Not a lot of feedback to give for today – everyone came along just fine getting comfortable with the equipment and sliding. The goal was to keep everything natural and simple. Little Eddie managed a dramatic switch from shear terror to pure joy the moment he realised he could lean forward in his boots and not fall over.
Johnathan was managing almost perfect parallel turns straight away and I think everyone managed to completely avoid collisions – so something was working!
There’s buttons at the top of the blog page leading to detailed explanations of the exercises being used – from “Beginners” to “Dynamics”. My teaching constantly evolves as I find better ways to introduce dynamics (falling over instead of “balance”) earlier in the training.
Tomorrow we will have better slopes to work with but for this morning the little square of snow in the centre was ideal.
The only concern for the day was the adult ski bindings were set far too high – so I had to adjust them. Settings should consider skier level – not just weight. One beginner had bindings set at “9” – which is ludicrous for a complete beginner. They were all reset to around “5” so that any slow twisting falls are more likely to release the skis and protect the knees. If anyone starts to get up to high speeds during the week it’s important to put the settings back up (75kg is “7.5”).
