Word - Drills

[martyg]

This video is so spot on in so many ways. So much to learn even in the first 35 seconds.

 

[slow-line-fast]

Shiffrin is the monarch and prophet of drill perfection.

The video above* is about a general approach to drills. She makes drill-specific technical comments in a series on the Burke Mountain Academy youtube channel, posted below.

* The video above re-used the audio and even text annotations from the BMA video without acknowledging the source...

11) Swiss Drill

11) Swiss Drill

www.youtube.com

12) MiKaela - Basic Drill Progression

12) MiKaela - Basic Drill Progression

www.youtube.com

13) Mikaela - 7 Keys to Drill Mastery

13) Mikaela - 7 Keys to Drill Mastery

www.youtube.com

 

[Scruffy]

I've been doing those Burke Mountain Academy drills for a number of years now.

 

[Henry]

Great advice. How do you know when you've run each drill enough? When you can do the drill correctly and you find your mind wandering...you can think of other things, not the drill movements in particular, and still perform the drill correctly. During the day, while skiing for fun, throw in a few repetitions of the drill to be sure you've got it learned.

With either your own knowledge of your skiing or the help of a great coach, find the drills that work to help you with the single most important movement you need to improve. When you nail that one, move on to your next most important movement to improve.

 

[martyg]

Great advice. How do you know when you've run each drill enough? When you can do the drill correctly and you find your mind wandering...you can think of other things, not the drill movements in particular, and still perform the drill correctly. During the day, while skiing for fun, throw in a few repetitions of the drill to be sure you've got it learned.

With either your own knowledge of your skiing or the help of a great coach, find the drills that work to help you with the single most important movement you need to improve. When you nail that one, move on to your next most important movement to improve.

Drills and actual skiing exist in two parallel neurological patterns. You execute drills to capture the sensation on easy terrain. Then you take that sensation to your skiing and really hone in on it. Maybe you think about doing the drill and that sensation while skiing, but you don't actually do it. Maybe you hone in on that sensation while brushing your teeth, or doing some other pedestrian task - if you are coachable to that degree.

Take it to more challenging terrain. Do the wheels come off? Time to go back to more benign terrain.

Is the sensation that you were trying to capture eluding you? Time to go back one step further to drills.

 

[TheArchitect]

I was thinking of going next weekend and doing drills all day. After watching that video I AM going next weekend and doing drills.

 

[Johnny V.]

Thanks for the reminder! Makes me want to go out in the rain tomorrow and work on stuff. Actually, I spent the last six days skiing on an older pair of FIS slaloms, and they're great for working on drills and technique, besides making a small mountain feel bigger (and easier to dodge the crowds).

Take it to more challenging terrain. Do the wheels come off? Time to go back to more benign terrain.

Firm believer in that. Practice in lower angle slopes and move up. One problem to those of us at small hills is lack of real estate to do some of the drills that require space.

 

[BTWilliams]

Great advice. How do you know when you've run each drill enough? When you can do the drill correctly and you find your mind wandering...you can think of other things, not the drill movements in particular, and still perform the drill correctly. During the day, while skiing for fun, throw in a few repetitions of the drill to be sure you've got it learned.

With either your own knowledge of your skiing or the help of a great coach, find the drills that work to help you with the single most important movement you need to improve. When you nail that one, move on to your next most important movement to improve.

I believe you have never done them enough. Mikaela still does tons of drills. Drills are not about learning, they are about forgetting. There are fundamental bio mechanical and nervous system factors that push you back towards skiing incorrectly. This never goes away. So just because you are maintaining the correct weight distribution during say, your transitions, does not mean you will continue to do so. And when you notice you are doing something wrong, you can not just say "stop doing that". There is too much going on. So you do drills to "re-program" your lower level nervous system pathways. So then you can forget because you are bypassing your brain.