I want to ski better damn it! How can I?

[gmcunni]

I'm not sure I agree with this. Like I said in my earlier post, I was under 10 days last year, and this year I should be just over 10 days. Conceptually I know what I want to do. Hell, I was starting to do it a few years ago. However physically it's difficult because I don't have the muscle memory or confidence to make the right movements in dynamic situations (bumps, trees, etc.), and that can only come with time.

we all learn/progress at different rates. I don't think i got above 20 days/season until 3 seasons ago but got better year after year because it was what i wanted to do.

 

[deadheadskier]

my ski plans for next 4 years are a mess. UVM (my top "we can ski together" school) isn't high on his list. he got into the engineering school but they don't offer the major he really wants, computer system eng, only a EE with a CS concentration. He's leaning towards other schools with his preferred major. not that he really wants to ski with me anymore anyhow.

ugh

you've got work to do G. Let him know that Bachelors degrees are essentially useless these days in technical fields. He'll need to get a Master's in computer systems engineering anyways, so for undergrad he should go where he (meaning you) will have the most fun. 4 years of Burlington and Stowe was a helluva lotta fun, let me tell you.

good luck

 

[kingdom-tele]

I'm not sure I agree with this. Like I said in my earlier post, I was under 10 days last year, and this year I should be just over 10 days. Conceptually I know what I want to do. Hell, I was starting to do it a few years ago. However physically it's difficult because I don't have the muscle memory or confidence to make the right movements in dynamic situations (bumps, trees, etc.), and that can only come with time.

As far as fitness, obviously it's important. However, there is no exercise that will get you prepared for skiing as well as skiing will. I consider myself a very fit person. I go to the gym, run on a regular basis, and play rugby during the spring and fall, but I can't ski bell to bell like I used to.

no comment on lessons, never had one, but skiing is about movement for me not a technique, so never cared.

to the notion you don't have muscle memory with 10 days of skiing though, its not entirely true. from a motor plan (schema, whatever you choose to call it) you have an established simulation that you can rerun over and over. visualization has been shown to stimulate the exact muscle and motor plan as the actual overt motion. in fact the neuromuscular connection is excited, just under the contractile strength, pretty amazing really. so you can in fact cont to improve your current "memory". same goes with watching a more dynamic skiers, your brain actually simulates the motor sequences of their motions, look up mirror neurons, the brain is friggin incredible

I would strongly agree though, the only way to actually change you "skill" level, motor sequencing, etc is time and reps, you need the feedback from the motion to be able to make the necassary changes to maximize your efficiency and replace established "habits" with new motor choices. only skiing 10 dyas a year will just really prolong the process IMO.

from a practice standpoint its no different than watching our kids, they will repeat a challenging task over and over, they will make modifications with each rep until they become more efficient, organic learning. way more fun too. although I'm sure lessons are fun, just seem very reductionistic for an activity that is a whole body experience

 

[Puck it]

no comment on lessons, never had one, but skiing is about movement for me not a technique, so never cared.

to the notion you don't have muscle memory with 10 days of skiing though, its not entirely true. from a motor plan (schema, whatever you choose to call it) you have an established simulation that you can rerun over and over. visualization has been shown to stimulate the exact muscle and motor plan as the actual overt motion. in fact the neuromuscular connection is excited, just under the contractile strength, pretty amazing really. so you can in fact cont to improve your current "memory". same goes with watching a more dynamic skiers, your brain actually simulates the motor sequences of their motions, look up mirror neurons, the brain is friggin incredible

I would strongly agree though, the only way to actually change you "skill" level, motor sequencing, etc is time and reps, you need the feedback from the motion to be able to make the necassary changes to maximize your efficiency and replace established "habits" with new motor choices. only skiing 10 dyas a year will just really prolong the process IMO.

from a practice standpoint its no different than watching our kids, they will repeat a challenging task over and over, they will make modifications with each rep until they become more efficient, organic learning. way more fun too. although I'm sure lessons are fun, just seem very reductionistic for an activity that is a whole body experience

Rather expensive way to get skiing in. UVM is $45K for out of state. If going to grad school after BS then go to state school first (UCONN) then let the school pay for grad school with a TA and RA.

 

[St. Bear]

we all learn/progress at different rates. I don't think i got above 20 days/season until 3 seasons ago but got better year after year because it was what i wanted to do.

To be honest, a lot of my issues come from the fitness aspect. Depending on the conditions my legs can by shot by 2pm, which makes it hard to work on technique.

 

[SkiFanE]

no comment on lessons, never had one, but skiing is about movement for me not a technique, so never cared.

to the notion you don't have muscle memory with 10 days of skiing though, its not entirely true. from a motor plan (schema, whatever you choose to call it) you have an established simulation that you can rerun over and over. visualization has been shown to stimulate the exact muscle and motor plan as the actual overt motion. in fact the neuromuscular connection is excited, just under the contractile strength, pretty amazing really. so you can in fact cont to improve your current "memory". same goes with watching a more dynamic skiers, your brain actually simulates the motor sequences of their motions, look up mirror neurons, the brain is friggin incredible

I would strongly agree though, the only way to actually change you "skill" level, motor sequencing, etc is time and reps, you need the feedback from the motion to be able to make the necassary changes to maximize your efficiency and replace established "habits" with new motor choices. only skiing 10 dyas a year will just really prolong the process IMO.

Does one need a UVM CSE degree to understand this? I failed.

I think if you get 10 days on snow, it's enough to progress...but if 5 of those days are back to back...I think you improve faster than if it's 5 saturdays in a row. Not until I got my own ski house did I ever ski more than 20 days/year..but still went from cruiser to bumper in a couple years.

 

[deadheadskier]

Rather expensive way to get skiing in. UVM is $45K for out of state. If going to grad school after BS then go to state school first (UCONN) then let the school pay for grad school with a TA and RA.

Before attending, I took 2 years off and was a ski bum in Stowe so I could get in state resident discount on tuition when I went. Back then tuition was only about 9K a year and living in Burlington was much cheaper than it is today.

Though in reality, no one on here should be taking advice from me on college as I really didn't do it right the first time around and here I am at 36 going again. :lol: I was a ski bum who took college classes, not a college student who skied.

 

[mondeo]

I have this love/hate relationship with video. I have found that there are sometimes when I have this mental image of what the mechanics of my turn looks like, and then the video DOESN'T back up what I think I'm doing that it can actually mess me up more than it can help me. Basically it will cause me to go from thinking about 1 or 2 basic fundamental things to thinking about far more fundamental things as i'm making my turns, and for me that's NOT a good thing.

Other times, it is a help as a way to reinforce that what i've been trying to work on IS working. That's just my own experience though. In cases liek that it will allow me to just keep focusing on those 1 or 2 things i'm working on, while just letting the other 100 or so things that also need to occur just happen naturally

For me it works really well. You still need to keep focus on 1 or 2 things at a time, but it can help more than anything else in showing me what I need to focus on most, and how things need to be tweaked. Video in combination with instruction is huge.

 

[deadheadskier]

For me it works really well. You still need to keep focus on 1 or 2 things at a time, but it can help more than anything else in showing me what I need to focus on most, and how things need to be tweaked. Video in combination with instruction is huge.

You also need to consider the goals in mind. You desire to have competition level bump technique. Video is HUGE for achieving that goal.

However, there are a lot of incredible bump skiers that don't have the dialed in orthodox style you're going for. They ski them as well as you do, just differently.

I'm not saying video isn't a good idea as it truly is the only way you can "see" where your faults are. I'm just not so sure it's a great investment for a recreational skier getting out 15 times a year.

 

[mondeo]

ugh

you've got work to do G. Let him know that Bachelors degrees are essentially useless these days in technical fields. He'll need to get a Master's in computer systems engineering anyways, so for undergrad he should go where he (meaning you) will have the most fun. 4 years of Burlington and Stowe was a helluva lotta fun, let me tell you.

good luck

Bachelors degrees in technical fields are the only Bachelors degrees worth anything on their own. Of the 11 people in my group hired from college in the last 6 years, 9 had only a B.S. when they were hired. One has a masters, and the other has a Ph.D. but was hired to do technology development/research type stuff. Grad work for engineering is no way needed, at least for Mech. E.s

 

[BenedictGomez]

UVM (my top "we can ski together" school) isn't high on his list..

Your wallet will thank him. That place is beyond ridiculous from the perspective of cost analysis.

Though in reality, no one on here should be taking advice from me on college as I really didn't do it right the first time around and here I am at 36 going again. :lol: I was a ski bum who took college classes, not a college student who skied.

I'll bet when you're lying on your deathbed someday (hopefully many, many, many years from now), you wont regret that decision. I took a different route. I moved to Burlington 2 weeks after graduating from college, and worked a 3pm to 11pm shift. Trout fishing by day in the warmer months, skiing by day @ Stowe & Smuggs in the colder months. I wont regret that either.

 

[abc]

I don't ski as well as most here. However, I would have been an even lessor skier if I just ski.

A quote I like: "practice don't make perfect, practice make permanent". If you keep skiing with the wrong technique, you'll simply ingrain that into bad habits.

Skiing a lot, one eventually figure it out by trial and error. Taking lesson cuts that trial and error process and fast track to the better technique.

You still have to practice those right technique. But you won't be wasting time practicing bad techniques that needs breaking later on.

If you got a lot of time on snow anyway, you'll eventually figure it out by yourself (by following and imitating better skiers etc) and save the lesson cost. But for those like the OP, who are somewhat lacking snow time, lesson will be a whole lot faster way.

 

[gmcunni]

ugh

you've got work to do G. Let him know that Bachelors degrees are essentially useless these days in technical fields. He'll need to get a Master's in computer systems engineering anyways, so for undergrad he should go where he (meaning you) will have the most fun. 4 years of Burlington and Stowe was a helluva lotta fun, let me tell you.

good luck

told him if he goes to UCONN (instate tuition) we'd have $$ to help with grad school. he goes to Syracuse (his #1) he's on his own after that.

 

[Nick]

Wwded

 

[hammer]

told him if he goes to UCONN (instate tuition) we'd have $$ to help with grad school. he goes to Syracuse (his #1) he's on his own after that.

Our son is going to UMASS and the cost savings will end up going to his sister for a private school...:roll:

 

[SkiFanE]

Your wallet will thank him. That place is beyond ridiculous from the perspective of cost analysis.



I'll bet when you're lying on your deathbed someday (hopefully many, many, many years from now), you wont regret that decision. I took a different route. I moved to Burlington 2 weeks after graduating from college, and worked a 3pm to 11pm shift. Trout fishing by day in the warmer months, skiing by day @ Stowe & Smuggs in the colder months. I wont regret that either.

My bro got a UVM biomed engineering degree. Never ever used it...bummed around burlington a few years...skied and stuff. Finally found his way, settled in Stowe area and is a well known newsphotographer for that area lol. So he made Dad happy with the degree, but eventually did what he wanted. I wanted to go to UVM, but my grades didn't cut it, damn.

 

[SkiFanE]

Our son is going to UMASS and the cost savings will end up going to his sister for a private school...:roll:

How's he liking it? My alma mater.

 

[kingdom-tele]

Does one need a UVM CSE degree to understand this? I failed.

I think if you get 10 days on snow, it's enough to progress...but if 5 of those days are back to back...I think you improve faster than if it's 5 saturdays in a row. Not until I got my own ski house did I ever ski more than 20 days/year..but still went from cruiser to bumper in a couple years.

you got it. reps to modify your efficiency = back to back days better than 1x/wk

figuring out your efficient motion is the fun part, while you fatigue (the conditioning aspect) you have to realize how much wasted energy you are using in co contraction of muscles that don't need to be used, refining that is what lead to more effortlessness, but its a conscious process to start

 

[deadheadskier]

Your wallet will thank him. That place is beyond ridiculous from the perspective of cost analysis.



I'll bet when you're lying on your deathbed someday (hopefully many, many, many years from now), you wont regret that decision. I took a different route. I moved to Burlington 2 weeks after graduating from college, and worked a 3pm to 11pm shift. Trout fishing by day in the warmer months, skiing by day @ Stowe & Smuggs in the colder months. I wont regret that either.

Don't regret it for a minute truthfully. Best time of my life. Only downside going back now is it puts off parenting plans a few years. I'm fine with that and thankfully because my wife is a good deal younger than me, she's fine with it too.

 

[hammer]

How's he liking it? My alma mater.

Really likes it there, it's ended up being a good fit. Grades have been pretty good so far although a CS class this semester (that is available as a math option for his major) isn't going well for him so he will likely drop it...no big deal but he will have to make up the credits. He's been really involved with HvZ this semester so that keeps him occupied when he's not studying (we hope).

He lives in Southwest but was smart enough to stay in his dorm when the "riot" happened after the Superbowl.