Do you ever just Practice?

[Brad J]

I never do drills , but I do work on position , edging , experimenting with small things when I am alone , primarily in afternoons, I find it fun and always learn someting.

 

[Kneale Brownson]

If they haven’t groomed out snowmaking whales, the snow probably isn’t dry enough yet. You might have hit a bit of sticky stuff.

 

[no edge]

I warm up, which is something that I never did before. In the past I would pick a steep difficult trail and assume I would just pick up where I left off. Now I pick my stance, identify what centered is, and turn with purpose and control or at least try to do that.

When I am past the warm up, I do practice. I want to ski well and I find that skiing is more rewarding when my skills are in place. It's also safer!

The problem for me is that sometimes I probably am not practicing the right thing. I grab what I can from the great skiers that I ski with. I pull stuff from my past experiences with exceptional instructors and even skiers back in the sixties and 70s at Mad River. But added coaching is always a good thing for me.

I see myself as an athlete...

 

[LouD-Truckee]

does every turn count ?​

 

[HDSkiing]

Kinda season dependent, last year with little snow there was not much to do but try to get better at some challenging drills, rail road tracks on 1 ski, or switch railroad, or some other thing we’d dig up. Since skiing is my only job in the winter time I had to do something to keep 100 plus days on skis interesting, and although I’d rather not see another winter like that, I have to admit doing those drills made a difference.

This year with so many powder days it’s hard not to want to be up in the glades, steeps, bumps and trees, skiing piste is just for the trip back. Of course you can find something to practice even on challenging fun terrain as well.

Still I do try to go out and spend some time drilling, even if it’s with my students. I’m a huge believer that if you want to ski at the next level master the fundamentals, which generally means skiing low-speed-high-drag rather than the other way around (for lack of a better reference).

The effort won’t show up overnight, although there are exceptions.

Don’t practice till you get it right, practice till you can’t do it wrong​

 

[François Pugh]

I never do drills , but I do work on position , edging , experimenting with small things when I am alone , primarily in afternoons, I find it fun and always learn someting.

Interesting. I used to do a lot of drills, less so now.
Previously when I noticed that I was not facing down the fall line enough with my upper body, I would use the vertical ski poles for the vertical picture drill. Now I just focus on facing the lodge at the bottom of the hill. Previously when I felt I was inclining too much without angulating enough I would hold my poles in front of me lined up with the horizon and keep my body vertical. Now I just focus on keeping my body vertical. Etc., etc. etc.

 

[NZRob]

I'm in the "no drills (never have) but always seem to be thinking of something I am doing, adjusting this, experimenting with that" camp. It's fun and adds some variety, because I am not charging all day now and am in the "just taking it a little easier these days because recovery from hard falls isn't as quick as it used to be" camp.

I've got friends who like to spend much of their days working very specifically on one aspect of their skiing for quite long periods.

 

[Uncle-A]

The first day of each season is a lot of practice just to break all the bad habits that I picked up over the years. They keep creeping back and I have to work on technique. Not that I have had great skills to start with, there was a time when all I wanted to do was get as many runs as possible in a day and didn't care what the skiing looked like. Now I do try to look a bit like I know what I am doing.
The first run of each day on snow is also a practice run although like most I may call it a warm up run. A not so funny thing happened to me this year, I was reading a thread here and said I am going to try that next time I am on the slopes, so I get out on the trail for practice and could not remember what the hell it was I wanted to practice.

 

[Guy in Shorts]

Mostly practice minimizing my edges on the steepest lines. Then on to practice hitting the gaps in the trees. Running a few bump lines is always a good call before first beer break.

 

[DoryBreaux]

You mean like a doctor?

 

[4aprice]

OP here, today's practice, yo-yoing these and getting the mojo back

 

[François Pugh]

^^^ colour me jealous.

 

[Chris V.]

Oh yeah! It doesn't have to be formal. Go out and do stuff that's inappropriate for the terrain you're on. Falling leaves in bumps. Carved GS turns through mild bumps. Leapers on real gentle slopes where it's HARD to get in the air. See how high you can get. Downhill skating. See how fast you can go before freaking out. Jump off some bumps. Mix up the landings. See how many different places you can twist around switch, just for a moment. Practice pedal turns. See where White Pass turns might help you. Add pole touches in GS turns where you don't need them. Take away the pole plants where they'd normally help you. Ski with no poles. Tuck your hands to your sides. Spread them out like airplane wings. Close your eyes!

 

[James]

Isn't all skiing practice for the next day?

On a serious note, I agree with the post above. You just do stuff. When it's late and you're tired there's always some slidey thing to do. Falling leaf, flat spins. Or try to do a super slow parallel turn on flatish terrain. On cat tracks you can always play with the edges. Try to weave in the crowd without skidding requires technique and planing/looking ahead. And skiing switch always needs work and can be done on easy terrain.

 

[Chris Walker]

Every time I click into my skis I spend at least part of the day doing drills and focused practice, or taking lessons. And I'm still a crappy skier,

No, but seriously, I do. the more my technique improves the more fun I have. To me it's worth the time and money investment.

 

[David]

I practice my crashing on a pretty regular basis!

 

[Old boot]

I spend time being aware of my stance/balance and movements. I don't think its drills but sortta

 

[Fuller]

I'm in a men's group weekly class, I'm the only one that can do pivot slips and stay in the corridor. So now I'm the teacher's pet! Do your drills everyday!