Do women ski differently from men? Champion skier turned coach Amanda Pirie thinks they do, and she is making the differences the focus of her training courses
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At 3,000m, I emerge from a tunnel cut through the mountain into snow, swirling at me, stinging my face. The Saas-Fee locals have advised me to put on all the layers I own.
"It's not so bad," calls my ski coach, Amanda Pirie, as she clicks on her skis cheerfully and pushes off down the craggy mountain. "I'll quote you on that," I call, but my words are lost in a freezing cloud.
If I were a man, I might have put on a show of bravado at this point. (Cold? Pah!) I could then have taken that bravado and skied with it ? as fast as I could ? all the way down to the village.
I'm not a man, and I am tempted to wimp out. It is -12C with a wind-chill factor that brings it down to -20C. But I am here in Switzerland with Amanda ? a British coach and racer who specialises in women's skiing. And we are discussing the difference between male and female skiers.
Amanda grew up skiing in Aberdeen, and was a British alpine ski champion from 1992-2002. She was a British universities snowsports champion from 2000-2003, and was ranked 56th in the world at Super-G in 2001. In other words, she's damn good at what she does. Ten years ago, at the age of 20, she began coaching while still racing. She has coached the English ski team and the British children's team among many others. Women's skiing is her new speciality.
"If you see someone firing down a piste, it's rarely a woman," says Amanda bluntly. "Girls don't need to show off. They like to look good. They like to ski well."
An equaliser for the ladies then: men go for bravado, women for control. In all-female ski groups she sees women encouraging each other, where men might compete. In a mixed group, women might hang back or look out for others. In an all-women group, they have more "me" time.
Amanda carries tissues and chocolate, and keeps asking how I am. She is clearly tuned in to what her pupils need, be this speed and adrenaline (men) or stops and steering away from crowded slopes (women).
The course focuses on physical, rather than emotional, differences, though. Today's lesson begins with efficiency. Men can get by on strength when skiing, says Amanda. But for women, this isn't so. It is important for women to ski as efficiently as possible, to conserve strength throughout the day. An important part of this is being "stacked", says Amanda: hips and legs in a square and everything stacked on top of that. For me, at the moment, one ski always leads the other as I turn, which is a waste of energy.
If you are faced with a difficult slope in poor condition at the end of the day when you are tired, you can really struggle, warns Amanda. And that can really put you off the sport.
Next, we focus on is the hips. A woman's centre of mass is often lower down ? in the hips ? than a man's (we tend to be shorter). This means women are good at keeping balanced, but men have an advantage in terms of efficient levers. The ideal position for a women is to have her centre of mass over her feet ? the skis will then turn like they are meant to. So Amanda has me lean as far forward as possible for four turns, then as far back as possible, then ski with my hips over my feet (the correct position). I ski with my hands on my hips without poles. Then I hold my poles in front of me, leaning into them.
Some women's boots are made with a raised heel, to help push the hips forward, Amanda tells me. You can also buy a "heel raise" to put inside a boot. Other differences when it comes to equipment are that women's skis are shorter than men's and tend to be softer (which makes them easier to turn). The bindings are also mounted further forward (which helps with starting the turn).
Lesson over for the morning, I wolf down a bowlful of spaghetti bolognese in highly unladylike fashion at the Morenia restaurant half-way up the mountain. Then we're off again.
One knee is tipping in. My inside ski should be stuck to the snow. My weight should be on my downhill ski. I need to work on my lateral separation (hips in, shoulders down the mountain).
By the time I get back to the village at the end of the day I am so tired I can barely appreciate streets that would not be out of place in a winter wonderland advert ? there is a rule in Saas-Fee that each house must be at least 60% wood.
At my hotel, the Schweizerhof, I use my last scrap of energy to crawl to the spa. My aching muscles thank me for the first time that day as I step into a blissfully empty ? sauna.
Day two in the mountain dawns cold. Amanda ? ever the optimist ? points out the blue of the ice in the mountain rock, something that can be seen only in bad weather.
Here, surrounded by the highest peaks in the Swiss Alps, we're talking psychology. "Not everyone is going to end up skiing the same. We are not robots," says Amanda. "Everyone has a different shape, different goals, a different psychology. Therefore you are going to ski differently."
Lynn Sharp, head coach for the girls' programme at the British Ski Academy in Chamonix, works with Amanda on race coaching. She says that women ski within their technical ability, then add speed. Men add speed, and worry about technical "details" later.
It takes courage to lean down the mountain, Amanda says, and women do often tend to have problems with that. But you need to lean down the mountain, especially when it is steep, to get your skis round.
"Women can easily be as good at skiing as men. Easily. But I think there are not so many that get to that level," she says.
It is understandable that women are scared by adventure sports, Amanda says. We have a stronger self-preservation instinct. Her advice is this: "Just be confident and have fun and trust yourself."
With her words ringing in my ears, I set off alone for a couple of hours, taking the world's highest underground funicular (the Metro Alpin) up to a height of 3,500m. The weather is so severe that the T-bar lifts up there have been closed all morning. There is barely a soul around. Straight in front of me is a cloud, hanging menacingly. The wind is cold. I clip on my skis, and ski into the cloud, thinking, "It's not so bad." I've learned something, it seems.
At the other side, my reward is waiting. The snow is so fresh it creaks under my skis as I cut fresh tracks down the barely touched mountain. A slice of blue sky appears, set vivid against white mountain tips.
It's one of those moments every skier hopes for. Stop for a hot chocolate? Now? No chance.
? A women's ski course (no more than six in a group) with Amanda Pirie costs �190pp for two days, �280 for three days, or �450 for five days. Private tuition costs �195 for half a day, or �375 for a full day. More information at amandapirie.co.uk. Inghams offers a week at Hotel Schweizerhof on a half-board basis from �879pp, including flights from Gatwick to Geneva and transfers (020-8780 6680, inghams.co.uk). A one-day entry to the spa at Hotel Schweizerhof (schweizerhof-saasfee.ch) costs about �40
Source: http://www.guardian.co.uk/travel/2011/feb/05/women-ski-coach-amanda-pirie
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