Thread Starter
TS
Thank you, LF!
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Tomorrow
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Thread Starter
TS
And plenty of feedback I'm having.
As I was saying in the other thread, our Ego and self esteem (as skiers) has gone down the drain
Two days of completely dismantling our skiing, and they aren't done, yet.
I hope they'll be able to rebuild us before Saturday morning when the exam will take place...we shall see
Btw these guys are good, and drive us really hard. Being part of the Slovenian demo team, I wouldn'd expect anything less.
And they deliver, oh yes they deliver very high training and education, high quality as well.
Unfortunately, it has turned out that they do speak little to no italian, and an interpreter is always there with us (another Slovenian instructor, belonging to the organization)
I am, anyway, requiring, now and then, direct feedback in english to our coach.
I am so sorry to have missed the fact that PSIA (and CSIA as well) is offering the same kind of clinics, but, well too bad for me
As I was saying in the other thread, our Ego and self esteem (as skiers) has gone down the drain
Two days of completely dismantling our skiing, and they aren't done, yet.
I hope they'll be able to rebuild us before Saturday morning when the exam will take place...we shall see
Btw these guys are good, and drive us really hard. Being part of the Slovenian demo team, I wouldn'd expect anything less.
And they deliver, oh yes they deliver very high training and education, high quality as well.
Unfortunately, it has turned out that they do speak little to no italian, and an interpreter is always there with us (another Slovenian instructor, belonging to the organization)
I am, anyway, requiring, now and then, direct feedback in english to our coach.
I am so sorry to have missed the fact that PSIA (and CSIA as well) is offering the same kind of clinics, but, well too bad for me
Reading of your travails is fun (sorry!). I had a similar experience when I began as a ski instructor. I could not motor a wedge turn, nor a snowplow turn. Honest.
I had pretty much used trial and error to gain my skills before starting teaching. I had no idea of the perspective that the trainers at my mountain had. Over the next three years my skiing worked itself through every unforgivable permutation on the books. Most of that progression happened after I began instructing; evidently I still had to get it all out of my system.
May the force be with you, and may you skip the progression I went through and go directly to skier nirvana. Feed our hunger! Keep us informed!
I had pretty much used trial and error to gain my skills before starting teaching. I had no idea of the perspective that the trainers at my mountain had. Over the next three years my skiing worked itself through every unforgivable permutation on the books. Most of that progression happened after I began instructing; evidently I still had to get it all out of my system.
May the force be with you, and may you skip the progression I went through and go directly to skier nirvana. Feed our hunger! Keep us informed!
Good for you! I skied for 20 years before I actually learned how to ski when I became an instructor. Remember to approach this endeavor with an open mind and a positive attitude and you will do great!!
Sound like my level 2 course years ago. We started on a Saturday and Monday night you just wanted to go home. You couldn't ski, you didn't know nothing. But it all turned around on Tuesday. Keep at it. At least no one has told you to trade your skis for a ski-doo yet! And yes they did tell my husband that.
Thread Starter
TS
Third day and things are starting to turn, comments, suggestions and critics are bearing their fruits, we aren't there yet, but as our interpreter/support coach said today about our main coach : as long as he's not swearing at you, things aren't that bad.
Yesterday I was so full of doubts about my skiing and my equipment as well that, while sharing an anchor with the main coach I opened commenting that I was doubting I had the right tool for the job.
He looked at my Blizzard WRC and asked: " how long are they", "186" my answer, then "what turn radius" "21" my answer again, at which his comment was "no problem, you only have to perform perfectly and they will reward you"
I tried to take it positively, but thinking about it, and how much I have to work before saturday...but I think he wanted to encourage me by meaning that, at least I wasn't trying to "hack" things with an easier ski...which I am really tempted to do anyway because I do want so much to reach the goal.
Today a companion at the course remarked the same thing by sayin that I was good doing all the exercises with such a ski, but again, if I will miss the gol...
But today I got, at last, a thumb up and a "good" after one exercise, and more feedback.
My ankles and shins are all bruised but thas was also to be expected.
You know one thing, though?
Nevermind the stress, the self-esteem bashing, the "fear" not to be on par with what is being required...I know I will come out of this experience a better skier and a better human, having met these people.
And I am having fun too!
Yesterday I was so full of doubts about my skiing and my equipment as well that, while sharing an anchor with the main coach I opened commenting that I was doubting I had the right tool for the job.
He looked at my Blizzard WRC and asked: " how long are they", "186" my answer, then "what turn radius" "21" my answer again, at which his comment was "no problem, you only have to perform perfectly and they will reward you"
I tried to take it positively, but thinking about it, and how much I have to work before saturday...but I think he wanted to encourage me by meaning that, at least I wasn't trying to "hack" things with an easier ski...which I am really tempted to do anyway because I do want so much to reach the goal.
Today a companion at the course remarked the same thing by sayin that I was good doing all the exercises with such a ski, but again, if I will miss the gol...
But today I got, at last, a thumb up and a "good" after one exercise, and more feedback.
My ankles and shins are all bruised but thas was also to be expected.
You know one thing, though?
Nevermind the stress, the self-esteem bashing, the "fear" not to be on par with what is being required...I know I will come out of this experience a better skier and a better human, having met these people.
And I am having fun too!
Would they prefer you to be on shorter skis, or skis without the piston plate?
Is it your short radius turns that are elusive, or your non-carved skidded turns?
Is it the "versatility tasks" (AKA torture drills) that evade you, (pivot slips, white pass turns, one-ski skiing, Pain-in-the-S turns, 1000 steps...)?
Is it your initiations, your fore-aft balance, your lateral weight distribution, or your timing?
...or your gate-smashing performance in a slalom course?
Is it your short radius turns that are elusive, or your non-carved skidded turns?
Is it the "versatility tasks" (AKA torture drills) that evade you, (pivot slips, white pass turns, one-ski skiing, Pain-in-the-S turns, 1000 steps...)?
Is it your initiations, your fore-aft balance, your lateral weight distribution, or your timing?
...or your gate-smashing performance in a slalom course?
Thread Starter
TS
Apologies to have gone silent for these past days...simply, the sleep-wake up-work-eat- sleep cycle took over...
Thread Starter
TS
As I was writing the above post I was sittting in the mountain lodge waiting for the exam marks...it is a pass!
I have now timidly put my first feet through the gate opened during the week.
I lay in my bed after a long drive home and think about this wonderfully frightening week in which every ounce of my skiing has been renewed and "clean washed", from what would generally viewed as the simplest move of it all, the pole plant, to the smallest "hack" developed consciously or unconsciously by my body to make my skiing easier and yet not to straddle too much from the correct technique...
I read "The gull, Johnatan Livingstone" as a teen ager and that book took me to a years long quest to become an aircraft pilot (how that journey went, it is a story for another day)...but I now feel much like that again.
I have just begun a new journey.
P.s. to answer your question LF, as said my skis were considered by the coach adequate, but I was obliged to commit every ounce of my resources to perform adequately. An easier ski, with a somewhat shorter radius (even the same, but in a shorter lenght, like my partner in mischief was using, a WRC in 172) say an R18 would have made life a bit easier for me.
My resulsts for every exercise were not consitent, one time I would acceptably perform a manouvre (sorry, the terminology used is different) say, the wedge turn, and the next time I would miserably do it.
If I was looking after one aspect of a manouvre that I was asked to be careful about, I was letting go of others that previously were ok (and you have mentioned most of them, if not all)
So, my goal for the future is to reach a consitently acceptable level of performance for every single piece of the program.
In the end I did it with my own equipment, with my own waning resources (that is another thing to consider, my PT was far behind what should/could have been, what with the months long stop from any physical activity in the 2015 summer/fall and the subsequent ridicously low - also qualitatively - amount of skiing days in the 2015-2016 season - yet another story for another day).
"Skiing is the easy part, Karl"
I have now timidly put my first feet through the gate opened during the week.
I lay in my bed after a long drive home and think about this wonderfully frightening week in which every ounce of my skiing has been renewed and "clean washed", from what would generally viewed as the simplest move of it all, the pole plant, to the smallest "hack" developed consciously or unconsciously by my body to make my skiing easier and yet not to straddle too much from the correct technique...
I read "The gull, Johnatan Livingstone" as a teen ager and that book took me to a years long quest to become an aircraft pilot (how that journey went, it is a story for another day)...but I now feel much like that again.
I have just begun a new journey.
P.s. to answer your question LF, as said my skis were considered by the coach adequate, but I was obliged to commit every ounce of my resources to perform adequately. An easier ski, with a somewhat shorter radius (even the same, but in a shorter lenght, like my partner in mischief was using, a WRC in 172) say an R18 would have made life a bit easier for me.
My resulsts for every exercise were not consitent, one time I would acceptably perform a manouvre (sorry, the terminology used is different) say, the wedge turn, and the next time I would miserably do it.
If I was looking after one aspect of a manouvre that I was asked to be careful about, I was letting go of others that previously were ok (and you have mentioned most of them, if not all)
So, my goal for the future is to reach a consitently acceptable level of performance for every single piece of the program.
In the end I did it with my own equipment, with my own waning resources (that is another thing to consider, my PT was far behind what should/could have been, what with the months long stop from any physical activity in the 2015 summer/fall and the subsequent ridicously low - also qualitatively - amount of skiing days in the 2015-2016 season - yet another story for another day).
"Skiing is the easy part, Karl"
Congratulations !!!!!!!!!!
Where will you be teaching?
Where will you be teaching?
Congrats too!! Sounds like it was a good week all around for you.
Thread Starter
TS
Congratulations !!!!!!!!!!
Where will you be teaching?
Thanks LF and Jlly!
As for teaching, it is too early for that. Need to work more on my MA and demonstrating techniques skills first. And ski more.
Last edited:
Thread Starter
TS
Double post sorry, but one thing I can add:
I feel like "Johnatan Livingstone" at the beginning of its journey...
I feel like "Johnatan Livingstone" at the beginning of its journey...
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How goes your journey?
Thread Starter
TS
Again, apologies for the late answer, Epic
It is being a difficult one, alas.
Between my daily job (sometimes I have to work during the weekends and at nights, and usually it doesn't happen in a planned way...this saps away my energies btw) and family (a little kid who very easily gets sick, particularly in winter, a home relocation on the go ) flu cases and the consequences of a car accident I suffered in 2015 (this last was also the cause for not skiing much in 2015-2016, and also the origin of a not adequate PT condition) ...the amount of skiing days I have actually been able to log isn't exactly the figure I had in mind in November. I know that quantity does not equals to quality, still, there is only one way to fix into you body the movement pattern and techniques newly learnt, until these become a second nature to oneself, and that is to ski, ski, ski and ski some more.
I am getting a bit anxious as the time for the Level 2 clinic is nearing. I am trying to follow the old say "one bridge at a time", though cannot help but keep thinking about it. It is a big investment, both in time and money, and to miss it...
One thing is sure, my skiing (or the perception of the way I ski) has been changed forever. For the better.
Btw, my L1 thanks the spiess turns (jump turns)!
It is being a difficult one, alas.
Between my daily job (sometimes I have to work during the weekends and at nights, and usually it doesn't happen in a planned way...this saps away my energies btw) and family (a little kid who very easily gets sick, particularly in winter, a home relocation on the go ) flu cases and the consequences of a car accident I suffered in 2015 (this last was also the cause for not skiing much in 2015-2016, and also the origin of a not adequate PT condition) ...the amount of skiing days I have actually been able to log isn't exactly the figure I had in mind in November. I know that quantity does not equals to quality, still, there is only one way to fix into you body the movement pattern and techniques newly learnt, until these become a second nature to oneself, and that is to ski, ski, ski and ski some more.
I am getting a bit anxious as the time for the Level 2 clinic is nearing. I am trying to follow the old say "one bridge at a time", though cannot help but keep thinking about it. It is a big investment, both in time and money, and to miss it...
One thing is sure, my skiing (or the perception of the way I ski) has been changed forever. For the better.
Btw, my L1 thanks the spiess turns (jump turns)!
We don't do Spiess turns until Level 3! Very good for you...
Might be why I cannot do them!
Might be why I cannot do them!
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First PSIA event I attended, back in 1969, there was a young Austrian there who was doing Spiess turns backward--that is, he was moving uphill with each change of edges.
Bags talks about having to demonstrate going uphill and downhill inhis Spiess turns when he passed Level 3.
Thread Starter
TS
I did not know I could do it until the time came at the exam, I had tried testing those turnsthe day before without much results. As such I barely managed to make the minim amount of required turns (and quality) to score positive marks. I.guess that something between the two days clicked in ("when the going gets though..." and all that)...
Thread Starter
TS
And we are now at part two of the journey...
Well, not at, but past it.
Yesterday was L2 exam day, I passed. I would have liked to score better marks, but well, it depends on oneself anyway to perform adequately. Examinators see what it is, not what one is wishing.
In this past year I have skied as much as possible, with an eye to what I had just learnt, and though it is difficult to keep mentally focused and concentrated on the technique stuff (specially when you would like to "just let go",as everybody else is doing around you, seemingly "mindlessly" zooming and zipping everywhere, or, on a powder day...sigh, this past year I have not put my skis out of bound more than a couple of times) I tried to think what I was doing, how and why.
Skiend in the summer too, to try and "keep the touch" as much as possible.
Changed skis, shorter, lighter and more versatile but still high performance (Voelkl GS r18@175 - the tip rocker is a blessing, btw). Changed boots too, "gone softer", so to speak, on a F.I. 110 boot from the old plug boots I used.
All in all, a very productive clinic again, all things "clicking in " faster, improved awareness of one self doing while actually doing it, better overall technique, m.a. skills...
Oh, did I mention that I also decided to "jump start" PT a bit, instead of waiting the -september to may- ski gym class I was usually attending to begin, and just "limit damages" in the summer, hitting the gym at least twice a week since may?
For this I asked the gym trainers a "dedicated" program focused on core and legs, with primary goals on agilty and endurance, not on bulging muscle building...it looks like it worked.
Well, not at, but past it.
Yesterday was L2 exam day, I passed. I would have liked to score better marks, but well, it depends on oneself anyway to perform adequately. Examinators see what it is, not what one is wishing.
In this past year I have skied as much as possible, with an eye to what I had just learnt, and though it is difficult to keep mentally focused and concentrated on the technique stuff (specially when you would like to "just let go",as everybody else is doing around you, seemingly "mindlessly" zooming and zipping everywhere, or, on a powder day...sigh, this past year I have not put my skis out of bound more than a couple of times) I tried to think what I was doing, how and why.
Skiend in the summer too, to try and "keep the touch" as much as possible.
Changed skis, shorter, lighter and more versatile but still high performance (Voelkl GS r18@175 - the tip rocker is a blessing, btw). Changed boots too, "gone softer", so to speak, on a F.I. 110 boot from the old plug boots I used.
All in all, a very productive clinic again, all things "clicking in " faster, improved awareness of one self doing while actually doing it, better overall technique, m.a. skills...
Oh, did I mention that I also decided to "jump start" PT a bit, instead of waiting the -september to may- ski gym class I was usually attending to begin, and just "limit damages" in the summer, hitting the gym at least twice a week since may?
For this I asked the gym trainers a "dedicated" program focused on core and legs, with primary goals on agilty and endurance, not on bulging muscle building...it looks like it worked.
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