 Poster: A snowHead
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| Old Fartbag wrote: |
| For me - the question is - to what extent can improved technique help overcome the effects of aging.....Which is a different question to the potential ability one has when younger. That potential is drastically underused if the skill level isn't what it could have been. |
Spot on. I've skied with enough people in their sixties, seventies and eighties over the last 30+ years (I'm in my early 40s) to be confident that everyone can improve their technique, whatever their age and ability. I've skied with a few people who've asserted something to the contrary: the more honest ones have subsequently acknowledged that there was something (often laziness) stopping them wanting to improve (or, perhaps more accurately, getting in the way of putting in the effort required to improve).
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Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
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@Chaletbeauroc,
....and whom may be the arbitor of right or wrong? 
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Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?
Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?
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| JayRo wrote: |
| Old Fartbag wrote: |
| For me - the question is - to what extent can improved technique help overcome the effects of aging.....Which is a different question to the potential ability one has when younger. That potential is drastically underused if the skill level isn't what it could have been. |
Spot on. I've skied with enough people in their sixties, seventies and eighties over the last 30+ years (I'm in my early 40s) to be confident that everyone can improve their technique, whatever their age and ability. I've skied with a few people who've asserted something to the contrary: the more honest ones have subsequently acknowledged that there was something (often laziness) stopping them wanting to improve (or, perhaps more accurately, getting in the way of putting in the effort required to improve). |
Your example makes an assumption of where the skier started from in terms of skill/ability As an extreme example of my point, when Bode Miller hits old age and I'm dead, there's no way that there will be any improvement to be made in his skiing ability from where he was. The only way is down as his body, reflexes and reactions slow with aging. No doubt a former World Champion would manage that decline to the very best of his ability, but down would be the only way . So I don't agree with you that "everyone" can improve at any age whether they're skiing with you or anyone else.
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You need to Login to know who's really who.
You need to Login to know who's really who.
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| Old Fartbag wrote: |
| For me - the question is - to what extent can improved technique help overcome the effects of aging.....Which is a different question ... |
Almost entirely, I think. I often ski with old folk who show zero signs of age when they're wrapped up. That can be funny at times, when someone realizes they just had their ass kicked by someone old enough to be their grand parent.
But winding back to something someone was suggesting earlier - the 77 year old excellent skier I was riding with in Chile lives in a resort and takes a private coach once a week all season. I thought he was skiing as well as I've ever seen anyone ride - world class, tidy, safe. But he's not happy to sit on what he's achieved. Which is why he achieved it in the first place.
After a while riding with him I noticed him following some of my lines. Almost all skiers will ride fall-line, but as a snowboarder I work with the terrain, using it like a half pipe and riding banks etc. He'd noticed me doing that, and was busy trying to work out how he could do that on his skis.
| Quote: |
| So I don't agree [] that "everyone" can improve at any age whether they're skiing with you or anyone else. |
Whatever, but you're missing the point. No one's suggesting pensioners will be winning Olympic ski races - that's not what we're talking about. For Olympic folk ordinary skiing is already "a walk in the park". Think of a curve on a chart showing "physical ability", which will peak at 30 or somewhere and decline subsequently. Overlay that with a chart for an ordinary skier's ability over time. If those two curves are superposed efficiently, the result is my 77 year old buddy there.
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Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
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| Mollerski wrote: |
| when Bode Miller hits old age and I'm dead, there's no way that there will be any improvement to be made in his skiing ability from where he was |
If I've understood you correctly, I think you're conflating two different things. Will an elderly Bode Miller be able to improve based on where he was at his peak? No. But will he still be able to learn and improve from whatever level he's at at a given point in his old age? I strongly suspect so. Certainly, it's not the gotcha you seem to think it is.
phil_w's example is a great one: a world-class 77-year-old skier, who's always looking for ways to improve, whether by a weekly coaching session or by seeing what he can add to his repertoire from a boarder's toolkit.
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You'll need to Register first of course.
You'll need to Register first of course.
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@JayRo, I fundamentally disagree with you. I have no interest in 'gotchas' whatsoever, but I feel that may not be the case with yourself. I'm also thinking that you're digging in for a battle, whereas I'm here for discussion and debate and not to be browbeaten into some sort submission.
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| Mollerski wrote: |
| whereas I'm here for discussion and debate and not to be browbeaten into some sort submission. |
That's not what it looks like, with your first contribution in this thread simply calling me a dumbass without addressing any of the issues at all. What it looks like is a troll.
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| Chaletbeauroc wrote: |
| Mollerski wrote: |
| whereas I'm here for discussion and debate and not to be browbeaten into some sort submission. |
That's not what it looks like, with your first contribution in this thread simply calling me a dumbass without addressing any of the issues at all. What it looks like is a troll. |
If he is a troll he’s not a very good one: he gets far more wound up than the people he’s supposedly trolling.
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