Suzanne, Ella, Daisy Day 1

 

Daiy and Ella had never skied before on snow and had only skied in a straight line snowplough on plastic – so this was effectively their first day ever skiing. Suzanne had skied once before about 20 years ago. Little Harry (5) was with us to begin with but seemed totally engrossed in the deep snow – the first time he had ever seen anything like it – so skiing was appropriately irrelevant and pointless to him. After watching Harry flop around like a rag doll on skis for a while we just let him roll about in the snow instead. Meanwhile lots of coordination exercises were covered – stepping, skating and getting used to skis and equipment. Life was made a bit difficult due to the heavy snowfall but steady progress was made.

 

Skating – Beginners

I’m not going to detail all the activity here because there is a fixed page explaining all the standard exercises in detail – and their purposes: http://skiinstruction.blogspot.fr/p/beginners.html The main aim is to learn the skills necessary to move the Centre of Mass.

The video is from when all three started to make their first linked parallel turns – using dynamics…

 

Dynamics – Beginners

Dynamics is explained in detail here: http://skiinstruction.blogspot.fr/p/dynamics.html 

The only thing not mentioned in the links above are the use of a forward diagonal sideslip – skis parallel – uphill edges (inside edges of feet) – to come down the long path at the top of the Village Chairlift. The skills here are linked to “Pivoting” which we will being looking at properly tomorrow.

 

 

Feedback

Ella had a tendency to resist acceleration – falling backwards and sitting down. Daisy did this also but a bit less. It’s important to stand strongly on the outside leg in the turn and try to be perpendicular to the slope with the body – not leaning on the backs of the ski boots and stuck in “vertical”. Suzanne appeard to have a problem gripping with the skis so it would be necessary to inspect the equipment. Suzanne was also a bit over-concerned with the presence of other people – worried about collision.

 

Boot Alignment

Suzanne’s boot were significantly canted onto their outside edges so this was corrected through adjusting the built in canting mechanicsm. During the test the legs have to be straight at the knee joint, no load, flexed at the hip joints and held parallel to see if the soles are flat…

 

 

Feet

We had a rapid look at how the ankle and subtaler joints need to be used to strengthen the ankle and obtain real the support from the leg structure. This is a subject we will look more carefully at tomorrow.