Timothy’s previous skiing in Zermatt left everyone with the impression that he didn’t want to learn and would be stuck in a snowplough for a long time to come. Yesterday when skiing with his family he was still in the snowplough – especially on steep terrain and showing little sign of change. Today however – from the very beginning with me he was a completely different character. No idea why!
The only thing I said to him before starting was “No Snowplough” – and right from the start it was gone. He skied parallel the whole time.
We worked on pivoting for control of speed in steep terrain and we worked on carving with the rolling of the feet and proper edge grip. He managed all of it really well very quickly and within a few runs was comfortable in even tricky off piste between the trees. (which he skied faster when following me than in the video clip when he wasn’t sure where to turn). We discussed “fear” and how it is important to train the mind to be prepared for so that there is confidence in place of fear. After that there was no more mention of “fear” being an issue.
