Poster: A snowHead
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Hey, I’m desperate to improve my skiing but can’t afford any lessons this season. I’ve done 4.5 weeks (since 2017) in total and feel like I’ve hit a wall. My stance is awkward and stiff and I’m still plowing a bit on turns but I don’t know how to correct it. Video below:
https://share.icloud.com/photos/02bgd1yTWRW5DHl3EguMXQEcA
Any tips? Be nice
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Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
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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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One week a year will never get you (or anyone) off the plateau or over the wall.
The body and muscle memory forget what they learned.
Book at least 2 weeks in a row, twice a year.
The more you ride, the better you get.
Continuous time on snow is a must-do.
Time is king.
Lessons are queen.
Good luck.
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As stated by @Whitegold above....try, if at all possible, to find the money for some lessons, as it's really the only reliable way to take the next step.
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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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Yes - time and money. Having that 2/3/4 week of continuous skiing just somehow requires all your body’s connections to the snow. Just do it for one year like that and other years will be easier.
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IME it is a time-served thing, the more you ski the better you get. Stretch to a single two week holiday, ski all day everyday.
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Fitness, ski with people who are better than you and patient and save up for at least one lesson
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Id just like to add that PERFECT practice make perfect not just mileage and time.... problem with that is if you are not careful it will just cement bad habits etc. Another way to approach it and I find myself saying this all the time... is spend 5 mins here, half a run there (REGULARLY - i.e. several times a day) repeating drills and focuses you are given in lessons... consider it like homework from school. That way things 'stick' to the muscle memory. I often see so called expert skiers having done 'a season' and all they have done is ingrain bad habits that you can never undo!
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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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This is really useful advice, thank you all.
I’ll see if I can find somewhere cheap and cheerful to get some extra practice in.
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Annoying all my trips have been with boarders or beginner friends! Need to persuade someone else to come along next time!
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snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
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Go on a "bash"!!!
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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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As said above you have to be realistic. As with anything you only practice 1 week a year you are going to reach a plateau pretty quick.
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GemmaRalph13 wrote: |
Any tips? Be nice |
Obviously comments on one video are no substitute for an on snow assessment, but ..
Probably the first thing I'd try to get you to work on would be to slow down your turns. That's not the same as going slower, but what you're doing on many of them is to get your skis facing the other way as quickly as possible. Ideally the turn should be in a more or less constant radius, i.e. making a nice regular S shape, whereas you're more often making something closer to a Z
What I'd probably try to get you to do is to go back to a full snowplough turn, nice and slow, feel the ski doing the work for you, using it's shaped edge to steer rather than physically trying to turn it, letting you move gently and consistently from one direction to the other, before bringing the skis back parallel only once the turn is completed.
One of the biggest obstacles to this is often a fear of pointing directly down the hill, and many people panic half way through and end up doing exactly what they're afraid of. Patience, and trust the skis. Once they're turning they will carry on turning until you do something.
Once you've got that control back you can then start working back towards parallel turns trying to retain them nice S shape.
But really, that's only what I might try to do in an on-snow lesson, it's not at all the same as saying 'this is what you should do'. Get a private lesson - I'm pretty sure that we could get a huge improvement in just a couple of hours...
Oh, and don't be too put off by some of the comments. One week a year may not be much but it's absolutely no reason to think that you can't make positive progress each time you go.
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You know it makes sense.
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@GemmaRalph13, I’m not an instructor, but for what it’s worth here are my observations on your skiing:
1. You’re over-rotating your upper body at each turn. Try and keep your chest facing straight down the slope and don’t let your downhill shoulder come round so much because it affects your poise and balance.
2. As @Chaletbeauroc has already noted, you’re transitioning too quickly from one turn to the next, resulting in a Z-shape turn, rather then a smooth S-shape turn. Take time to finish each turn smoothly, which will reduce your speed, before you initiate the next turn. Don’t lift your inside ski.
3. Plant your downhill pole to initiate the turn. Rather than skiing with relatively rigid arm positions, be more fluid and dynamic, reaching slightly forward with each pole plant.
4. Be more dynamic in your bottom half by bending your knees more whilst still keeping your weight forward. There should be more up/down motion.
Watch some instructional videos. The Ski School series of apps (beginner, intermediate, etc.) by Elate Media presented by Darren Turner are very good. I’ll post a link separately.
Even a single 1 or 2-hour private or small group lesson at the start of your next trip would give you something you could work on in the days after. It could be worth downgrading to a packed lunch a couple of days to help pay for it! You could even do it at a snow dome if one is accessible from where you live.
As others have said, practice. You can still have fun with others but really concentrate and engage with the slope. Find a slope with a nice gradient and a drag or chair that goes back up to the top and just ski it repeatedly for an hour each day.
If possible, ski with others who are better than you, provided they are patient and don’t push you to go down slopes you’re not ready for (which will depend on conditions, not just your ability).
Be observant too. Not just in terms of watching out to avoid collisions, but take time to watch how others ski. Spot those who ski smoothly and effortlessly and try to develop that rhythmic movement yourself.
Best of luck. Your openness to learning will, I’m sure, pay dividends.
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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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Poster: A snowHead
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Thank you all so much, really appreciate the responses.
The S not Z advice is really useful. I have been told that before and obviously need to practice more.
I already paid for the beginner, intermediate, advanced apps mentioned so I’ll use those too for drills.
Chest facing down the slope is new but makes sense, I’ll try that.
I’m off to St Anton on the 30th and they have some good blues I can practice on.
Has anyone been on / known someone that’s done one of the Hemel Hempstead teaching holidays?
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Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
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GemmaRalph13 wrote: |
This is really useful advice, thank you all.
I’ll see if I can find somewhere cheap and cheerful to get some extra practice in. |
Gemma, look at UCPA holidays in France. Haven't been for many, many years, but they were a good way to get tuition cheaply when I was learning.
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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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@GemmaRalph13, What are your holiday plans this season?
If you happen to end up in Mayrhofen or the surrounding areas, i'd be happy to go out on the slopes with you and help out. My visa doesn't allow me to teach for the next two seasons, so it would be good for me to keep my teaching skills going anyway.
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GemmaRalph13 wrote: |
Chest facing down the slope is new but makes sense, I’ll try that.
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Don't. This is absolutely not appropriate for the sort of turn you're doing at this point.
(It's something that comes in much later when we're trying to do 'short turns', where you're moving quite quickly down the fall line with minimal movement side to side across the hill).
Also note that you're not "over-rotating". That is something else entirely, a problem you do not have.
The pole plant is something that we can refine later - at this stage it really isn't going to help you much and sometimes in your video it can be seen to be unsettling your balance. Indeed it looks like something that is perhaps making your rushed turns worse, so for now it may be better to try not to use them at all.
The knee bending? Well maybe, but from what we can see it's not causing a problem at this stage. You appear to have about the right amount of up and down for what you're trying to achieve right now.
It's important to not get fixated on more advanced techniques, some of which may come, some of which you'll see in other skiers but may be very old school and counter to your own learning progression. Run before you can walk; nice controlled round turns before we start to worry about how parallel the skis are, sorta thing.
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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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Whitegold wrote: |
One week a year will never get you (or anyone) off the plateau or over the wall.
The body and muscle memory forget what they learned.
Book at least 2 weeks in a row, twice a year.
The more you ride, the better you get.
Continuous time on snow is a must-do.
Time is king.
Lessons are queen.
Good luck. |
Nonsense. The first time I skied for more than one consecutive week was when I passed my Level 2 instructor assessment. Not the highest standard in the world, for sure, but higher than most holiday skiers get to and higher than many saisonnaires get to despite spending multiple consecutive weeks on snow.
There are a few people who can continue to improve their skiing skills and get off the plateau by spending more time on snow, but I think they are fairly small minority. For everyone else, and I absolutely include myself in this, some kind of technical input is required to develop effective movement patterns and the ability to make changes to core skills to ski a wide range of terrain. That technical input doesn't have to come from paid-for ski lessons with a good instructor, it can come fro finding the right videos on YouTube, books, DVDs, casual tips from the internet, mimicking friends who you know ski well, etc, etc. My experience was that good quality ski lessons made the biggest difference, none of the other options made much of an impact on my skiing, but other people's experience may be different.
As @Steve Angus said, practicing the same thing, regardless of whether that's one week at a time or 2x2-weeks at a time each and every season, simply makes permanent your skills. Maybe those are the right movement patterns, maybe they are not...
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GemmaRalph13 wrote: |
Thank you all so much, really appreciate the responses.
The S not Z advice is really useful. I have been told that before and obviously need to practice more.
I already paid for the beginner, intermediate, advanced apps mentioned so I’ll use those too for drills.
Chest facing down the slope is new but makes sense, I’ll try that.
I’m off to St Anton on the 30th and they have some good blues I can practice on.
Has anyone been on / known someone that’s done one of the Hemel Hempstead teaching holidays? |
Ack -if your next trip is to St Anton and over New Years, no wonder you can't afford lessons! The lift pass there is nearly 2x as expensive as some decent sized French & Italian mountains. That's water under the bridge now, but for 24/25 tap the collective wisdom of the Snowheads for ideas of cheaper resorts that have good range of blues for practicing and/or inexpensive ski schools. With a bit of planning, you'll manage to fit in 2 weeks of skiing for the price of the holiday you're taking this year. Part of the trick is avoiding the mega resorts like Ski Arlberg.
It's not impossible to improve on your own, but you need to be mindful while skiing - at the start of each run, think of just one aspect that you want to focus on. You might also need to spend time apart from friends or worse still, boyfriends who are trying to teach you UNLESS you set clear boundaries - like watch certain videos from the apps together, agree which drills you're going to try, and they have to pledge to limit criticism to detecting and correcting just the single skill you are working on.
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Scrunch77 wrote: |
@GemmaRalph13, I’m not an instructor, but for what it’s worth here are my observations on your skiing:
1. You’re over-rotating your upper body at each turn. Try and keep your chest facing straight down the slope and don’t let your downhill shoulder come round so much because it affects your poise and balance.
2. As @Chaletbeauroc has already noted, you’re transitioning too quickly from one turn to the next, resulting in a Z-shape turn, rather then a smooth S-shape turn. Take time to finish each turn smoothly, which will reduce your speed, before you initiate the next turn. Don’t lift your inside ski.
3. Plant your downhill pole to initiate the turn. Rather than skiing with relatively rigid arm positions, be more fluid and dynamic, reaching slightly forward with each pole plant.
4. Be more dynamic in your bottom half by bending your knees more whilst still keeping your weight forward. There should be more up/down motion. |
Sorry lots of bad advice here, apart from point 2! Please don’t keep your chest facing straight down the slope, don’t worry about pole planting and you don’t need up/down motion at all, that’s very very old school, we are trying to keep the upper body nice and quiet, not bobbing up and down!! I had that habit, took years and lessons/exams to fix !
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If you are going to St Anton because that's where somebody else wants to go, prioritise your own needs next time.
If your friend(s) are too selfish to do that, get new friends. And in response to your question about "Inside Out" skiing tuition holidays, yes, they are excellent, if there's one at the right level for you.
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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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GemmaRalph13 wrote: |
Has anyone been on / known someone that’s done one of the Hemel Hempstead teaching holidays? |
If you are near Hemel then I’d recommend the Inside Out guys, will really help and give you some things to practise on your next holiday, they also do alpine coaching holidays (I’m on one Saturday). Despite passing some ski instructor exams I’m still taking technical training/instruction!
https://www.insideoutskiing.com/
Last edited by You'll get to see more forums and be part of the best ski club on the net. on Thu 14-12-23 11:36; edited 2 times in total
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@GemmaRalph13, the first problem I can see is the shape of your turn, especially on the steeper terrain at the beginning of that run. As said above, you need to think smooth 'S' shape turns rather than sharp 'Z' shape turns. This can be a bit intimidating as the reason you are turning too sharply is that you don't want to have your skis pointing directly down the slope for too long as they will accelerate and you worry you'll lose control. This is a natural reaction and one we've all faced at some point or other. One way of dealing with this is to practice linking your 'S" shaped turns on gentler terrain until this starts to feel fluid and effortless, then be determined to do Thame same thing when you are on steeper terrain.
The second problem, which is related to the first problem, is that you do not have a lot of grip between skis and snow, even in the soft snow you are skiing in that clip. Part of this is related to the sudden change in direction you make at the start of many of your 'Z' shape turns - inevitably the ski starts to move sideways more than you want, significantly losing grip. At speed this can be extremely disconcerting. Once you improve your turn shape it will be much easier to find more grip, which will give you much more confidence that you can control your speed and line. So think about feeling more for the edge of your ski and allow the ski to turn you by following more along that edge.
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snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
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GemmaRalph13 wrote: |
Has anyone been on / known someone that’s done one of the Hemel Hempstead teaching holidays? |
I haven’t had the chance to be on any of the teaching holidays but have had several lessons with Rob from Inside Out (rob@rar on this thread) over the summer at Hemel H.
I was probably at a level not too dissimilar to yours in June, maybe only a couple of weeks ‘on snow’ ahead. Averaging about 1 lesson every 6 weeks between June and November, my confidence and performance increased. It also meant I was 'keeping my eye in’ during the off season.
Snow centre / dome lessons are definitely a monetary investment (as well as time investment) but the way I look at it is that they allow me to get more out of my actual time spent on ski holidays so I get ‘better value’ (and more importantly, more fun!) than I otherwise would whilst in the Alps. I’ve just come back from a week’s skiing and could feel the benefits of the investment. Particularly, i didn’t spend the first couple of days trying to get back to where I was by the end of the last ski holiday but instead started from a stronger position than where I last was.
Personally, I still also take lessons whilst on ski trips. There is some excellent tuition on offer at the End of Season Bash and, if you are already looking ahead to next season, the Pre Season Bash. Whilst not unanimously loved by all, I’ve personally also found ESF (Ecole de Ski Français / French ski school) group lessons to be worthwhile and not too expensive though my experience now is that if there is a choice I’d favour BASI instructors over ESF instruction but will still use ESF if that is the only viable or available option (most of my skiing this far having been in France)
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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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AndreaC wrote: |
It's not impossible to improve on your own, but you need to be mindful while skiing - at the start of each run, think of just one aspect that you want to focus on. You might also need to spend time apart from friends or worse still, boyfriends who are trying to teach you UNLESS you set clear boundaries - like watch certain videos from the apps together, agree which drills you're going to try, and they have to pledge to limit criticism to detecting and correcting just the single skill you are working on. |
This is such good advice...and more difficult than it sounds. I have literally ground myself to a halt, while trying to concentrate on too many things at once. Very much also applies to a Golf swing!
I watched a very interesting interview with Harald Harb about his whole life....and he said that the most difficult thing that he found as a Coach, was seeing all the mistakes his student was making...and then initially keeping them to himself. He said that you had to pick on the one or two big things that would make the most difference (which may help with the smaller things) and then deal with the other issues, one at a time, in logical order (ie. based on their importance/impact on performance). I think the above input from the Instructors on here, very much highlight the importance on concentrating on the right things.
I think one of the biggest mistakes that well meaning amateurs make - and I very much include myself - is giving too much advice all at once, which just causes an overload of information.
Whether one agrees with Harb's system, or not, it is designed to have one or two word trigger phrases for the various main elements, that are easy to remember when working on one's own skiing.
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AndreaC wrote: |
He said that you had to pick on the one or two big things that would make the most difference (which may help with the smaller things) and then deal with the other issues, one at a time, in logical order
I think one of the biggest mistakes that well meaning amateurs make - and I very much include myself - is giving too much advice all at once, which just causes an overload of information.
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I confess I have sometimes been guilty of that, even (in my early days) as an Instructor. As you say, work on one thing at a time, always makes the best progress. Particularly so for an early learner, which is why I only picked on "the first thing I would try to address" in my earlier reply. Good to see that others have generally agreed with me - Was typing that on my phone at some god-awful hour of sleeplessness this morning, so it could have been total garbage
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You know it makes sense.
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@GemmaRalph13, just a quick further thought but you might also want to have a look at UCPA if budget is a constraint. From their website:-
"The UCPA was originally set up to make adventure holidays, top resorts and quality coaching more accessible and affordable for young people aged 18 to 39. In recent years UCPA have become more flexible with the age restrictions, increasing the upper age to 45 and introducing special courses and weeks to allow families and people over 45."
I have heard really good things about it from people who have been on UCPA organised trips (and from speaking to some very nice UCPA people whilst on ski lift chairs in resorts ) and certainly they seem to have done a lot to make lessons and accomodation more affordable. If it is something I had been aware of a decade or two ago when I was young enough to meet the criteria and when ski holidays seemed to me (based on the limited info I had) to be a luxury reserved for the few, I may well have got into skiing sooner.
https://www.ucpa.co.uk/information/about-ucpa/
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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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kitenski wrote: |
...you don’t need up/down motion at all, that’s very very old school, we are trying to keep the upper body nice and quiet, not bobbing up and down!! I had that habit, took years and lessons/exams to fix ! |
They were still teaching it on BASI 1 and 2 when I did it, err, 12 years ago. Yes, it's been very much deprecated, but not completely, and there are occasions. for a few people, where I still use it, mainly to get them out of a locked-in position and relax their upper body, but for some people it can also help even at the plough-parallel stage. Not everything BASI says is good or true 100% of the time for 100% of students :-;
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Poster: A snowHead
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kitenski wrote: |
Scrunch77 wrote: |
@GemmaRalph13, I’m not an instructor, but for what it’s worth here are my observations on your skiing:
1. You’re over-rotating your upper body at each turn. Try and keep your chest facing straight down the slope and don’t let your downhill shoulder come round so much because it affects your poise and balance.
2. As @Chaletbeauroc has already noted, you’re transitioning too quickly from one turn to the next, resulting in a Z-shape turn, rather then a smooth S-shape turn. Take time to finish each turn smoothly, which will reduce your speed, before you initiate the next turn. Don’t lift your inside ski.
3. Plant your downhill pole to initiate the turn. Rather than skiing with relatively rigid arm positions, be more fluid and dynamic, reaching slightly forward with each pole plant.
4. Be more dynamic in your bottom half by bending your knees more whilst still keeping your weight forward. There should be more up/down motion. |
Sorry lots of bad advice here, apart from point 2! Please don’t keep your chest facing straight down the slope, don’t worry about pole planting and you don’t need up/down motion at all, that’s very very old school, we are trying to keep the upper body nice and quiet, not bobbing up and down!! I had that habit, took years and lessons/exams to fix ! |
Sorry for any “bad advice”, though @kitenski misunderstands my point 4, which related purely to your “bottom half”, ie flexing and extending your legs as you move in and out of turns. That will come as you learn to carve your turns. I agree you should keep your upper body “nice and quiet” and not bobbing up and down (not that you’re doing any of that in your video). I maintain that you’re over rotating your top half, which affects your balance and control.
Watch the instruction videos. They’re way more informative than any written tips ever can be.
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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 wrote: |
kitenski wrote: |
...you don’t need up/down motion at all, that’s very very old school, we are trying to keep the upper body nice and quiet, not bobbing up and down!! I had that habit, took years and lessons/exams to fix ! |
They were still teaching it on BASI 1 and 2 when I did it, err, 12 years ago. Yes, it's been very much deprecated, but not completely, and there are occasions. for a few people, where I still use it, mainly to get them out of a locked-in position and relax their upper body, but for some people it can also help even at the plough-parallel stage. Not everything BASI says is good or true 100% of the time for 100% of students :-; |
The Austrian system still teaches standing with an up and forwards motion to transfer weight onto the new turning ski while doing Snowplough/plough parallel/basic parallel turns.
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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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Scrunch77 wrote: |
I maintain that you’re over rotating your top half, which affects your balance and control. |
As you started your first post with "I'm not an instructor" perhaps now would be a good time to stop?
Sorry, not meant to sound condescending, but it sounds like you've got the wrong idea about what does and does not constitute "over-rotation". In general your shoulders should be facing the overall direction of travel. Over-rotation is where the shoulders have been twisted round to face more uphill than the ski, usually through or toward the end of the turn. That's not happening here. Almost 100% of that video shows shoulders and hips in line with each other. Nothing wrong with that at all.
Scrunch77 wrote: |
Watch the instruction videos. They’re way more informative than any written tips ever can be. |
Maybe, but a little like some of the points you made, most of what's in these videos is not relevant to the specific issues she's trying to address right now. It's very easy to take things completely out of context and come up with things like "keep your shoulders facing downhill". It's a good tip, but only in very particular situations - I've seen this one repeated almost as a mantra (usually by men telling their partners what they're doing wrong) by so many people, for whom it's become a huge hurdle, Thankfully it's not usually difficult to address.
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You need to Login to know who's really who.
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The most useful tip I ever received, when struggling with what (for me) were challenging turns off piste, in quite a lot of snow, was "don't drop your uphill arm". When I managed to think ONLY about that (helped by the instructor yelling "ARM!" at the top of her voice), I didn't fall. But only provided I remembered, in my catatonic state, that as I was turning, I had a new uphill arm. It was just the right thing, just for me, in just the situation I was in. It takes an experienced instructor to identify the right tip, at the right time! There were no doubt loads of other things I was getting wrong but she knew better than to mention them...
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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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Chaletbeauroc wrote: |
As you started your first post with "I'm not an instructor" perhaps now would be a good time to stop?
Sorry, not meant to sound condescending…
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Lesson learnt!
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You'll need to Register first of course.
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@Scrunch77,
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Quote: |
Chaletbeauroc wrote:
As you started your first post with "I'm not an instructor" perhaps now would be a good time to stop?
Sorry, not meant to sound condescending…
Lesson learnt! |
Perhaps you'd like to widen that a broader audience?
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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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rob@rar wrote: |
Whitegold wrote: |
One week a year will never get you (or anyone) off the plateau or over the wall.
The body and muscle memory forget what they learned.
Book at least 2 weeks in a row, twice a year.
The more you ride, the better you get.
Continuous time on snow is a must-do.
Time is king.
Lessons are queen.
Good luck. |
Nonsense. The first time I skied for more than one consecutive week was when I passed my Level 2 instructor assessment. Not the highest standard in the world, for sure, but higher than most holiday skiers get to and higher than many saisonnaires get to despite spending multiple consecutive weeks on snow.
There are a few people who can continue to improve their skiing skills and get off the plateau by spending more time on snow, but I think they are fairly small minority. For everyone else, and I absolutely include myself in this, some kind of technical input is required to develop effective movement patterns and the ability to make changes to core skills to ski a wide range of terrain. That technical input doesn't have to come from paid-for ski lessons with a good instructor, it can come fro finding the right videos on YouTube, books, DVDs, casual tips from the internet, mimicking friends who you know ski well, etc, etc. My experience was that good quality ski lessons made the biggest difference, none of the other options made much of an impact on my skiing, but other people's experience may be different.
As @Steve Angus said, practicing the same thing, regardless of whether that's one week at a time or 2x2-weeks at a time each and every season, simply makes permanent your skills. Maybe those are the right movement patterns, maybe they are not... |
Lol.
The more you ski, the better you get.
It's why pro racers ski dozens or hundreds of hours near every month of the year.
They don't ski one week a year.
The facts are clear, son.
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Whitegold wrote: |
The facts are clear, son. |
I'll give your patronising comment the response it deserves.
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