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Post by JimRatliff on Jan 26, 2015 20:09:58 GMT -7
Day 1 was a full day (and we knew this going in). However, being me I still told Walter thanks after lunch and that I would see him tomorrow. Whoa there, he said, this is an all day session with video at lunch and at the end of the day. About 1/2 of my group and all of Lynn's group were PMTS never-evers, so we both got a refresher on the fundamentals of PMTS. I'm not sure that was necessary for us, but you never know when something might click that hadn't clicked before. However, this meant the class curriculum was pretty much PMTS from the foundation.
I had mentioned my ongoing battle with fore-aft balance and with being too upright, so my drill of the morning was free foot pullback while most of the rest of the class worked on the basics of tipping and releasing. Walter suggested exaggerating the movement, pulling it back "behind" the stance foot, and the lunch video session showed that i had made observable progress.
Of course, as soon as I started focusing on the afternoon movement the brain cells that captured the mornings movements decided to take the afternoon off. Too bad, because the afternoon was small bumps on steep terrain, and my turns could have benefited from the morning lesson.
Regarding the all important moment, I think I did wind up with a more advanced group of skiers. However, because of the number of never-evers, the evaluation criteria may have been simply how fast you skied and not your exhibited mastery of PMTS skills and I therefore can't lay claim to having passed Lynn in form!
I will say that, with Heluva's video fresh in my mind, ALL skiing took place on the trails.
Be safe as you deal with the blizzard back on the East coast. More tomorrow probably.
One other snippet that I had not heard before. We were visiting with Diana at the end of the day and she turned red-faced from laughing as she recounted Lyyn's first camp. It seems Lynn had accidentally picked up her daughters poles as she was packing; Diana referred to them as curb feelers to show the shortened length and diameter. She said it was day three before she noticed that something "just really wasn't right". She gave Lynn her poles, but the daughters' poles were already a bit "crinkled" and the worse for wear by then. I think that was the hardest I've seen her laugh.
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Post by JimRatliff on Jan 26, 2015 20:25:31 GMT -7
Todd: Diana was admiring the color coordination of my jacket and new helmet, and I offered to let her try it on because she was looking for helmets with MIPS technology. She declined, saying that she had a really small head. I quite proudly replied, "but Todd says you are a genius, how can all of that brain fit in such a small head?" She said Harald believes that her brain is under immense pressure from being in such a small space and that pressure is what keeps it boiling." Just thought you might wish to know of the "fabrication" I created and credited to you in case it comes up in future conversation.
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Post by livingproof on Jan 27, 2015 5:56:31 GMT -7
Jim, We are surviving the dusting quite nicely here in Philly.
It's sort of funny hearing about your free foot pull back. It's the first lesson in Expert Skier Book 2, and, the other day, my regular ski buds were telling me to work on keeping my tips more even as there was too much tip lead. And they don't know PMTS. We worry so much about the advanced stuff, but, flail at the basics.
Keep the reports coming. And have fun!
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Post by meput on Jan 27, 2015 16:11:10 GMT -7
Jim,
Nice job on episode #1. So which group did you make it into? Doesn't sound like you and Lynn landed in the same group. Make sure she chimes in.
Looking forward to episode #2.
Juno has dumped ~12" where I live, ~ 8 - 10" of blower pow at the 'loaf. Daughter Kristin got to enjoy the pow at the 'loaf today.
Ski safe. Durcum Gulch has been known to reach up and grab you!
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Post by JimRatliff on Jan 27, 2015 16:16:59 GMT -7
Day 2: Day 2's general focus was on tipping and counter acting and counter balance. A more specific focus for me and two other guys was fore aft balance, and there were a couple of exercises that I found quite suprising.
First off was several runs doing "tuck turns". Get down into a tuck position, elbows forward on the front of the knees, hands and skis making a "steering V" way out in front. Start off down the slope in the tuck position, tip the skis to the right and point your steering Vee at about 45 degrees to the left. Focus on making sure that your entire upper body down through the hips moves in unison, which results in a pretty strong counter acted position. I was most surprised by how short the turns could be given the limited range of tipping available. The other thing this drill did was emphasize the timing of tipping -> counter acting -> tipping in new direction -> release of previous counter and move counter to oppose the direction of the new turn. We did this over surface undulations and bumps (change edges over the ridge), up and back down the edges of a gully (transition is in the belly of the gully and you ride the new edges up the side), and even on some steeper terrain (turn uphill for speed control).
I was really surprised at how well this exercise mirrored "real skiing" and how solid the stance ski feels with that much counter acted weight over the outside ski. Try this if you have some space and want to get a feeling for how much counter acting range of motion most of us have, if we can just relax the hip muscles. Most of us were well beyond 45 degrees, since the deep bend of the knees seems to really open up the hips. Heluva is probably expert at this, because our stances looked a little bit like he looks all of the time (but we didn't have nearly those edge angles).
My second exercise of the day may be an epiphany, only time will tell. Walter had me ski and really exaggerate the inside ski lead (reverse of free foot pullback). The purpose was that inside ski lead also leads the hips forward and opens the hips (he called it cheater counter). But the primary focus was to give me feedback and cues of skiing with a more vertical femur. The scissor move at transition was a little bit interesting as I had to force the inside ski forward. Note to self -- it's OK to look down at your femur to double check verticality, but you also need to watch for the edges of the trail. As we were free skiing in the afternoon Lynn said she could see the difference, so we will see.
An emphasis at camp is holding counter through that moment in transition where you lighten the stance ski and begin to tip. Once you have the new edges, then surrender that position as you move to the new countered position appropriate for the new turn direction.
Jim
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Post by lynn on Jan 27, 2015 16:45:11 GMT -7
A small addition to Jim's day one thoughts.
The groups were initially broken up into speed levels and then movement areas. ( I am guessing this from what I saw, not based on anything else; will ask tomorrow what the criteria actually is)
Jim is in a group that skis faster than mine. His group is working on the basics: tipping, counterbalance and counteracting There is individualization amongst skiers and two have more of a focus on fore/aft.
My group is a slower skiing group: We are working on: tipping, counterbalance and counteracting.
How each coach approaches these issues is basically the same, but with different nuances. Midweek we change coaches and get a different perspective. I have found this invaluable in past years.
The same information described slightly differently with a different drill to help instill is sometimes the key to the door.
For today the group I was in really focused on counter acting. Because getting that down correctly leads to higher edge angles without leaning, speed control and the beauty of skiing I see in all our coaches.
We were given plastic garden sticks to hold between our hands, keeping our hands wider than our shoulders. Our poles were to be held angling out toward the snow. THe goal was to have the visual of the pole mimic the angle of our arms, shoulders and pelvis in both counteracting and counterbalancing. A common flaw for all was lack of pelvis involvement with counter acting. Viewing the video at lunch made it so clear that what we thought we were doing had nothing to do with reality. On video, I achieved an occasional complete counteracting movement, but not consistently. The sensation of grip on the snow when I did was fantastic!
Part of my journey is learning to relax muscles not needed in parts of the turn. Especially when learning, I am stiff. Practicing both using muscles AND NOT using them is part of my ski process.
OTOH, having been in 6 previous camps thru the years, I understand the terminology and the concepts. When our coach (Jay) asks a question, I almost always know the answer. The frustration is putting it into practice. Video dispells illusions of adequacy. And for me, that's OK.
A work in progress. Learning is never-ending and I am enjoying the camp. There are tangible concepts/drills for me to focus on afterwards that give rewards on the slopes at home.
Jim and I have very different areas to focus on. Hopefully he will chime in later. Right now, he's having an apres-ski nap.
Cheers, Lynn
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Post by meput on Jan 27, 2015 20:19:18 GMT -7
Jim and Lynn,
Two great posts. Your enthusiasm for the day's work comes through loud and clear in both posts.
Make sure Jay does some of his circus stunts for you.
Have a great day tomorrow and enjoy your coaches, for on Thursday, both coaches will be gone (granted to other groups).
Jim
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Post by JimRatliff on Jan 28, 2015 18:26:22 GMT -7
Day 3: Not as much to talk about today. The focus was on releasing, a new aspect of this to me was holding the countered position through the release. This is to keep the new stance ski from spinning out or steming out during transition. This was difficult for me at first. Reminder -- feel pressure on that little toe edge before beginning to tip.
The biggest change for me is from yesterdays drill of exaggerating pushing the inside ski forward (for a different reason) and then feeling how much better and open the counter acting position is. The feeling gained from that exercise really helped to get me to relax my hips and let them rotate into the desired position, even after I stopped doing the drill.
And Meput, thanks for the circus act heads up. I didn't know that much about Jay's background. Balanced his ski pole on the end of his finger, and then on his tongue. No helicopters or anything like that (at least not today).
Jim
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Post by JimRatliff on Jan 28, 2015 18:46:48 GMT -7
I am often/frequently/all the time told that I need to flex more. You can imagine how comforting (and personally encouraging) I found the following anecdote.
In discussing flexing with his camp group today, Jay (SkierSynergy) was recalling his first camp where he had Diana as his coach. After some 'encouragement' from Diana to flex more, he said "I'm going to flex all the way down to my boots" for the video session. Before showing the video, Diana asked Jay how flexed he was and he responded 90%. She then showed the video and asked the rest of the class -- the consensus was about 10% flex.
The next day of that camp and Diana is still looking for drills to encourage and help Jay to flex more. Another video session, the replay session, and Jay tells Diana that she missed the video of his descent. Wrong - again. He just didn't recognize his own skiing because the video wasn't showing what he thought he was feeling. The flex still wasn't much better than day 1.
Jay said that he never got flexing at that camp. At some later point, there was an epiphany and he "got it".
I'm sure several of us (probably everyone that has ever attended a camp) can identify with the video not showing what we felt we were showing. The hope, obviously, is that if a skier like Jay experiences that, then there is hope for me.
However, I'm still waiting for that epiphany, and I'm not trying to learn any aerials.
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Post by lynn on Jan 28, 2015 19:13:11 GMT -7
Continuing on a bit of thread drift from the ski review section; I was incorrect in being the only repeat skier in my group. There is another skier who guesses this is his 13th clinic. He takes 2 per year. He said he was the worst skier and still has many areas he has trouble with, but appreciates Diana's perspective in his progress over the years and where he still needs to go.
Hearing this in addition to Jay Petersens struggles to "get" certain movements, gives the rest of us mortals some assurance that improvement can be gained....with a lot of work. His stories are hilarious.
And this is a guy who was a nationally ranked freestyler.
All the coaches have beautiful, fluid and clean movements to their skiing.
The books are great, the videos tremendous demonstration of skill.
They are not the same as the camp experience. The nuanced drills that lead you to a movement outcome are hard to replicate without the immediate feedback you get in person. THe chance to see your fellow skiers working on the same movements REALLY improves your own ability to do movement analyses.
OTOH, I am quite tired.
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