Year 10 student, Daragh McHale gives his account of a recent ski training trip to Landgraaf in the Netherlands.
“During the half term, ten boys from the Senior School travelled to Landgraaf to ski in the largest indoor snowdome in the world. This was an excellent opportunity for all of the skiers as most did not have a lot of experience training on snow, as we regularly train on dry slopes on a Friday evening.
It was an early start for all of the boys as we left at 7.00 am on the Monday morning, not arriving at our destination until late afternoon. It was then we got the first glimpse of the slope that we would be training on for the next four days.
The following morning was an early start and we prepared ourselves for a full day of training and gym work ahead of us. The transition from dry slope to snow took a bit of getting used to but after the first few runs; most people had got their snow legs back and were able to concentrate on improving their technique. The facilities at the centre allowed for video analysis and being able to analyse the runs made it much easier to work on correcting any mistakes for further improvement.
Later in the week we were lucky enough to meet and ski with Jack Daniel Peters, who is training for the 2018 Paralympics in Korea. Jack had his right leg amputated and skis on a single ski. He very kindly agreed to talk to us about his experience and how he overcame the challenges his disability presented so that he could continue skiing. The talk he gave was both motivating and inspiring and gave us an insight into the challenges of skiing with a disability and how much sport can transform a person’s life.
The training and practice certainly paid off as we came back better skiers with improved technique, knowledge and experience ready for the championships in Wengen in January 2018. A big thank you to Miss Evans and Mr Hindocha for giving up their time and I think all of us would look forward to going back soon.”
