 Poster: A snowHead
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You see it done by the racers when they close their eyes and imagine speeding down a piste, arcing the course out with their hands. Do you do something similar? Are you that pretensious? Or are you more subtle and just visulaise hammering down some bumps a-la Edgar Grospiron? Does this sort of thing help your skiing?
Sometimes, I do watch good skiers and think 'I'm gonna do it that way' but this is quite rare. I find that I'm more of a kinaesthetic learner rather than visual and I intuitively know when things are right through the sensations from my skis and boots. Does this apply to you?
When I'm on a chair-lift and watch instruction I cannot help but feel that very often it's highly prescriptive and undifferentiated and this cannot suit all the learners in a class. Quite often it just seems all too visual. Would anyone concur?
Just a few thoughts. I hope you all had a good season.
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Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
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kevin mcclean, yeah, I imagine I'm a better skier than I really am!
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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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I try not to be thinking of anything much when skiing. Occasionally I will try to isolate a particular movement and imagine what that looks or feels like, but whenever I do this (normally when being taught) it feels like my skiing becomes stiff or stilted. Best to ski with a quiet mind, as someone once suggested to me.
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You need to Login to know who's really who.
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This is exactly how I learned to ski. I found that I could improve my skiing even when I wasn't skiing, for the 1 or 2 weeks a year that I would go I would read about and watch skiing and then think about and imagine myself doing it. I found year on year I would improve my skiing. I still do it today and watch and learn while on a ski lift.
I actually found something a while back explaining all this. It was something to do with a video tape and rewinding situations in your mind.... I have since lost it but will try and find something on the net. When I first read it I was amazed because it described what I was doing. And I didn't realise I was doing it at the time.
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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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When I'm about to do something I'm not too good at; bumps, gates, steeps, deep snow, I have a sort of mental rehersal before I set off.
It's more about trying to remember how it feels and what I do on the rare occations I do that type of run properly, and then trying to replicate that.
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You'll need to Register first of course.
You'll need to Register first of course.
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| Quote: |
| Do you imagine things whilst you're skiing? |
No more than at other times!
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found it, well something similar
http://www.mindworks.uk.com/website/model.htm
Funny enough it says it was used to get better at skiing, basically you watch someone thats good and do as they do..... I am available to watch if required, just book an extra ticket for me and I will be there! 
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I used visualisation when passing my Grade 1 - worked really well, except that peeps kept interupting me!
I always encourage my students to watch other skiers and notice what they do well or badly - I find it really helps them to improve more quickly, and to become more aware of what they're doing.
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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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I do too - particularly in bumps I'll forward pace the first few on my head to get the rhythm.
Also, I found when I was younger that I would improve over the summer by watching lots of ski vids and visualising - or better, imagining myself doing the actions I was watching.
When I was repping I'd spend lots of quiet moments on chairs watching instructors and endeavouring to emulate their moves. Not always just the obvious ones either but the subtle ones - how they finished their turns, how they absorbed every little bump, etc. Seems to have helped...
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I'm a male, I think about sex. Don't we all?
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snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
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When I wish to go faster than normal down a slope, I close my eyes and visualise a lard sandwich waiting for me at the bottom 
Seriously, not so much visualise, but I do find that humming a tune helps a hell of a lot, especially to get a bit of rythmn back after hitting an icy patch or rock etc.
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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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Sorry but I dont imagine anything when im skiing,not with a board strapped to my feet
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Don't imagine WHILE i'm skiing... btu when I am being challenged and learning new stuff i get ski sickness when i stop and relax....
Ski sickness is similar to when you hop off a boat after being on one for a longish time and the LAND is moving around.... I stop skiing and sit down to have a drink..... and discover my legs are still skiing..... I can watch them and they are still happily sitting in the chair or lying on the couch with me.... but the leg nerves swear that the legs are skiing.....
After one instructor skied me over a small jump unannounced we discovered that the ski sickness is in fact a replay of the sensory input from the nerves (i skied that same jump 4-5 times in about 2 hours before falling asleep for my afternoon nap)
he thought it wa cool that i got multiple lessons for the price of one..... I hate the vertigo and nausea....
I am told that this replay is normal but that teh usual trick is to wait until you are ASLEEP to process this data... for some silly reason I do it while awake and make self sick
If I organise my ski day right and can manage to lie down for a couple of hours each day then i actually learn FASTER as my brain can absorb better this way.... it beats skiing for those extra couple of hours but with bad technique due to being tired...
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You know it makes sense.
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little tiger, you's weerd
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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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yep... certified weird even.... come with little red book what says I is weird..... physios like to play with me as i do very "strange" things .....
However the thing is I am just conscious of what every body does when learning that sort of stuff.... (and with no proprioception I get more confused by this sort of stuff)...
Everyone actually learns better if they make time for sleep when learning stuff liek this... I believe that it is suggested from musicians etc but don't remember where i saw that.... bodies like to replay - and normally do so when asleep... the replay is the body "visualising" it all happening so it can work it all out to do it better...
so if you take a "power nap" after skiing you not only get to party harder but you can learn to ski better !
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Poster: A snowHead
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Oh and for kevin (having reread first post)...
yes the "feel" works better for me.... but I have instructors usually that will tell me how they want me to make the skis feel... soem spend quite a bit of time with me talking about how i "felt" the snow that run etc.... stuff like "Did you feel the skis break out at that point in the turn" and "where did you feel the snow changed on that run" or "which side of the run did you think the snow was bettr to ski" etc etc etc... then we go through why how when etc etc....
I am also often given direction like to "try to keep the pressure even through the turn" or "feel the outside edge of the ski in the snow and start to extend away from that"
also I use a technique that my fencing instructor taught me.... so when i strat a run if i want to have a certain emphasis I will often try to "focus" on the required outcome... eg imagine how xxxx will feel (so i need to have done some thing to already let me feel it)..... then after a strong focus you sort of "push it aside" and instead get a soft sort of focus - like where you are heading....
the body retains the thing you concentrated on though - and tends to do it without the "rigidity" that someoneselse described if you try too hard....
If i can use this technique well it is very useful because you seem to have heaps of time to do things if needed - all is in slow motion almost...
sometimes it is hard to focus though...
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Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
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when I go to sleep in resort I feel like I'm skiing as soon as I lie down...
Well I'm a bit of a weird kid, I always imagine a lot, to the point of actually feeling like there was someone skiing with me when I was on my own (i think it was my fave band member of my fave band or something). I also imagine being a good skier, I imagine I'm skiing somewhere unknown on my own adventure... I've always had a rampant imagination, I'm a messed up kid really!
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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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easiski, Me too ! (for my 2). I remember watching the demo and then trying desparately not to watch anyone else......quite hard when you don't go first....
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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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I think my brain goes blank. At least most of it anyway. The main route from Ski Centre to Legs takes over all resources. I even stop breathing on steep bumpy slopes.
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