Ted has started studying physics but James hasn’t – until today! To be fair though we called it “The Invisible Magic Wall” but the real name is “dynamics” from physics.
Ted answered my question “What’s the first thing you do to start a turn” – with an accurate “Transfer your weight to the uphill ski.” which he then showed meant moving his body away from the turn and out over the ski. He clearly remembered his lesson from yesterday which was obviously classic ski instruction. So! I had to show Ted and James that there are two ways to get pressure on that same ski and the one that works best needs you to move the body in the opposite direction. You need to “fall over – by pushing yourself over – toward the inside of the new turn. This is where the magic wall comes in because it holds you up and guarantees that you never fall if you believe in the magic and push your body hard against the invisible wall when you are travelling forward. Now, we had a range of exercises to use to make the sensations clear and this even included skating turns – but I’m not going to explain everything here because there is a linked page, dedicated, describing the teaching method and explaining what dynamics really is – and why a skier is never in balance! The skier has to try to fall over – so the ski lifts him back up again (eg magic invisible wall!). http://madeinmountains.com/dynamics/
In the video Ted shows that he is pushing himself over and into the turn with his “outside” leg – and he picks a good line for completing his turns and controlling speed. It’s only his second day on skis so he’s doing incredibly well. James appears to be understanding too but he needs to be guided on a choice of line for the moment or else he’s straight off down the hill taking the line of least resistance!
I think the rest of the week is going to get interesting – they are amazingly keen and James is unbelievable for 5 years old!
Mont Blanc (Italian side) seen today from Les Arcs 2000
