Natalie
Today for Natalie was another step in reinforcing both confidence and understanding.
Initially Natalie just revised yesterday’s work, particularly getting forward on the skis. We then tried using a wide stance to generate stability but also allow the skis and legs to work clearly independently – you can get clearer physical feedback this way (with less need to move the body to feel things). We added the dynamics for coming out of a turn (as worked on yesterday for Damon) and this did help to make the skis more parallel. Initially Natalie found that coming out of the turn over the downhill ski caused the ski to flatten with the knee being pulled outwards – so we had to work on staying on the inside edge of the foot while the body moved across the skis. This was both a coordination and perception issue so it was very useful to get sorted out.
Darcy
Darcy just skied along with Zak and managed to get some mileage in. I let her hold onto my ski pole for a run down the snowpark – but we did manage to wipe out another little girl at a crossing were everyone was standing around and there was no route through at all.
Later on I tried to teach Darcy the same dynamics issue as the others and she actually understood and did it incredibly well (perhaps even overdoing it slightly!) – but once again had a tumble. Darcy takes those tumbles very personally – but as we all know life is usually nothing but tumbles. The great thing about skiing is that by far most tumbles don’t end up harmful – because snow isn’t too hard and you tend to slide.
Zak
I tried to help Zak prepare for skiing on steeper terrain – partly through sideslipping on a short steep pitch where he was a bit scared by it (but perfectly safe!) and later by using both pivoting and dynamics. He consistently blocked entry to the new turn by refusing to move his body over the downhill leg – having it rigidly stuck on the ground below him. To Zak it was the leg that was stuck – but I showed him that it wasn’t the leg – it was just that he wasn’t moving his body over the leg to free things up.
In the end his flexibility was allowing to cope safely with the steeper terrain of red runs regardless – so it was time to do some decent skiing and tire him out for the end of his holiday. Zak managed both the Saulire and Marmottes red runs and still had enough energy to tackle a third one to complete the day.
