Yury (Day 3)

Yury had not so far had any direct input. He was the strongest
skier of the two families and to help him progress he would need more individual
attention so I was glad that he was getting the opportunity this afternoon.

Despite claiming not to be a “fast thinker” Yury tends to let
his thoughts run ahead of him and he “second guesses” everything. Fortunately he
has obviously also learned to listen very well too. I think that having  been a
lawyer/accountant confronting Russian mobsters then those qualities are probably
the only reason he is still alive. (I noticed the same intelligence in little
Eden)

Yury wanted to show me his skiing – as it was before he tried
to change anything. I already knew exactly what it was like but wanted to film
it anyway – and to humour him to start the session off. The video below is a
“before and after” example – with me filming from behind for the ”before” part.
Yury will be able to perceive the differences when he looks at the video because
he now clearly understands them. “Understanding” is more than an intellectual
issue – it involves recognising something with several senses – and in skiing
that principally means both feeling and seeing the differences. The intellectual
part however is vitally important towards clear understanding and without it you
can’t visually perceive (see) the difference – you can only see that something
indefinable has changed.

Yuri asked me to describe his skiing “before” changing
anything. The problem here is that I don’t like risking demolishing someone’s
self belief – even if that belief is mostly based upon delusion. However I told
Yury straight that basically everything was wrong with his skiing. His was using
no dynamics, missing the entire first half of his turns, had no angulation or
control and was wearing out his legs and body rapidly. That’s just a framework
of the situation without going into any detail. In fact, though it’s not so
clear in the video, when I watched Yury ski just before filming his centre of
mass was going in the wrong direction completely, relative to his skis,  so it’s no wonder his legs were tired out as this would destroy most people.
It’s also really bad for the back and all the joints. Sports education training
and practice should always support good health – but misguided education
universally nearly always results in the opposite.

Yuri listened very well and did a fantastic job of changing his
entire perception of skiing. This is truly not an easy thing to do. I had to go
into some depth with explanations and it was the clear explanations that helped
Yury to see things differently. Most people just accept the exercises and give
the impression of “getting it” – but Yury really got it! Perhaps being a
motorbike rider helps in this process.

There’s not really a lot to write about the dynamics here – I
used my standard protocol and Yuri responded appropriately. There is a fixed
page for this here: http://skiinstruction.blogspot.fr/p/dynamics.html which
will be improved upon in the future.

I emphasised the end of the turn dynamics for Yuri – because
this is the key to “effortless” flowing skiing. By “effortless” I mean “not
fighting yourself and the laws of physics”.

We also started to work on body management…

In the photo Yury is learning to push his foot forwards through
the turn and generate hip flexion in the process – creating strong angulation
and flexibility. He is actually combining this with pulling the hip actively
backwards in the opposite direction to protect his spine – in his case a bulging
L4/L5 disc being a problem. Disc degeneration is actually a nutritional problem
but it is aggravated by poor postural mechanics. There is nothing more
aggressive for the lower back than skiing without the awareness of how to
protect yourself. The outside ski actually pulls the leg and hip around in front
of the upper body just as the pressure load is maximised – but to protect the
back the hip needs to go in the opposite direction. This protective measure has
to be learned to compensate for this unnatural aspect of skiing.

When Yury skied down the short section for the second part of
the video he commented that he felt no strain on his legs and he felt grip even from the start of the turn. This is absolutely
correct – it is what happens when the dynamics are right. The session had
achieved its goal and Yury could now understand the list of criticism I handed
out at the start, with the assertion that he was wearing himself out by fighting
against himself and the laws of nature.  I think that Yury can look forward to
better skiing in the future and not having to worry so much about strengthening
his already strong legs for the job.