FREESTYLE SKIING - MOGULS: Mogul skiing head coach Steve Desovich predicts that his squad of seven athletes and the rest of the World Cup field competing in Ruka, Finland, this weekend are in for an “extremely challenging” start to the season.

Desovich, who has many years of international coaching experience, categorised the Ruka course as one which must be treated with a high degree of respect, otherwise an athlete will leave the event disappointed.

At his first inspection of the Ruka course this week, Desovich immediately identified areas of the course that will require specific and additional focus.

“It’s a steep pitch, icy, man-made base course and consequently it is very challenging all the time,” Desovich said.

“The fast snow makes for a really difficult off-the-top jump landing and ski out.

“I’m sure we can get some mileage on it, which is a very good thing.”

The squad consisting of Britteny Cox, Nicole Parks, Matt Graham, Dale Begg-Smith, Brodie Summers, Sam Hall and Taylah O’Neill, have been training in Ruka for almost three weeks.

Desovich has been happy with how each of his athletes has been preparing for the season and has set his charges a general goal of “engaging in a process of getting better and better each week” throughout December and January, leading in to the Sochi Olympic Winter Games in Russia next February.

Desovich sees the stint in Ruka as a training camp with an event at the end and it has served as an ideal way to continue the months of preparation already invested in the season ahead.

“As our team is relatively young we try to build skills, performance from those skills, make all the adjustments, work hard, keep them happy and have slightly more emphasis on dealing with the pressure at the events,” he said.

The event will mark the return of Begg-Smith, an Olympic gold and silver medallist, who has not competed in three years.

Coincidentally, Begg-Smith, Australia’s most successful winter Olympian, last competed at World Cup level in Ruka on December 11, 2010, where he placed sixth, and has since remained out of international skiing.

Desovich, who has shared a long association with Begg-Smith, said that he is skiing pretty well and is in good physical shape.

“He is getting back nice and slowly,” Desovich said.  “We’ll see how it goes.”