One of Australia’s most talented young mogul skiers enjoyed an invaluable lesson with the world number one, Dale Begg-Smith, when the Olympic champion returned to Perisher Blue for a camp this week.
Dale had offered to take day off from training to work with one of the country’s next generation of skiers, an offer the OWI and the moguls coaches jumped at.
“I asked them to pick out one of the younger guys who would get the most benefit out of me spending some time with him and they chose Matt Graham,” Dale said.
The choice was not surprising. Matt finished in sixth place in the Australian New Zealand Cup moguls event in Mt Buller at the end of August, despite being nearly two months short of his 14th birthday.
“It went good,” Dale said of the session with the NSW youngster.
“He’s a really young kid, so there are a few things that I remember from when I was younger that helped me with longevity (in the sport).”
“We worked on some absorption stuff and some moves he can use so that he’s not beating his body up too much.”
“It kind of went hand in hand with what he’s been working on anyway – not so much technical stuff, just absorption and some different ways of doing things.”
“With the absorption stuff, he was following me down the hill and he was surprised that he was going faster but it felt easier and he was aiming downhill more.”
Dale is not only impressed with Matt’s skiing talent, but also his attitude.
“I’ve known him for quite a few years and he’s a good kid – he listens.”
With the Perisher Blue camp finishing in two days, Dale is heading back to North America for a month’s work in the gym, before the team heads to Zermatt in Switzerland to work on-snow for three weeks.
Then they head to Ruka, Finland, for final pre-season training ahead of the opening event of the season in Moscow on December 12.
The good news for Dale is that he’s getting absolutely no pain from his injured knee.
“It’s been really good. I’ve been kind of surprised how good it’s been - I can’t even remember where the pain was,” he says.
