Home Position and Magic Turns

"foot2foot" wrote in message ...


You can't leave the "this goes here" out altogether though.
How can you teach a student to edge without saying
"move your knees and hips like this"?


My first season as an instructor, I worked in a school run by a French
guy who brought several other French-certified instructors with him.
One of those guys didn't have enough English to order a salad in a
restaurant, but he got beginners through a lesson and sliding in
control on easy runs with a couple hours of saying to them, "Comme ce"
and providing a good physical demo. He'd have a whole group singing
in French by the end of a week without ever giving them a ski term
they could use to describe what they were doing.

"Kneale Brownson" wrote in message
om...
"foot2foot" wrote in message
...


You can't leave the "this goes here" out altogether though.
How can you teach a student to edge without saying
"move your knees and hips like this"?


My first season as an instructor, I worked in a school run by a French
guy who brought several other French-certified instructors with him.
One of those guys didn't have enough English to order a salad in a
restaurant, but he got beginners through a lesson and sliding in
control on easy runs with a couple hours of saying to them, "Comme ce"
and providing a good physical demo. He'd have a whole group singing
in French by the end of a week without ever giving them a ski term
they could use to describe what they were doing.

Yes, but he didn't actually get them in rough parallel, ready
to ski the blues in that lesson. Besides that,

Yes, but he's still communicating the same thing even though
he's not speaking it. Do this, do that. You can't leave it out
altogether. However, besides that,

There's a difference between saying/showing "do it this way"
and showing/saying "here's how the ski works, use it any
way you want".

The latter simply does not exist today in any instruction
method today except magic turns.

"downhill" wrote in message
...
I have been watching the weather reports from Mt Snow, they only open
for the season tomorrow. There web site lists only 5 trails open. I was
up there about 3 weeks ago they were making snow and it was in the high
twenties, but not much had accumulated at that point.
I would make the 6.5 hour drive to Mt Snow, I just would not make the
trip so early in the season. It is normally under a 4 hour drive for me.
I think the first time I will head up to mountain to ski will be about
the 10th of december.
They do a excellent job of grooming the trails, and if you stay in Grand
Summit the ski in ski out aspect is great. Now the claim to have
installed wireless internet access, which has been one of my major
complaints with the facility. Just cannot do real work across a web tv
styled connection.

michael

Thanks for the reply. As it seems now I won't be able to get up there until
after Xmas. I wanted to get in a few turns before heading out to Big
Mountain, MT. next week.

JQ
Dancing on the edge

"Mary Malmros" wrote in message
...
JQ wrote:

(snip)
Change of subject...

Mary, how's the snow conditions at Mt. Snow? Is it worth the 6.5 hr
trip it
would tae me to get up there?


Not yet. I'll letcha know when it gets good. But we really need to get
out of this damn weather pattern before that'll happen.


--
Mary Malmros
Some days you're the windshield, other days you're the bug.

Thanks, it won't be until Xmas now that I will be able to get up that way.
I am leaving to Oregon next week to ski Mt. Hood and then off to Big
Mountain, MT and then possibly Bachelor, OR. I wanted to get in a few
turns before heading out, I guess the only thing I can do is get in more
time on the skier's edge machine, not the same as skiing by any stretch of
the imagination.

JQ
Dancing on the edge

Walt wrote:

foot2foot wrote:

When I visit different ski areas, one of the things I like to do is
to corner an instructor, or maybe just any skier, expert or
novice, who's attention I can hold just long enough to get an
answer to the following question:

What is *the* most essential thing a skier of any level must
have, must do, be able to do, or some such as this? What is
number one for anyone who skis?


Thanks for the warning. I've got my response ready:

I'll say "The most essential skill is being able to get away from the
crazy MF's you encounter on the hill" - then I'll ski away as fast as I
can.

Kneale Brownson wrote:

"foot2foot" wrote in message ...


You can't leave the "this goes here" out altogether though.
How can you teach a student to edge without saying
"move your knees and hips like this"?



My first season as an instructor, I worked in a school run by a French
guy who brought several other French-certified instructors with him.
One of those guys didn't have enough English to order a salad in a
restaurant, but he got beginners through a lesson and sliding in
control on easy runs with a couple hours of saying to them, "Comme ce"
and providing a good physical demo. He'd have a whole group singing
in French by the end of a week without ever giving them a ski term
they could use to describe what they were doing.

Ha! I had the same experience once in a karate summer camp. There was a
guest instructor who could speak three words of English: "This is no,"
by which he meant, "That's not the way to do it." He would talk at
length in Japanese while showing us what he did and didn't want us to
do, and we'd stand there and nod, not understanding a word he said
(well, a very few...we _were_ karateka), but still understanding what he
was trying to communicate. He was a great instructor, and we learned a
lot from him.

(By the end of the camp, he'd learned one more word: "Faster!" So,
besides, "This is no," we got to hear, "Mo-ichi do! Faster!")

--
Mary Malmros
Some days you're the windshield, other days you're the bug.

"ant" wrote

People should not be told to ski in an assumed pose. (IMO).


Indeed. One day I was in a bad mood and taught my batch of
never-ever's to Vogue (some insipid MTV dance craze ala
Madonna) instead of wedging. It was not a particularly
successful lesson, but I did get the rest of the day off.

-J. Urrrk, Master of interpretive dance

"Bob Lee" wrote in message


Yeah well, I'm just saying. Look, the reason it made me think of you is
because, whether you know it or not, you come across exactly as 'this
goes here and this goes here' like it's a machine (you)'re building, and
you seem you would take the fun out of the sport for people before they
have even learned it.

Maybe that isn't so IRL, but it sure seems that way to me here, so as
long as you agree with Msr. Perret, then you might want to keep an eye
on that. You know, take it easy on the pedantry, try not to be such a
know-it-all, and, for the love of gawd, loosen up.

Bob, I appreciate the reply, I can't really be held responsible
for what you read into my posts. Most people don't see them
that way, but instead actually take benefit from the help they're
intended to give. If you read any ski instruction book at all,
you're going to find the same "pedantic" style. When you teach
people how to ski, I don't know how else to but tell them what
to do, you give them the ability to have the fun they otherwise
wouldn't. Are you sure this isn't about some territorial thing,
as it is with some of these other posters?

Mary Malmros wrote:

snip
Three minutes, three hours, three days, three weeks...


I would agree, but it's 1 week, 1 Day for me

That wasn't time until skiing, Walt! ;-)


I won't ask what it was, but mine wasn't time until skiing it was
time until snow, I'll be skiing tommorow morning. on plastic

It's nothing risque. It's a survival rule-of-thumb mnemonic: a person
can survive three minutes without oxygen, three hours without shelter
in adverse conditions, three days without water, and three weeks
without food. When in a survival situation, it helps you to
prioritize what needs you must take care of first.

That sounds a usefull one, I'll try to remember it.


(Sorry I called you Walt, BTW;-))

Perhaps someone will send me some beer?


--
Chris *:-)

Downhill Good, Uphill BAD!

www.suffolkvikings.org.uk

MoonMan wrote:
Mary Malmros wrote:

It's nothing risque. It's a survival rule-of-thumb mnemonic: a person
can survive three minutes without oxygen, three hours without shelter
in adverse conditions, three days without water, and three weeks
without food. When in a survival situation, it helps you to
prioritize what needs you must take care of first.

That sounds a usefull one, I'll try to remember it.

Also useful are the 50-50 rules for hypothermia:

A 50 year old person has a 50-50 chance of surviving 50 minutes in 50
degree water.

You have a 50-50 chance to swim 50 yards in 50 degree water.

Obviously, this is degrees Fahrenheit. The Celsius equivalent is 10
degrees. You'd probably cook quite quickly at 50 degrees Celsius.


(Sorry I called you Walt, BTW;-))

Perhaps someone will send me some beer?

Sure. Can you send me some snow?

--
//-Walt
//
// There is no Volkl Conspiracy