Arlberg ski sport sets a precedent
101 years of St. Christoph Federal Sports Centre
Correct skiing: everyone wants to be able to do it, but not everyone can teach it. This requires professional training, as provided by the Ski Austria Academy, the former St. Christoph Federal Sports Centre. The beginnings of the Arlberg's world-class snow sports centre of excellence go back 101 years.
Strap on the ”planks“ and embark on a wild ride? Now that is how things used to be done. It didn’t take long, however, for emphasis to be placed on correct techniques for skiing, because it increases both safety and enjoyment on the slopes. The ”snow-sport ambassadors“ from the Arlberg - bold and innovative ski pioneers like Hannes Schneider - optimised the motion sequences and posture. The whole world followed them. But for the Arlberg technique to become a school, precise guidelines for teaching and constructive curricula were needed. And a suitable location was required for Tyrolean ski instructor training.
Ernst Janner's trail maker’s house
After founding of the Arlberg Ski School in 1921, Prof. Ernst Janner, a sports teacher at the grammar school in Innsbruck, was delighted to hear about the reform of Austrian school’s physical education. As a result, skiing was classified as a ”winter exercise“ from 1922. Because of the great need for ski instructors, efforts were also made at that time to create uniform guidelines for extracurricular ski instruction. During a ski tour, Ernst Janner discovered the empty trail-maker's house next to the hospice in St. Christoph and immediately recognised its favourable location. He renovated it and turned it into a ski home for pupils and students. In 1924, the Federal Ministry of Education took over its administration. Ernst Janner was entrusted with the first all-Austrian teacher training in St. Christoph, and the Federal Sports Home became the hub of Austrian ski teaching. In 1926 Ernst Janner published his first textbook, ”Arlbergschule“. His contribution to the development of skiing is the introduction of the hunkered skiing position.
Stefan Kruckenhauser's skiing style
Under the direction of Stefan Kruckenhauser (1934 to 1972), a curriculum was developed at the Federal Sports Centre that propelled alpine skiing to a whole new level. Kruckenhauser made use of film technology and recorded the motion sequences of skiing in detail with his camera. These were very distinctive and caused great astonishment amongst his competitors. At the 2nd International Ski Congress in Davos, Kruckenhauser irritated the French ski instructors most of all with his new style of skiing, a legs-together, wriggly, snakelike way of going down the hill, using hip movement and heel thrust from the waist down. He called it Wedeln—literally, wagging the tail—and it swept the world like no other form of skiing before or since. The international press soon declared Kruckenhauser the ”Pope of Skiing“. At the end of the 1970s, skiers were more attracted to mogul pistes and undulating slopes, which slowed the ”wedel turn’s“ popularity and the ”jet turn“ was propagated by the French. However, Kruckenhauser's successor as director of the Federal Sports Centre, Prof. Franz Hoppichler, did not rate this very highly. He commented: ”Only racers actually ski in the 'jet' position, because the slope forces them to do so. However, this technique exhausts pleasure skiers after just one run down a nursery slope!“
Franz Hoppichler’s swinging ski
Prof. Franz Hoppichler, the successful racing director of the Austrian Ski Association and Stefan Kruckenhauser’s son-in-law, became head of training at the Federal Sports Centre in 1972. During this time, increasing emphasis was placed on safe skiing in ski instructor training. Moreover, Hoppichler further developed ”wedeln“ into a more generous ”swinging“ technique. The step turn, adopted from racing into skiing methodology, thus gained greater credibility and ended the dominance of the parallel turn, which had endured for one and a half decades. In the last decade of the 20th century, however, arguments about the ”correct“ skiing technique faded increasingly into the background. In the interests of the tourism industry, which wanted to promote skiing as an enjoyable leisure sport, the commonalities were emphasised. This was also in keeping with Franz Hoppichler's opinion: he reacted quickly to the needs of tourism and was a highly sought-after speaker and demonstrator of Austrian skiing technique at congresses all over the world. One of the most important sports congresses, the Interski Congress, founded in Zürs in 1951, returned to the Arlberg in 1991 after 40 years. The 14th Interski Congress in St. Anton am Arlberg was attended by 30 nations with 2,500 accredited participants. This success was repeated in 2011, with the second edition of the Interski Congress in St. Anton am Arlberg.
St. Christoph Ski Academy
During the 1995/96 winter season, the alpine head of the Austria Ski Team, Prof. Werner Wörndle, took over management of the Federal Sports Home in St. Christoph. Three years later the home was handed over to the Austrian Ski Association. Wörndle founded the ”Skiakademie St. Christoph“ ski school and became managing director of Austria Ski Sportanlagen Betriebsgesellschaft, which ÖSV set up to run the ski academy. The dawn of a new era also manifested itself in architectural terms: the old trail maker’s house was replaced by a modern building with a hotel in 2006. Skiing also developed further with the help of new equipment. Carving was now the new norm.
From ski instructor to snow sports instructor
Thanks to the initiative of the Austrian Ski Instructors' Association, ski instructors have now become snow sports instructors and the range of courses available is more diverse than ever.
Herbert Mandl has been managing director of Ski Austria Academy St. Christoph since 2013. As a former ski racer and highlysuccessful Ski World Cup coach and racing director, he knows exactly what is important in training. The aim is not only to promote skiing or to give ambitious amateur racers a solid foundation for winter preparation, but above all to promote safety.
