Sure wish I could ski better...

[tekweezle]

i was a plateued intermediate and initially self taught. i thought I skied well enough to slide down groomed blue or greens. i would tend to battle my way down blacks and avoid moguls and variable terrain completely. I took lessons which I resisted at first. it was during some week long trips to sugarloaf. the lessons help me realize that there is more than one way to ski.

one observation I came under is that you need to adjust your technique for the different conditions. i see alot of people just lock themselves into "carving mode" and try to do that even on the hardest boilerplate ice covered up by dust on crust. technically a perfect way to ski 90% of the time but you need something different for moguls and spring crud. you need to employ some tactic for speed control which doesn't involve merely digging your edges harder into the snow-a sure recipe for burning your legs out.

the fun thing is that learning how to ski is an ever evolving thing. learning how to use the right tools and skills to tackle the slopes is alot of fun. nowadays, I am working on my short radius turns for moguls and possible trees. i heard all these phrases like "ski over the top of the moguls and crud", ski on the flat of your skis rather than the edge and "raise your knees to your chest to compress" but the light never clicked on til I just kept practicing.

 

[billski]

What always struck me is that you can have all the head knowledge in the world, but it needs to become instinctive, ingrained in your psyche. Your body just reacts and responds. No time for analysis. It's the only way to survive the instantaneous changes we encounter when skiing.
Every ski racer I've ever met says the same thing. To paraphrase, "I don't think when I race. My body reacts for me. It's second-nature."

 

[tekweezle]

i read alot of books and magazine articles on how to ski moguls because it;s the one skill i had been trying to improve on. however, i couldn;t put it together conceptually until recently with alot of practice. i still suck in the moguls but atleast I am not "psyched out" anymore when presented with an impassable mogul field.

other people have the same hang up on steep blacks. you can try and talk them into what to do but ultimately, it;s up to that person to conquer their fear and do the motions necessary for them to tackle the slope.

 

[hammer]

What always struck me is that you can have all the head knowledge in the world, but it needs to become instinctive, ingrained in your psyche. Your body just reacts and responds. No time for analysis. It's the only way to survive the instantaneous changes we encounter when skiing.
Every ski racer I've ever met says the same thing. To paraphrase, "I don't think when I race. My body reacts for me. It's second-nature."

I think the term that sums this up nicely is "muscle memory", and unless you are athletically-gifted the only thing that will give you that is mileage...and lots of it.

 

[Warp Daddy]

Yep I agree skiing tend to be Intuitive rather than analytical

 

[OppositeGeorge]

Yep I agree skiing tend to be Intuitive rather than analytical

For most people that's probably true start to finish. For true klutzes like me with almost no sense of body position and movement, having the theory gives us some understanding when learning the moves, and it's only after lots and lots of miles that it gets burned into our muscle memory (and then, finally, becomes subconcious.)

 

[tekweezle]

i want to say to all those who don;t enjoy certain conditions like spring crud, bumps and steep ice, don;t give up. you can get the skills to enjoy these conditions with practice. having the right skis/wax for the condition is also helpful but not always necessary. you can compensate for what your equipment doesn't allow you to do easily with better technique as much as good equipment might allow you to enjoy conditions with less work.

what some of you may not want to hear is that there is room for improvement. you need to accept that there is more for you to learn-whether it;s techniques or tactics for dealing with those less than ideal conditions.

btw, it;s not to say any of your skills are "deficient" in any way. most of us ski perfectly fine in 90% of the conditions out there and are content to ignore the other 10%. i usually try to coach my intermediate friends if they are struggling on certain conditions. i get more resistance from those "set in their ways" and to stubborn to think "out of the box". these people tend to lock their legs into a defensive, tail skidding position and call it carving.

I was skiing with a friend of mines this past weekend-strong intermediate skier but tended to get intimidated by anything less than ideal. we went through all sorts of drills in the past but she always made the same mistakes-not rounding of her turns and making overly sharp z turns, lifting the top leg to make turns rather than keep both skis in the snow-which always caused her issues at speed and on variable snow. she bought a pair of shorter, wider skis recently and she was just flying. difference was night and day. so in her case, her too long, straightish skis was holding her back.

 

[OppositeGeorge]

what some of you may not want to hear is that there is room for improvement. you need to accept that there is more for you to learn-whether it;s techniques or tactics for dealing with those less than ideal conditions.

So true. It was surprising, yet relieving, to hear my instructor say earlier this year that every time he goes out he's still learning and practicing and trying to improve -- and this is an examiner-level instructor with over 30 years of teaching under his belt! Dude still takes more lessons than anybody I know, too.

Stuff like that gives klutzes like me hope for the future.

 

[ckofer]

If you are inclined to be analytical the Dan DiPiro book:

http://mogulskiing.blogspot.com/2005/09/new-mogul-skiing-book-now-available.html

may help a lot. If you never even get into moguls, by practicing his techniques you will find yourself engaging your ski better. Yes you will need to practice still but I find bump skiing to be the ultimate in focused, assertive skiing. His writing style is very sympathetic to the frustrations that you may feel in difficult situations-which often comes down to poor body positioning (stiff legs, too far back, etc).

 

[Greg]

If you are inclined to be analytical the Dan DiPiro book:

http://mogulskiing.blogspot.com/2005/09/new-mogul-skiing-book-now-available.html

may help a lot. If you never even get into moguls, by practicing his techniques you will find yourself engaging your ski better. Yes you will need to practice still but I find bump skiing to be the ultimate in focused, assertive skiing. His writing style is very sympathetic to the frustrations that you may feel in difficult situations-which often comes down to poor body positioning (stiff legs, too far back, etc).

This is a must have for mogul basics. Super easy read and very useful stuff. More discussion about the book specifically here:

http://forums.alpinezone.com/5633-everything-instructors-never-told-you-about-mogul-skiing.html?

 

[OppositeGeorge]

Thirding the DiPiro book. Really got me a lot better on 'em. And having taken a couple mogul clinics, I can vouch for the title of the book. He teaches a different style than what my instructors have been suggesting. I mean the basics are the same but as I recall his is a little more direct. Not that either one's right or wrong; IMO the more tools you have at your disposal the better.