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Rounded turns work better in every conditions...
so its for a sure a good goal.
so its for a sure a good goal.
Funny that you say that, because I've been concluding that, lately. I am an intermediate with only dozens of days of ski life. My last lesson, this past weekend, was simply centered on that: focusing on the outcome. In my case, turn shape. There are certain movements needed to achieve that, and hardpack is different from wet powder, but ultimately, my immediate goal is rounder terms in both. Next, the move
Students are smarter and more resourceful than we tend to think. If we show them the goal (in this case I am the student, but it doesn't matter), they'll find ways of getting there. We can, and we should, show how to achieve the goal. The problem really arises when we put the cart in front of the horse, and the means to achieve a goal ... become goals themselves.
Brilliant post, Medieta! I wish every instructor would read that and consider its implications.
There is a lot of science that supports your observations. Recent research (search for "OPTIMAL Theory of Motor Learning" for lots to read) reveals what many instructors have long known: that focusing attention on the outcome or effect of movements, and feedback directed externally on the outcome, rather than internally on the movements of specific body parts, is usually far more effective at producing results and facilitating learning.
Identify and shoot for the target. Our bodies are geniuses at figuring out how to get it done, and at learning to do it better. For a long time, instructors and instructor organizations have focused strongly on identifying, understanding, and describing movements with objective "body-part-specific" language. And that is, certainly, an important skill for instructors to develop. But it is not usually the best way to teach those movements. or to help a learner improve, the research clearly shows.
It's not a new concept. Among others, Tim Galwey and Bob Kriegel described the principle nearly 40 years ago in their classic, Inner Skiing. Horst Abraham, in the now-almost-forgotten manual, Skiing Right, posed the question: "does a butterfly flap its wings up and down...or does a butterfly just fly?"
And so it is with the Infinity Move. While I've broken it down and focused on some of the mechanics of it often enough, I've also seen skiers experience breakthroughs simply by visualizing the two separate, intersecting paths of their Center of Mass and Base of Support (neither of which are body parts) and focusing on making them move in the smooth, uninterrupted patterns of the Infinity Move. Don't worry about how to do it--focus on the outcome, and let your body make the "how" decisions, from the neck down.
Certainly, even for those who are mechanically focused on body parts, optimal performance virtually never arises until you abandon the conscious control of body parts and focus on the tactics, the outcome, the goal. Many instructors have focused on the three-stage motor learning model of Fitts & Posner (1967), in which learning new movements begins in the "cognitive stage," requiring conscious thought to make the body move the "correct" way, until practice and skill development allows the movement to occur increasingly "automatically" with less need for conscious direction. It's still a relevant model, but I do find that very often, focusing on the intended outcome, rather than the movements, can produce surprising success and rapid improvement--even for new, never-learned specific movements. I've long emphasized the motto that "intent dictates technique," which implies that you should be able modify technique by changing intent, by emphasizing tactics or environments that naturally evoke the desired movements.
Whether anyone believes in these intent/outcome-based learning strategies or not, it is still clear that, unless there is a clear outcome or purpose in mind, it's impossible to determine whether movements or focuses are "correct" or not. If you don't care where you end up, any road will get you there.
Technique in skiing (and most things) is not an end in itself--it is the means to an end. For some skiers, and some instructors, though, it seems that technique is the end in itself. They're the ones who focus on certain movements, in a "vacuum," without tying them to any particular desired outcome. It that's their "thing," then no harm done--decide what movement you want to make, and the learn to make it. The reward is "getting it right." But for most of us, the reward is something far beyond the technique--it is the sensation of gliding and g-force, the floating effortlessness of cleanly linked turns, winning the race, getting big air, the rhythm of a bottomless powder run, ... and the technique is important only as the means to hit the target.
You've hit it straight on, Medieta!
Best regards,
Bob
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Imagine trying to teach or perform ballet by describing the physics of a jette, or balancing on one's toes -- or trying to pin every possible ballet movement into five fundamentals.
You surely wouldn't end up with dance.
Its funny you should bring up dance in this conversation.Hmmm. slightly divergent rant:
It has always seemed that PSIA is besotted with trying to turn everything into charts, graphs and rubrics. From skiing to teaching to interacting with people.
Imagine trying to teach or perform ballet by describing the physics of a jette, or balancing on one's toes -- or trying to pin every possible ballet movement into five fundamentals.
You surely wouldn't end up with dance.
This was a particularly difficult thing for me when I was attempting to being an instructor.Bud Heishman put it in his "The Target" article on working with beginners; teaching wedge christies with a passive rather than active movement to direct pressure to the outside ski.
I was thinking of the question of "how exactly does one direct pressure to the outside ski" and liked how Bud Heishman put it in his "The Target" article on working with beginners; teaching wedge christies with a passive rather than active movement to direct pressure to the outside ski. Release old outside ski edge, allow the skis to seek the fall line, and in so doing weight is transfered to the new outside ski, and simultaneously weight is transferred to that new outside ski, which initiates the turn.
I've been playing with that a little mindfully, and noticing it leads naturally to the infinity move, in which the skis move underneath me in the crossover/transition, rather than me making any efforts to make it happen. It's more a state of mind than a movement, or series of sequential movement.
I don't typically have beer or cigarettes on my dashboard, but I have been known to leave my warm beverage on the roof of the car, with the same result.It is like the beer and cigarettes on the dashboard of your car. Car turns left and beer and cigarettes fly out the window. Everyone in the lesson laughs but most people understand the concept.
That sums it up beautifully. Properly balancing the two approaches epitomizes both the challenge and the joy of ski instruction. And then of course one has to tailor the lesson to the ages and personalities of the students.The optimal learning environment for me seems to be a combination of outcome based learning with a decent amount of specific movement depending on what I am doing and whether I am producing the desired outcome. Knowing when to use one or the other is an art that both the instructor and the student share responsibility for in order to maximize learning.
The current Alpine Technical Manual has a forward giving much of this history. But it leaves out the whole more recent Center Line Model episode. Thank you for that!Here's a little history, for those who haven't followed the evolution of American ski instruction.
When standing vertically (perpendicular to the snow), for example, fore-aft movements of the legs at the hips will affect fore-aft pressure, and rotational movements of the legs will turn the skis. Lie down on your side on the snow, though, and the same fore-aft hip motion will make your skis point in different directions, while rotational movements of your femurs in the hip sockets will affect pressure along the length of the skis. The effects of these movements literally reverse when your body is vertical vs. horizontal, and they blend along a spectrum in the real world of varying degrees of inclination in ski turns.