Women Of Winter | From Athlete to Coach with Mogul Olympian Nicole Parks

Retired Australian freestyle skier, Nicole Parks has refound her passion and competitive attitude for skiing through her transition from athlete into coach. 

After competing as a mogul skier for over 13 years, Parkes retired from competition in 2017 and turned her attention to coaching, where she was announced as one of the 31 coaches in the new AIS National Generation 2032 flagship national apprenticeship program earlier this year.

After progressing through the ranks of the winter sports clubs program and NSWIS, all the way to representing Australia at multiple World Cups, World Championships and the 2014 Winter Olympic Games, Parks found she was losing her passion and love for the sport as a competitor.

“After Sochi, I started falling out of love for the sport as a competitor and the competition side,” Parks shared with Chip Richards on the Snow Australia Coaching Academy Podcast.

“I kept going and got injured, and I realised I was probably doing this for all the wrong reasons.”

Following the announcement of her retirement before the PyeongChang 2018 Winter Olympic Games, Parks was offered the opportunity to coach at the Mogul Skiing Academy.

She developed her skills and coaching ethic over five years with the Australian Mogul Skiing Academy, coaching on the snow, and assisting in strength and conditioning as well as gymnastics. Earlier this year, she was offered a prestigious spot on the NSWIS mogul coaching team.

Being all too familiar with what being an NSWIS athlete involved, Parks is able to use her prior experience when nurturing her athletes.

“I was an NSWIS athlete for so long, and I’m now I’m taking that pathway as a coach, I’m building goals as a coach, like I did as an athlete,” she said.

“My approach when I do have the chance is to lap with the athletes and do sections and moguls and actually demonstrate which I am teaching.

“I like to bring variety as well, instead of coaching from the bottom.”

Parks also expresses the importance of building positive relationships with her athletes, in order to understand how to bring the best out of their ability.

“I feel like I know these athletes quite well, I can just give them their cues and they just seem to click and get it, that was rewarding for me and the athlete to be like ‘we’ve done this big step, we’ve got our base and now we can start putting these pieces together’.”

Looking forward to the future, Parks has set her sights on coaching at the top level.

“For myself, four years from now, I would definitely love to be a World Cup and Olympic coach, that’s my major goal,” she said.

“With the athletes that I have now, within three or four years my goal as a coach is to get them to the next step, whether that’s the world cup or OWIA.”

Parks’ advice to other women and young people looking to get into coaching, is to lean on and learn from those around you, and make the most of development opportunities.

“As a coach there's always something you can learn, I’m always trying to make the most of the Coach Academy where we've got all these resources and learning as much as I can from other coaches.

“I will better myself as a person and a coach by reaching out and trying to get educated.”

Listen to Nicole's full interview on the Coach Academy Podcast HERE

Find more about the Snow Australia Coach Academy and Women of Winter Program to champion and empower Snowsports Women to reach their full potential.