About Ambition Racing

History

Ambition Racing was set up back in 2007 as a new training body with the aim of providing quality training program's to young athlete persueing a career in alpine ski racing.

Ambition started off back then with a 'Core Program', looking to encourage athletes to follow a structured program similar to that of a national team. At the time, this was relatively unheard of within any club but it was something that we believed in and still believe in very strongly at Ambition. The aim was to build a strong team, who would be surrounded by the same coaches and athletes all winter, while at the same time creating a very clear structure to allow for good communication between the parents, athletes and the Ambition staff.

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Originally, the plan was to offer a Children's Program only and create 2 teams of 8 athletes. However, we eventually decided to run a pilot Junior Program in year 1 with a further 8 athletes - a program that has had great success over the past 4 years. The original academic program was very much an ad-hoch program, with core subject tutors brought in for specific weeks of activity, focusing on creating a productive environment for the athletes to learn within at the local college.

After a successful first winter, the Junior Program was expanded in 2008 to include 2 teams of 8 athletes to match the structure of the children's program. We also decided to invest in a 5thcoach, to create a 'floating role', thereby offering more flexibility within the teams. Tutors were hired on a seasonal basis to add more flexibility to the educational program and the role of School's Liaison was created to improve the communication between the UK schools, Ambition tutors, parents and athletes.

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In 2009 the program structure's that had been so successful during years 1&2 remained unchanged, while we added a further tutor to the team to cover languages also.

In the summer of 2010, Ambition expanded to run a Senior Program, catering for athletes who had finished full time education. The program consisted of a team of 4 athletes run as a stand-alone program. The new team created a high-quality option for older athletes, while at the same time challenging our younger juniors and lengthening our own performance pathway.

At the end of the 2011 season, after the team gained some of its best results, Ambition invested heavily in new premises to base the team from for the 2011/2012 seasons and beyond. Ambition made a long-term commitment to running the Children, Junior and Senior Program's from Leogang, Austria, a location we felt would offer more variety in training, more flexibility in programs and unite all of our athletes under one roof.

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Ambition Values

• Performance Based - Every decision/direction that Ambition makes or takes will be based upon how it will help to improve performance. This is the over-riding factor in all decision making.
• Attention to Detail - The Ambition program is set up in a way that allows coaches to work individually with athletes on a year-round basis. It is the responsibility of the Ambition coaches to assist and give advice across all aspects of an athletes’ program. Sir Clive Woodward: ‘it is easier to improve 100 aspects by 1%, than 1 aspect by 100%.’
• Education and Communication - The Ambition program is about the parents, athletes and coaches working together to create an optimum learning environment. Ambition Racing will communicate with all involved about how to get the most out of our program.
• Work Hard, Play Hard - At Ambition Racing we seek to use our contact time on snow to the best effect, this means following a very tough, full-on program with little free time for coaches and athletes. The program will be very tough, it will be very hard, but getting to the top of any sport/business requires full dedication and perseverance. Any time off that the team has, Ambition will use to build a strong team environment among athletes and staff, through activities both on and off the hill.
• Elite training environment - Ambition expects athletes from as young as 10 to work in a professional and responsible manner throughout all aspects of their program. Athletes will be guided, educated and pushed towards this way of thinking from a young age, so that they act like young professionals both on and off the hill. Ability is nothing without attitude.