Building a skier, a ski racer, age 10-12 Wilson's ski evolution

This is a story of a kid's evolution as a ski racer. Many of you came to know Wilson when we made this Driving the Inside Knee video in November of 2021. For this video today, I'd like to share with you really the extraordinary story of Wilson's development as a skier over the last three years. I'll never forget the first moment I met Wilson Walker. His first day as a U10, he was eight years old. His family had just moved here from Ohio and we were cross-country skiing and Wilson could not stand on his two feet. I assigned a coach specifically for Wilson to give him a bit of a head start. He would crash and he would burn and he fell so hard and he would always get back up. Hence, I nominated him for the Athlete of the Week for the entire Steamboat Springs Winter Sports Club. Well, fast forward two years, Wilson and the Walker family had some catch-up to do so we went to Hood and the education began. I'd call this first trip to Hood an orientation. Early mornings, all of the Mount Hood weather and variables, technique, working hard, afternoon activities, and of course meeting Fuxi. I tell families that learning to ski race is like running a marathon. Wilson is 10 years old here and we hope to have him at this when he's 18 if not longer. There's two primary things you have to learn as a ski racer. One is tactics. You get that from running gates and two are skills and you get that from drills and lots and lots of free skiing. On the front of your boots, cross over that ski, Wilson. The U.S. ski team says you've got to be a skier first and that comes from free skiing and it's through free skiing that you cultivate the joy and the passion, the instinct, touch, athleticism, and then skills along the way, balance, all that. Here's our balance work on Nordic skis. Wilson on his GS skis. Get that pull plant, Wilson. Rocking it. Fight for your balance, Wilson. How you doing, Wilson? So it can be tenuous times for 10, 11, 12-year-olds because there is so much to be learned, so much skill, and then tactics. I was learning tactics when I was on the U.S. ski team as a 20-year-old. It takes patience, mileage, a lot of time, and we don't tend to be that patient or more specifically often it's the parents who aren't patient enough. In our culture, we want immediate results. It takes time. That's the marathon. Playing chase. I think this image right here sums up where we go from here. Here you're skidding the entry of your turn where we want to work on a clean carved entry. I believe you know how to do this because I've seen you do this. Committing to a clean carved entry at the top of the turn on a steep pitch will take a hunger and a desire and a commitment unlike anything you've ever experienced before. It's choosing to do it. Wilson, Winter Park, you're 12 champs. So this time I want you to bend the heck out of it but make a little bit more of a GS turn with a little deeper turn shape, okay? But don't park and ride. You got to work it, all right? Explosive, Wilson. Explosive turning. Explosive jumping. Whoa. You made it. I'd like to see you making your own track, not following somebody else's track. Give me just a sec. The moguls are a good warm-up for you going into slalom. My favorite warm-up. Why? Every day I do slalom. Why? Because one, in slalom you have to be quick with your turning and in moguls you have to be even quicker so it's great to get those quick moving muscles warmed up before you hop in the course. And because it helps with the absorption because you have to absorb the bumps if you're taking a fall line line down the bumps you have to absorb and it's the same with slalom and like the transition. Once your legs come out they come back in and you have to absorb them and then get them back out there. Yeah, right through there. I'm with you. Oh yeah. Leave me in the dust. I love it. Nice. Oh yeah, Wilson. I love that one. Nice line. That was so good. Way to go. That was great.