Tag Archive for: Bob Trueman

Bob Trueman

First Timers Tips For Skiing Europe

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The Straight Story On The Continental Skiing Scene For Seniors.

I have coached in pretty well all of the European skiing countries. SeniorsSkiing asked me could I recommend resorts to suit mature American skiers, especially first time visitors to the Continent. Here goes.

The range of possibilities is vast. France plasters its slopes with lifts, Italy takes a more environmental view and installs fewer but longer lifts up valleys, offering equally long descents. Gressoney St Jean in the Aosta region (about an hour from Turin) is a classic example, it also links to Champoluc and Alagna.

Other Examples

Waidring: 10 lifts, 16 trails, intermediate-beginner, gemutlichkeit.

A friend went to Waidring in Austria every year for ten years. Great people, great snow, warm welcomes. They have a tradition called gemutlichkeit – geniality or friendliness. It is tiny – 10 lifts,16 trails all told, half of them intermediate, half of them beginner.

Val Thorens: 163 lifts, 373 miles of trails, ski to Courchevel

Compare that to Val Thorens-Meribel-Courchevel – 163 lifts, 373 miles of trails, 192,000 feet of vertical descent. Start in Val Thorens, ski to Courchevel, and you may not have time to get back. Hugely popular with Brits (far too popular for me, I hate lift queues)

What’s On Offer?

Different resorts in every country target different types of skiers – though they hope to get everybody.

Take the Chamonix Valley for instance, steeped in mountaineering history. Each of its resorts offers a spread of challenge but with a bias.

The lowest resort, Les Houches: charming, easier, all trails are in wooded areas, amply supplied with atmospheric mountain restaurants.

Almost an hour’s ski bus ride from Les Houches – is Le Tour. Almost treeless, big sweeping terrain, as well as plenty of intermediate trails it offers some easily accessible off-piste.

In between you have Le Brevent – high, steep, not easy; or Argentiere, home of the “hard men”, some of the blues would classify red (black) in other places.

When conditions permit, from Chamonix centre a telecabine takes you to the 22 km Vallee Blanche in the high mountains, and you only need to be intermediate, but you’ll need a professional guide: don’t try it on your own.

So How To Choose?

The internet is full of “the three best French ski resorts”; or “the ten best Austrian ones”; it’s endless.

What we need is a selection process. How does this seem:

Kitzbuehel: €€€€€

  • How pricey is it? There are big differences. If you select Kitzbuhel (fashionable) everything is more expensive than Kirchberg which is just a few miles up the road and accesses the same trails. Some resorts are designed around high net worth folk seeking luxury.
  • What duration is the connection time between your airport and the resort. It can be up to four hours or as little as only one. Does it matter to you?
  • Many European resorts are inter-connected, ask them what standard of skiing do they mostly offer. They’ll tell you they have everything, but insist on knowing what they mostly offer.
  • Within the connected areas ask them the approximate skiing times to get from one resort to another, and back: it can seriously affect your day – and how tiring it might be.
  • Ask them if skiing guides available who can show you early in your visit the general shape of the place. Many of the chalet owners and hotels offer this service – not teaching, just showing you around.
  • When are the school holidays? In France they go on for weeks. Lift queues can be horrendous. Outside of them, you can often just walk on. And remember, in some European countries lift queue etiquette and politeness is conspicuous by its absence; France is one of them.
  • Consider less popular countries that don’t have inter-connected valleys – Slovenia (home of Elan skis) has some nice small resorts; Bulgaria has more than you might think and inexpensive.

Kirchburg: €€ and just down the road from Kitzbuehel

My personal favorite? Baqueira in the Spanish Pyrenees. Two hour connection from Toulouse airport. Nicest folk you’ll ever meet (I go to the Hotel Tuc Blanc, and I’m not paid to say so). Watch out for school holidays though, it’s just across the border from France, but the Catalans queue politely.

Baqueira, the author’s favorite.

One Last Tip.

Never do “the last run down”! Everyone wants to get one more “last run” in. They do it on the return to the valley.

Don’t. They’re all tired; they’re skiing at their worst; there are crowds of them; the trails down lower are worn out or slushy. If you want “one last run” stay higher (the areas they’ve just left!) have better snow, fewer people, quieter mountains, and go down to the valley on the lift.

Hotel Tuc Blanc, author’s fav hotel in Baqueria.

 

Bob Trueman

A Brief History Of Skiing “Style”

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Author’s Note : I owe much of the following to a close personal friend. This is wholly my interpretation of his observations, it does not necessarily reflect or deny his views.

In France

In the 1940s/50s France and Austria began competing for increasing skiing tourism. The rivalry was both commercial and political. Each wanted a national “product,” supposedly better than their competitor, that they could differentiate and sell.

At that time, the French believed they had the answer to the question, “What to teach?” They needed a product that trainee ski instructors could be trained to deliver in ski schools.

JCK embodies the French style in 70s Head ad.

Remember that the instructor training systems were nationalized. The Ecole de Ski Francais was a government monopoly. Its name is frequently mistranslated into English, as the “French Ski School” but that is not what it means: it means the School of French Skiing. A product.

They offered the “Rotational Method” which they claimed exemplified the physics involved. What you were to do was to slightly crouch as the “turn” approached, then extend the legs rapidly to unweight the skis, and at the same time rotate your torso in the direction you wanted your skis to go.

This transferred the angular momentum (the twist if you like) of your “upper body” toward the impending new direction, down to the legs and skis. From a physics viewpoint that was “Transference of momentum from part to whole” , your body can only twist so far before it imparts that twist to your legs via your pelvis.

Some of SeniorsSkiing’s respondents to my earlier contributions insisted on this being “the way to ski” and were critical of my introduction of the concept of “arcs” instead of “turns”. Which does not reflect badly on them, but it does illustrate the power of inertia and how susceptible we are to Confirmation Bias.

In Austria

At the time, a leading figure in the Austrian National Ski Instruction System was Prof. Stefan Kruchenhauser. He had been studying, photographing, and filming Austrian racers as they went through the racing gates.

Unlike the French, he observed that as they approached the gate po they turned their shoulders away from the intended “turn” and had their back toward it as the direction change occurred.

Kruckenhauser was a ski photographer as well as a pioneer of the Austrian technique. This photo is by him.

Other writers picked up on this supposedly “New Austrian Technique”, explaining it via Newton’s 3rd Law of Motion (every action has an equal and opposite reaction). It became known as the Counter Rotational Method, conveniently providing a different “product” to that of the French, and endless column inches to the magazine writers.

Because both were governmental, political projects, they each quickly developed their own followers in the ski schools, and woe betide anyone who thought any different. Austrian instructors, attempting to find analogies to help their pupils, began teaching “point your skis across the mountain, and your chest down to the valley.”

In fact, the Austrian racers were not employing Newton’s 3rd Law, they were simply trying to avoid whacking their shoulders into the slalom poles which back then were tree branches cut off the pine trees and bedded very firmly in the snow. Had the good professor filmed his skiers changing direction when not racing round sticks in the ground he would have found they did not “counter rotate”. Be careful what you think you see!

The Austrian concept was exported comprehensively to the USA because Austria provided back then a great many instructors to the newly expanding American ski school industry. The system satisfied ordinary recreational skiers, if it’s making money why change it?

Prof. Georges Joubert.

In late 1960’s early 70’s, Prof Joubert of Grenoble University stood both the French and Austrian instructing methods on their heads. Note that it is academics who are making the discoveries not the ski schools, which simply followed the “official line”, and pretty much did so until their monopolies were broken. Monopolies are not innovators and not good learners.

Still sought after book by French team coach Georges Joubert

What Joubert proved was that racers ski with Independent Leg Action. Racers never skied with their legs together. The legs do NOT act as a single unit. Each rotates independently in its hip socket unless the feet and legs are jammed together, which inhibits such free movement and necessitates throwing your torso about one way or the other.

What this means, and it is very significant indeed, is that the “upper” body is not defined at the waist; it is defined in the pelvis. The leg rotation can be either active or passive, but it happens in the hip socket. There is therefore no need for either the Rotational nor the Counter-Rotational concepts which were not based in physics after all.

To his credit, Prof. Kruchenhauser was one of the first to recognize and adopt this new realization that all that is required is effective balancing (not “balance” which is different and static), accompanied by independent leg rotation with accompanying leg flexion and extension. He called it “Beinspiel” or “leg play”.

Those earlier concepts still facilitate getting folk down skiing pistes, but not in a way that can can now be classified as skillfully. It either matters to you, or it doesn’t. Shakespeare observed “nothing matters, but thinking makes it so”.

It is regrettable that even after 50 years much of the ski school industry has not recognized either the change, or its significance. Though of course, a few have.

[For more thoughts and videos on ski technique, as well as links to Bob’s books, visit https://www.bobski.com/]

Bob Trueman

Instructional Advice: Don’t Do Turns

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Words Matter. Why “Arcs” Works Better Than “Turns”. 

Arc thinking makes a difference. Perhaps.

Recently I wrote a small piece on how to handle tough skiing situations and used the word “arcs” where most folk would use the word “turn”. My insistence on using the word “arc’”raised an eyebrow or two on the grounds that it was perhaps mere semantics or even nit-picking. Believe me, it isn’t.

Every single ski instructor I have ever met only uses the word “turn(s)”. You are admonished to “do turns”.  Even worse, you are recommended by some to “turn your skis”. It  tells you nothing at all about what movements you need to make with your legs/feet/body while in motion. 

What on earth is it supposed to mean? Is that how skis work, by “turning” them?  Is that a route to understanding, and to excellent skiing? No. Most of the movements you make should be in response to the skis, very little to do with making them do things.

What Is Really Happening When A Ski Changes Direction ?

The objection I have to using the lazy word “turn” is that it does not describe what happens.  It tells you nothing about how a ski changes direction and carries you with it.  It suggests that you do the “turn”.  You can “turn” a lot of things—a quick buck;  you can turn to the person on your left; you can turn a screwdriver; you can turn a triumph into a disaster. There is no end to the things you can turn.

An arc is a segment of a circle.

But let’s talk about skiing.  When you or an instructor refer to a “turn” in skiing, that is becomes something you think you do. But it is not what happens.

A change of direction may occur, (it may not) but that is an outcome of things you do, and of things that happen at the interface of the snow and the ski; it is not what you do.  If you haven’t already, then buy my top selling, incredibly inexpensive and value-for-money book “Ski In Control”. 

If you think you do turns, you are highly likely to also think that in order to do it, you will need to “turn your skis” (or worse, your body!)  Let’s substitute the word “pivot” for “turn” in this instance; it’s more descriptive.  There are times when pivoting your skis may be appropriate to achieving some outcome you desire.  Somewhat regrettably it may, though not necessarily, induce a change of direction. 

I say regrettably because if and when that happens it is likely to reinforce the idea in your head that you did it.  You didn’t.  Only very indirectly did the rotation of your ski (your foot) induce a deflection of your ski.  An outside force deflected your skis, and because you are attached, you went with them.  In a sense, they “turned” you, not the other way about.

Sometimes I allude to Tiger Woods and his golf.  If you think you have seen Woods “do” a 300 yard drive, you are mistaken.  What you have seen is Woods doing a complex of minute behaviors (many too difficult to observe) the outcome of which is a 300 yard drive.

Does My Insistence Matter? 

Yes, it does, because as long as you retain the word “turn” and as long as that affects your understanding, then it will in equal part inhibit your learning and hence your skiing skill development. My dislike of the word “turn” (in a skiing context) is not pedantry, nor semantic nit-picking—it has had singular importance in helping them my pupils to become significantly better skiers.

What Happens Between Skiing “Turns”?

Another issue of faulty perceptions about ski “turns” is the issue of what happens in between them. Probably when you were in the early stages of ski school, you will have been told that there is this type of turn (say a “snowplow”);  later, if you are old enough, you may have been admonished to do a “stem turn”; and then if you are good student on the fourth day of your week you might be allowed to try a “parallel” “turn”.

All of this is rubbish. It’ll get you down the hill maybe, but not much more. I accept that there has been a small (far too small) change in some ski schools, but nothing like enough, and I am personally more concerned about folk who learned their skiing quite a long while back.  Once learned, poor habits are extremely hard to change/eliminate.  I’m advocating good habits and understanding from the start.

A problem that the out-dated, and regrettably still extant, process creates is the idea that you “do a turn”, then a little later on as you ski, you “do another turn”. This process is repeated.

What is not clarified is what happens between “turn” one, and “turn” two. Presumably something, but what?  Unfortunately it is commonly a straight line. This is a pity in many circumstances because skis pick up speed when they are describing a straight line if they’re pointing to any extent downhill; and you may not particularly want that.  Fine, if you do.

Let’s say that a time of just two seconds passes between “turns” one and two.  (Try counting them now, in your head – “ thousand one, thousand two  …” ). If you are skiing at 15 mph, hardly excessive—about the speed you’d ride your bike—then in that two seconds you will traverse 44 feet, just under 15 yards. Fifteen yards of potential added speed. Fifteen yards perhaps past the spot you intended to change direction. Downhill racers love it; they attempt to draw the straightest line down the mountain that they can.

A Conclusion: Linked Arcs

Finally this leads us to a conclusion:  Since outside forces induce skis to deflect, and perhaps describe arcs, and you don’t “do turns”  and arcs are segments (would have been better to say “sections”) of circles or parabolas, then the objective for your skiing skill development is to make movements while in motion (our equivalent of Tiger Woods’ minute behaviors) that lead to continuously linked (and rounded) arcs. Not “turns”.

Leave a comment below or email me (bobski@bobski.com) if you want to continue this investigation.

[Editor Note: Ski Coach Bob Trueman has a series of 19 YouTube videos on different aspects of skiing in control.  Enter “BobSki” into the YouTube search.]

 

Bob Trueman

How To Handle Difficult Moments

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What To Do When Things Go Pear Shaped.

This might have been do-able last week, but, hmmm, today you can’t handle “it.” Rambo at Crested Butte. Credit: Chris Segal

Consider a ski run you’ve done before and which you found perfectly do-able with your present level of technical skiing skill. But conditions have changed, and the snow is less easy to ski; perhaps the temperature has fallen and the surface is now more crisp. Or the light has gone totally flat.  Or the cold is really distracting. All of a sudden you find yourself getting scared.

The most likely reason for this is you probably don’t have the skills that will make you feel confident you have total control of your skis. In the longer term, it is clear that you need to improve your level of skiing skill. Right now, however, you are not certain you will able to handle the situation.

Shouting “Be Confident” won’t work. Having someone else shout “Just do it” also won’t work. “Go on, you’ll be okay” won’t work, unless you find it immediately believable. Being able to ski better is the single thing that would give you more confidence, but it is not available to you in the moment, now, when you really need it. What you need now are a few self control techniques to help you get down safely in control of the situation.

Getting Focused Is The Key.

Here are a few “emergency situation” tricks that may help you get out of a bit of trouble, so you can get down safely, without too much psychological damage, and begin a plan of action to improve your skiing and the number of situations you can conquer.

• When things begin to “go pear-shaped”, we need to bring your focus to the situation, not think “expansively”. 

• First of all, even if there seems to be a shortage of time, STOP.  Stop and reassess.  Don’t be afraid to actually shout “STOP!”  You need to get your brain waves smoothed out. Stopping still will help. Be prepared to do it repeatedly as you descend; it’s likely not to be a one-off job.

• Ask yourself—and take care answering—”Is this the end of the world, or something less? What single small thing can I do that will help?”  Remember, whatever that is, it doesn’t have to be a complete cure;  it only has to get you through the next few seconds. They will in turn lead you to the following few seconds.

• The general rule of thumb is: The more dire the situation seems to you, the shorter should be your attention span.

• Don’t think big: think small. Don’t think “long distance”, think “the next ten yards”.

• Don’t think long term: think the next ten seconds or even less. “Can I get through and survive the next two minutes / ten seconds / the next one second? What do I have to do to hang on?

• Don’t think “skiing down to the bottom”: think the next single arc. Only one. Then stop again. Pull that one off, and it will give you confidence for the next one. (Successes lead to successes) Give yourself a few seconds at least, to take your single-arc success on board. Recognize it.

• Stop after each arc until something in your head says, “Hey, we could link a couple together now”.

• Finally, for now, do not blame yourself. Resist the temptation to call yourself names. Avoid belittling your self. Being scared is natural, commonplace, and surmountable. It is a strong emotion, and your best defense is anything at all that helps you not to be emotional. Do your best to be rational, and content with that “best”.

Get used to these ideas before you head to the piste. In the quiet of your study, spend some time sitting and imagining situations where you may use them. Those imagination sessions will serve you well next time you need one of these, in earnest. When you are imagining, get deeply into it, “see” more than you normally see, make slopes steeper than they really are, imagine the slope more polished, hear snow-boarders scraping the snow right behind you;  enlarge the whole situation. See the colors brighter. Hear the sound around you louder. Imagine yourself lifting one ski off the ground and sense what it feels like. You are completely safe, it’s only imagination. 

Define “It”.

Anytime we feel fear or apprehension, our perceptions are telling us that “we may not be able to handle it”. So, STOP and define what “it” is.

If for example “handling it” involves skiing with linked arcs down something you don’t like the look of, then how about redefining “it”. Call “it”, “Getting down the next 20 yards safely,” and the picture will look different, because you have now taken skis out of the equation. You could even take them off, carry them, and walk based on your definition.  Or you might perhaps side-skid if you know how. 

When you have taken control, you will have done it by defining the problem. No one would blame you or call you names (except you, if you let yourself). In fact probably no one would even notice; most folk on ski slopes, especially tricky bits, don’t notice anything, except their own situation.

Never be ashamed of being apprehensive or scared; just realize there are ways to handle difficult moments.

Editor Note: Bob Trueman has a free self-coaching guide called My Performance Review that has helped hundreds of skiers re-set their psychology after a difficult day.  It’s simple to use and powerful.  Click here to visit Bob’s website Bobski.com, then go to Contact Us and send him an email.  He’ll send My Performance Review to you via email.

 

seniorsskiing

Question For You: Difficult Situations

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How Do You Manage Your…Apprehensions?

Ugh, tensed up and clutching happens to everyone.

Yesterday, you did fine on Wild Thing, that steep, narrow trail on the shady side of the mountain. Today, Wild Thing is crusty, heavy, or worse, boilerplate, and it’s the only way down. Or, the afternoon light has gone totally flat, you’re at the top of the mountain, heading through the trees to the bottom.  Or, you took the wrong lift at a resort new to you, and you’re in double black diamond territory. Or, you’re really, really cold. Or, it’s the last run of a long day, you’ve pushed it a bit too far, and you’re whipped. Or, you’ve had a fall that came out of nowhere, and you’re spooked, perhaps sore.

Uh-oh, the mojo ain’t working today. Credit: AlexanderTT

We have all been there: In a difficult situation, tensed up, and wondering why people put sticks on their feet to slide down mountains in the first place. Where’s the hot tub? Where’s the fireplace? Where’s the Heineken? Gotta get down and outta here!

Ski coach and SeniorsSkiing.com correspondent Bob Trueman has an interesting article elsewhere in this edition. He provides some guidelines for dealing with difficult situations like these, where the world suddenly goes pear-shaped and fear narrows your perspective.  

But we’re curious what you do in those tense, scary moments. 

What rules of thumb do you follow to get down when you are in a tough situation? How did you learn those rules? Where were you taught? Figure it out? How do they work? Give us some examples, and we’ll all learn from your experience.

Write your comments in Leave A Reply below.

 

 

Out Of Control
Bob Trueman

Int/Att Loop: A Technique Improvement Tool

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After So Many Years, Can You Improve? Here’s A Way.

Time to improve? You can do it with the Int/Att Feedback Loop. Read on.

First, do you want to improve your skiing?  If you don’t care that much, read no further.  If instead you still have a hankering for greater skill and more satisfaction, then the good news is “Yes, you can”.

The “Int/Att Loop”© gives you the tools to do it.

But improvement doesn’t come by doing what you’ve already been doing for years.  If you always do what you’ve always done, you’ll always get what you always got.  If your choice is to become more skillful, then your choice is to change.  To change, you need to:

  • Know what to change—should you do something different, or something differently?
  • How to change it
  • Have a set of tools to do it with.

You will also need one other commodity—persistence.  The great joy that comes from going on such a journey is that it’s an adventure that delivers huge satisfaction.

What is the Int/Att Loop©?

Back in the 70’s and 80’s two of Britain’s top coaches uncovered how humans learn to do physical things.   Through considerable research, they identified a process that is simple to understand and use. 

This process is not how to ski, nor how to have a skiing vacation, it is how to effect the kind of performance changes you desire.  It has to to do with two completely separate nervous systems we have:

  • the Efferent system
  • the Afferent system.

Let’s say, you make a decision to do something.  This is your INTENTION.  The message from your brain to your muscles is carried by the Efferent system.  But your brain needs to gather information from your senses to know that the instruction was carried out and what the effect was.

That information sent back to the brain via the Afferent nerves. Now, you are paying ATTENTION to those sensors.  With that information, your brain can modify the next actionable decision to slowly bring your performance to where you want it to be.

Intention/Attention forms a feedback loop.

It is explained much more fully in many of the instructional videos you can find via www.bobski.com.

Your Action Plan For Better Skiing.

So, how do you use this dual nervous system concept?

Say you’re on a gentle bit of piste.  You intend to work on some aspect of technique.  You will only ski in very short sections—no more than 100 yards at a time.  Here’s how it goes  

  1. Choose a task – something simple such as “link two arcs together seamlessly”.
  2. Decide on one very small element of behavior—something simple such as “flex my ankle ALL the time”.  That message will be sent by your Efferent system.
  3. This is important: You must then decide beforehand which of your senses you will pay heed to that will constitute a message back to your brain via the Afferent nerves.  Most likely, in this case, it will be a feeling of constant pressure between your shin and the front of your boot.  But for some other task it might be what you hear or see.
  4. If you were working with a coach, you would stop after the very short distance and report to her what you felt.  Not how you felt.  Not what you “thought”.  This is not about thinking.

What you are attempting to do is to develop within yourself the ability at all times to be aware of what you sense, within the context of a simple and very powerful, plan.

This works.  Watching someone else ski doesn’t work.   “Getting the miles in” doesn’t either.   If you find this interesting and have specific questions, don’t hesitate to send me them at bobski@bobski.com 

Bob Trueman

Lessons Learned From 25 Years Of Coaching Seniors

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How Can Seniors Advance Their Skiing Skills?

Ski Coach Bob Trueman shows how to assume a proper stance.

The hardest challenge for me is convincing older skiers that you can change your skiing dramatically for the better no matter your age or gender.  Not everyone wants to, but if you do, you can.

That’s the key to advancing your skiing as a senior skier.

Lesson One: The Key Is Belief In Change.

My most recent pupil—a man of 80—has powerful imagery skill,  considerable confidence, and knows how to relax and reduce anxiety.  He’s fit for his age.  He also has years of skiing behind him: but not quality skiing, just “getting down things”.

But he didn’t know what to DO.  In our first session he found two small actions that reaped big changes.  In all those years no instructor had ever told him how to hold his hands for best results!  From that moment on his self-belief, his hopes for the future, took off.  He ain’t done yet!

Lesson Two: You Will Improve Faster If You Ski Slower.

Provided you know what you intend to do—what movement you will make and you know how you will know what you actually do, do. Don’t try to “ski”. Decide to make one movement only.

If you ski fast, you’ll have too much to think about.  You won’t be able to focus, and you’ll be back to “getting down things”.   Ski slower, improve faster.

Lesson Three: Patience Pays.

Be non-judgmental. The more patient you are, the sooner you’ll reach your goal. Being in a hurry slows you down. So does cussing yourself. Even older skiers with years of life experience still call themselves names.

Lesson Four: Your Learning Curve Will Be Steeper When The Slope Isn’t.

Once I have convinced my older skier that it isn’t “baby-ish” to work on changes on beginner slopes, we make faster progress.  It’s an intelligent approach to do so;  it’s not smart to work on new things on steep ones. 

Learn your new techniques and become skillful with them on the easy slopes, where you have less to think about and “survival” is not an issue, and only then head up the hill.

Lesson Five: Work On The “Intention/Attention Feedback Loop”.

What has worked best in every instance for over 25 years has been what we ski coaches call the “Intention/Attention Feedback Loop”.

It works for everyone, but for my older skiers who for the most part are higher educated, mature, and thoughtful, it has worked even better.  It has been a revelation for them.

It goes like this.

Decide before you set off precisely what movement you will practice.  Decide which of your senses will give you the best feedback.  Will you feel it, see it, smell it, etc.?  When you stop, after only say 50 yards, mentally review it.  Ski only very short distances at a time when you’re training.

The results all my older skiers get is the sheer satisfaction of finding they’re not washed up, and they are becoming more controlled skillful skiers than they ever believed they could. It pays huge dividends.

[Editor Note: You can read more in Bob Trueman’s books. Search Amazon here. And even more explanation on his new, free Youtube Channel “Ski In Control With Bobski” where you’ll also find some the movements to make.]

Bob Trueman

Technique Tips For The Senior Skier

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Sharpen Your Skills To Get The Most Out Of Your Skiing.

[Editor Note: UK-based Bob Trueman is a long-time ski coach and instructor who will contribute occasional articles on technique for the older skier. He is the author of Ski In Control where he describes the skills needed to master “any piste”. He will soon be publishing a series of YouTube videos to demonstrate control skills.  SeniorsSkiing.com welcomes him to our pages.]

What’s the best way to keep getting the most fun out of skiing as we get older? As a coach, I suggest that it’s the exercise of skill. This doesn’t preclude the great company, good food, and all the rest. Nor does it demand big, physical challenges. It’s a mind-set change.

Look around any piste, and everyone finds some way of negotiating it, but very often not nicely. Some folk don’t care how they ski, only what or where they ski. My clients do care, and it’s exercising precision skill that my pupils get the most out of.

Let’s define skill:

Skill is the learned ability to bring about pre-determined goals with maximal certainty, often with minimal effort. This has implications – “learned” = not instinctive: “pre-determined” = goal oriented; “maximal certainty” = demonstrated skill. It never fails to satisfy and is little related to physical strength or capacity.

Here are some ideas.

Unloaded tips, weight back = bad.

Look at the slope with a keener eye. Does the slope go exactly where the piste goes? Often it

Weight forward, tips loaded = good.

doesn’t; often it is canted. If you were to pour a bucket of red ink onto the slope, it may well go somewhat across the piste. You may see this and recognize that left and right arcs will not be symmetrical; they’ll be quick one way and slow and drawn-out the other. The skillful skier will be ready for this, and change rhythm. There’s satisfaction in that.

View the slope and decide if you will control your speed by applying some skid by pivoting your ski. If you do, be aware that the line you take down the slope will be nearer to a straight line—it won’t be straight, but it’ll be straighter. Take satisfaction out of knowing that and ski the line you predicted. How close did you get? That’s an exercise of skill.

Or choose to descend by having the ski carve. You still want to control your speed of descent but with a higher linear speed. So you can choose before you set off what radius of arcs you’ll do and how many arcs you’ll do. You will control your path down the mountain by the line you draw down it.   That’s another exercise of skill, and very satisfying.

Anyone can ski a gentle slope fast, only skillful skiers can descend a steep one slowly. What do you need to do to achieve that? You can do it by drawing a straight line diagonally across it until you have no room left and then do an “Oh-s**t” turn.   Or you can execute more arcs, tighter arcs, taking a more direct line of descent.   This requires greater skill as well as pre-planning and determination.

So what would you need to DO to achieve these skills? Here’s a tip – THE TIPS! Concentrate your mind on the inside edge of your outer ski’s tip. Think of it as a wood carver would think of his chisel/gouge – you’re going to carve it into the snow, have it cut in. Mother Earth will then see to it that it gets pushed round ‘sharpish’.

You’ll need to load that edge more. So you’ll need to flex your ankle more, and probably faster. If you tuck your tummy in and lean forward, you’ll load it. You’ll unload if you do the opposite. It helps to keep your hands low and wide. That helps. And keep looking down the slope to where you intend to go, not where you’re going.

Just doing one of these elements, and especially if you know you pre-planned it, is an exercise of skill that you can take pride in and enjoy the memory of on that next visit to the restaurant. Do a bit of boasting!