Rotary hears ski coach

Waimarino Bulletin, Issue 5, 19 August 1988, Page 2

Rotary hears ski coach

Guest speaker at a recent Waimarino Rotary meeting was Sepp Brunner, coach of the New Zealand Mitsubishi Ski Team. He gave the Rotarians a review of his skiing experience, starting by telling them that he b e g a n skiing at age three. He injured his leg at three and a half and after a few months was taken to the doctor because the leg was not healing. The doctor

found that the leg was broken! When he started school, skiing was the only way to get there on many days, said Sepp. As he got older he decided to concentrate on skiing as a sport and eventually was selected for the Austrian junior ski team. The next move was to the senior team but the he said the expense was beyond his family 's means.

He had to drop out of competitive skiing and decided to take u p coaching instead. A few years later he became a member of the Austrian Demo team and travelled the world showing Austrian ski products. He later went to Australia to gain coaching and instructing experience. His first pupil convinced Sepp that he had a language problem. He could show people a snow plough and get them on the lift but he couldn't tell them to avoid the rocks. As a result his first pupil spent some time in hospital! He quickly got on top of this language problem. Sepp first coached the New Zealand B Team overseas, then was invited to coach the A Team. He said the New Zealand A Team skiers were rated in the first 400 and as 2000 racers were rated this was no small achievement for such a small nation. He said their progress through the ranks would take a lot of effort and expense as well as an element of luck. When asked how the FIS series were going (at the time) he gave Turoa full marks for the organisation. He felt the slopes were ideal, the organisation brilliant and that he could see no reason at all why Turoa could not hold a World Cup event. Adverse weather was the only problem he could foresee. He was particularly impressed when one morning he took his ski team up to be first on the field only t o find that there was already about 100 people there to assist. He said this would not happen at overseas organised races. Bill Peach, Waimarino Rotary