Advancing my skiing to the next level

[AJRSki]

I've recently come to the realization that I'm not skiing as well as I'd like. I can ski most of the mountain, though its not always pretty. I'm 29, an aggressive skier, and would like to advance my skills to the next level. I've been planning on taking lessons at the nearest local hill in MN, Afton Alps, and I've considered entering into either masters or at minimum a beer league.

My goal is to be skiing better in the steeps, trees and bumps during my 3-4 trips a year to the Rockies. The past few years I've managed to get around 30 days on skis a season, but I'm planning to do much more this year.

What regimen(s) would you suggest to maximize my opportunity to improve.

 

[RuleMiHa]

I've recently come to the realization that I'm not skiing as well as I'd like. I can ski most of the mountain, though its not always pretty. I'm 29, an aggressive skier, and would like to advance my skills to the next level. I've been planning on taking lessons at the nearest local hill in MN, Afton Alps, and I've considered entering into either masters or at minimum a beer league.

My goal is to be skiing better in the steeps, trees and bumps during my 3-4 trips a year to the Rockies. The past few years I've managed to get around 30 days on skis a season, but I'm planning to do much more this year.

What regimen(s) would you suggest to maximize my opportunity to improve.

Take lessons or clinics that include video. Welch Village is close to you and has camps.

 

[mister moose]

My few suggestions would be:

!) Recognize there s no "next level". From here on out it's baby steps and tools in the tool box. That's not to say there won't be "aha!" moments, there will be. But it's still baby steps; a progression, not an arrival.

2) Variety is a wonderful thing. Ski different skis, different terrain, take lessons from different instructors, watch different skiers.

3) Get in shape as best you can.

4) Repetition (preferably with coaching) is key. A 20 day a year skier will never reach the proficiency, strength or endurance of a 50 day year skier. Your goal of increased days is worthwhile.

5) Be realistic. Living in MN can only prepare you so much for the Rockies. The altitude, the steeps and the powder (if you're lucky) cannot be practiced on the real thing without being there. 3-4 trips a year should give you good exposure.

6) Steeps are over rated, powder is elusive, and trees and bumps need a solid foundation. Get your fundamentals down cold. Work with a few coaches on perfecting your turns; your turn shapes, different turn types, your turn timing, your turn speed (not to be confused with ski speed), your turn dynamicism (if that's a word, ie projecting your mass towards the inside of a turn), and your turn awareness. This is what you can do just as well in MN as CO. You will learn most of what you need to ski double blacks by training on a blue slope.

Oh. None of us ski as well as we'd like.

 

[HDSkiing]

My few suggestions would be:

!) Recognize there s no "next level". From here on out it's baby steps and tools in the tool box. That's not to say there won't be "aha!" moments, there will be. But it's still baby steps; a progression, not an arrival.

2) Variety is a wonderful thing. Ski different skis, different terrain, take lessons from different instructors, watch different skiers.

3) Get in shape as best you can.

4) Repetition (preferably with coaching) is key. A 20 day a year skier will never reach the proficiency, strength or endurance of a 50 day year skier. Your goal of increased days is worthwhile.

5) Be realistic. Living in MN can only prepare you so much for the Rockies. The altitude, the steeps and the powder (if you're lucky) cannot be practiced on the real thing without being there. 3-4 trips a year should give you good exposure.

6) Steeps are over rated, powder is elusive, and trees and bumps need a solid foundation. Get your fundamentals down cold. Work with a few coaches on perfecting your turns; your turn shapes, different turn types, your turn timing, your turn speed (not to be confused with ski speed), your turn dynamicism (if that's a word, ie projecting your mass towards the inside of a turn), and your turn awareness. This is what you can do just as well in MN as CO. You will learn most of what you need to ski double blacks by training on a blue slope.

Oh. None of us ski as well as we'd like.

What Mr. Moose said!

The only thing I would add is be open to an Instructor/coach taking apart your skiing and asking you to do things out of your comfort zone or skiing at a speed/terrain/style that may be “below” what you like to do.

As for skiing out west here there is no real substitute for time on skis at altitude, the stronger you are the more stable you will be making you better perform drills/tasks to help you reach that next level. At 29 you have youth and time on your hands! Do some of these things and you will see in a few years a transformational change, of course there will still be the next level after that...

Have fun!

 

[Bad Bob]

What everybody else said.

Personally a big fan of doing drills, especially on a smaller hill. Edging, balance, leverage, terrain absorption, and a whole lot more can be improved on a speed bump; these skills will transfer to any hill. Expand the tools in the box and make them sharper, you will be a better skier where ever you are.

 

[ToddW]

If you want to seriously improve your skiing and wish to take lessons nearby, go to Welch Village, not Afton Alps. The Welch Village ski school is on a roll and producing good skiers. Management has had a major focus on improving the ski school for several years now and has invested very heavily in high level training for their instructors. The Welch Village general manager is personally dedicated to operating a high quality ski school and sees that as one of the main market differentiators (along with snowmaking capacity) for his business.

If you have the time flexibility and $ to take a weekday private, see if you can get it from Welch's general manager (Peter Z.) who is an amazing coach when he has time to teach.

As was mentioned earlier, they also have a few organized multi-day ski camps if you're looking for a cheaper option or if you benefit from a group learning experience.

edit: fixed typo

 

[PTskier]

AJ, when you are first with an instructor, the good ones will ask you what you want. Try this..."Watch me ski and point out the one most important thing I need to work on today." Keep in mind that replacing a movement, i.e., breaking a bad habit, takes several thousand correct repetitions of the new movement. It can not be hurried. Some with more natural athleticism can "get it" faster, and people like me take longer.

While you want to ski better on steeps, in trees, and in bump runs, they all require the same fundamental movements. There will be variations in the movements, but not major differences. Ditto for deep powder. Get the fundamentals locked in, one at a time. I've also heard good things about the instruction at Welch. Take a camp if you can.

 

[agreen]

I made the biggest strides in my overall skiing when I committed to learning how to ski better in the bumps.

 

[Crank]

Just ski. Challenge yourself. Have fun!

 

[razie]

There are several paths you can take, from one extreme, like https://www.pugski.com/threads/what-does-it-take.6728 to another: like do nothing!

One thing to contemplate, what you could do I think is to have a plan for improvement and spend exactly 1 hour every day, working on it... and the rest of the day while having fun trying to implement the results of the 1 hour.

A good way to start would be to post some video for MA - Movement Analysis - and get some feedback as to what to work on.

Of course, outside of taking lessons that is!

cheers.

 

[Ken_R]

I've recently come to the realization that I'm not skiing as well as I'd like. I can ski most of the mountain, though its not always pretty. I'm 29, an aggressive skier, and would like to advance my skills to the next level. I've been planning on taking lessons at the nearest local hill in MN, Afton Alps, and I've considered entering into either masters or at minimum a beer league.

My goal is to be skiing better in the steeps, trees and bumps during my 3-4 trips a year to the Rockies. The past few years I've managed to get around 30 days on skis a season, but I'm planning to do much more this year.

What regimen(s) would you suggest to maximize my opportunity to improve.

#1: Get fitter. This helps greatly. Specially core fitness, balance and leg strength and endurance (cycling helps a lot combined with gym work).

#2: Have your geared dialed (Have the right gear for you including boot fit). This helped more than I would have ever imagined. Wrong boots, wrong boot fit, wrong skis / wrong ski tune = very hard to improve.

#3: Get instruction and practice (any way you can, can be combination of instructor, online etc). Be more conscious of your body (balance/technique), your gear and the snow/terrain when on the hill but still have fun and go by feel as well.

 

[CalG]

The "One Thousand steps" drill is very beneficial and can be done just about anywhere!

 

[Kneale Brownson]

I made the biggest strides in my overall skiing when I committed to learning how to ski better in the bumps.

Want to ski better in the trees? Get better in the bumps.

 

[karlo]

What regimen(s) would you suggest to maximize my opportunity to improve.

Much has been written about this topic here in Ski School. Do these drills, subscribe to a technical model of skiing, get fit, think of skiing this way (paint brush, dance, guilty as charged). Your question got me thinking. Is there another way? Well, over lunch, I was reading PSIA's Children's Instruction Manual. Not too different from what is in the Alpine Tech Manual, just a different angle. A thought came to mind, and, no don't become child-like, though I think I have at times to breakthrough.

Develop and utilize the ability to learn in a different way. PSIA training materials point out that there are four types of learners,

Model 1:
Watchers, watch demonstrations
Doers, learn by success and failure
Feelers, learn through kinesthetic and/or proprioceptive inputs
Thinkers, use cognitive, why this and that.

Model 2:
Visual learner, watch and copy
Auditory, explanations
Kinesthetic, explore and feel

Let's consider Model 1. I think it's easier. If you have primarily been learning as a Watcher, don't give it up, but let it loose for a while. Focus on another, like Feeler. Sometimes instructors will ask that you feel your feet, the bottoms and edges. Do far more than that. Train your senses to be super aware: touch(pressure), proprioceptive, hearing, visual awareness of terrain to a more micro scale yet capture all (like a quarterback looking down field for open receivers). Developing this is in one's control, not the instructor's. Developing this increases the number of "hooks" by which information can be captured and understood. Step by step, develop all the ways of learning. But, on one trip out West, just use one.

Just a thought.

BTW, as a teenager and young adult, I was definitely a doer. Then, I think I picked up cognitive, but not so disciplined. With YouTube, I've really developed my Watcher. In past two years, I have heightened my Feeler. I have benefited from each

Best analogy? A four lane highway for learning

 

[razie]

Everything You've Ever Been Told About How You Learn Is A Lie... says popsci...

https://www.popsci.com/science/arti...uve-ever-been-told-about-how-brain-learns-lie

it's an article worth reading and it points to more research. The crux of it is:

Except for years, the evidence has been mounting that a curriculum tailored toward a specific learning style isn't any more effective than just, well, teaching.​

A good coach/instructor would use many types of teaching and self-learners should too. While "feeling" is good, you need to define in relation to "what", and a lot of modern research points to using a lot of external cues as being better, especially when self-coaching - since you don't have consistent qualified feedback other then video... and the external cues.

May sound like splitting hairs, but it should result in faster, better and longer lasting learning.

 

[T-Square]

I recommend you ski with a focus. What do you want to accomplish this day, this run, this turn. Keep the focus simple and do it till you can’t get it wrong. Then move on to the next focus.

 

[Monique]

If you're specifically looking for exercises as opposed to skiing drills, I suggest working on core strength via balance. The kind of thing where you feel like you're just messing around for 10 or 15 minutes, but then the next day you wonder why your obliques are so sore.

And yoga. Not joking.

 

[JESinstr]

Many of the above comments make the assumption that the OP has learned proper, basic fundamentals on which to build. Unfortunately, I continue to see tons of skiers in the bumps, in the trees, doing the steeps....breaking the sound barrier..... all from the "back seat". For this type of skier, progress means a total renovation which many are not willing to consider let alone, putting in the time and effort.

 

[karlo]

make the assumption that the OP has learned proper, basic fundamentals

The OP will be taking lessons.

Being fit is an obvious one.

Don't just go to lessons. Think them through afterwards.

Don't just do the drills. Feel them. And explore them, be willing to challenge your balance limits so that you clearly understand what works and what doesn't.

I think the list can get very long.

 

[LiquidFeet]

@AJRSki, you said:
"I've recently come to the realization that I'm not skiing as well as I'd like. I can ski most of the mountain, though its not always pretty. I'm 29, an aggressive skier, and would like to advance my skills to the next level. I've been planning on taking lessons at the nearest local hill in MN, Afton Alps, and I've considered entering into either masters or at minimum a beer league.
My goal is to be skiing better in the steeps, trees and bumps during my 3-4 trips a year to the Rockies. The past few years I've managed to get around 30 days on skis a season, but I'm planning to do much more this year.
What regimen(s) would you suggest to maximize my opportunity to improve."

If you wish to change your skiing on steep ungroomed terrain, you'll need to do some work on not-steep groomers at slow speeds. Before you take that lesson, you'll need to get yourself in the mindset to pay slow, careful attention to details of how you move and how the snow reacts to your skis as you do those movements. Learning good fundamentals at slow speeds on low pitch terrain is kinda like learning to do a track stand on your bike; it's all about fine-tuning your balance with precision movements. Once you get those dialed in at slow speed on unintimidating terrain, you can take it to higher speeds and more thrilling terrain.

In other words, you probably won't learn to be better at steeps, trees, and bumps by skiing steeps, trees, and bumps aggressively.

Answers to these questions might help others give you specific advice before you take that lesson:

1. Have you ever taken lessons? If so, how did that go and what did you learn?
2. Did you buy your boots online, or from a bootfitter at a brick-and-mortar ski shop, or at a big box store with help of a part-time attendant?
3. Do you have custom footbeds in there? Are your liners "packing out"?
4. If you set your boots down next to your running shoes, are they the same length or not? If not, how much "not"?
5. How do you start a turn?
6. How do you control your speed?
7. How wide are your skis at the waist?