Inside Out - Instructor FastTrack Alpine Training, Meribel 19 - 26 January 2014

A snowHead

day 1

There are 7 of us here on the course. We started off free skiing, there was cloud all around, but we mostly managed to stay either above or below the cloud, so the visibility was ok.

We discussed and grounded ourselves in the fundamental elements and some basics.

After a quick break we started on some "Ted ligerty" drills, we started off skiing on our inside ski and leaning back onto the tail of the lifted ski. We then had to project forwards and roll onto the new edge. Once that was engaged we put the tip of the lifted ski onto the snow.

This took us up to,lunch, after lunch the rest of the afternoon was spent on varying amounts of one legged skiing, culminating in linked turns on green runs on only one ski. Once folk were comfortable various challenges were added in including balancing poles on the back of your wrists which took away an extra piece of balance, coordination and made the drill harder.

Light snow most of the afternoon but only really adding a mm or two......it appears to have stopped now.

A snowHead

Good work! Ask Del to make you do one-ski braquage with no poles. He loves it.

Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?

Day Two

A bit colder this morning, but not bad for January with it being -5 at the bottom, once again there was high and low cloud around. First run we skied 1400 vertical down to the tree lined runs of le praz as our warmup, concentrating on short turns.

Then we were onto white pass turns. Starting on the right leg, you turn left with your left leg in the air, turning on the big toe, then turn right onto your little toe, when your pointing down the fall line put your left leg down, lift the right and repeat.

This took us down to courchevel 1650 where we headed up again and started work on the middle part of the turn where we were edging and applying power. The chosen drill for this was power snow ploughs, which we did for quite a few runs.

This then led into some work on longs and a video session. We then rounded the day off with a mixture of shorts and longs as we headed back to meribel. On the way back over we were pleasantly surprised by sun and blue skies above the cloud.

We had some free practise then some video analysis at 5pm.

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kitenski, Really interesting to hear what is required and an unvarnished practical view of an instructor course. Ive been looking at doing BASI and Inside Out have come a coupe of times. I like the idea of combining work in the dome in the UK with shorter sessins on the mountain as its more practical with my job compared to the 8 or 10 week courses. I'm looking forward to hearing how the week progresses.

Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.

I trust skimottaret is not getting ideas for next week...

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morningglory, we will be confirming our 2014 instructor training programme at Hemel in the next few weeks, so if you are interested please send me a PM with your email address and I'll make sure you receive details about it. It is designed to maximise time in the UK on developing the necessary skiing and teaching skills for people who are interested in doing BASI exams. The course that kitenski is on is an optional part of the training programme.

Then you can post your own questions or snow reports...

Quick photo of Team FastTrack!

After all it is free

Looking good Team FastTrack!

what a dodgy bunch Smile

Alasdair

*Ski* the Net with snowHeads

day three

Dawned with a strange blue hue to the sky and an orangey yellows globe hanging up there..it was cold first thing but warmed up through the day such that I shed a layer at lunchtime.

After the obligatory warm up runs, the order of the day was short turns. Of course we couldn't just dive straight into it,rather we had the joy of Norwegian pole plants on a red run. After a few runs we teamed up and the January meribel synchronised Norwegian pole plant championships was born. After two runs the winners were Jill and tim, congrats both.

Naturally progression was the next step so we did single, Norwegian, repeat. This led onto single, double, Norwegian, repeat which took us up to lunch.

Noticeable point was if we focused on the pole plants our legs "just worked"

After lunch we focused on short turns with a video session.

We rounded the day off by introducing moguls into the mix, with the basics bring done mogul at a time, leading into a run with some lovely snow and soft moguls, this finished off the official day, with the chance of 45 mins practise, so a few of us did some more mogul runs and a small itinerary.

We had a team night out with video feedback on the shorts, a few beers and a pizza as it was the chalet staff night off.

snowHeads are a friendly bunch.

kitenski, I've googled and found out what Norwegian pole plants are - are there any videos? Hard to envisage. Sounds like a good day, though.

snow reports

Can't find any video, basic premise is shoulders both downhill, arms straight out pointing down the hill, straight out, bend ze knees, touch pole plant with both poles downhill, stand up, short turn and repeat.......straight arms important otherwise you ski over your poles and fall over.....

You know it makes sense.

kitenski for top pupil as he's the only one wearing instructor kecks.

Otherwise you'll just go on seeing the one name:

back bottom

A snowHead

A snowHead

Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?

I think silicon valley's finest need to work on recognising proper vernacular darn autospellcorrect.

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Day 4

Grey this morning, snow on and off all day, but not really amounted to much, some heavier showers teased us but soon died off. The cloud was low and got lower so we headed for 1650.

Bracquage was the order of the day after some warm up runs.

After lunch we spent time skiing with our boots undone and introducing telemark turns, pushing the tip,of the outside ski in front of the inside ski though the turn. Once we got the hang of this we tried to do it during long carving turns.

With the weather closing in we did lots of balance drills, poles resting on the back of the wrists we did short and long turns, lifting inside ski, toe tap on outside of ski. This then developed into jumping from ski to ski. Further development to take this into long javelin turns,

We'd been trying to find a bumps run that was open and had some visibility without luck and were going to call it a day when we stumbled across a small bumps field, so had a few runs down that inc the first few with Norwegian pole pants.

Pam if this link works it's Norwegian pole plants

https://docs.google.com/file/d/0B1o-uQCR8hXYQWZNbTZIUUhQSWM/preview

Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.

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stewart woodward, keeps the Upper body facing down the hill for short turns.

Then you can post your own questions or snow reports...

After all it is free

I'm just a punter on the course stewart woodward,

kitenski, looking forward to hearing how it all went at some point , thanks for the write up. Interesting to hear what Del has you guys working on. (some stuff we sort of agreed on Toofy Grin

)

I shall mostly be mach-ing it tomorrow or getting smashed up in bumps meself , have a fun last day

*Ski* the Net with snowHeads

Day five

5-10cm down at our chalet greeted us this morning, we headed straight up and with some local knowledge found a completely untracked run, which we skied 3 times. It wasn't that deep, but was good fun.

Tips included skis close together, pole plant and the telemark turn.

After that we skied around with heather unfortunately skiing straight into a wall of snow on piste and double ejecting, sore back but she skied the rest of the day and is hopefully ok.

After a hot chocolate stop to regather we headed over to the Bergin chair and skied plenty of variable snow and some rather tasty powder turns as the sun made a fleeting appearance.

After lunch it was an afternoon of off piste, off piste bumps and variable snow including guest appearances by many of the Marmalade team who joined us in a few runs.

Vis was in and our most of the day, with snow coming and going, we finished off the day and the course with linked rounded turns off piste in lump, bumpy snow and the whole team skied it very nicely.

We headed lower for some free practise and did some bumps in some nice sun, with cloud and poor vis at the top of the lift, rinse and repeat x3 to finish off the day.

Hopefully del can share some of the video taken during the course and especially the powder turns today.

So all in all everyone has agreed that they have learnt a lot and improved, so a great course, with a very good instructor.

snowHeads are a friendly bunch.

snow reports

Just copying your notes kitenski as they are much more comprehensive than the ones I had made.

Really enjoyed the week, Del reaffirmed the things the InsideOut guys have been telling me and gave me some new things to think about with an intro to off piste and bumps. All in all a very good week.

Unfortunately you may have made my life more complicated as you have now given rob@rar and skimottaret some additional drills to plague me with during the InsideOut Folgarida trip this coming week.

Single, Double, Norwegian, fall over poles Embarassed