Editors Note:

It is with great sadness that we learned of the recent passing of one of our very popular contributors, Bob Trueman, a retired ski instructor and coach based in Europe.  Every one of his many articles about how to ski better and enjoy it more struck a chord with SeniorsSkiing readers, always eliciting a spirited conversation in the comments section.  We are republishing one of his last ones, about the simple pleasures of just enjoying skiing without worrying about improving or not.  Richard Lambert

Jean Claude Killy, one of the greatest ski racers of all time, reminded us that “skiing is always a trip to the edge of what is possible. But it is not an obligation – we don’t have to improve if we don’t want to; skiing should always be a pleasure.

It’s in our nature that only a small percentage really want to improve the quality of our skiing, and for those who do, that’s one of the ways we enhance our pleasure. For others it can more beer in the mountain restaurant. Both are valid.

What IS better quality skiing? Put at its most concise, it’s best described as “more skillful skiing”.

Skill is a much misused word. “Carving” a ski, or pitching a baseball are often referred to as “skills”. They aren’t; they are techniques, which can either be executed skillfully or not. Watch me pitch a baseball and you’ll know what I mean.

So the next questions in this cascade of questions are – what is skill, and how is skill improved?

The most concise definition of skill I know is this – “Skill is the learned ability to bring about pre-determined outcomes with maximum certainty; often minimum effort”. (Emphases added).

My job over the last 35 years or so has been to assist skiers to enhance their ability to do this. Not to “show” them what to do. Not to “demonstrate” perfect skiing (which I can’t do anyway). Skill cannot be enhanced by watching someone else, particularly if they are especially proficient – super skillful skiers do things so subtly that you can’t see what’s going on anyway.

Our personal make-up guides our beliefs, which give birth to our thoughts, which drive our actions – what we actually do – and what we do brings about our outcomes.

To achieve better skiing outcomes we need to change what we do. I’ll repeat that – it’s what you DO that matters.

“Doing” in skiing, involves a lot.

As a skier, you already know full well that we have to exercise control over every part of our bodies – our heads, torsos, arms, hips, legs, feet, even toes!

Because the only person who can improve your skiing is you, you are the one who needs information coming to you in real time letting you know how close to your desired outcome your performance is. Once, that is, you have defined your desired outcome of course – which is where fellows like me come in.

Since we have only a limited number of senses acting as pathways for this information, we must ask which is best. As a longtime instructor and coach, I can tell you that it’s what you feel , it’s not what you smell, taste, or hear though once already highly skilled, hearing may well be useful, but it’s not the number one.

Importantly, it’s not what you see, though that can help you avoid a tree. One reason for this (there are many) is that you cannot see yourself as you ski.

You need to develop a high level of skill is assessing what you feel. As a simple example of this – imagine you’re my pupil. We decide a specific desired outcome and what you’ll attempt to be aware of. You ski, I watch. At the end of your very short run I ask “What did you feel?” If you’re like 99% of skiers you will say something like “It felt good”. Or “Yeah, I felt ok”,or “I didn’t really feel confident”, or whatever.

At which point you will hear me say “I didn’t ask you that – I asked you what you felt (as you skied) I wasn’t asking you for a value judgement, just what you felt.

We are likely to have agreed that you would seek to feel, say, some pressure under a toe, or feel your shin pressing against your boot, or to feel if any pressure came under your heel, etc etc. Just one thing, never two.

I will tell you that I don’t want you to think or anticipate or even make anything up (you’re not being judged). All we are doing is working together to help develop your awareness. Very few skiers have it, and watching other skiers will not develop it.

You can do it on your own though when you know how. Until you know how, it provides a living for good ski coaches like me!

I wrote a paper somewhere in which I made up two new English words that help us here – the paper was called “The Kneed to Knowtice”. To enhance our skill at pretty much anything we need to be focused, and more importantly to notice a chosen specific that will enable us to know what is happening concurrent with its happening.

The simplest example is my most frequent exhortation when starting with any skier, however good already, which is “Let’s agree before you set off that you will do your best to be aware at all times of nothing other than feeling the amount and quality of the pressure under your big toes – if you like just under one big toe”.

And I promise in return that after your practice run, that I will refer to nothing other than that about your skiing on that run.