WaterSki Magazine

Kristin
2008-05-21 15:00:00 | 219 views | 3 Comments

Matt Rini is molding the future of skiing – one student at a time.

“How'd that feel?” Matt Rini asks his first skier of the day, Cody Campbell, after his first set. The 18-year-old answers almost inaudibly, but somehow Rini understands. He gets out of the driver's seat and moves to the back of the boat where he gets in position to mimic what he wants Campbell to do. “You want your hips to move in before you turn so that your hips are always a little bit off of the ski coming in and sliding back in before your ski [loses speed],” he says. “You just gotta trust it and let your hips go.”

It's just past 8 a.m. and the sun hasn't even broken through the clouds yet. The morning fog still hovers over the water, but Rini has already been working for at least three hours. Long before many others have had their morning coffee, he has managed to answer all his work e-mails, gas up his MasterCraft ProStar 197, start adjusting fin settings for his arriving students and fix Campbell's technical problem.

That's just a typical day in Rini's life. He has his job down to a science. Call him a one-man champion factory, if you will. Give that man a boat, a lake and a willing student, and he can make almost anything happen.

4000 State Road 33
State Road 33 in Clermont, Florida, doesn't really look like much. A two-lane road bordered by the occasional orange grove, lonely mailboxes alluding to unseen residences, random dirt roads littered with moss-ridden pine trees — unless you knew it was there, you'd drive by wooden post 4000 without a second glance. Even if you followed the dirt road to the entry gate, it would be hard to imagine the magnitude of what lay there. The truth is, Rini's ski school is not just a lake off a rural road in Central Florida; rather, it is the birthplace of future talent.

His site is the epitome of the “less is more” school of thought. A lake, a boat and a jump accompany a small pavilion housing a picnic table, life vests and a smorgasbord of skis. Besides the trampoline and the two hammocks adjacent to the lakeshore, there isn't much else out there. And that's just how Rini likes it. “It's desolate around here,” he says. “Part of the success that I have with these guys is the fact that there is nothing else here to do but ski or bounce on the trampoline or swim or run. There are no video games; there's no air conditioning. It's ski or go home.”

Becoming Coach
Rini was born to coach. There's no doubt about that. But ask the guy what makes him so great, and he'll stumble over himself and drop more “uhs” and “ums” than a 7-year-old on Jeopardy. “I haven't really thought about that,” he says, glancing over his shoulder as one of his skiers, 20-year-old Jason Mc- Clintock, pares his way down the course. “The easy answer to that question is 'Well, I coach a lot of really good skiers,' but I don't think that necessarily qualifies someone. I'm passionate about what I do. It's really important to me that you leave here better than you were when you came. And if I can't do that, then I don't feel like I've done my job.”

Rini wasn't always a first-class coach, however. Rewind back to 1993 when he was part of the Canadian national team at the Worlds in Singapore. You'd see a well-rounded three-event skier next to the likes of a young Jaret Llewellyn, Brett Thurley and Patrice Martin, to name just a few. He was right there in that mix of young skiers who would come to be known as some of the biggest names in water skiing. So is it truly any surprise that some of that impending greatness would rub off on a young, impressionable Rini? Not exactly.

“Matt got to see, step by step, these hotshot kids and all the little things that go around off and on the water,” says Mike Ferraro, the former coach of the Canadian team. “I think it left an impression in his head that you can have a really good time and still learn enough to become a world record holder.”

So, why did Rini choose to leave the competitive world for the behind-the-scenes arena of a coach? Perhaps the current national team coach at Water Ski Canada has an answer. “Growing up with Jaret Llewellyn, he saw what it took to be a great skier,” says Steve Bush. “I think he realized just how tough that was and said to himself, 'You know, this is really tough, and my strength is in coaching.' He took all his knowledge from skiing with the Worlds teams and went to be a coach.”

There's no doubt many a skier is grateful for Rini's revelation. The likes of Natalie Hamrick, Thomas Moore, Ryan Dodd, Whitney McClintock, Marcus Brown and Chris Sullivan, to cover just the tip of the iceberg, have been graced with Rini's technical expertise.

“He's always been super talented, and he'd pick up things really quickly,” says Ferraro about his former student. “He always wanted to know everything and he would sit in the boat when I was working with someone and, man, would he ask a lot of questions. Holy smokes!”

A Diet Rich in Skiing
Volume — that's what it all comes down to. The more you ski, the better you'll get. At least that's what Rini, the technical coach for all Canadian water ski teams, wholeheartedly believes and practices with his students. When his skiers aren't getting the results he's looking for, and they feel like they're getting nowhere, they ski more. Simple as that. “It's easy to say that so-and-so has it easy because they are so talented, but you probably don't see the full picture of what that person has done to get to where they are, so we think it was painless,” says Rini. “There is nobody in any sport who gets it easy like that. You know, it's always the people who put in the most work and time who get the most back. When working with young people, that's the biggest thing you have to make them realize, or they will get discouraged.”

This same train of thought and hard-core work ethic is what makes the Canadian native so successful with the younger crowd. He seems to understand what they need to be told and how they need it told to them. His key to success is identifying the cause of the problem, not the result of it. And it doesn't hurt that his eye for mistakes is as keen as a famished hawk on the hunt for prey. Rini doesn't miss a single move. It's almost as if he takes mental Polaroids while his students ski. “When I know things aren't going right and most people see nothing wrong, [Rini] can pick it out in my first pass, and I can focus on bigger issues,” says Jason McClintock, who nabbed a fourth-place slalom win at the Under 21 Worlds this year. “When I ski with him, I don't have to stress about what I'm doing wrong, because I know he'll correct it.”

Jason McClintock, who is a regular at the Clermont site, hits a home run with that last statement. Perhaps Rini's biggest asset is not his birdlike eye, but his ability to understand the foundation for technique and how to communicate it on an individual basis.

“He's got a really laid-back approach,” says Sullivan, who works closely with Rini at Radar. “He's not a dominating coach. He's very good at that psychology side of how to communicate with someone very fast and taking different approaches with different people and still getting the same result.”

This ease of communication allows his students to absorb his lessons like a dry sponge. “When [Rini] coaches, he makes the skiers independent thinkers and they, in turn, become great coaches,” says Bush. “They become a product of him. We'll send kids to ski with Kevin [Melnuk], and they will come out of there as if they were taught by [Rini]. They are passing it down the line, and that's a really cool thing. That's the way it
should be.”

Melnuk, who most recently placed second in jump at the Under 21 Worlds in January, is taking as much as he can from his famed coach, and he's better than ever because of it. “As an overall skier, it is important to me to have a coach who can help me in all three events,” he says. “When I hear other coaches instructing, some of the techniques or philosophies they are teaching don't seem very beneficial, or in the case of jump, safe. [Rini] somehow seems to stay up-to-date with techniques, and every year there seem to be a few new things for me to try.”

Outside the Box
The fact that Rini manages to stay in-tune to new techniques not only comes from his vast knowledge of the sport, but also his ability to expend all his resources, in and out of the water. “It's a level of commitment in his coaching that I've never seen in other coaches,” says Ferraro adamantly. “No one is willing to go as far as he is willing to go. And he's not afraid to think outside the box. Whether it's the Internet or outside the industry, snow skiers or whether it's having Marcus Brown come over, he's willing to go that extra mile and learn a new way to make a movement or a new way to teach kids how to move.”

It's evident that Rini has a mammoth-sized grasp on every aspect of the sport, from technique right down to what makes skiing possible — equipment. Entrusted by Radar Skis, he has managed to figure out just what the “regular Joe” is craving. And he is a firm believer in the necessity of evolving gear as new athletes come on the scene. In fact, Rini feels exactly that has made the greatest difference the sport has seen in a decade. “I think there is a greater knowledge base because of the Internet, and because of the sport evolving and developing, the products are becoming better and easier to ski on,” he says. “That's the biggest thing I do for Radar. I bring Joe Public into our products. We'll design boots or skis and throw them at our upper elite echelon of skiers and get their report. That's all fine and dandy, but a regular kid has to be able to strap it on and run his first pass on it or we won't sell it. So they send it my way, and by the end of a test day with my guys, I can tell them whether it's going to be good or not.”

The Bottom Line
With his combination of forward-thinking, almost-obsessive dedication and a keen ability to motivate and communicate with skiers of all ages, anyone can see that Rini is the real deal. “It's a gift, certainly, an innate gift,” says Sullivan. “This is what he does, and he's fantastic at it.”

Rini has used his interminable knowledge of all three events and has managed to convey his lessons in a way that no other coach seems to be able to do. And not only does he do this, but he keeps everything fun and competitive.

“I used to tell Matt the sign of a good coach was somebody who could put a bunch of people in one room and make them have a good time,” says Ferraro. “And I think that's what he's able to do.”

Whether or not he agrees with his former ski buddy and coach, Rini has a strong opinion about what is best and what makes his coaching work.

“Everyone is trying to fit into the same mold,” he says. “Different concepts can be beneficial, and you have to be able to recognize the best way to do something for yourself. That's what I do. I find a way to make my skiers know what works best for them. They aren't afraid to try things. If you follow down the same path as the next guy, well, you're only going to get as far as they got. If you do something different, you have the chance of being that much better.”