 Poster: A snowHead
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Megamum,
I still use both snowplow and stem christie..... I agree with Fastman on this... you do not unlearn skills... all skills make you more versatile.... which is the aim of good instruction.... You do unlearn poor habits and develop better skills... eg one day I was "playing" at imitating other skiers styles... but I found it almost impossible to be poorly balanced fore/aft/laterally while imitating their turn initiations and arm movements
That is why a high level instructor looks so much smoother doing a snowplow than a low level instructor who looks so much better than a beginner skier
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Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
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| Butterfly wrote: |
I'd be interested to hear more about your development and if you could steel yourself to sharing those videos it'd be most encouraging, as at the moment it seems an impossibility for me to achieve even a halfway decent relaxed and effective style of getting down a slope! How long have you been skiing? How did you learn to flex your ankles? I am having real difficulties with that one despite trying to do calf stretches as often as possible and keeping on trying to increase the flex. |
Butterfly
I've been skiing 10 years
Started at 37years of age
Ankle flex - well... many many things (including minor off-piste excursions each ski day with instructor to try to force balancing movements to develop).... One of the  moments involved an instructor who questioned how I controlled fore/aft balance (ie stood up straightish) and then used that idea by skiing 2 turns - walking back up slope to me - and the 2 of us walking around those turns with him pushing on my arm to indicate the amount of boot cuff pressure he had used at each spot in the turn... I then attempted to replicate the boot cuff pressure in single turn and then linked turns.... Repeat a few hundred times...
Also much rollerblading lessons, (want to go over a train line? crack in concrete? etc... lift toes=dorsiflex which is (sort of) what you are doing)...
and many balance beam drills in summer .... much achilles stretching(not calves)... bike riding...
I'd say it took me all up 2-3 years or so .... my main instructor may have a better recollection
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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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| FastMan wrote: |
During the season, prior to filming, we had been working on a lot of rotary/steering and balance skills... Her carving skills were pretty good, but her steering/rotary skills had some holes. |
Fastman great to see you here again and looking forward to viewing the fruits of your labour on the new website.
Although it may be specific to LT it is interesting to hear that you spent a lot of time working on balance and rotary skills. In my quest to improve and "carve" better my coaching has gone down a similar path with each trainer working on twisting and balance drills. I am starting to see the light that you really need to be able to control the skis with all three steering elements and have started focusing on improving rotary movements with the few higher level skiers i teach as a way to improve. They generally dont get why we are doing slow speed rotary drills when all they want is to "learn how to carve"...
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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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skimottaret, Little Tiger has spent at least 5 weeks in the last 18 months learning to skid in one form or another. Previously it made her feel really unsafe, and I'm sure she still doesn't like it much! I hope that most snowheads will see this thread for what it is, and those struggling with learning to ski better will be encouraged. Little Tiger does have physical problems and has learnt in spite of them. Everyone can learn if they want to enough. 
Butterfly Don't worry - seen the vid, we'll sort it next month.
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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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You'll need to Register first of course.
You'll need to Register first of course.
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easiski,
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Everyone can learn if they want to enough
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Takes a lot of time and a lot of money for those who don't live near the snow, though. little tiger is lucky to have a profession which 'travels' and is fairly well-paid, and she also had the dedication to go and live for months in a country which she hates (by her own admission) in order, presumably, to pay the least amount of tax on sufficient income to finance her skiing. That's quite a high price to pay but, hey, the equation obviously stacks up for her. 
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Hurtle, Nothing comes for free. If you want to be very good at something you have to "pay the price", and not only in pounds and pence.
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| easiski wrote: |
| .......Little Tiger does have physical problems and has learnt in spite of them........ |
Bit harsh describing being Australian as a physical problem 
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You'll get to see more forums and be part of the best ski club on the net.
You'll get to see more forums and be part of the best ski club on the net.
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Butterfly Don't worry - seen the vid, we'll sort it next month.
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Butterfly, Oooo....I'm sooo jealous, I would have loved to be a companion, but I can't finance or spend the time for another trip abroad this soon.
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Megamum Ditto, my next easiski fix will be December. Hang in there. Just a tip, sure it's in the wrong place, but here goes. Try your sking to music, it chills you out,(not dangerous, we all safely drive with it) better still, sing along to it, you can not sing and hold your breath. Breathing very important for ski, for most things really.
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snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
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| david@mediacopy wrote: |
| Hurtle, Nothing comes for free. If you want to be very good at something you have to "pay the price", and not only in pounds and pence. |
Very insightful.
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And love to help out and answer questions and of course, read each other's snow reports.
And love to help out and answer questions and of course, read each other's snow reports.
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easiski, I skid much happier these days...
You will be happy to know that the shots where I am wearing a blue jacket I am skiing across 2-4inch balls of icey stuff that have resulted from the day before's mush refreezing. If you watch the original footage in good quality you can watch the ski tips bounce around as they hit them....(and hear the yelp in one spot if that helps Butterfly and Megamum any)
Hurtle, not the tax... but proximity to bigger hills than I could ski at home.... when your highest peak is just over 2000metres vertical is limited... I needed to ski bigger stuff for my next progression in my skiing.... also different conditions to slop and refrozen slop, and grass and mud! I already skied grass well - needed more versatility though.
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Very nice, clear demos.
Thanks
Can someone add "reduced edge set" to the glossary thread please.
I'd also be keen to see the carving with pole plants to compare and contrast with the penultimate drill even if it were slightly forced to demonstrate timing.
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You know it makes sense.
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little tiger, FastMan, well done! Good demos and clear descriptions. Very much looking forward to the full dvd.
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Otherwise you'll just go on seeing the one name:
Otherwise you'll just go on seeing the one name:
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slikedges, My demos are poor compared to Fastman.... and the equipment used for the DVD series was much better than the compact hand held machine used for that video... Also Youtube really does mean much decreased quality of video.... The DVD's really should be very nice to watch - I'm looking forward to them too
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Poster: A snowHead
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little tiger, great effort!
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Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
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| skimottaret wrote: |
| FastMan wrote: |
During the season, prior to filming, we had been working on a lot of rotary/steering and balance skills... Her carving skills were pretty good, but her steering/rotary skills had some holes. |
Fastman great to see you here again and looking forward to viewing the fruits of your labour on the new website.
Although it may be specific to LT it is interesting to hear that you spent a lot of time working on balance and rotary skills. In my quest to improve and "carve" better my coaching has gone down a similar path with each trainer working on twisting and balance drills. I am starting to see the light that you really need to be able to control the skis with all three steering elements and have started focusing on improving rotary movements with the few higher level skiers i teach as a way to improve. They generally dont get why we are doing slow speed rotary drills when all they want is to "learn how to carve"... |
Hi, skimottaret, thanks for the welcome back. Keep doing what you're doing, you're on the right road. The foundation skill base represents the needed ingredients for upper level skiing. That I worked on these things with LittleTiger is not unique to her situation. What was unique were the methods by which she needed to learn them. Everyone, if they want to realize their personal potentials in this sport, NEED to work on all the base rotary and balance skills. Deficits in these areas act as roadblocks to improved skiing.
Do expect head scratching protest from your students who "just want to learn to carve", without doing the required foundation work needed to make their carving versatile and high quality. It's much like the racers I worked for years with who wondered why I was teaching them to ski when all they wanted to do was run gates. But here's the response, and it requires no words: Keep working hard on refining the quality of your own skills. The more your students struggling attempts to perform requested tasks contrast with your own effortless demos of the same task, the more they will become acutely aware of the reality of the shortcoming in their skill base, and the need for improvement. And the side benefit to this strategy is that your personal overall skiing will improve in leaps and bounds.
Here's a suggestion to all the readers here: refine your steering skills along the manner Little Tiger did in this video, then build a broad balance skill base upon a refined steering platform. It will improve your skiing immensely,,, and from there quality carving is but a minor step forward, a no brainer, a piece of cake, like falling off a log.
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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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| slikedges wrote: |
| little tiger, FastMan, well done! Good demos and clear descriptions. Very much looking forward to the full dvd. |
Thanks,,, I'll keep you posted. The plan is to have them ready before the snow flies. I have about 1000 individual drill/demo clips to edit, freeze, slo mo, narrate, compose and compile. Yikes, what a monstrous project. Between the full and laborious winter it took me to shoot the raw footage, and the build time, I'm learning why no one has done it before. But it's a product that needs to be made. People need access to this type of comprehensive and economical training option, and it's currently not available to them. That's about to change.
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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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| FastMan wrote: |
| That's about to change. |
Excellent!
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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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FastMan, when can we order copies? 
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You'll need to Register first of course.
You'll need to Register first of course.
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FastMan, so right. there's no point in trying to do more advanced stuff while the basics are wrong! It's up to us to persuade peeps of this principle.
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You'll get to see more forums and be part of the best ski club on the net.
You'll get to see more forums and be part of the best ski club on the net.
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| Quote: |
as the others put me down for a copy of the DVD
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And me!
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easiski,
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there's no point in trying to do more advanced stuff while the basics are wrong
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I didn't realise, until reading this thread, that carving was considered advanced, or to be learned at the later end of the acquisition of a set of skills. It's been quite a revelation. 
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snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
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And me!
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And love to help out and answer questions and of course, read each other's snow reports.
And love to help out and answer questions and of course, read each other's snow reports.
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Hurtle, "I want to have it now" syndrome much like someone new to whisky walking in and asking for "the best" single malt.
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| comprex wrote: |
| Hurtle, "I want to have it now" syndrome much like someone new to whisky walking in and asking for "the best" single malt. |
an' coke.
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You know it makes sense.
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Otherwise you'll just go on seeing the one name:
Otherwise you'll just go on seeing the one name:
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| easiski wrote: |
| FastMan, so right. there's no point in trying to do more advanced stuff while the basics are wrong! It's up to us to persuade peeps of this principle. |
And it's extra hard when some in our profession are not contributing to that effort, but are actually doing the opposite by teaching dead end short cuts (such as you saw in living color in Wengen this year  ) Hopefully this project will help our cause.
Expanding the foundation skill base has paid big dividends in Little Tigers skiing. And it will continue to. Well done with the major focus you put on edge control skills when you were working with her this past year. I did the same, and the improvement is very clear to see, and very impressive. As you know,,, the same foundation building formula will work for everyone. I think Little Tiger's proprioception deficit, and how well she has developed her skiing in spite of it, makes the legitimacy of that assertion pretty apparent.
THANKS EVERYONE, for your encouragement and moral support in this project of mine. I'll keep chewing on this elephant one bite at a time, and keep you posted when it's ready.
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Poster: A snowHead
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FastMan, keep that head down, skis sliding and cameras rolling - obviously lots of us here can't wait to get our hands on the finished product and I've been telling all the people I ski with about it too!
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FAQ
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