ABOUT the Lab

During a 15 year career in professional sport Dougie achieved a host of qualifications in the field of strength and conditioning

Along side his athletic career he ran a successful business training international rugby players, professional footballers, martial artists competing on the world stage, Great Britain senior triathletes and Tour de France cyclists.

Drawing on his experience and expertise in S&C, nutrition, biomechanics and sports rehab Dougie helps people recover from injuries and perform at their optimal level. Allowing them to enjoy the sport they love at the highest possible level.

We’re delighted to have Dougie join the academy team in the new role of strength and conditioning expert – an area we’ve always wanted to expand at the Academy and feel we’ve found the perfect person to do this with.

The academy’s coaching paired with a strength & conditioning program will increase your enjoyment, reducing your risk of injury on the slopes and propel your body to new levels of skiing performance.

Laura and Lily are the owners of a luxury physiotherapy and massage company The Verbier Touch, in the exclusive ski resort  of Verbier, Switzerland. With 20 years’ experience looking after HNWI’s and athletes in Verbier, in 2022 they are happy to bring the same high-quality care to London, where they have opened a sister company in Chelsea, Alpine Physiotherapy.

Laura has over 10 years’ experience after graduating from The University of East Anglia in 2012 and has completed several Msc modules at the University of Bath and Hertfordshire. Laura has worked at the prestigious Harley St Clinic as lead Physiotherapist and Injection specialist and has a wealth of experience with complex conditions, Athletes and HNWI’s, with a personal highlight being the time she spent with a race team at 24hr Le Mans. Laura used to compete to a national level at 800m, giving her a great insight into advanced movement analysis and injury prevention and loves to ski when in Verbier.

Lily graduated from The University of Bedfordshire in 2012 with a degree in Sports Therapy and then completed a Masters in Physiotherapy at The University of East Anglia. Lily is bilingual and works between London and Verbier, Switzerland. Lily grew up in the Swiss Alps and competed nationally in ski racing from a young age, which has given her an in-depth understanding of the biomechanics and stresses winter sports can put on the body. She enjoys utilising her knowledge and expertise to improve people’s ski performance and has extensive experience with a wide range of patients from infants to the elderly, and from Olympians to professional skiers.

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The Fortius Clinic is the UK’s largest orthopaedic treatment centre in London, specialising in Orthopaedic Disorder & Sports Medicine.

Over the past 20 years you might have met Rangan Chatterjee on our Academy ski courses in Verbier or Japan. He’s been using the Academy method for many years and is now a very accomplished skier. He spends a lot of his skiing during the winter season in Chamonix and actually plays in an apres ski band there.

Dr Chatterjee practices as a doctor in the UK but not a typical one! He’s an advocate that lifestyle and nutrition are first line medicine and the cornerstone of good health. His approach combines the best of nutritional science, conventional medicine and advanced diagnostics to find the root cause of illness. He works with a wide range of people, from those who have specific health conditions to those who simply wish to optimise their health and performance.

In his word: “everyone has the ability to feel better. I want to help you achieve that. I am a medical doctor with over 16 years experience who treats you as an individual. I take a 360° approach to health by focussing on my 4 pillars of health: Food, Movement, Sleep and Relaxation. My goal is to empower you to become the architect of your own health. I believe that when we are healthier, we are happier because when we feel better, we live more.”

Dr Craig McLean graduated as a Chiropractor in 1994 and took over Putney Chiropractic Centre (est. 1986), London in 2002. Since arriving in the UK from his native Australia, Craig has been working with the Warren Smith Ski Academy on a consultancy basis, helping the academy clients unlock blocked ranges of movement that biomechanically restrict developments taking place in their skiing technique.

Most skiers hit a plateau in their skiing ability because of anatomical joint restriction, muscle weakness or poor neurological input. In other words stiffness in the spine or the lower extremity joints creates functional nerve and muscle problems and can result in a physical inability to steer the legs without using the hips, laterally control the leg stance and achieve a natural weight distribution on both skis.

Warren and his Academy team also use Craig’s skills to help optimise their performance when pushing their skiing to the limit. High performance skiing puts a great demand on the body that can result in the creation of a mis-alignment in the spine or pelvis or both. This may result in decreased power in one side of the body that will effect performance and make the skier vulnerable to injury.

During a winter season Craig continually monitors the team’s physical strength and condition through chiropractic, orthopaedic and neurological testing and correcting problems using specific chiropractic adjustments.

Accumulating over 20 years in the snow sports industry Alex brings a real depth of knowledge to lots of facets of winter sports and biomechanics. Starting her career in Snow + Rock, she was early on given an opportunity to go to NZ which she took. After spending a couple of winters skiing and undertaking some ski instructor courses, Alex came back to Europe. Working within ski schools in Austria and then ski shops in Meribel and Les Deux Alpes. There were amazing opportunities to learn and grow her trade with some of the best in the business.

She came back to the UK after a while where her life went in a different, but no less exciting and wonderful direction of being a mum. After a while she was able to re enter the world and found herself back in the industry. She had the opportunity some years ago to set up her own business specialising in making custom orthotics, A Step at a Time. Alex now does this alongside a thriving winter business where she sees her own customer base for ski related insoles and boot modifications as well as everyday orthotics. We’ve been fortunate to have a relationship Alex for some years now and Alex has been working on Warren’s boots and insoles for all that time too.

Alex additionally, works alongside various brands promoting and looking after their athletes and can be found with Sidas delivering training to shops, and at any given time is emerged in various ski shops across the UK in the winter. Both delivering training expertise as well as at the coal face fitting ski boots. Alex will be found at various events with the Warren Smith Ski Academy promoting our important message around ski movement and biomechanics. She can apply her experience and expertise to some of the trickiest scenarios and likes to think she’s able to empathise and affect change