Such a beautiful day – for a fish !
Quad Burn
Defensiveness due to lack of confidence for skiing in poor visibility and mixed up snow conditions was causing Don’s quads to burn. The quads are really prone to this when your weight is even just a little too far back. I attempted a static “pulling” exercise with Don to get him angulated and feel the appropriate connection with the fronts of the skis – but he was uncomfortable and found the exercise awkward. With Don’s permission we will attempt this again when the sun returns.
Foot Forwards Technique
Attempting to help Jennifer to feel more at ease on a steep section I took a moment to explain and demonstrate how turn radius is tightened more efficiently by pushing the outside ski forwards than by stemming or pushing the tails outwards. This turned out probably to help Don even more – who then reprimanded me for not having told him this before. I think I didn’t mention it because of being worried it would put him even more in the backs of the boots – but in this case it actually had the opposite effect by preventing him accelerating off down the hill. In hindsight I can see how this is appropriate for Don.
Centred – Mindful Skiing
Don was making a bold effort to overcome his anxiety in the challenging conditions. To encourage this further I explained how centring your focus internally – inside your body – on anything from breathing to any of the relevant skiing issues such as the motion of the centre of mass – actively stops the mind from wandering off into “anxiety territory”.
Pivot
Due to the poor weather it was a useful time to do some exercises to enhance the overall understanding of technique. I tried – on sticky snow – to communicate the skill of “pivoting” and how it fits into the greater scheme of the biomechanics of skiing. The blog menu at the top offers a fixed page with associated video and explanations… (also with this link) http://skiinstruction.blogspot.com/p/pivot.html