Are We Realistic In Our Ski-ing Skill\Levels? What are the Basic Skills?

A snowHead

little tiger, the variation of falling leaf I normally do does not involve an uphill section at the ends, so actually doesn't mimic the fall of a leaf. Throughout the exercise adjust the edge angles and balance position so the path is linked semi-circles rather than the normal zig-zag path. i.e.
(
)
(
)
not
\
/
\
/
I think this requires you to make much more subtle and progressive combinations of edge and balance control than the conventional exercise, as it requires you to cover all possible angles of travel wrt the fallline. If you wish to you can get an uphill section by engaging the edges even more in the centre of the pattern where you are essentially traversing.

There is another exercise that is not a sideslipping exercise which may also have similarities to the path of a leaf, but incorporates turns. Carve into pointing uphill, let the skis carve backwards a short distance retracing your tracks, then pivot turn the skis down through the fallline (i.e. spin a flat 180) then carve uphill the other side and repeat until bored.

A snowHead

Easiski's progression has to be right in terms of the skills mastered, but I'm not sure I'd agree with the implication that this is necessarily related to "weeks on snow". There are a few people who genuinely acquire skills very quickly but a lot more people who happily bumble round for 20 weeks without progressing much at all, because either they don't have lessons or they have poor lessons or (much less likely) they've just not got the aptitude. I've skied with people (my number 1 son being one of them) who are just as good (or bad) as I am, having skied a great deal less. I also agree about the really good skiers not making a song and dance about it. My number 2 son was by far the best skier in the family even before he shared an apartment for the winter with a BASI 1 instructor in Val D'Isere. He was by a long distance the best (non instructor) skier I saw on the mountain in Meribel yesterday yet, if asked, he'd probably say "I'm an OK skier, I've done quite a lot". He says compared to his instructor flat mate, who grew up racing in Scotland, he's rubbish.

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

eng_ch, I think most English people have nightmares about trying to learn French/German/Spanish... at school and so really appreciate how proficient so many people are at English. It's not an easy thing to write to an audience of native speakers, and I think from the comments above everyone appreciates it. Language exists, in part, to convey information and since Luca's posts are completely comprehensible (as are many people's who are using English as a foreign language) nobody cares if the grammar is perfect. Let's face it, very few people - native speakers included - use perfect grammar. Great to have your input, Luca.

Slightly OT there, so to the OP: No I am not realistic about my skiing skill, but I'm not sure I'm qualified to judge by how much. I was recently on a lesson where the other two students were very good skiers and the instructor was notoriously gung-ho (his nickname is Dr Death). Just trying to keep up with them my skiing was occasionally ragged and at the very limit of my ability to remain safe. I would not have skied at that pace by myself. He also took us on a closed track that had a creek right across it that required jumping (with no warning). At first I thought this was rather reckless of the instructor and that I couldn't possibly be safe but then I realised that he's a very experienced, and highly qualified instructor with over 20 years experience and he would not have pushed me if he thought I was a danger to myself or others. Do I honestly believe I am 100% safe skiing at those speed? No. Do I talk myself into believing that I am? Possibly.... but at that speed I don't want to fall, so if I scare myself at all, I immediately tone it back down.

Incidentally, the progression that Easiski put up was good. I've been fortunate to have played a lot of sport to a high level before I started skiing, and am relatively fit so I've been able to pick things up on the faster side of things (perhaps I haven't and this is where I'm unrealistic!!), but the stages there are spot on. People have talked a lot about side-slipping. I've spent time on that in lessons in both Canada and France.

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It's often said that British skiers overestimate and overstate their ability, yet puzzlingly almost anyone who expresses an opinion on this site, professes that they are modest to the extent of possibly even being falsely so. Now we all know that top level skiing is so far out of our reach that it may as well be in another dimension let alone galaxy (I regularly have the ignominity of skiing with lots of kids almost all of whom are more accomplished than me), but actually I'd guess that both the median and mode of skiing ability amongst British holiday skiers is probably relatively low. Of course there's also who you're likely to be talking to! wink

Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.

I couldn't tell you how awesome I am with any great degree of accuracy, and would probably underestimate, but I'm confident that I've got more bad habits than could effectively be cured in a month of private lessons.

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The word 'aptitude' was raised above. How important is natural aptitude to skiing?

Yes, I know lots of people say does it matter how well you ski so long as you are enjoying yourself? To me it does, I like being able to do things to whatever standard I want to reach - I am not used to not being able to do things (yes, I'm one of those to whom you might stick the 'perfectionist' tag rolling eyes

). I think this is why I was beating myself up so much over the skiing until last April as I never thought I'd crack it sufficiently to be able to do it to my own satisfaction. Now I think with sufficient lessons it might finally be within my grasp. However, although I guess in theory you can teach anyone sufficient technique to be able to ski (if they have the confidence), does it require natural aptitude to be able to ski really well and if so I wonder how you tell if you have it?

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

Megamum, check out Fastman's description on our website - the 'about' pages...

GrahamN, Engineer type question... lets assume the straightline idea and start with travelling forward... if my skis are represented by / or \ then when I am at the
\ how do my tails get to the
/ position? to start going the other way?

Can you describe this in detail for me - what kind of movements would I have to make?

After all it is free

little tiger, sorry, that was a limitation of trying to describe detailed tracks in ASCII. What I was drawing was (a rather elongated) path of the centre of the skis, rather than a picture of the skis themselves. For the falling leaf I'm assuming the skis remain approximately perpendicular to the fallline throughout. Make the usual slight fore and aft weight changes to get the slight tip or tail drop for the angled sideslips - as in the Basic Edging DVD - but just make all the changes very smooth and progressive to get the smooth changes of direction. FastMan is probably very familiar with the other exercise that does involve turns (it's a sort of Fallline Finders but starting from going briefly downhill backwards) - I was taught it by an Austrian race coach - but it's going to be pretty difficult to describe it further in words.

*Ski* the Net with snowHeads

GrahamN, yes but my point was that there is a slight tip or tail drop... and in order for this to occur without a "hop" of the tip or tail there is therefore a slight "uphill" of the direction of travel of the opposite end...

I had actually typed you another post but it seems to have got lost in the vagaries of snowHead

forum (it does weird things to me from time to time) and I had not noticed..

I know your other exercise well...Italian race coaches use it too Wink

as does Fastman

I think this all gets confused in the words as you say...

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pam w, As you will have noted I was careful to say 'is likely to' at all times. We (ski pros) were asked for an indicator for levels. Weeks skiied would always be the indicator that we in the industry use (in addition to asking the potential student), as it is FAR MORE RELIABLE than anyone's description of their own skiing! Of course there are exceptions - I have taught some of them, but we weren't talking about exceptions were we? Puzzled

snow reports

easiski, And having done no complete weeks but two days here and three days there and four days somewhere else and even five days possibly once I'm baffled as to how to answer the 'how many weeks' question

Do I add up all the days and divide by 6 or maybe by 7?! Managed to end up in a group I felt comfortable in for my 1 day in ski school in Obergurgl by a bit of question and answer along the lines of what I could do - tho I did opt for the easier of two options(of course!) Very Happy

Late starter, Go ski in USA or Oz or NZ... where they don't tend to count in weeks Wink

You know it makes sense.

little tiger, Oi!

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

easiski,

it is a looooooooong flight

A snowHead

I spent my first two years on a dry ski slope every thursday for two years from when I was 6 which didn't realy leave room for "i've skiing black runs!" and then subsequentley being put in a beginner group. :s I havent skiid on plastic for 6 years now and since i've got so much better since then Twisted Evil

(obnoxious mode on) that i've become an "expert skiier" (obnoxious mode off) Little Angel

and i've forgeotten how it feels Embarassed

Help!!

Are We Realistic In Our Ski-ing Skill\Levels? What are the Basic Skills?

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