About ARCI
Alpine Ski Race Coach Education.
Built Around Coach Development.
ARCI — the Alpine Race Coaches Institute — is based in Zug, Switzerland, and operates internationally. The institute is incorporated as Alpine Race Coaches Institute GmbH, currently under incorporation. It is an education system dedicated specifically to alpine ski race coaching, developing coaches through a structured pathway from junior race development through FIS and international high-performance environments.
Better coaches develop better athletes.
Why ARCI
The International Transfer of Coaching Knowledge
Alpine ski race coaching is taught almost entirely within national systems. Each national qualification reflects the tradition, the terrain and the competitive structure of the country that issues it, and its content is designed to serve that country’s athletes. A coach educated in one system carries the methods and the vocabulary of that system.
At the highest level of the sport, coaching knowledge does cross borders. World Cup coaches change teams and nations across a career, and each appointment carries the practice of one racing culture into another. That exchange involves a small number of programs and a small number of people.
Below that level, where the majority of coaching takes place, the transfer largely stops. A coach working with U14, U16 or FIS athletes has limited access to the methods of the programs that develop the best racers in the world, and the education available to that coach remains bounded by the borders of one national system.
ARCI was established to close that gap. It is an international institute, independent of any single national federation, that teaches alpine ski race coaching as one subject across the whole pathway. Its qualifications are designed to be held by a coach working in any country, and its purpose is the advancement of alpine ski racing as a sport.
ARCI serves the progression of alpine ski racing itself. The qualification pathway below is the instrument through which that knowledge is taught, assessed and carried into daily coaching practice.
Who founded ARCI
Founded by Coaches From the Top of the Sport
ARCI was created by coaches whose careers have been spent at Olympic and World Cup level, in order to make that experience available beyond the programs and the nations in which it was accumulated. The institute exists because those coaches intend the knowledge to be shared across borders and across levels, for the improvement of alpine ski racing as a whole.
Mentoring
Education That Continues After Certification
In most coach-education systems the relationship between the institution and the coach concludes at assessment. The qualification is issued and the coach returns to work.
Every certified ARCI coach is assigned a named mentor for the season, matched to the environment that coach works in. The curriculum establishes the method; the mentoring relationship applies it to the athletes the coach is responsible for, across a full season of training and competition. Mentoring is also the route by which international coaching practice reaches a coach working at club or national level, in the environment where they work.
Particularly Relevant For
Coaches moving from ski instruction into racing
Former racers entering coaching
Existing club coaches
Coaches working with U14 / U16 athletes
FIS coaches
National-team coaches
Experienced international coaches entering the ARCI system
National federations building coach education
Our Philosophy
The Six Principles of ARCI Coach Education
Coaching is more than skiing ability
Personal ski demonstration is important, particularly at ARCI Alpine Ski Race Coach where coaches often work with younger developing athletes. As athlete level increases, the coach's own skiing becomes progressively less important than observation, diagnosis, technical and tactical understanding, athlete development, planning, communication, leadership, performance analysis and multidisciplinary integration.
Develop thinking coaches
ARCI does not create coaches who only repeat drills. Coaches should understand why, when, for whom and under what conditions an intervention is appropriate.
Coach education is continuous
Certification is not the end of coach development. ARCI coaches remain connected through mentoring, masterclasses, continuing education, annual Current ARCI Status certification and the professional community.
High-performance knowledge should move down the system
Knowledge developed at World Cup and Olympic level should help improve FIS coaching, U16 coaching, U14 coaching and national coach development.
Different systems can contribute
ARCI does not assume that one national coaching system owns every correct answer. ARCI actively compares national methodologies, terminology, technical interpretations, athlete-development systems and coaching cultures.
ARCI is a living coaching system
The curriculum evolves as ski racing, equipment, athlete development, international practice and new evidence evolve.
ARCI Educational Structure
Governance, Development and Delivery
ARCI distinguishes between four functions. A person may belong to more than one category, but the roles are different and are not interchangeable.
International Coaching Board
Technical direction, international perspective and curriculum evolution.
ARCI Course Leaders
Coaches authorized to educate and assess ARCI certification candidates.
ARCI International Faculty
Specialist contributors who bring high-performance knowledge into ARCI education.
ARCI Masterclass Experts
Invited experts delivering premium sessions across the Series.
How the system connects
Supported by International Faculty and Masterclass Experts.
A Living Coaching System
A Continuously Developed Coaching System
ARCI does not assume that successful coaches from different national systems describe every technical or tactical concept in exactly the same way. Different approaches should be discussed.
International Coaching Board members and experienced international coaches are encouraged to contribute, challenge and help the system evolve as alpine ski racing and coaching evolve.
Challenge terminology
Question methodology
Suggest alternative explanations
Contribute exercises
Contribute training progressions
Identify emerging coaching practices
Identify outdated concepts
Contribute real international racing experience
The Institute
Faculty and governance, professional standards, the research and community program, and the education that follows certification.
Faculty and governance
Faculty, Course Leaders and Board
The groups responsible for delivering ARCI education and for governing its standards.
Professional standards
Professional Standards and Quality Assurance
Professional status, the ethical standards governing practice, quality assurance, and the recognition of existing qualifications.
Research and community
Research, Publications and Professional Community
The research program, the coaching bulletin, professional sessions and the annual conference.
Continuing development
Specialist Qualifications and Continuing Development
Specialist qualifications, continuing mentoring, and national programs delivered in partnership with federations.