Warming up today meant negociating broken down chairlifts but we did have a completely clear run down from the top of the Borsat allowing high speed carving all the way. Timothy was feeling the cold as it was minus 14 degrees so prior to going to the slalom we had a pit stop to warm him up. After the pit stop he did three slalom runs then returned to the café to warm up again. Unlike Rodion – Timothy’s brother, who would have rather died from hypothermia than miss any slalom time – Timothy’s tolerance of the cold was not a strong point. Perhaps there were not enough layers of clothing. I always wear a down feather layer duing the winter months. This keeps you warm even when relatively inactive and compresses into a very small pack when not being used. Timothy tried to apply the work we had been doing yesterday to the slalom – but could only manage a 29.8 seconds. In his run on the video he is trying to use racing timing (apex of the turn to the outside of the pole) and to increase inclination (dynamics) and carve. He manages it for the first couple of turns and then reverts to braking to slow himself down. Lots of work to be done here! We dropped it at this point and went skiing. For the rest of the day the focus was on skating and racing timing – at which Victor greatly improved – as seen in the video… Racing timing is when – as I described yesterday – the turns achieve maximum pressure towards the outside of the gate – not below it. The skier effectively skates directly down the fal lline – the upper body facing downhill and being projected from side to side. Initially Victor was letting the ski skid at the start of the turn but once he realised that he had to commit to fully gripping and mostly carving (skating) then it all fell into place. In the video you can see Victor powerfully being displaced from side to side. In contrast Timothy – although trying his best and carving, doesn’t manage to pick up on the feeling of his body being pushed across the hill – so he cannot develop his dynamics. Victor felt the early and extra grip and felt his stance to be more relaxed and functional. The basis of my teaching for the past 20 years has been the combination fo Skating and Dynamics – but this is quite an advanced level and it is not easy to learn. Timothy made a good effort but there just wasn’t time to take it further at the moment. This timing can be used to ski fast over difficult terrain because it does not involve turning hard across the slope at any moment. 
