Chris Braisby displays his new invention, the Ski Coach, on his back. Pam Doyle/Banff Crag & Canyon

You can take this Ski Coach home with you. Chris Braisby of Banff has developed a new downhill skiing teaching aid that you wear on your back like a backpack. And unlike a real ski coach, you can just put it in the closet when you’re done with it.

“I’ve taught skiing all of my life,” Braisby said. “I saw people getting into bad habits again and again. They would go away and practise but not make as much of an improvement as they could have. It’s not that they don’t ski enough, just that they don’t practise correctly.”

So Braisby, who is originally from Sheffield, England, developed the Ski Coach. At the most basic level, it is a small backpack, which has a slightly bent clear tube in it with metal balls that roll from side to side as your body moves.

“One of the main problems people have is that they lean into the hill,” Braisby said. “To get the skis on edge, we must tip them with our feet. A common mistake made by skiers is to tip their shoulders instead. Tipping the shoulders inhibits learning and causes excessive skidding.”
When the student makes a correct turn, the balls in the tube in the Ski Coach slide to the side and make a clinking sound.

“The clink is good,” Braisby said. “Centrifugal force will pull the balls as the skier balances better over the outside ski.”

Braisby made his original Ski Coach by hand two winters ago, tried it out and it worked, he said. Now the backpack part of the product is manufactured in Calgary.

“I just love helping people,” Braisby said. “I don’t like to see them struggle.”
So Braisby went on the road with his invention.

“The first season I took it to Jim Morris, who is on the Canadian demonstration ski team,” Braisby said. “He was really impressed with it. He encouraged me to show it to a lot of people.”
Braisby is currently showing the Ski Coach to instructors at Sunshine Village, who will try it out this week.

“If skiers come to a lesson and they have this problem with leaning into the hill, they can use it in the lesson and buy it after from the instructors,” Braisby said. “But if they don’t buy it then they can get it later on line.”

Skiers do need to have some technical understanding to use the Ski Coach correctly, he said.
“That’s why I’m trying to incorporate it into the ski schools,” Braisby said. “I’m not saying you can buy this and be the best skier in the world but it will help them to practise correctly.”

The product sells for $50 and can be purchased through ski schools or at Braisby’s website at www.theskicoach.com.