volckhausen

“Coaches and mentors have that opportunity every day to not put their elite athletes on a pedestal. The kids who win know they’re good. They know they’re going to win again. They know they’re expected to win. I think that’s some of the worst pressure we could possibly put on junior athletes.” - Willie Volckhausen

“If you tuck and roll, get your feet back below you, and you stand up without ever stopping, technically that's not a crash; that’s a ground trick.” - Willie Volckhausen

Resources:

Willie’s Instagram

Wagner Custom Skis

The perfect turn is the next turn, with Willie Volckhausen