The Young
Skier’s Guide
A visual guide to ski racing fundamentals for young racers and their coaches, co-branded for ten clubs, academies and federations, including a Czech-language edition.
12
editions
For ten clubs, academies and federations, including a Czech-language edition for the Czech Ski Association, plus Far West’s own and a generic edition other clubs could personalize.
The challenge
Far West Development Initiative (FWDI) wanted young racers to learn the fundamentals that even the best World Cup skiers keep coming back to, and to hear them in the same words from their coaches.
The first book was for the racers of Far West Skiing. Once other clubs and academies saw it, they wanted editions of their own, so the job became producing co-branded books across the country, affordably, and in hand when each club and academy needed them.
Two books,
one language.
The guide is built around nine key concepts and Ron LeMaster’s photomontages of World Cup racers, including Mikaela Shiffrin and Marcel Hirscher. It grew with the program into an 84-page athlete booklet, long enough to move to perfect binding, alongside a pocket guide for coaches. I created the original design and page system, did all of the layout and copy edited the book. On the first book, I also worked with Ron LeMaster and a writer to match each concept with the photomontage and video that show it best.
The athlete booklet is a visual guide. It’s built to be studied, not skimmed. Each concept gets a full-page photomontage with the key body positions labeled, so a young racer can see how each fundamental looks at the highest level. The book asks athletes to spend time with the pictures and imagine themselves inside the racer’s body, on their skis, feeling each position, instead of watching like a spectator.
The coach pocket guide gives coaches and athletes a common language. It carries the same photomontages and the same nine key concepts, with notes on what to look for, why it matters and the exceptions. On the hill, coaching can be as simple as pointing to a position in the picture and saying “do that.” Because both books use the same images and the same words, a racer hears on the hill exactly what they studied at home.
The coach guide is spiral-bound at the top on waterproof, tear-resistant paper, so it flips open and holds up on snow. We considered a digital version for phones, but coaches wanted a flipbook they could pull from a pocket, and cell service on a race hill can’t be counted on.
One system,
many editions.
One design system carried every edition, and each was still its own book: a cover in the organization’s color with a band of its own athletes’ photos and its logo, its own intro pages up front and its own club pages at the back. Editions could open with a letter from a World Cup athlete tied to the club, such as Mikaela Shiffrin for Ski & Snowboard Club Vail and Julia Mancuso for Far West, and a generic edition let other clubs add their own sticker.
Each organization supplied its own photography, logos and localized content, including the Czech Ski Association’s Czech text. Over the years, I designed each edition’s intro and club pages from that content within the original design, reviewed and copy edited its text, and prepared every edition for print. After the original book, each club, academy and federation worked with me directly on its own edition, so the work ran as an ongoing program with many clients, not a string of one-off jobs.
Created for
Editions for ten clubs, academies and federations
Content and approvals
Each organization filled in an intake form and dropped its photos, logo, intro letter and copy into a shared Google Drive folder. I worked with each one on its pages and approvals, so every edition could turn around fast.
Shared runs to control cost
Each organization ordered its own quantity, so I worked out print and shipping costs with each one. Where schedules allowed, I grouped editions into shared gang runs to split setup costs: on one later run, the shared interior pages printed once for several editions, with covers and club pages printed separately. Meeting each group deadline saved the clubs money, so I held managers to it.
Print to delivery
Many organizations sent low-resolution web photos, so I reviewed each one for print, kept what would hold up and replaced what wouldn’t. I cleared image permissions, prepared the print files, worked with the printers on estimates and schedules, and managed shipping and delivery.
From the page
to video.
Beside the photomontages, QR codes open video of the same runs, which an athlete can slow down to watch the movement the stills break down.
The videos lived on Ron LeMaster’s own website. After his unexpected death, his site and its domain lapsed, and the codes stopped working. A close friend of LeMaster’s worked with his family to find the original footage. FWDI preferred to keep the videos with the book rather than on YouTube, so I moved them to a site of their own and made new QR codes for the newer books. Clubs still using older books got an insert card that points readers to the new site.
Every edition
on time.
Twelve editions since 2018: ten for clubs, academies and federations, including the Czech Ski Association in Czech, plus Far West Skiing’s own and a generic edition, across several print runs, including reprints of the athlete and coach guides. Every edition was delivered on time. The video library is back online for the newer books, and the older ones point to it.
In 2024, Ski Racing Media turned the guide’s nine key concepts into a nine-part series on its website, built from the photomontages I supplied.
What made it work was a repeatable system: one design system and one intake process that absorbed each organization’s own content, shared runs that kept costs down, and books that stay in use alongside their videos. A printed book outlasts most websites, so I plan the link as carefully as the page: a domain set to renew automatically, with a calendar reminder as a backup, and codes that point to addresses that can be redirected without a reprint.