Alpine ski conditioning: planning and testing

App microcycle view: a training week with warm-up, jumps and accelerations on one day

Building the season

Alpine ski conditioning from dryland training to race season

In the macrocycle you set up the phases, for example general preparation from early summer, specific preparation into the fall and the competition phase in winter. For each phase you plan weekly volume in hours and intensity in percent, plus focus and objectives. Races and tests appear as points on the calendar, main competitions carry a star, and a countdown shows the next important competition.

A glacier training block goes in as a training camp, with the trips there and back as travel days. Travel days block no planning and count toward no metric. Through the mesocycle and microcycle, the macrocycle turns into weekly training planning, and you can save the finished plan as a template for next season.

Phases with weekly volume in hours and intensity in percent
Competition types such as FIS or European Cup from a catalog
Training camps and travel days as their own calendar entries
Week copy with progression, also for other athletes

Athlete holding a medicine ball at arm's length in front of her, in a tent gym

Dryland training

Strength, jumping power and coordination in dryland training

Conditioning for alpine skiing usually centers on leg strength, jumping power, core stability, balance and endurance. The exercise library with over 1,600 exercises covers these areas, from strength and plyometrics to coordination and mobility. Among the methodologies there is one for alpine ski conditioning with 45 suggested exercises.

In a program you plan reps, load or %1RM, rest and RPE for each set, and Tletify converts percentages into kilograms. Circuits, intervals, EMOM and AMRAP have their own block types with a timer in the app. With Pro a program can go to up to 20 athletes, identical for all or adjusted per athlete. The library does not include ski technique drills for the snow.

Over 1,600 exercises for strength, jumps, coordination and mobility
Methodology for alpine ski conditioning with 45 exercises
Load suggestion and last performance in workout mode
Mechanical load tracked as tonnage and ground contacts

Athlete jumping onto a plyo box in a tent gym, with a barbell in a rack behind him

Performance tests

Test and compare strength, jumps and balance

The catalog has no tests made specifically for skiing. Among its roughly 150 performance tests, though, you will find 1RM tests such as the back squat, isometric strength tests and the IMTP, jump tests such as CMJ, squat jump and drop jump with contact time and RSI, Bosco jump series over 15 and 60 seconds, and balance tests such as the Y-Balance and single-leg stance.

If your club uses a protocol that is missing, you create it as your own test. A test can include several exercises and athletes; with several participants you get a ranking, and each athlete sees only their own results. Timing gate data comes in as CSV or TXT files, for example from Microgate. Max tests with load are locked for athletes under 16.

App analysis view with team readiness over 30 days and the athletes with the largest changes

Team load management

Keep training load and readiness of the whole group in view

In the daily check your athletes answer four questions on a scale of 1 to 5 about sleep quality, energy level, muscle soreness and mood. On the Daily check page (Pro) you see the whole group at a glance, as long as the athletes have shared their daily check with you. Individual sessions on snow are planned as programs, for example with the sport as its own row; once completed with an RPE, they count toward load like any other session.

Duration times RPE gives the daily load. From that Tletify calculates the acute:chronic workload ratio (ACWR), monotony and strain for you, while strength work and jumps are tracked separately as tonnage and ground contacts. In the analysis you compare several athletes or a group, each in its own color; details are on the training load management page. Athletes never see these metrics.

Group overview in the daily check, with athlete permission
Snow sessions with duration and RPE in the same load calculation
Availability and days missed in the analysis (Pro)
Return after injury documented in five stages

Questions and answers

Are there ski technique drills or ski-specific tests?

No. The exercise library focuses on athletic development, strength, coordination and mobility; technique drills for the snow and tests made specifically for skiing are not included. You can create your own exercises and tests, though, for example a jump protocol your club uses.

Does Tletify work for ski clubs and youth squads?

Groups, programs for up to 20 athletes and the Team plan with subaccounts are built for this. Protective rules apply to young athletes: max tests with load are locked under 16, messaging is locked under 14, and from 14 to 15 parental consent is required. More on the page for teams.

Can I plan the return to training after an injury?

Yes. You document injuries in the body profile and structure the return to training in five stages. Only someone who may edit the body profile, such as a coach or physiotherapist, can sign off a stage. Exercises that involve a restricted risk zone are flagged in the program. Tletify's evaluations do not replace a medical assessment.

Where does Tletify come from?

Tletify comes from Ortisei (St. Ulrich) in Val Gardena, South Tyrol. Data is stored on servers in Switzerland, and the web app and the app are available in German, Italian and English. See how coaches work with Tletify on the page for coaches.