How to Pass the ISIA Speed Test: A Complete Guide
The ISIA Speed Test is where a lot of very capable ski instructors come unstuck. Not because they cannot ski, because they can, but because skiing fast through giant slalom gates against the clock asks for something quite different from teaching, free skiing, or even strong all-mountain performance. It asks for genuine race technique, applied under pressure, on the one run that counts.
The good news is that passing it is a process rather than a lottery. Instructors who arrive without a race background pass every season, provided they prepare the right things in the right order. This guide walks through exactly what those things are.
What the ISIA Speed Test is
The ISIA Speed Test is a timed giant slalom run that benchmarks an instructor’s racing ability as part of the ISIA pathway. You get two runs, and your best effort is the one that counts. To pass, you need to finish within a set percentage of the reference pace-setters’ times: 12.5% for men and 17.5% for women, measured against two 50-point FIS reference skiers.
It sounds simple on paper. The real work lies in arriving at that standard consistently, and then delivering it on demand on test day. Here, the focus is on how you actually get there.
Why it catches good skiers out
There is a wide gap between skiing a piste beautifully and carrying speed through a GS course. On the piste you can ski reactively, feeling the snow and adjusting as you go. In gates against the clock, reacting is too slow. You have to ski with intent, committing to a line and a shape before you reach the gate and trusting your technique to deliver it. Most instructors who do not pass first time are not short of talent. They are skiing the course in survival mode rather than attacking it, and everything that follows is about closing that gap.
Build the fundamentals to carry speed
Speed in GS does not come from pushing harder. It comes from a clean, carved turn that loses as little energy as possible. If you are skidding, scrubbing or fighting the ski, you are bleeding speed at every gate, and no amount of effort earns it back.
The foundation of everything, then, is technical: the ability to carve cleanly, manage pressure through the turn and let the ski run. Get the fundamentals solid and speed becomes a by-product of good skiing rather than something you chase. This is why we start instructors on the fundamentals before adding intensity, even the strong ones. Most of the time you carry speed by carving, not by gambling.
Understand your line
Once you can carve, the next step is knowing where to carve. Line is what separates a fast run from a frantic one. A good line brings you to the right place above each gate, so you can make an efficient turn and come away carrying speed into the next one. A poor line leaves you late, scrubbing speed and recovering, and that survival skiing costs whole seconds over a course.
Learning to read a course and inspect it properly means you ski with intent. You know what you are doing at key gates and course sections before you push out of the start, and that intent is worth far more than raw aggression. The right line at ninety per cent will beat a bad line at a hundred and ten.
Get the right skis and boots, and learn to prepare them
This is the most fixable mistake in the sport, and also one of the most common. The right equipment will not pass the test for you, but the wrong equipment will certainly stop you passing.
For the training blocks and the test itself you want proper race skis suited to your level, and, just as importantly, boots that fit and perform. Your connection to the ski starts at the boot, and soft, worn or badly fitted boots leak everything you are trying to build technically.
Preparation matters just as much. A well-tuned, sharp, properly waxed ski behaves predictably and holds an edge, while a neglected one washes out at exactly the wrong moment. Learning to prepare your own skis, or at least understanding what good preparation looks like, means you arrive at every run, and at the test, on equipment you can trust. We cover ski tuning and preparation as part of training for this very reason.
Find your ideal performance state and build a race routine
The test is has two runs, so you have to deliver when it matters rather than only in training. The instructors who handle that well have a race routine: a repeatable way of arriving at the start gate in their ideal performance state, focused and calm and committed rather than tense or scattered.
That state can be trained. Through race simulations you learn what your best feels like and how to reach it on demand, from how you inspect the course to how you warm up, what you think about in the gate and how you manage your nerves. By test day it is a routine you have rehearsed, not something you are improvising under pressure. We build race-preparation days into the run-up to tests so that this becomes second nature before it counts.
Be fit enough to train
Fitness is not really about skiing one fast run. It is about skiing your tenth run of the day as well as your first. The biggest single driver of improvement is quality training volume, and fatigue is what limits it. Once you are tired you stop learning and start grooving bad habits.
Arriving fit means you make the most of every run and every training opportunity, with more good repetitions, better retention and faster progress. You do not need to be an elite athlete. You need to be fit enough to train hard, recover and go again. Build that base before the season so your camps are spent improving rather than surviving.
Train in the right environment
Where you train shapes how quickly you improve. The best race-training venues give you reliable snow, properly set GS courses and the space to do real, repeatable gate work, rather than a couple of rushed runs squeezed around the public.
Choosing the right venues at the right times of year means more quality course time and conditions that genuinely replicate the test. Podium runs camps through the season at venues chosen for exactly this, from summer glacier blocks that build volume to autumn and early-winter camps timed to test dates, so that wherever you are in your preparation there is an environment built to move you forward.
Putting it together
These things do not all happen at once. A typical path begins with a foundation block to build the fundamentals and line at manageable speeds, moves through one or more training blocks that sharpen technique and add intensity on full GS sets, and finishes with a race-preparation day close to the test to lock in your routine and peak at the right moment. How many blocks you need depends on where you are starting from, and we will always give you an honest assessment rather than sell you camps you do not need.
The mistakes that cost people a pass
A few patterns show up again and again. Taking it easy on the first run instead of skiing with real intent of passing. Cutting corners on inspection and skiing a reactive line. Turning up on the wrong or poorly prepared skis. Turning up and expecting to pass without learning the fundamentals of racing. Almost all of them are avoidable with the right preparation.
How Podium prepares you
Everything above is what our ISIA Speed Test camps are built around: fundamentals first, then line, on the right equipment, with race routines and simulations, in small groups at venues chosen for proper race training. We have been preparing instructors for timed GS tests for over two decades, and the ISIA Speed Test has been our core focus since 2020. We will meet you where you are and build the plan that gets you to the standard.
See our upcoming ISIA Speed Test camps and find the block that fits your test date.
Frequently Asked Questions
Do I need a race background to pass the ISIA Speed Test?
No. Plenty of instructors pass with no racing experience. They start with the fundamentals and build up progressively, and our foundation camps are designed for exactly this.
How many runs do you get?
Two, with your best time counting. The smart approach is to bank a solid first run and then push harder on the second, rather than risk everything on run one.
What happens if I do not pass?
You can retake the test at a future date. Most instructors who do not pass first time are missing one specific piece, whether that is line, fitness, equipment or race-day nerves, and each of those is very fixable with focused preparation.
How fit do I need to be?
Fit enough to train hard for a full day and come back the next, not elite. The aim is to get maximum quality from every run rather than fading after a few gates.
How long does it take to get test-ready?
It depends where you start. Instructors with some race background can be ready in a focused week, while those starting from scratch usually benefit from two or three blocks across the season. We will give you an honest assessment of what you need.