WHILE WATCHING WORLD CUP ALPINE RACING ON TELEVISION, A GOOD FRIEND OF MINE OFTEN EXCLAIMS, “WOW! IF THAT’S WHAT SKIING IS SUPPOSED TO LOOK LIKE, THEN WHAT THE HECK AM I DOING?!”
current turn in other ways by attempting to take themselves out of their normal rhythm and flow, to learn agility and expand their overall movement pool. Also, not all turns need to be finished. Turns left open-ended can encourage movement down the hill and make “release” just as important as “engage.”
What Racers Can Learn from Instructors
Racers can learn symmetry, flow, progressive ski and body movements, and finishing turns – perhaps a departure from the normal rigor of many race sets today.
PSIA Alpine Team member Eric Lipton
regions, states, and nations. Each coach looks at terrain differently and has his or her own opinions about how a course should be set given the terrain, snow conditions, experience levels, and the grandeur of the event. Rhythm changes are common, as are changes to course direction and spacing. Terefore, a given slalom course may not necessarily flow as seamlessly as a certified instructor’s short turn sequence on perfectly groomed terrain. Ski racers must respond to a race course by whatever means necessary. Tat could mean harsh edge sets, rapid release, abrupt outside ski pressure, skidding, carving, pivoting – whatever it takes.
What Instructors Can Learn from Racers Instructors can learn to vary skill blends at the initiation, shaping, and finishing phases of their turns. Tey could pivot the top of the turn and carve the bottom, and vice versa. Or they could disrupt the shape of the
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BODY-CENTRIC INSTRUCTORS VS. SKI-CENTRIC RACERS In my time spent working with both racers and instructors, I have found body-centric versus ski-centric thinking to be most polarizing and most interesting. Simply put, instructors tend to focus primarily on what the body is doing, and racers tend to focus primarily on what the skis are doing. Both perspectives have merit, and
each group is right to be drawn to their preferred
focus. Ski instructors teach
people of all shapes, sizes, athleticism, backgrounds, and with varying degrees of interest. Te universal language in this setting is reference to body parts, and instructing a student how to move their body to achieve a certain result is critical to a productive lesson. Knowing what to feel through the core, or how to position the arms is very necessary for a basic athletic stance. And when instructors demonstrate skiing for their students, the body is more easily observable than the skis. Sometimes instructors simply take things
too far, and the dogmatic concentration on body parts clouds their thinking so much that they can’t tell if their skis are carving or skidding. Some critics proudly state that if a movement of the body doesn’t directly
affect the skis, then the movement is unimportant. While this can be true at times, it’s far from an absolute truth in the job of ski instruction. Many movements don’t have a directly observable effect on the ski, but teaching students good habits that promote balance, stability, and athleticism are always beneficial in the long run and paramount to effective ski instruction.
Racers on the other hand are generally ski-centric. Tey focus on how the ski interacts with the snow – where the rubber meets the road. Steven’s Nyman’s father, former Ski School Director at Sundance, Utah Scott, and PSIA-I Examiner, Scott Nyman writes, “Most high level racers aren’t too concerned about how they look (some should be however). Tey are more concerned about how things feel – what’s going on with their skis (losing speed or gaining speed).” Complete control over the timing and amount the skis are pressured and engaged, or flat and gliding, are paramount to the racer’s success.
I’ve found many accomplished
Racers don’t have a real grasp of how their bodies move, but they still get the ski to do exactly what they want. Tey just can’t tell you how they do it.
What Instructors Can Learn from Racers Quite simply, instructors can learn to better connect movements of the body to the performance of the skis. Tey can focus on feeling the skis on the snow, not just feeling their shins in their boots or poles in their hands, for example. Body movements should be related to one of the five skiing fundamentals listed above. If the movement can’t be related to one of the fundamentals, then either the instructor doesn’t understand his or her topic well
enough, or the
movement is far less important than other movements the instructor should be teaching.
COURTESY OF ADAM BARKER PHOTOGRAPHY
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