The skiers making a splash

How a cutting-edge approach to training is helping the British freestyle ski team learn to manage stress ahead of the biggest competitions. (Hint: they’re in deep.)

Skiers at the freedive performance training camp

Freeski is a high-pressure sport in which athletes perform breathtaking jumps and tricks. You’d expect to see them training in the mountains, but during the summer, key members of the British team took part in an innovative performance training camp that saw them freedive up to 18 metres below the surface of a lake.

The camp was the brainchild of High-Performance Coach and former British champion Joe Tyler. World Cup squad members Kirsty Muir, Chris McCormick and Tom Greenway took part in a bid to address their psychological responses to fear, stress and uncertainty, and give them an edge ahead of the 2026 Milan-Cortina Winter Olympics.

GB Snowsport has set an ambitious target to become a top five snow sports nation by 2030. To do so, it will need innovative new approaches to enhance the resilience of its athletes. While the athletes were already receiving training on the slopes to learn how to manage stress, Tyler recognised a problem: the training didn’t create anywhere near the same pressure they face during major competitions.

He says: “I’d done the freediving course myself and that’s where the idea came from. I wanted an activity where they would need the mindset to stay calm, be focused and trust the process to succeed, and freediving ticks those boxes. If you try to hold your breath for as long as you can, then your body starts to react in a certain way, and then your mind starts telling you ‘I can’t do this, I’ve got to get out of here’. Pushing through that was the starting point of the concept.”

Looking for an edge

Tyler’s training inspiration shows how innovation can emerge from anywhere within an organisation. He accessed his own unique experiences to come up with his method for enhancing the resilience of athletes. As a child, he was scared of heights and decided to face his fear by rock climbing and jumping into water from increasing heights. He has continued this approach throughout his life, and with the addition of some science and procedures, it has become the basis of the freedive performance camp.

The idea was to expose athletes to an environment that would force them to respond in the same way they do in the sport. Tyler wanted the athletes to face their fears – understand them, work through them, and by doing so evolve the way they perceive and deal with stress. Freediving was the ideal activity – underwater, you have to relax your body and mind because every distraction uses up more oxygen.

Tyler says: “The risk factors of freestyle skiing can really affect your mindset because there’s an inherent risk of injury. You’re doing jumps over 60 feet, going upside down two or three times, and doing big spins. There is always a risk in the sport, but when it comes to situations when there is a new trick or pressure from a competition, we’ve seen a difference between how the athletes were handling it before the camp and how they are handling it now. It’s much better and much more productive, and we’re still in the early stages.”

Working together

Last season, the Freeski team delivered some British successes. Muir landed four World Cup top 10 finishes, including a maiden World Cup victory at Tignes. McCormick was inside the top 20 four times at World Cup level and at the World Championships at Engadin. Greenway secured a third career World Cup top 30 finish at Stubai. And teammate James Pouch achieved a career-high sixteenth place at the Klagenfurt World Cup. The freedive performance camp aimed to give them the confidence to build on these performances.

Before creating the camp, Tyler had discussions with Muir, McCormick and Greenway about their mindset during their best moments and their approaches to competition and training. It gave him the basis for a framework that would be needed to unlock something new.

The programme was then developed with the support of the UK Sports Institute and in discussion with performance lifestyle advisors, sports psychologists and therapists. Working with them, he was able to create a programme that was safe but still elicited the responses he wanted from the athletes.

Monitoring the results

The results of the camp have been encouraging. The athletes have shown increased engagement with the coaches and support structures that are there to help them. And the techniques they learned have helped to strengthen their resilience. Coaches are continuing to monitor their performances and how they deal with stress during the winter season.

Tyler says: “Everybody has access to every mindset concept that’s out there, whether by reading books or through podcasts. There are so many people who have a lot to say on the subject. Where we were struggling was with the application of that and how to get those concepts to be part of the athletes’ lives.

“Mindset is a challenge in any sport and in life as well. I would say this isn’t just restricted to sports people. I think you could open it up to anybody who wants to explore this kind of training because it exposes them to something that helps them deal with their own processes and how they deal with things.”

Karl Hennessy, President of McGill and Partners, says that like elite athletes, partners and colleagues at the firm constantly test themselves and adapt to support their clients.

“The idea of doing something bold to test your performance is one that we actively adhere to in our firm. Like GB Snowsport, we believe resilience is a skill you build, not a trait you’re born with. Athletes do not wait for race day to prepare. They continuously challenge themselves, try again and adapt.

We take the same approach with our clients, partners and colleagues. For clients, we turn uncertainty into strategy through clear plans and thoughtful execution. We built our company, rooted in our deep relationships with our clients and partners, the same way. With playbooks, drills and more we turn setbacks into lessons and lessons into momentum. Resilience comes from how you respond – not just how you perform.”

Joe Tyler

High-Performance Coach, GB Snowsport