 Poster: A snowHead
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Acknowledged it isn't the same for everyone and there is no magic bullet.
For me I'd say it's the realisation I could get top demos of great skiers for free everyday by practising good observation skills while sat on the chairlift (and plenty of food for thought on how not to do it).
Second was buying my first pair of (then) fat skis of course 
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Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
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Good instruction from a small number of excellent instructors.
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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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| rob@rar wrote: |
| Good instruction from a small number of excellent instructors. |
That's not a single thing You could say embarking on the BASI pathway or deciding you wanted to be an instructor therefore committing to raising your personal game etc. If it's instruction - which one lesson or drill?
BTW this isn't meant to be a wind-up, I thought it might be interesting to get a spectrum of lightbulb moments.
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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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| fatbob wrote: |
| If it's instruction - which one lesson? |
I don't think it works that way. A single lesson might be able to fix a single problem, or more likely point you towards a solution, but I don't believe it can transform your skiing.
But if you want a single thing thing that has made the biggest difference to my skiing it was chatting with a chap called Dave Renouf over a pizza at the Belvedere Pizzeria in Nicolosi, Sicily in July 1993.
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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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Snowheads.
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You'll need to Register first of course.
You'll need to Register first of course.
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For me it was the Newgen instructor on the EoSB last year, 3 lessons yes but a single instructor and still can't belive how much I learnt!
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ooh you're a tease what were the magic words he whispered?
I don't believe any one thing is transformational either but if everything else is say a 1% incremental improvement then the thing that moved you 2% on would be the "most" improved. I suspect the lightbulbs are probably more gateway moments and about mental approaches rather than physical changes.
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fatbob, The thing that probably made most 'instant' difference was the then BASI foundation with Kerr Stewart. But I've learned a LOT from a couple of SSE Coaches.
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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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Single biggest thing was boot alignment.
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| fatbob wrote: |
| ooh you're a tease what were the magic words he whispered? |
"Come and stay for free in Courchevel with me, and you could do lessons in my ski school".
At the time he was chairman of BASI (although I had no idea what that was at the time) and he persuaded me to take some lessons. That opened my eyes to the possibilities of good ski instruction, which for me has been is the most effective way of changing my skiing, That one conversation set me on a journey which I'm still pursuing...
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snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
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| Quote: |
Single biggest thing was boot alignment.
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Me too! 
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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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Awareness of what the pelvis is up to. That's it.
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You know it makes sense.
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skiing blindfolded
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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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Assuming your not extracting the urine, I'd be interested to know more about how!!
For me, and I'm afraid it may not be exactly what you want, but I'd say basi l1
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Poster: A snowHead
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the combination of boots that actually fit and a week of lessons for the first time in a long time, but ultimately both happened because of sH 
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Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
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Four week instructor course, then the rest of the season to practise - no substitute for time on snow!
Analysing ski films rather than just watching them.
Rocker changed the game offpiste.
Last edited by Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person on Thu 6-10-11 22:32; edited 1 time in total
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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 would also have said good instruction/coaching. But if it has to be a single thing, it's the point at which I began to really feel when I was properly balanced on my skis (regardless of what position I was in) and was then more able to adjust my movements to conditions and situations encountered.
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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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| kitenski wrote: |
Assuming your not extracting the urine, I'd be interested to know more about how!!
For me, and I'm afraid it may not be exactly what you want, but I'd say basi l1 |
I'd say snowheads is a perfectly valid answer if it was teh gateway to getting someone skiing more/peer pressure etc
How was the BASI L1? Obviously good. I've often thought rebuilding from the ground up would be very good and BASI probably the quickest way.
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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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| rob@rar wrote: |
| Good instruction from a small number of excellent instructors. |
Same here. This was what made the EoSB's. that I attended so memorable.
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You'll need to Register first of course.
You'll need to Register first of course.
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| fatbob wrote: |
How was the BASI L1? Obviously good. I've often thought rebuilding from the ground up would be very good and BASI probably the quickest way. |
Well 1 day to go but I have really enjoyed it. I wouldn't say it would totally rebuild from the ground up, but it does explain why things happen, and what you can do to change/improve them, from the very basics upwards.
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Frosty the Snowman, read the evolving rules - naughty man
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| Frosty the Snowman wrote: |
| rob@rar wrote: |
| Good instruction from a small number of excellent instructors. |
Same here. This was what made the EoSB's. that I attended so memorable. |
But that's not "one single thing". What was the one single thing delivered by those instructors that made the difference?
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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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Ok fatbob 
Being taught a good stance.
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| gatecrasher wrote: |
| Quote: |
Single biggest thing was boot alignment.
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Me too! |
And me. It made an instant step change in my skiing.
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snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
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and also....
+1
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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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Gaining the confidence to start "hip crossover" and learning to carve instead of constantly skidding - I must have been one of the best skidders on skis for a long time, when I finally got it , most of the time, it changed lots of things for the better but it took years.
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Being able to go on ski holidays. There's not so much skiing to be done in Derbyshire.
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You know it makes sense.
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| Bode Swiller wrote: |
| Frosty the Snowman wrote: |
| rob@rar wrote: |
| Good instruction from a small number of excellent instructors. |
Same here. This was what made the EoSB's. that I attended so memorable. |
But that's not "one single thing". What was the one single thing delivered by those instructors that made the difference? |
Ok, for me getting out the backseat and working the tips.
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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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Telemark
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Poster: A snowHead
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A combination of what jonm and rob@rar have posted: snowHeads led me to
| Quote: |
Good instruction from a small number of excellent instructors.
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There have been so many light bulb moments that it's difficult to isolate the most important. I remember the first: it was finding the little toe edge.
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Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
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Rule No.1 
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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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Learning that the first movement should start from the ankles.
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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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| Spyderman wrote: |
| Rule No.1 |
Don't talk about Fight Club.
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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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Clearly the biggest single benefit to my skiing has been the existence of snowHeads - but then, I accept that I have been uniquely fortunate in the scale and diversity of the ways in which snowHeads has benefited my skiing.
But, since such macro-descriptors appear to have been ruled off-limits...
I clearly remember, about a month before snowHeads began, an instructor explaining a technique to help me turn in deep snow - something which had eluded me despite many attempts. I questioned him, "But that sounds like the opposite of what every other instructor has told me".
"Yes" he says, "But zer is more zan one way to turn ze skis".
Every single instructor until then had told me, "You do it like this" rather than "You can do it like this".
"More than one way to turn skis" well who'd have though it? Seems obvious now but it blew me away at the time!
A couple of ski-weeks prior to that, a friend and I had spent a day testing skis. That was the first time I skied 1080's, Scratches and subsequently Pocket Rockets - now that was a game changer!
Then, in the opposite direction: at the 2nd EoSB, I had a lesson with easiski the next day and she scowled at my Pocket Rockets saying, "Don't turn up for a lesson with them or I wont be able to teach you anything. Bring something with a bit of feedback". That was the day I discovered slalom skis (and rolling the big toe inwards to find the edge of them).
I too have learnt a great deal from the chair lift however, there are certain types of skier who I used to watch in reverie who, with the benefit of better understanding born of good instruction, I realise weren't really very good after all 
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You'll need to Register first of course.
You'll need to Register first of course.
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Sort of along the macroscopic scale it would be starting race-training at the local dry slope - but that's just the start of a process that's still ongoing.
Even higher level of abstraction: joining snowheads, as it was on here that I received the advice from easiski that I should do the above to address (primarily off-piste and backcountry) goals I was setting for myself at the time, and found a forum to talk through and digest how to get skis to work for you.
But on a more "1 thing" level: forcing myself to turn (left and right) while skiing on one ski. This so disrupts your normal balance and stance assumptions that you can't just fudge things any longer and are forced to "do it right". It's still far from perfect, and improvement is still ongoing, but that's the key.
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Single biggest thing? Learning to turn on one bump...
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Moving to aberdeen so I could ski in Scotland
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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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working (on my own initially and having read the much maligned Harold Harb) to get my weight onto the uphill ski much earlier in the turn. Practised almost continually for 3 days necessarily spent looking after beginner niece and nephew on very easy slopes in Valmeinier. We'd gone by coach and I'd spent part of a sleepless night mentally rehearsing this (and the "phantom move" onto the little toe edge of the downhill/inside ski) as the coach trundled through France in freezing fog. Made a huge difference.
I'd love to think my next biggest thing was learning to turn on one bump....
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Moving to the Mountains
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FAQ
