Mike & Alex day 1

Flying in from London in the morning then hiring a car from Chambery airport and driving up to Val d'Isère to be ready for your ski lesson at 1pm - is all quite an achievement in itself. In Alex's case - perhaps just a little bit too much though as he later fell asleep on a bench at the top of the Funival at 2689m altitude.

Mike had done amazing well to get here and ready in time - but what was less obvious was how to wind down, forget all the pressure and just focus on skiing. Poor visibility at the beginning didn't help. Realising that Mike had been on the go for a long time and probably hadn't had a break of any kind I suggested he stop and have a drink and just chill for a moment before we try to go any further.

Mike was as stiff as a board and was aware of it. Watching mike I could see that he was trying to use dynamics correctly to initiate the turn but would often stem a bit instead. There was a definite pushing outwards of the outside leg as well. It occurred to me that his stiffness was due in part to the desire (unconscious) to get that new outside ski onto its inside edge - which would often generate the stem instead of good dynamics. Knowing Mike's skiing already I found myself asking myself "What is the most important issue here?". Mike knows a lot of the theory, so why is he not consolidating and is regressing instead. When you learn something that works correctly you don't regress so easily. 

At this stage I feel that the best way forwards is to get off that inside edge and to work on the pivot as a general way to loosen up the hips, legs and down/up motion. Removing the desire to edge that ski also removes the desire to push the leg outwards - which in turn allows the legs to become much softer. This is in fact a much less tiring way to ski even for very high level skiers - so there is no reason why others shouldn't benefit from it too.

Alex bravely staying awake long enough for one last ski down the mountain

I had Mike hold the handles of his ski poles while I stood below him on the mountain and pulled him downwards in a side-slip. Mike had to keep both feet below him on the mountain. When Mike was slipping I asked him to swing his ski tips downhill with me still supporting him and the feet downhill of the body at all times - so he could feel how to enter into a turn in this way. The exercise appeared to work. Mike became more relaxed almost immediately and was soon able also to work again on pulling "inwards" with everything during his turns. By the end of the session he was already back to his previous level and probably had a better understanding than before. This should set him up well for tomorrow's continuation.

Back home in the valley the new buds have arrived on the trees. A couple of days ago on Wednesday when I went for a bike ride there were no buds there!