About

Bearsden Racing is for skiers that want to learn to race competitively and develop their skiing to a point where they can competently take on anything that’s thrown at them. We aim to provide the tools, support and environment for our athletes to become passionate, lifelong snowsports enthusiasts. The best skiers in the world are well rounded, they play multiple sports, ski a variety of terrain and in doing so develop a large range of skills that they can tap into. Most of all, we want our racers to enjoy the process and have fun while building their skills from the foundation up. 

Bearsden is proudly a members club that has been running for over 50 years in the north of Glasgow. Some of our racers have gone on to become Scottish Team, race World Cup and even the Olympics! 

The Race Department holds training on the following evenings; 

• Saturday Feeder Programme Race & Freestyle

• Tuesday Development Sessions

• Wednesday & Sunday early evenings for the Training Team

• Wednesday & Sunday late evenings for the Competition Team

Camps

We highly recommend as much snow time as possible for all trainees, so we have teamed up with Scottish Ski Club as a provider of alpine camps and weekend snow training in the Highlands. 

https://www.scottishskiclub.org.uk/

Bearsden Racing Pathway

Ski racing should be enjoyable - skiing is a sport for life and can lead to wonderful opportunities and friendships. In order to develop talent in snowsports, and in any area of life, the individuals will need to work hard and overcome challenges along the way. Each athlete develops at different rates and needs time to acquire the skills to make them feel comfortable, before developing the difficulty of the task.  

We offer the following training:

• Weekly Training: 30-35 sessions of 1-2 hrs technical skiing & gates.

• Race Prep: Gates sessions to improve race tactics & technique.

• Training+: Sessions at Hillend, Firpark, etc.

• Scottish Snow Training: Sessions on the real stuff, in the Highlands

• External Training Camps: Fitness & skiing options with other clubs

• Private Training: Bespoke private sessions held whenever and wherever you want.

Our ski racing pathway is designed around Long Term Athlete Development. BSC will provide high quality training sessions at the club and this should be part of a mix with snow opportunities and other sports. 

We currently have three race training levels, starting with ‘Development’ on Tuesdays which is for aspiring skiers to get to the required technical level. On Wednesdays and Sundays we hold the ‘Training Team’ for those who have either just joined racing or are at the younger end of the spectrum, and finally the ‘Competition Team’ for more accomplished racers who have been racing for a number of years.

Wednesday is technical training to improve technique and Sundays are gate training to develop racing skills. When the snow arrives we hope to head to the mountains up north!

Tuesday - Development

Race development will run on Tuesday nights 6.30 – 8.00pm with the programme overseen by the head coach. Race Development will run from the start of September until Easter.

By being selected to take part in Race development, there will be a natural progression into the Wednesday and Sunday night race programme when the child reaches the standard and minimum age for Race training. Trainees in race development will be invited to attend our trials and encouraged to enter the dry slope races at Bearsden.

Wed & Sunday - Training Team

Wednesday 6.30 – 8pm & Sunday 5.15 – 6.45pm

This is a fundamental skills level program looking to develop athletes who have an interest in ski racing. All athletes should have a desire to improve their skills at the club and other facilities in Scotland. They should be comfortable in performing controlled parallel / rotational turns on the main slope. 

Athletes are expected to be involved with the dry slope races at Bearsden, Bellahouston and Hillend to gain experience of racing. These races are great fun and an ideal entry level. 

Wednesday nights will generally be focused on technical skiing and Sunday on skiing through gates. Excellence at both is essential to be a good racer. 

Wed & Sunday - Competition Team

Wednesday 8.15-9.45pm & Sunday 6.45-8.15pm

This is a program for athletes who wish to, or are already competing at Scottish and British dry slope and indoor slope races with a desire to enter more Scottish and British snow races at home and abroad. It is expected that athletes will have already developed a passion & commitment to the sport out with coaching contact, and want to maximise their training time. Athletes should be prepared to work on all areas of their performance and aspire to improve on their own personal performance. This is based on skill level and athlete / parent commitment to the sport.

Fitness sessions are an important part of race training. Trainees are encouraged to do at least two other sessions of physical activity per week. 

There will also be European training camps available that we will put on throughout the season.