Bad weather day today so concentration was always going to be hard work. The girls did really well working hard all morning and tolerating the cold spells.Photo – Nil taking her new found skating skills into turning…
Video details…
-
Scene 1: Skating turns
-
Scene 2: Skiing backwards (pressuring the fronts of the skis)
-
Scene 3: Skiing forwards – but retaining the pressure on the fronts of the skis
-
Scene 4: First ever attempts at pivoting (unassisted)
-
Scene 5: Linking pivots
Revision
We began the session at 2800m altitude in a slightly unpleasant cloud – however the goal was to ski while revising yesterday’s work, the Magic Wall and the rolling of the feet. Once out of the worst of the wind we developed this further by incorporating skating into our turns. This is quite hard work so it also helps in warming you up.
Skating Turns
First of all we skated uphill with the ski tips very wide apart and both feet on their inside edges inside the ski boots. This sets the scene for future skill development. The goal of skating in turns is to change direction incrementally by diverging the ski tips and stepping inwards during the turn. This requires the feet to be edged correctly – which means both feet remain on their inside edges (inside the ski boots) during the turn.
The Centre of Mass (body) is moved step by step into the turn – with several small actions each being like a separate “Magic Wall” move. The skis remain diverging at the tips. This gets the legs working and can help people to avoid being frozen in the backs of the ski boots. This also cultivates “independent leg action” – because skiing is really a “one legged” act. Dynamics (Magic wall) is practised and awareness of the feet – adductor leg muscles and of the centre of mass control are all being developed. All movements used are the opposite of “snowplough” – which teaches inappropriate coordination and mechanics – so this helps enormously to correct for such issues.The skating stance also teaches how to use the hip joints and posture correctly – because skiing is really a disguised form of skating. This becomes critically important at higher levels. Tomorrow I will try to remember to also use skating to work on “timing”. Dynamics provides a natural timing – falling down into a turn and coming back up out of it at the end. (opposite of standard ski school teaching) When a turn is made from a single prolonged skate then the whole body, ski and system resonate very powerfully (both use same down/up timing). This is the basis of high end skiing, off piste and racing – and beginners can feel it perfectly well.
Pressuring the Ski Fronts
The girls skied backwards because this automatically makes them lean forwards from the feet and so they can begin to feel the fronts of the skis (usually for the first time ever!). Notice that they spontaneously diverge the ski tips also – into a skating stance. When the girls later turned around to ski normally down the mountain they were asked to just try to maintain that same feeling of pressure on the ski fronts – and this can be witnessed successfully in the video. Once you know the feeling there is no mystery or confusion. Using the fronts of the skis is much harder to do at higher levels – remembering that most directional power comes from the front – as in a car or bicycle. The steepness of the slope makes it psychologically hard for people to cultivate this skill and when steeper very good basic skills are needed. We are already working on those skills.
Pivoting
There is a complete explanation with videos for “pivoting” in the menu at the top of the page. The girls were each assisted/supported through one pivot so as to acquire the correct feeling – the video shows their first attempts solo – without support. It’s a skill that takes time to develop – like learning to play a musical instrument well – and is accordingly rewarding. We only do this for a short while at a time to avoid frustration. Normally only a few short sessions brings good progress.Demonstration…
Nutrition
When we had a brief break to warm up and recover from the cold each of the girls ended up with a lollipop – pure sugar. This merited a short lecture on nutrition! While I’m not likely to take away a kid’s lollipop there’s probably no better time than childhood for learning about the value of nutrition. Lal proved to already be very aware! The UK has 10% of all adults now diabetic and 35.3% pre-diabetic. 67% of all adult males are now overweight – and they are calling Alzheimer’s “diabetes 3”. Personally I’ve avoided sugar and most carbohydrates now for three and a half years (being in ketosis all this time) and have never been so free of illnesses before. I used to catch colds, flu, gastro etc – every season – but have had nothing at all since the change in diet – not even an aspirin. We eat only organic at home and cook with coconut oil, animal fats or butter (raw if uncooked) and use olive oil for salads only. This is all about getting the fat burning system working in the body and the benefits for sport and health are enormous!
I was expecting carnage at this point – but they held it together…
