In 2003, Snowsport England Nordic introduced the idea of "SSE recognised on-snow events", the main purpose of this being to put skiers into contact with coaches during the snow season in an informal way; skiers benefit from the coach's advice and knowledge and coaches benefit from the opportunity to practice their coaching skills. It may also help to make trips more attractive.
The process of 'recognising' an event is to find out where SSE's coaches are going during the season, ask whether they are willing to offer their services, and publicise these events through clubs and on the SSE website. It is then up to other skiers, who are planning to go on the same trip, to get into contact with the coach. Because this is an informal arrangement, it excludes coaches and events which are 'professional', i.e. part of a trip for which there is proper payment for the coach. The plan is limited to those holding a Club Coach (or higher) on-snow award.
What coaches do as part of the coaching is entirely up to them and the needs of other skiers. If the coach is attending a race event lasting a week or so, they might for example offer one day of technique training and then be available to give other advice, such as waxing and race tactics, during the rest of the time. If the trip is a tour, the coach might decide to give less formal technique advice to individuals while they are all out skiing together. Whether the coaches charge or not for this service is, again, up to them although, if they do plan to charge, they should explain this to people beforehand. A more informal approach, such as the coach accepting one or several beers in the evening, may be a better sort of 'remuneration'.
To date, we have only recognised cross-country race events, but there is no reason why this should not be extended to any on-snow event, whether it is a race event, a ski tour, an XC downhill event, a club trip or whatever.
For the coming 2007/2008 winter season, the recognised events, so far are:
If anyone would like to tie up with one of the coaches, some contact details are below.