Part of this ski vacation I’ve spent with Cody’s girlfriend, Angela, as she gets used to skis and the slopes. She was a complete novice at the start of this ski season, and has been skiing as often as she can since arrival.
In January, 3-4 weeks ago, she was still doing laps on our local beginner runs, Scooper and Dawdler. That week, I took her to Max Park, which leaves from the TOP of Sam’s Knob (she’d been limited to the mid-station of the front side chair lift), and then quickly up to the top of the Burn on Sneaky’s. So she stepped up one plateau, to low intermediate status.
When I came back two weeks later, she was chomping at the bit to go down The Edge, which is a black diamond (advanced) run off the High Alpine lift. This one is usually groomed, and starts out easy, getting steeper and steeper. That first day, though, we discovered that Upper Green Cabin, which also leaves from High Alpine, was open for the first time this season, groomed and ready to roll. Although it is a blue (intermediate) run, it is nearly as steep as Edge, and would serve as a good stepping stone to black diamonds. Besides, the view from the top of that run is stellar, looking out into the Cirque bowl, up at the Headwall, and over to AMF and the cliffs running down to Rock Island.
Naturally, she loved it. She’s a fearless skier on groomed slopes, sometimes going faster than I want to, and very stable with a wide stance appropriate to the new “rocker” skis (don’t ask me what that means, other than they turn easy and require feet to be separated, not locked together.)
So she was all pumped after that, and we went after all the groomed black runs at Snowmass, Slot, Campground, Edge, and she handled them all with aplomb. It was time to start thinking about transferring her to variable terrain and snow conditions: moguls (bumps), and half-skied powder. I began to think about just how to introduce the physical concepts needed to successfully make that transition.
I feel there are several issues involved. First, what feelings, kinesthetic feedback, are you trying to get from your body. Second, what specific actions of your body are you trying to focus on. And third, what should your conscious mind be doing to help the situation.
The later is a critical element. Many adults, when trying to learn a new sport or physical activity, approach it from a rational, mental frame of reference. In other, they are told, or read, that their body and body parts should be in specific positions, or make specific motions, and they spend most of their mental energy consciously trying to make those motions. This is the path to mediocrity. The connection between a conscious thought and a body movement is way too slow to be effective for most sports. It will work OK for yoga, Tai Chi, and similar slow (or no) movement activities, but when trying to do a fluid action such as skiing at speed over variable terrain, or perfect a golf or tennis stroke, thinking just gets in the way, gums up the works, slows down the process.
The trick is to plant a few ideas in the feeling part of your brain, and try to use the mind for what it was designed for: planning and preparation.
So, for skiing, here’s how it works. Skiing is mostly about balance – keeping the center of gravity over the center of the ski’s turning point, and moving that gravity center up and down, forward and back, and side to side as needed to allow for adjustment to the terrain, speed control, and changing direction. At all times, one wants to feel “balanced”, and one knows instantly, without thinking about it, whether he is in balance or not. So one major focus of the brain should be on trying to remain balanced.
There are a few tricks to get that feeling ingrained. Try to keep the upper body and head stable, facing downhill no matter which direction the ski are going, and absorbing the terrain variability with up and down motions of the legs (“bend zee knees, five dollars, please”). Reach out (and down) with the downhill ski pole tip to touch the snow just before trying to change direction. Change direction by a combination of using the terrain (a bump in the snow) and/or an upward motion of the body. While doing that, keep the sense of balance, confident that your body will learn what feels “good” and “bad” (or right and wrong) very well on it’s own. Your body will want to stay balanced, and you’ll know when you’re doing it right, and your body will ingrain the proper motions if you just focus on that feeling of balance.
So what should the conscious mind be doing? To keep it occupied and out of the way of the education process for the body’s sense of balance, use the mind for what it is designed – planning. Consciously plan every single change of direction (turn). Look ahead, and pick out a spot in the snow where the turn will take place. Do that EVERY SINGLE TURN. Don’t think about anything else. But don’t ignore internal feelings either. Learning to focus on the internal feelings of balance, where that center is at all times and how body movements and terrain affect it, is where the real learning comes in skiing (or any other new physical activity.)
The key to success in learning some new sport thus boils down to three things. A good instructor will be able to impart these ideas. First, figure out what the mind should be doing to both help the process and keep out of the way of the physical learning. Second, understand how to communicate what the body/brain should be FEELING when we successfully perform the activity. And, third, know the proper progression of actions and difficulty to help the student practice without feeling threatened, but still learn quickly enough to become confident in developing increasing skill.
Here are a couple of videos, first of Angela bombing down Upper Green Cabin, and then learning how to go through the trees and maneuver around bumps on the Big Burn.