Nakiska TFS and SX Training 30-Jan

Awesome day at Nakiska today!  Check out the progression through the video clips - especially how much stronger your stance gets each run.  The verbal cues were:
- hips higher (over feet)
- legs wide
- edge grip starts with the tip of the outside ski
- "juice" the edges with the ankles in the fall-line and
- move the inside knee up and in

Fantastic work!!

All Mountain Training at Lake Louise 22-Jan

Teaching in Action...

Day 3

Because we're at the Lake and the line up is ridiculous... For Wiwaxy!


Siobhan's goals
1) Be able to have applied all the tactics I'm learning to my skiing to be a better skier in general
2) Be able to spin three's just while on the ground
3) Be able to go off of jumps and not flail
4) Be able to do a 180 off of a jump


Deirdre's goals
1) Transfer skill set from advanced parallel to short turns
2) Big drops, big terrain
3) Spins

Goal-Setting and a Framework to Get There

The "regular season" starts this weekend at Lake Louise.  Last Saturday was a great "head start" and an opportunity to start "finding our feet" and getting balanced on our ski legs again.  As we get rolling, it's really important to start developing a big-picture idea of where we want to go.  Specific details (like competition schedules or performance goals) can wait.  Right now, it's important to get on the same page and settle on a common vision of a skiing performance that is repeatable in all turn types, terrain and conditions.

Becoming a great skier involves much more than matching a static image (or even a series of static images).  For example, there is no one "perfect stance" that you can "lock-into" at the beginning of every run.  Instead, balancing is a constant process (a.k.a. battle) that requires continuous effort and adjustments through every turn.  The best skiers are the best balancers.  That is, they are masters at adapting and are not "posers," or "position finders."  A funny thing about watching great skiers is that while they often look similar, in reality they are all very different.  Because no two athletes are built the same way, all great skiers will apply skills and adjust their movements in unique and personal ways to achieve their desired outcomes.  These outcomes are where great skiers come together.  If we can agree on a common set of goals then we can get into the process of figuring out what individual skills, movements and adjustments we need to train in a variety of situations to achieve performance with consistency.

The Canadian Ski Instructors' Alliance (CSIA) has released a great new training video entitled Functional Skiing:

Functional Skiing is not a concrete set of outcomes that we will just copy, instead it's a great resource for developing our understanding as we start to set goals.

The CSIA defines "functional skiing" as:

1. Skiing in All Terrain and Any Conditions,

• No two ski days are the same, adaptability is essential for maintaining a high level of performance in a variable environment.

2. Free to Choose Line and Speed,

• Advanced and expert skiers are constantly making decisions that affect the outcomes they experience.  The best athletes are the most versatile ones, which allow them the greatest chances for success in the most situations.

3. With Economy of Effort.

• Skiing is a day-long, season-long and hopefully life-long sport.  Skiing as efficiently as possible allows athletes to maximize their training, which in turn enables them to be as prepared as possible for competition.

Some key areas of skill development that will help to achieve the above outcomes are:

1. Maintaining Strength and Flow

• It is impossible and counter-productive to try to break skiing down into individual turns.  Skiing is the process of LINKING turns from start to finish.
• Strength is an important capacity that the skier must use to adapt to changing conditions and forces while linking turns.
• Flow is the result of smart decisions, applications and adjustments of skills and movements that keep the skier moving smoothly down the hill in rhythm.

2. Skiing from Arc to Arc

• The key forces in skiing are gravity and centripetal force
• Gravity is "felt" the most when the skis are travelling across the fall-line
• Centripetal force is "felt" the most when the skis are in the fall-line
• Skiing from arc to arc requires the skier to move as efficiently as possible to balance as centripetal force builds in the fall-line while simultaneously managing the resistance from gravity felt  moving across the fall-line

3. Effectively Loading the Skis to Create (and manage) Deflection

• Skis work like trampolines: when force is "loaded" as the ski enters the fall-line, the laws of physics cause a deflection back across the fall-line to result
• Infinite sizes of turn shapes are possible on skis and turn shape is in part determined and changed by loading and unloading of "pressure" on the skis (either done well or poorly)
• It is important to remember that the skis perform best when they are in constant contact with the snow (though finding the air is also desirable in many situations)

4. Having Versatility in Steering

• Side-cuts and ski geometry are very important, however, the skier is always the "driver"
• Steering skills (pivoting and edging) are crucial as their movements applied while skiing are what vary turn shapes and affect ski performance as desired/required

Ski Season has Arrived!

The first turns of the season are coming on Saturday! Even though they'll be at Nakiska, any time spent skiing is good time! This year is going to be awesome and though we don't really know what it will look like in the end just yet, the journey will be well worth all of the effort. This blog will provide an awesome place to document the whole season - to post video, to reflect and to plan. The "carving skis" are waxed and sharpened for Saturday morning so it's just a few days and then all of the fun really begins!

The trailer for The Edge of Never just to amp up the excitement a little more: