Kerim, Alp, Lal day 4

Perpendicularity

During our warm up run I decided to try to help both Alp and Lal get off the backs of their ski boots. Skating should achieve this but they simply don’t have enough time for that to work so a more direct approach is necessary.  The main reason for people becoming glued to the backs of the boots is that they are trying to keep their bodies vertical (in relation to gravity). When skiing we need to adjust the body constantly to be perpendicular to the slope. This was explained using my ski poles to show the relationships – so that when our skis point downhill we must come forwards so as to remain perpendicular to the skis and slope. Just moving the body downhill at the start of the turn contributes to perpendicularity when the skis start to come around.

Just as an exercise we all leaned hard forwards in the ski boots, hanging over the fronts of the skis while skiing – to show that there was no reason to fear moving forwards. In fact the only way to use the entire front half of the ski is through being able to be perpendicular. Lal especially tends to only use the back half of her skis – which is why she appears to be so tense.

In the race course the idea is to focus on the body and technique first and foremost. Alp had done a good job of that yesterday so now everyone had to make an effort.

Lal improved her time to 41.2 seconds and Kerim to 36.93. Alp was slower than yesterday – for reasons we will look at shortly.

 

 

Line

Other than technique the main goal in slalom today was to learn about “line”. In the diagram below there are three lines. Initially everyone was taking line “A” – going directly to the pole and turning late after the pole. This is disasterous. The goal for today was to manage line “B” where the turn is made beneath the pole and the line remains high then drops down directly at the outside of the next pole. This is still a slow line but it avoids problems and permits good technique to be used and developed. Alp messed up only because he reverted to braking as he passed beneath the poles. Lal didn’t seem to manage to change her line significantly and only Kerim seemed to both understand and manage to make an obvious change. Line “C” is the ideal racing line where the apex of the turn is to the outside of the poles – not above or below the poles.

The “C” timing is also used for difficult snow off piste or travelling fast over bumpy terrain so it is very useful in general skiing and makes skiing far safer and more in control.

 

 

 

The exercises and slalom took up most of our time and left one hour to get up to the top of the Bellevarde and to ski down the Face (Then get up to the top of Solaise for lunch). The idea of skiing the Face caused some anxiety initially – but everyone managed without incident and we skied the whole slope non-stop – the children following my line. Before lunch we had some time to start looking at more technique.

 

Angulation

Tomorrow we will spend more time on this because lack of “angulation” is what generally makes taking a good line in slalom impossible and also makes it hard work to ski steep pistes in control. Each skier in turn stood with the skis across the hill and extended the two ski poles towards me so I could pull against them. With the bottom turned uphill during the “pulling” an angle is created at the hips and a strong resistance can be generated. The idea is for each one to feel exactly what it should feel like as forces build up during the second half of a turn. We need good body position during turning to allow the skis to direct us across the hill. Part of the problem in slalom was that nobody really knew how to do this and so they all ended up skidding down the hill to the next pole and consequently getting later and later in each consecutive turn. We will work properly on this tomorrow.

 

 

Derin 2

Today Derin started to seriously work on technique.  In the video are some of her first proper attempts at pivoting. She was taught to do this naturally when I originally skied with her holding onto a pole but she was not aware of the physical mechanism. There is a fixed page above in the blog on pivoting here - http://skiinstruction.blogspot.fr/p/pivot.html

 

We also worked on improving the “Magic Wall” (Dynamics) and I explained that we use the ski pole for support when pivoting and we use the invisible Magic Wall instead of the pole when it appears when we are moving faster forwards.

Derin also worked on her stance – starting with having the boots off indoors and using the feet – both rolled onto their inside edges and both sets of adductor muscles contracted (the muscles on the insides of the upper legs). Oddly enough this stance works best in all situations – pivoting, carving and everything inbetween.

When skiing down from the Grande Motte at the end of the day Derin skied close behind me as I made tight fast turns on a narrow track. Her only complaint was that her feet hurt by the end and she was exhausted – but she did realy well and impressed me.

 

 

Cable car – Grande Motte for the first time…

 

Today and in 2014…

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Mont Blanc in the background…

Kerim, Alp, Lal day 3 (Introduction to Slalom)

Today we went straight into revising and then practising the skating/timing exercises that we had worked on yesterday. Careful, mindful skiing was the intention because an introduction to slalom was about to follow…

 

 

Perhaps only Alp managed to really remain focused in the slalom – because he avoided his sudden “braking” actions. The reference times are as follows:

1. Alp         35.90 seconds
2. Kerim    37.20 seconds
3. Lal         42.16 seconds

Our first job was a course inspection with all of the rules and safety guidelines explained. Impressively, everyone listened and understood without any difficulty. The operation of the timing system was demonstrated and how to manage difficult situations such as falling on the course. From then on the children were on their own while I filmed from the bottom – and it all went without a hitch – each managing two runs and no falls or mistakes – everyone improving their time on the second run. We didn’t spend too long there as slalom can gobble up your time and there were lots of other things to do also.

Now that everyone is familiar with the course we can return there during the week and apply technique to measure the effects of the changes – objectively – against the clock! Depending on size around 22 to 24 seconds is a very good time – so there is a little bit of work to do here! Keeping things in perspective though the times of all three were great for a very first ever attempt at slalom.

Slalom is really just a measure of skiing efficiency and effectiveness. Focusing on the body – on the physical skiing technique – is the key to succeeding in the race course – as it is in all skiing. Now that the distraction of learning how to use the course is over the idea is to return to the course and work on locking the focus onto the body and thinking only about the skiing – not the course! Not only will this improve the movement patterns and the mental approach but issues such as “line” have to be confronted and learned. Nobody can learn an efficient line just by skiing on an empty piste with no physical constraints to deal with.

After the slalom was over it was time to get in some skiing mileage – including off-piste. We managed a wander into the wilds from the top of the Borsat and then retruned to the top of the Bellevarde. Today’s final run was non-stop from the top of the Bellevarde down the Fontaine Froide red run (partly off-piste) then down Santons gully right down to the village at the bottom. Lal said she thought she was going to faint from tiredness when in the Santons. I skied them very actively with tight turns all the way and they all followed this very well (Alp only having one fall today on some ice). Hopefuly they learn from this how to work their skis and bodies and to save outright speed for the race course. There are already too many people who just ski very fast, badly and out of control with no regard for the safety of others, no skill and no awareness.

Derin 1

Derin started out very cautiously but within a couple of hours was skiing strongly. She didn’t want to stop for anything so we managed the full 4 hours without a break.

I tried to work a little on “pivoting” at slow speed but found that communication didn’t seem to be strong and so decided to just ski Derin and bring her on by keeping her in close behind me and calling out instructions along the way. She did remember the Magic Wall and when skiing behind me at a proper pace she was completely parallel. When going slowly or asked to ski in front she is much less confident and clear on what to do and so tends to stem her skis a bit and get onto the backs of the boots defensively. Hopefully we can work directly on this through technical exercises in the next few days. Today however was very useful by getting a lot of mileage in and filming Derin skiing very well behind me.

 

 

 

 

Kerim, Alp, Lal day 2

Yesterday was a long intensive technical day, but today turned out to be a full on skiing day – leaving all but one (Kerim) worn out by the end of the morning. No more being confined to the green training piste – we began the warm up on a blue run. When I asked each person what they had been thinking about during the warm up the answers were impressive – feet, pulling in, moving the body, magic wall – and for Alp “not braking”. Given this response we then immediately went up to the top of the Tovière and skied down a steep red, then cutting over onto the steep route on the “Familial” off piste (with bumps) and then over to the race piste down to la Daille – a proper black run with protective netting. All this went without a glitch – no falls and no time lost.

 

Skating, Timing, Independent Leg Action

The above – including riding back up the Funicular took us until 10:36am so I decided to make a complete shift over to technique for a while. If we can cover one important subject per day while fitting in some strong skiing then that makes a useful approach. I asked about “up/down” timing and Kerim was the only one who seemed clear that he had been taught to go up to start a turn and down to finish. This is “standard ski school” but unfortunately completely wrong. When a motorbike goes into a turn it leans over and comes down – coming back up to finish – and the skier needs to do the same. Just the Magic Wall alone gives some of this correct timing – but using the legs in a skating action makes this clearer.

We first of all tried the “direct method” where I skated off straight down a shallow slope and then when there was some speed began to fall inwards between the skis with the body (Magic Wall) and the skating transformed into skiing – again by magic and without stopping the skating. Only Lal managed to do this while improving her timing – so we left this exercise aside.

The video shows the results of a series of exercises we used to develop skating timing and independent leg action… Kerim manages really well and Lal overcame initial difficulties to do well also. Alp was so far stuck on the backs of his ski boots that it was pretty impossible for him to succeed.

 

Skating obliges you to come off the backs of your ski boots – which is why Alp is struggling here as he is superglued to the backs. This is partly why we are doing skating exercises – to help overcome this sort of problem. The others also tend to get defensively stuck on the backs of the boots so it is good exercise for everybody.

We began with side stepping uphill and seeing how the edges of the feet and edges of the skis can be differentiated. This was something we had also looked at yesterday during the pivoting exercises. The downhill ski uses its inside edge and also the inside edge of the foot – but the uphill ski uses its outside edge yet remains on the inside edge of the foot too. (The shaft of the ski boot and its lateral stiffness permits this to happen).

The idea was to then skate across the hill using those edges and on the final skate step up properly onto the uphill ski (outside edge) and while standing on it fall downhill into the next turn (Magic Wall again). The effect on Lal was huge because she could not do this and throw her skis out to the side like she usually does – and after a few goes she got it – turning solidly on the outside ski from the start of the turn (Through good use of the Centre of Mass) and preparing this from a push up from the lower ski. Kerim managed it even better.

I’d already explained that real skiing is on one ski – which is why it relates to skating and this is made possible through dynamics – hence the Magic Wall. Putting this together makes the legs functional and the timing generates stability and a correct pressure cycle to make the skis work more efficiently and effectively.

We finished the session with a very long run from the top of the Borsat back down to Val village through Santons and apart from Alp wiping out at least three times there were no incidents. Lal declared it the most difficult blue run she had ever come across! I’d agree!

Kerim, Alp, Lal

 

 

Kerim, Alp and Lal are all 11 years old – so that’s a good age to start taking on board some real coaching. Not having skied for a year we first of all had a couple of warm up runs in the Training Zone (closed off green run). Alp was much dismayed that he couldn’t go straight to either the snowpark to jump or straight down the Olympic black run on the Face de Bellevarde – but it was clear that he was being slightly over-enthusiastic at this point. The best way to test someone’s understanding is to ask a few simple questions – like… “How long do you think it takes the racers to ski from the top of this mountain back down to the village on the Face race course? “. The two answers were 2 hours and 1 hour! (1 min 50secs is the right answer – and 4 minutes on a mountain bike in the summer!)  When I asked for someone to explain how to ski – there were two briefly mumbled attempts and then complete silence.

 

Here’s all three during our second warm up run and all looking a bit wobbly at this stage…

 

Alp is in the backs of his ski boots, he stems, rotates (upper body into the turn) and throws in a huge braking action especially at the end of his right turns. There’s an almost complete absence of dynamics and he pushes his skis outwards in his braking action and during the turns. Turn initiations are snatched and rushed and his inside arm tends to end up behind him during the turns.

Kerim is slightly on the backs of his boots but at least manages to avoid rotation – though he has no upper/lower body separation. He has no use of dynamics and is pushing his outside leg away – sometimes stemming and nearly always making the leg rigid as a result. He actually has a good natural timing which will have to be developed.

Lal is very insecure – standing on two feet – hard on the backs of the ski boots, stemming and rotating, no use of dynamics.

 

Dynamics, Skating and Pivoting

I decided that as they could all ski it was best to start with dynamics to try to increase confidence quickly. The top of this blog has links to fixed pages for each of these three subjects – the skating being referred to as “Beginners” and the other subject headers being more obvious. I won’t repeat all the detail here.

For dynamics we used the “Magic Wall” explanation and everyone got it – Kerim was first to get it right. All three found it made their skiing feel much easier – as of course it should do because it is extremely fundamental and none were using this key aspect of movement until now.

For skating Alp was shown briefly how to skate more strongly – but it would help even more if he finished his hamburger at lunch. If nothing else just eating a bit more would give him the weight the needs to go faster on the flats – so then less skating would be necessary! The key here was to get everyone feeling the inside edges of their feet and to begin to become aware of their bodies. To hold a ski on edge it is necessary to stand on the edge of the foot because the edge of the ski is displaced to the inside. Good mechanics requires both feet to remain on their inside edges with the adductor muscles on the inside of both upper legs pulling inwards. We worked on this for a while. The skating action also helps to take the skier off the backs of the ski boots and we discussed this issue – transferring pressure to the shins with the adductors pulled inwards.

Having already learned to move the centre of mass (near the belly button) into the turn (trying to fall over against the magic wall) the idea was to roll the foot over in the same direction – to the inside edge. This was the beginning of learning to “pull inwards” – the opposite of all the stemming and pushing the skis sideways outwards etc. Until now even the centre of mass had been going outwards and then everything else was just a compensation.

Lal was keen to learn how to turn very rapidly so we had a go at the “pivot” – which is essentially using the outside ski on its outside edge to initiate a turn. You simply cannot do this and push the ski outwards away from the body – you can only pull inwards following the centre of mass. I demonstrated then helped each skier physically through a pivot on one ski so they could feel it correctly. It’s good to start all of this right from day one because it then has time to sink in during the week as pivoting skill takes practice – as do all “pulling in” actions. Their original teaching had all been with “snowplough” which trains the use of the wrong muscle groups – pushing out – and the wrong overall mechanics – leading to “balancing” on two feet instead of disequilibrium and dynamics – the “magic wall”.

Alp understood the criticism about the “braking” and that he should look for speed control from the turn shape and line instead.

 

Mindful Skiing

All three were told to focus on the body at all times – not on external distractions. Fear especially comes from being focused on distractions and is overcome by pulling the focus back into the body. Feet, Adductors, Centre of Mass, Pulling Inwards – those have to be the key focus. Learning to be mindful doesn’t only develop skill it develops a discipline that never becomes boring, frustrating or limiting.

Less wobbly here after working on new skills for a while – but most changes are progressive and take time – though they might already feel radical to the skier.

 

 

 

David 3

Today, with the weather clear and some fresh snow around, it was time to put David’s newly acquired skills to use and take him up the mountain for his first attempt at a green run. During his first proper ski run we managed an excursion off piste which he handled perfectly.

 

 

Once being confident that David could handle things well the goal was to generate mileage with David following me – showing him the line where he could manage the best control and keeping him away from other skiers as much as possible. Feedback from me mainly concerned reinforcing the most relevant points that we had worked on yesterday. This was not going to be a highly technical day as David needed to turn as often as possible to work through all the information that needed to be processed already. Had there been difficulties we would have focused differently but David was doing extremely well and handling the steeper slopes and higher speeds very effectively for only his third morning. The intense groundwork covered yesterday was really paying off. Although I didn’t capture David’s best moments off piste on video I did manage to record some interesting ones! David applied both sideslipping and pivoting on steep pitches very effectively.

 

End of Turn Dynamics

The only new technical issue that was brought up was “end of turn dynamics”. When there is forward momentum it is necessary to complete the turn by supporting the body with the lower leg/ski when crossing the hill – bringing it out to the perpendicular. This is a failry scary act but it guarantees easy entry into the next turn and easy engagement of the new supporting leg and ski. The body comes up and over the lower ski – resembling a motorbike coming up and out of a turn. This generates stability and directs the centre of mass across the hill and down into the next turn. David responded very well to this concept and was able to tighten his turns accordingly and survive strongly off piste. There was also a brief explanation of how this movement completes correct “timing” but there was no time left to demonstrate how exactly it also connects to skating. The important thing was that each new concept was grasped, applied and put to constructive and appropriate use sucessfully. David needs to get to work on sorting out his obvious stance problems which we clarified yesterday but he did a great job of working around that today.

 

Grande Motte summit in Tignes.

 

Mont Blanc with a little more that its “hat” on.

 

 

David 2

With David’s knees bowing outwards there would continue to be a significant obstacle to rapid progress so the first task  for today was to attempt to sort that issue out. People can develop many issues regarding how the legs, pelvis and upper body stack up. Mostly those issues are postural but they can also be functional and depend upon experience. The first task was to find out exactly what was going on with David. We tried static exercises with the hips and posture which revealed confusion there – but there was also a confusion regarding the skating action.

 

Supporting Leg

The still image in the video clip shows David in the correct position and posture – but that was the only time he was really able to manage it. The goal is to get the upper body perched over one single hip joint. This involves preparing first with pelvic tilt, tilting the whole upper body forwards from the hips, pulling the supporting hip backwards relative to the shoulder, lifting the unsupported leg (knee forwards), hip and shoulder. The chest should be relaxed and the arms dangling freely. What’s important is that david could do this correctly – his problem is that this is all just alien to him. The hip has to get into place this way to tuck under the upper body and support the whole body solidly. You can then let the upper body pivot around the head of the femur like it is a fulcrum. Skating involves this action naturally with each stride.

 

 

In the video (prior to the still image) when David tries to adopt the stance on one leg, on skis, his posture collapses. When he skates (after the still image) he turns his upper body to face inwards on each stride instead of outwards. This last thing reveals the source of the habitual movement that is the cause of the coordination confusion. Basically there are both functional issues and postural issues to be corrected.

 

Chi-Skiing

There is a very special reason for pulling back the hip when you stand on the outside leg in a turn. If you end up with just the shoulders facing downhill then the hip will actually be pulled forwards below the fronts of your ribs and your postural reflexes will not function and protect you. If instead you face your pelvis downhill more than your shoulders then the lower spine twists slightly in the oppoiste direction – stretching the lower abdomen area and clearing the hip away from the front ribs – allowing the core muslces and postural muscles to work correctly. There is a fixed page on this subject here: http://skiinstruction.blogspot.co.uk/p/chiskiing.html

We applied the Chi principles in skiing and there was a moderate but definite improvement in David’s confidence. The results were still not consistent though.

Generally we were initiating a change of direction by starting with moving the centre of mass, then engaging the hip and the foot. The reason for moving the centre of mass first is to get the body to move over the downhill ski as it travels into the next turn – but I deliberately did not mention this so as to avoid complicating the issue at this stage.

 

Pivoting

Pivoting was taught so as to provide the understanding of the option of using the ouside edge of the ski to turn (very tightly) and to help to develop “pulling in” skills. The fixed page for pivoting is here: http://skiinstruction.blogspot.co.uk/p/pivot.html

 

Standing Up

Regardless of all the components we had worked on David was still finding it extremely difficult to stand on his supporting leg (including during pivoting). In all fairness this was only day two and he was in reality doing very well – but the mission was to rapidly attain a level of competence so there was no letting up with the pressure. The postural and functional issues are also amplified by emotional/defensive reactions, lack of adaption to accelerations, lack of recognition of the adjustment to perpendicularity when sliding and lack of experience of feedback from skis and equipment. Despite all of this David was tantalisingly close to getting it right. We tried “stomping” the supporting leg into the ground before starting the turn but that didn’t work. We tried adjusting more accurately to perpendicularity – which had a small effect. I then tried supporting David (using a pole) so that he could properly stand just on one leg as I guided him through a turn – and that did seem to work. Skiing is a one legged activity – as is skating – but good skiers don’t make this visible.

The underlying problem was that all of the above issues were conspiring to ensure that as David moved his centre of mass he would collapse his stance on his outside leg and then support himself of two legs instead. With the weight now on the inside ski he would try to twist the outside ski into the turn in desperation. Altering the order of the procedure by first standing up strongly on the uphill leg then moving the centre of mass into the turn gave David the chance to create some smooth, strong turns and feel the skills that he has been working on – with the skis making the turns for him.

The video shows David’s last descent of the day and he makes a strong first turn on the steepest part of the slope. After that turn he gets a little back – on the back of the ski boots and loses the full support of his supporting leg making the following turns less effective and secure. Just getting one turn correct is a big achievement and a solid reference point.

David–First Day Beginner

David’s only experience of skiing prior to today was on indoor snow in England – not managing to turn confidently in a snowplough. We started over from scratch – in the sun at the top of the Solaise.

 

 

Feet

Prior to going out on the snow we went indoors and removed the ski boots to look at how the feet work. First of all David flexed normally with weight distributed over the whole foot and he could feel the ankle bend. Placing the weight directly beneath the ankle on the front of the heel, bending was totally different with the ankle reflexively tensioning – leaving the bending to the hips and knees. With weight on the heel you can also accurately feel the foot rolling from edge to edge due to the function of the subtaler joint between the heel and the ankle. In contrast attempting to roll the feet on edge with the ankle flexed just causes the knee to be levered from side to side with a dangerous twisting action. Rolling both feet on to their inside edges activates the adductor muscles on the insides of the legs – this playing a key role in skiing. In skiing we want the ankle strong and the feet to roll on edge – both feet inwards.

 

Adductors

The reason the adductor muscles and feet edges need to be used is because the edge of the ski is not centered beneath the middle of the foot – it is displaced far to the inside. The sk iactually works by lifting the skier up – but if those adductors are not employed then the ski just flattens on the snow instead. This actually turned out to be a hard area for David to work on because he had a tendency to allow his knees to bow outwards – probably pulled outwards by the skis flattening. I checked the equipment/leg alignment indoors and there was no trace of bowleggedness or misalignment – so this issue is caused by a habit – not by bone structure. (This may be occuring at the hip joints)

The shaft of the boot running up the leg is what really stops the ski from flattening – and this is dependent on the lateral stiffness of the ski boot. The feet and adductors just assist holding the skeleton in place with the bones stacking up correctly.

 

Skating in circles – One ski – Two skis

The action of skating – with skis diverging – helps to promote correct body mechanics and coordination. Grip with the ski edges is essential so if a person cannot skate they will not ski. We began by going round in a circle with just the outside ski (relative to the circle) on and stepping inwards to turn incrementally. The goal was to get used to the ski and how to use it to displace the centre of mass. There is a full section about this on a fixed page in this blog; http://skiinstruction.blogspot.co.uk/p/beginners.html  David rapidly improved for all the exercises.

Skating in circles to learn how to change direction with the centre of mass was continued with two skis on.

Straight line skating was also strengthened with an exercise where David had to push me along on the flats. Acceleration in skating is achieved by continuing this process without the weight in front. In fact the forward propulsion actually comes from gravity – repeated falling forwards actions.

 

Side-stepping

We worked on side–stepping both uphill and downhill on a short steep section.

To proceed from here we would have to descend back down to the main beginner’s facilities and slopes at the bottom of the Solaise.

 

 

Straight Running

Instruction recommenced with simple straight running and an explanation of “perpendicular” and “vertical”. The feeling when standing across the hill and so vertical to gravity is exactly the same as when standing perpendicular to the slope when sliding downhill. You adjust to the slope and do not try to “lean forwards” relative to the skis and boots. Initially David reflexively moved into vertical when straight running downhill but he soon corrected this once it was explained.

 

Straight running into stepping/skated turn

Changing direction from the straight running was first accomplished in both directions by skating out of the fall line.

 

Straight running into parallel turn

Within no time David was able to make a turn just by moving the centre of mass in the direction of the intended turn – instead of actually stepping. His first attempt at a parallel turn was successful.

 

Button Lift

The button lift was mastered without incident and this brought to an end the tiring need to climb uphill – though at the initial stages the climbing served to develop a feel for the ski edges and coordination.

 

Chairlift

The chairlift was once again handled without any problems – despite it having a tricky acceleration on the exit. The path down from the chairlift is normally descended by snowploughing but David easily mastered the art of controlling his speed thorugh the use of diverging skis instead!

 

Parallel Turns – Dynamics

Parallel turns were worked on by engaging the uphill leg (adductors/inside edge of the foot) and standing up on that leg prior to moving the centre of mass into the new turn. David had mixed success with this due to his tendency to let the knees come outwards and skis flatten. There was a supporting explanation and static exercise for dynamics (including the Magic Wall) http://skiinstruction.blogspot.co.uk/p/dynamics.html 

Correction for the apparent bowleggedness was introduced by moving onto the front of the foot, pressing against the shin and pulling the knee directly inwards. This is an attempt to correct or compensate for an inappropriate habit and appears to be effective.

We worked on “pulling in” as a counter to the illusion of “centrifugal force”. All actions through a turn should be pulling in towards the centre but most people instinctively push outwards instead.

The skis were too long to allow clear feedback so I requested that they be changed for tomorrow.

 

Traversing – Side-slipping

Traversing was worked on including carving with the edges locked on solidly. Side-slipping was introduced by moving the body out over the downhill ski to flatten the the skis enough to remove the grip.

 

Emotions

The tendency to twist the ski into the turn was one of the obstacles David encountered. This is partly a result of the introduction he had previously had to “snowplough”. The ski is controlled by the centre of mass and the other actions which support the movement of the centre of mass. The ski turns you – not the other way around.

Pushing outwards – also a derived from the snowplough was another obstancle already mentioned here – but this too has a defensive emotional element.

Collapsing the supporting leg and falling onto the inside leg: This is a normal issue for beginners because it takes a measure of overriding of the emotions to stand solidly on the uphill leg and then allow the body to fall downhill.

Mike-Alex

Last day for Alex to try to gain consistency in his slalom – so no pressure! Adding to the situation was the fact that we only had a half day and visibility was variable . The visibility didn’t seem to affect Alex but it did affect filming. Alex had a battle on his hands to overcome the distraction of being hit by the poles. Simple exposure to the poles turns this into a “non issue” over time – lots of time! Alex had to try his best to focus on technique and to allow that to help quieten down the pole interference just through more appropriate skiing.

 

 

Severe problems were generated by Alex attempting to apply the tricks he has learned from skiing stubby poles on plastic. He would launch at the first pole as close as possible and try to knock it over with his ski boot. That might work on a moderate slope on plastic with little stubbies – but here it just knocked Alex over instead. This nonsense leads to a strategy of taking a straight line to the pole followed by a braking skid when it is all way too fast. This is not skiing.

Working on his turns out of the poles Alex had to be prodded into finishing his turns on the steeps. When he actually did this his turns looked great.

 

Feet  Forward Technique

Alex had worked on the skating during the turns and was asked to bring this into the slalom. Before starting slalom he had several runs of GS to work on the feelings with longer turns where there is more time to react. In slalom he was not able to apply any of this so we took the skating a bit further. Without wasting any time on detailed explanations I just told Alex to push both of his feet forwards through the ends of the turns and on across the hill as his Centre of Mass entered the new turn. Alex understood this straight away and was able to apply it – making his ability to stay in the course far stronger. The idea was to get him to pull the uphill ski onto its inside edge (we practised pulling) early instead of just waiting and then suddenly stivoting/braking sideways. This technique is essential for Alex in slalom if he wants to stay in the course. His shortest skis were used too for the greatest force feedback and carving potential for short turns.

 

Hands

Alex was guarding himself from the poles by raising his hands up high – but as Gerard Bonnevie pointed out this was contributing to him being pushed back. The main things that Alex then had to work on were then pushing the feet through the turn and keeping the hands down to about chest level.

 

 

 

Although Alex was still strongly affected by the poles he manged to work on all of the above issues to ensure a solid, stable performance by the end of the session. Even if he doesn’t get the chance to practise more before his next race on snow he can work on visualising all of this. Watching the video will help to stimulate the muscle memory and keep things fresh in his head. Mental practise is often just as good as physical practise itself. My advice is to avoid the plastic meantime. Ski on snow or instead use inline skates – with lots of body armour.

The reality is that slalom on this steepness is very hard – so Alex has coped remarkably well and made real progress in a very short time span. His attitude is excellent and he is very motivated – but he needs to control his frustration and disappointment when things get tough and channel all his energy in the right direction. When there is a mistake there is a learning opportunity – best not to waste it on negative reactions. When pulled up on this issue occasionally Alex remembered his own real motivation and just got back to work each time. Good job!