Taha Day 5

Day 5 started with a breakfast break due to everyone waking up slightly late. (Not me!) Gulsum skied well keeping up with everyone as we skied the blue run connecting the Toviere with the Bellevarde. Her speed is increasing naturally. 

Dynamics Explained

Both Gulsum and Taha had described how they found themselves moving towards the outside of the turn and unable to stop it. I explained that this happened for two reasons - the main one being that they were originally taught to do so before meeting me and secondly (I didn't mention) that the skier always feels like there is an "outward" force against the body - although it is a complete illusion. I'll cover only the first part here. Taha and Gulsum had originally been taught skiing based on "statics" - the branch of mechanics in physics that is about "balancing" the centre of mass over a support. This means that to get the weight over the right foot you have to move the body to the right - and this is done in a snowplough for turning left. All of this is complete nonsense - even in a snowplough - but that's what's taught. Skiing is about "dynamics" not "statics" and this is about being "out of balance" - about "accelerations" and the forces produced by them. To get pressure on your right foot you accelerate to the left - the way you want to turn - it's that simple. This even works in a snowplough! In dynamics Newton's second law "F=MA" shows that a force is equivalent to a mass being accelerated. So that people don't have to accelerate I substitute this with my shoulder providing a force for them to push against and to feel what happens at the feet as a result. Pushing hard left against me they feel pressure on the right foot.   If I leave a small gap and they accelerate quickly across this gap they will also feel the pressure from the acceleration. Failure to accelerate momentarily puts pressure on the left foot - so people can feel how different ways of moving have different effects. Bottom line is that there are two different ways to get pressure on your foot - from statics or dynamics. Ski instructors are trained to teach statics and "balance" and so they teach all the movements corresponding to this. It is all wrong and extremely inhibiting. After this explanation with exercises on the mountain the whole issue became much clearer to Taha and had a positive effect on his skiing.

Carving

The boys had a quick carving lesson. They had done some of this last year and not surprisingly it wasn't too difficult for them to get started with arcs made on two edges from a shallow traverse. Mete clearly understood and was able to ski well with the carve directly down the hill, linking turns. This change immediately brought Mete results in slalom reducing his time to 37.99 seconds from around 41. Carving is of course when the skis rail along their edges with no skidding.

Gulsum Technical
In the afternoon I went for a ski with Gulsum while the others watched the FA cup on an large indoors TV screen. Gulsum was able to follow well and keep up a good speed until visibility started to drop. She became more relaxed due to focusing directly on relaxing the body. Technically her stance improved too being better centered over her feet.  Gulsum was aware of difficulty turning to the right so I explained that it was because she didn't want to leave the security of her right foot and stand properly on the left one - so it made it hard to start a turn to the right. One trick is to simply lift the lower ski for a fraction of a second to force the body to stand on the uphill ski and fall into the turn - but the lower ski has to be quickly returned to the snow when doing this.

Focusing

I explained to the boys that it is important to focus when you are skiing - and that ideally you focus on some aspect of your body. When you lose focus you have to re-focus - and continue to repeat this process. Focusing causes all the chatter in your mind to quieten down and although it might seem like hard work concentrating it actually relaxes your mind and strengthens it at the same time. In this way skiing becomes like a moving meditation. You become better at focusing and skiing at the same time. It's for this reason I enjoy skiing with beginners as much as skiing off-piste. Skiing slowly and mindfully is incredibly beneficial in many ways - but very few skiers ever understand this.