Ski instruction without snow

[jonc]

The thread on instructor pay got me thinking about Ski instruction in general and if a mountain or even snow is really required? Many atheletes go to trainers outside of their sporting discipline, why not the average joe skier? Could a Ski instructor be an effective teacher without snow?

Yes of course to get better at sliding around on snow you have to spend some (lots of) time doing just that. But consider other aspects of skiing: strength, aerobic endurance, anaerobic endurance, balance, proprioception, etc.... much of these can be trained through ski-specific dryland drills and exercises or normal methods of strength and conditioning. Could a knowledgeable Ski instructor translate his awareness of body mechanics, movement analysis, drills, and so on... to a non snow setting?

The student could even have video taken of himself skiing and bring that back for analysis. Drills can be provided as well.

This wouldn't fully replace a Ski school by any means, especially for beginners, but for the more advanced skier perhaps? These types of specialty instructors could likely charge top dollar and be located closer to where people live.

 

[Tricia]

There have been a few threads about indoor ski training facilities. @cbk has done a fair bit of training. Perhaps he can elaborate.
I'll dig up some of the other threads if someone else doesn't beat me to it.

Here is one thread.
https://forum.pugski.com/threads/snobahn.2252/

 

[razie]

there are a couple of way to enhance your skiing with mental training as well, both watching video in a certain way and imagine. powerful tools. Lookup Ideokinesis and Engraving.

cheers

 

[CharlieP]

Oct 22, 2016

In the same vein as the above posting, the famous French Olympian three discipline Gold Medal winner Jean-Claude Killy was involved in a ski instruction video which sought to provide muscle memory programming by watching Jean-Claude's repetitive skiing. The video was produced in the 80s called SyberVision. At that point in time, it was state of the art action photography and if I recall correctly, the set cost quite a penny. I couldn't afford it, which isn't saying much, since I was fresh out of grad school and just starting out on my career.

Also, having seen short demo versions of this video, it seemed to involve a lot of video with a blue back ground. Seems like the blue back ground provided some psychological assistance/boost to the mental ingraining process.

http://www.sybervision.com/Skiing/

CP

 

[dean_spirito]

I coach my students 365 days a year, with or without snow. Sometimes we utilize synthetic snow, but ski coaching (at least at the competitive level) involves so much more than simply skiing. Strength training, cardio, and mental visualization are keys for success in this sport.