h.harb wrote:Max501, JBotti, Helluvaskier, and others like RichK, Todd Ward etc. Should post how much time and effort it has taken you to get where you are today. Some new comers are giving the impression that by reading a few posts on the forum; they should be skiing like you guys, in one season.
Based on Harald’s comment above I think it would be really useful for guys like Max, jbotti, and the others that were mentioned to describe not only how long it took to get their level, but also some details about the work they put in to get there. Let’s face it, you don’t just jump out of bed one morning and discover that you’re an expert skier using proper movements. You work at it, and develop it over time. The guys who you see here that are at that level have put in serious work to get there.
For example, I started dabbling in PMTS in 2006. I read Expert Skier 2, and later – Essentials when it came out. I understood it, but I didn’t “get it” yet. I started adding some PMTS elements to my skiing, but never really went back and got rid of old habits or setup issues that were holding me back. That was 2006 and 2007. By the end of 2007 I had some revelations that prompted me to begin to start from scratch with my skiing and take it in a new direction.
In 2008 I got serious about learning PMTS technique. By 2009, I had left behind some of the other avenues that I had been pursing in an effort to focus on taking my skiing to a new level. I was already a strong skier [racer] and knew a little bit about skiing so some things came easy to me; others did not. The first step was new boots, foot beds, and a proper alignment – which I have continued to tweak over the years.
Nearly every day on snow that I’ve had since the beginning of the 2008 season, has included drills and working on one or two specific movements. Every run has a focus (where have we heard this before?), and that focus is verified by video nearly on a weekly basis. To ensure that I’m not looking at my skiing through rose colored glasses or pursuing the wrong direction (since I do a lot of self-coaching), I recruit guys like Harald, WNYSkier, Max, and some others to view my skiing regularly and let me know what they really think about my skiing and alignment.
I make sure that can at any point in time compile a list of movements that I am deficient in – and from that list spot the single most important movement to work on. When working on that movement I will select a drill or two that work on it and learn those drills very well (instead of performing a bunch of drills half-assed, I perform one or two drills very, very well). It is important to note, that this is still focused on working on the basics.
This season (2011) is the first season where I have felt like I don’t have to fight reverting back to my old skiing. If I take a run and think about nothing during the run – I’m naturally using PMTS movements. This might seem simple to some, but it is opening up a [new] huge potential in my skiing because I can finally change things like timing of movements at will and adjust movements naturally based on feel.
This doesn’t mean I’ve stopped doing the drills either. Just the opposite. I spend several runs every weekend doing drills on flat terrain (all the video of me free skiing is on black diamond groomers usually with a pitch equal to or greater than 30 degrees; some close to 40 degrees). I keep pushing the limits of the movements that I have aquired so that if I need to call on them, I'm already proficient in the movements that high level skiing requires.
For those not counting, thats two seasons of dabbling and four seasons and counting, of focused improvement.
I hope to get comments here from some of the others as well.