BONNIE TO THE RESCUE

Lacking team facilities for getting into shape, four members of the U.S. ski team sought out Bonnie Prudden. She solved their problem

No formal provision was made to train the American team for the F.I.S. (International Ski Federation) world championships in Austria next February. This did not discourage four eastern team members, who asked Bonnie Prudden at her Institute for Physical Fitness in White Plains, N.Y. to help them get into shape. She obliged with a regimen designed to build into the young skiers the same sort of stamina and endurance they would find in their competitors in Europe. Her exercises, some of which are shown on these pages, are intended to build all-round bodies for skiing rather than to develop a specific technique such as the one designed by Willy Schaeffler (see page 36). The average skier will not have the Institute's obstacle course at hand, but he too can run and walk cross country. The exercise shown at lower right can be done in your living room. Some other home exercises are demonstrated by Bonnie on the following page.

Balancing on a beam while Bonnie smiles are (left to right) skiers Penny Pitou, Tom Corcoran, Mädi Springer-Miller and Sally Deaver.

Running through slalom poles is one part of the Institute's obstacle course that the four American contestants struggled with every day.

Walking on the 12-foot-high tight rope, Penny holds onto the guide ropes while her fellow team members wait their turns and Bonnie crouches ready to effect a rescue should one be needed.

Weight lifting is done here with five-pound bags on the ankles. Arms, shoulders and legs were also worked this way, and the skiers carried weights held in back packs up and down the stairs.

FOUR PHOTOS

HANS KNOPF