Taha Day 5

The morning began with the boys only so I was able to fully focus on their needs. Yesterday had been quite an intensive technical day so it made sense to make today a proper “skiing” day. Seeds had been sown in the lessons and all the right conditions met but now it was time for them to grow. A good night’s sleep after a hard day’s learning can also work wonders. Much of the actual learning seems to soak in afterwards – it’s like the neurons in the brain must keep on replaying the events and organising themselves more efficiently. The boys immediately started out on another level. I had suspected that this might happen so our first run was from the top of the Toviere down into Val d’Isère and despite this being a fairly steep “blue” they had no trouble at all.

Skiing to Paganini Concerto No 5 in A Minor

There was a strong temptation to start giving feedback and correction but I resisted this because I wanted things to organise themselves to some extent. Our main learning process is “self-organisation” and it is not a “linear” or conscious process. There is a modern science of “self-organisation” and it is based on the phenomenon of complex systems spontaneously optimising to higher orders of organisation. You just need to set things up appropriately and then allow the system to do its job. I was confident that the boys had enough of the right ingredients to allow this to happen and today was no disappointment. Before morning was out they had successfully skied a black run and slowly navigated down the Bonnevie race course – which is also the pitch of a black run. Unfortunately the camera doesn’t reveal the steepness of the slopes. I could see the boys automatically correcting and applying the skills they had only just been working on the day before – despite being in very challenging terrain. By the end of the day we descended some off-piste on chalky snow faces steeper than any piste – with no hesitation or falls. 

Today was a great success for the boys and they really enjoyed their skiing, but tomorrow it’s back to work on technique so as to get up to the next level.