Today was a straightforward hard drive to get Derin unlocked from the backs of her ski boots. Most young children do this – because they can! They are light enough to get away with it without completely burning out their leg muscles. We only did one short exercise – a sideslip while leaning forward (the Supergirl stance again). This seems to be the easiest way to connect the feeling of pressure on the shins against the boots and the grip from ski fronts – without generating anxiety. I explained how the skis are horizontal when across the slope but when turned down the slope they are no longer horizontal and so this has to be “anticipated” with the move forwards of the body so as to remain perpendicular to the skis. Derin was shown this using my ski poles to illustrate – as the English vocabulary used here is too advanced. She understood well and made some great efforts with a lot of success. She had to be reminded frequently to focus and had to be frequently corrected – which is normal. In the video she is still a little bit on the backs but has improved enormously. This shows that a clear and direct focus on this highly intractable issue definitely changes things and works.
Derin asked me if she could learn to ski with her feet together – so we spent a moment on that too. I placed my fist between her knees and asked her to squeeze her legs together so that I could feel the power of her adductor muscles working. She also had to roll both feet onto their inside edges inside the ski boots. Derin was asked to stand like this while I supported her and moved her body across the skis downhill and then uphill to simulate how the centre of mass moves and exploits the energy of the turns (skis and gravity). She then followed me using a much closer stance.Once Derin can stay off the backs of her boots she will be able to do the following…