Instructional Advice: Slow Start, Good Turns

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Easy Does It And Find The Rhythm.

If you look at Henrik Kristoffersen here in the blue Norwegian National Team uniform doing slow turns, you will see the value of mechanics at a basic level.   

The important thing that I realized in watching Kristoffersen executing basic turn maneuvers at a very slow pace is that we all can work on basics at this speed.  It is important from time to time to practice the basics like this on gentle terrain. 

Another thing about turn speed is that it is a good idea to start each run with a slow series of turns.  When you start out too fast, and the terrain becomes more difficult, the turns are compromised.  It is better to start out slowly and make a series of good turns, then you can develop a rhythm which will take you smoothly through the run and not end up hitting the brakes to find your rhythm. 

Good smooth carved turns are executed when one starts out a run with deliberate slow turns.   Oftentimes I ski behind my wife and have her start out slowly.  I tell her to concentrate on the uphill edge which will become the downhill edge.   I call out the appropriate edge and she makes nice rounded turns with edge pressure control throughout the radius of her turns.  Try it sometime with someone  whom you are trying to move to the next level. 

Snow In Literature: Brown’s Descent

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Or the Willy-Nilly Slide

Credit: M. Maginn

By Robert Frost (1916)

Brown lived at such a lofty farm
That everyone for miles could see
His lantern when he did his chores
In winter after half-past three.
And many must have seen him make
His wild descent from there one night,
’Cross lots, ’cross walls, ’cross everything,
Describing rings of lantern light.
Between the house and barn the gale
Got him by something he had on
And blew him out on the icy crust
That cased the world, and he was gone!
Walls were all buried, trees were few:
He saw no stay unless he stove
A hole in somewhere with his heel.
But though repeatedly he strove
And stamped and said things to himself,
And sometimes something seemed to yield,
He gained no foothold, but pursued
His journey down from field to field.
Sometimes he came with arms outspread
Like wings, revolving in the scene
Upon his longer axis, and
With no small dignity of mien.
Faster or slower as he chanced,
Sitting or standing as he chose,
According as he feared to risk
His neck, or thought to spare his clothes,
He never let the lantern drop.
And some exclaimed who saw afar
The figures he described with it,
”I wonder what those signals are
Brown makes at such an hour of night!
He’s celebrating something strange.
I wonder if he’s sold his farm,
Or been made Master of the Grange.”
He reeled, he lurched, he bobbed, he checked;
He fell and made the lantern rattle
(But saved the light from going out.)
So half-way down he fought the battle
Incredulous of his own bad luck.
And then becoming reconciled
To everything, he gave it up
And came down like a coasting child.
“Well—I—be—” that was all he said,
As standing in the river road,
He looked back up the slippery slope
(Two miles it was) to his abode.
Sometimes as an authority
On motor-cars, I’m asked if I
Should say our stock was petered out,
And this is my sincere reply:
Yankees are what they always were.
Don’t think Brown ever gave up hope
Of getting home again because
He couldn’t climb that slippery slope;
Or even thought of standing there
Until the January thaw
Should take the polish off the crust.
He bowed with grace to natural law,
And then went round it on his feet,
After the manner of our stock;
Not much concerned for those to whom,
At that particular time o’clock,
It must have looked as if the course
He steered was really straight away
From that which he was headed for—
Not much concerned for them, I say:
No more so than became a man—
And politician at odd seasons.
I’ve kept Brown standing in the cold
While I invested him with reasons;
But now he snapped his eyes three times;
Then shook his lantern, saying, “Ile’s
’Bout out!” and took the long way home
By road, a matter of several miles.

This Week In SeniorsSkiing.com (Jan. 15)

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Don’t Let The Old Man In, Vortex Coming, More Poetry, Luxury XC Resort, Ski World Art, Season Pass Value, Ski Boot For Seniors, Norway .

Don’t Let The Old Man In. From “The Mule.”

My self-image has always been as an active, healthy, strong, relatively athletic person who also happened to be 76 years old.  Friends were frequently impressed when they learned my age. “Really? You certainly don’t look it,” was the usual reaction. I am willing to bet that the vast majority of SeniorsSkiing,com readers have the same self-image and have had the same reactions from friends.

So, when I had a hip replaced last week, I had a snapshot of what the opposite of that self-image could be. One week post-op, I am (temporarily) disabled, I hobble, I lean on a cane, I depend on others, I don’t sleep, I take lots of drugs. Despite knowing that this is at least a six-week journey back to normalcy, it was bringing me down. I became antsy, reluctant to do my therapeutic walking, a little pissy-and-moany.

I was getting a view of what it might like to be “old”.

On a Zoom call with an good friend, I unloaded my frustration at being tossed into this debilitated state.  Then he said something that flipped my attitude on the spot: “Don’t let the old man in.”

He said that’s what I was doing. The Old Man was in, and I had opened the door.

I am sure that most of SeniorsSkiing.com readers are keeping the Old Man out every day, even if they don’t call it that.

Where did this stunningly inspirational phrase come from?

Turns out that country singer and songwriter Toby Keith was playing golf with Clint Eastwood then 88 at a charity event.  Toby asked Clint how he managed to keep up his energy, interest, and engagement at his age. Clint said, “Every morning I get up and say to myself, don’t let the old man it.”  The phrase struck the songwriter. Eventually he wrote a song about the keeping the old man at bay.  Eastwood included it in his latest movie, “The Mule.”

Here it is with scenes from the movie.

This Week

The Skiing Weatherman Herb Stevens brings news about ongoing change in the snow weather.  The Polar Vortex is on the way.  Eastern skiers, hang in there.

We have another poem in our ongoing Snow In Literature series, the first time we’ve had two poems in a row in our weekly editions. This time, it’s Interlude, by Linda Pastan.

Credit: MD Maginn

Our Make More Tracks series continues with a resort review of The Lodge and Spa at Three Forks Ranch, WY, a luxury inn just north of Steamboat, catering to the outdoor sports including cross-country crowd. This place is really classy.

Correspondent videographer Don Burch has submitted a very interesting video which is essentially a portfolio of artistic images of our ski world. Some of these are “frame-worthy”.  If you think so, too, let Don know.

Our Question For You this week asks if you’re happy you bought a season pass.  Any regrets? Buyer’s remorse? Or, are you getting more than the value you expected?

Correspondent Jan Brunvand takes a nostalgic look back at his family’s ski roots in Norway.

Finally, co-publisher Jon Weisberg reviews the Swiss Dahu ski boot which is designed for comfort.  Read his review and discover what the fitting process is all about.

Remember, tell your friends about us. And there are more of us every day, and we aren’t going away.

Jan and brother, Tor

 

 

 

 

 

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