by h.harb » Sun Jan 13, 2019 12:56 pm
There are many different kinds of athletes, for example, endurance, skill and strength athletes. Not all of these types are conducive to quick successful ski learning. Skiing requires a combination of skills and natural instincts for someone to get it quickly. I've seen it happen. To even reach the top 100 in the world you have to have some special talents, training, and years for "correct" repetition and practice. Most skiers go out and do themselves more harm than good when practicing.
If I take two individuals I know well Diana Rogers and Max501 for example, who I've coached extensively; you can be the judge of the time frame it takes to achieve their level. From when I first saw Diana ski, it took 4 years of coaching and training for her to reach the level beyond the best Masters racers in the country. So let's look at Diana's skill set. She is in great shape physically, she has the best boot set up one can achieve, she is highly coordinated, has great proprioception and awareness with a strong sense of feedback from the skis, her body, and the surface. She was a Level III PSIA instructor when I met her. However, this is not an enviable standard, she knew it and I know it.
Max501 basically required some canting fine-tuning, his biggest area for development was counteracting and upper body coordination. once he had that going his tipping angles increased and his inside foot pullback became much stronger, which transformed his skiing, to a high level. Max501 is in great physical condition, he's strong, coordinated and quick. Max501 also has great focus for movement interaction, he's highly aware of his body and how it moves.
The hidden "learning skills" are highly underrated. They are also totally different from the physical abilities I've listed, which are strength, coordination, and flexibility. Let me say in a non-derogatory way if I can, this is a different skill set than say an endurance or triathlon type athlete. Skiing like tennis are skill and coordination sports. Endurance sports like running or triathlons are less skill intensive. Even if you have all the above physical attributes going for you, yet you have not developed the mental "Learning Skills" you will take longer and even struggle to reach your goals. So it's not only about being a good physical athlete.
What are the "Learning Skills"? In a broad sense, they are the ability to translate information from the coach, into the movements you need to make and then creating the movements with the right body parts. You also have to absorb and recreate how the body parts are to be moved in the right order without hesitation. We will come back to the word "Hesitation" later. One of the things I always do when I coach is to ask the student when I see they have had a breakthrough, "What did you do differently." The dominant most frequent answer is, "I did exactly what you said, and I did it much more then I thought I ever had to! It's a very simple secret or answer, however not that easy to achieve.
So let's go back to "hesitation", which is controlled in the mind by fear or uncertainty. I keep trying to promote the message that skiing is about relaxation, not forcefulness. If you are tight or stiff you will not get relaxation with your movements. If you are tight and this can be a physical limitation, from a lack of range of motion, but if it is not physical, it's mental. You have to give up a certain amount of control to be able to relax.
Yes, creating the right movements promotes confidence from the skiing results. This confidence then translates to less fear and more relaxation. This topic could go on and on, but I'll let it rest for the time being and let everyone digestion.
A learning tutorial!