 Poster: A snowHead
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Hi all
I've read some comments on here about Skiplex and whilst there appears to be a consistent view that it doesn't offer much to good/experienced skiers, there seems to be a mixed view about whether it is beneficial to newbies or not. I have benefitted from some advice from this forum in the last couple of weeks, so I figured it's only right I give something back, and as a novice there isn't much I can contribute other than my experiences as a novice.
I went skiing for the first time in Courchevel four years ago with some friends, and had a 'learn to ski in a day' course at Tamworth Snowdome before I went. During the day I learnt to snowplough in a controlled way and was pretty confident about my ability to handle what was coming my way...how wrong I was! on anything other than a Green slope, the plough was limited at best. Luckily I had a friend who helped me when I was there and had me parallel skiing within a day of being there, albeit with a flawed technique as he is a self taught skier himself and by his own admission, no instructor. I got through the next three days and got as far as carving, but badly!
Anyway, that was four years ago, and in four weeks time I am heading out to Austria with a bunch of friends to try again, so I thought I'd give some more lessons a go to refresh my memory before I go, so I can at least start from where I left off. I am time poor at the moment and work 5 minutes from Skiplex so thought I'd give it a go. I've now had four sessions and my summary is as follows:
(1) It is amazing for fitness if nothing else, I have struggled to get through the sessions as two sets of 15 minutes continuous skiing is really tough
(2) I have reached a point where I am very nearly parallel skiing, currently it's 50% plough and 50% parallel (my inside leg gets lazy!)
(3) I expect to be parallel skiing very confidently by the time I go away (I have another seven sessions booked)
(4) It is far more unforgiving than snow, any flaw in technique bites and over you go
(5) It has made me much more confident on ski's; I have ended up facing backwards a couple of times and have been able to steady myself, something that threw me to the ground every time I was away last time because being on skis felt unnatural
(6) Being able to watch in the mirror has given me a much better view of the mechanics of skiing and I can see and feel what I'm doing wrong
(7) I am already developing muscle memory and my legs are working in a way that they weren't in the first session
So, it's largely positive.
There are two areas where it can't help...
Firstly, there is no sensation of speed and whilst the slope can be quite steep, it's too short to really have an impact mentally. When I was in Courchevel I would be going very well but when I picked up speed I would panic and it's at that point it would go wrong and I'd bin it. It had nothing to do with technique, just panic!
Secondly, it's hard to replicate a hockey stop, which is something I need to get better at - if I knew I could do a good stop from any speed, I wouldn't panic about picking up speed and everything would be better.
I am going to book some lessons for when I'm there which will enable me to (a) get the sensation of speed under the watchful eye of an instructor (b) learn to stop well and (c) refine my technique assuming it may need some adaptation for snow. But, there is no doubt in my mind that the sessions at Skiplex will give me a headstart as a novice.
I will of course update the forum when I get back to see whether my belief as been reinforced or whether it has been blown apart.
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