With “one to one” coaching it only took a few minutes to spot what was holding James back – an issue so obscure that working in a group this was thoroughly hidden. He was trying to edge with a hardly visible driving inward of the knee with the outside ski in the turn – a legacy of just a few short sessions of snowploughing on plastic. All he needed to do was stop pushing the knee in and then he could rapidly pick up all the other skills he needed – so much so that he ended up skiing parallel in about an hour – and became a real skier!
James could now push his body into the turn straightening his outside leg – initially lifting the inside ski up several times in a turn – to eventually leaving it on the snow but treading only very lightly on that leg. One (pushing) leg heavy and one leg light. The motion of the body (centre of mass) became his focus and he just let the skis do their job. Well done James!
James also mastered complete control descending a steep passage in snowplough braking mode – legs spread out as far as possible with the adductor (inside of upper leg) muscles loose and the skis relatively flattened – trying to keep pressure on the fronts of the skis to stop the ski tips coming apart.
