What I Teach

[Uke]

Before I start I want to say that this place feels a lot like Epic did 16 or 17 years ago when I joined it for the first time. This is prompting me to want to write about some ski instruction thoughts and ideas that I wouldn't dream of posting on Epic today.

To start though here is what I teach on a day in day out basis sorted by age.

Under 7. First, a braking wedge. This is a safety issue. These little ones need to be able to stop, on their own, quickly when necessary, and the wedge will give them that. Second, gliding is more fun. This is where the Go word enters the lesson. Third, when gliding, point your toes where you want to go and your skis will take you there. Go over by the Magic carpet, go around the cone. Go here, go there, go wherever you want. Finally, lots of ski time.

7 to 12. Steps 1 and 2 from above. Third, if you are gliding along and use your foot and leg to make one of the skis flatter you will go in that direction and feel yourself stand on the other foot. Fourth, pointing your toes in that direction helps you go there. Fifth, since you are standing on one ski that ski is hard to point so make sure you point the other ski. Stand on right, point left left and go left, etc.
Finally, lots of ski time.

13 and up.Step 1 from above with this change. I don't insist on a hard stop. A slow glide will work for these more aware folk, especially after they learn to guide the glide with steps 4 and 5 from above with step 5 ending with ride the outside, guide with the inside.

That's enough for now, later I'll put up what I do with new students who are all ready skiing.

uke

 

[Uke]

I forgot to throw a final paragraph in my post yesterday, here it is.

I don't teach wedge turns or wedge christies or parallel turns, I teach people to ski. Starting from a wedge stance I teach the movement patterns of high level skiers adapted to the level of the student. Most of my students are riding the beginning lift by the end of the first hour and confidently skiing the beginning slope. By the end of a three hour lesson (a pretty standard lesson length for my resort) the students are skiing mostly parallel, controlling speed through turn shape and more than ready to move on to more varied terrain.

As a quick aside here. Our beginning area is a little steeper than ideal and easily inspires first day skiers to slip into a breaking wedge, I see this all the time in the students of instructors who are teaching a defensive way of skiing. It is a problem that an offensive 'Go' mindset to skiing seems to eliminate, my students just don't get caught in that trap.

uke

 

[oldschoolskier]

I agree, with modern equipment it gets you hooked on skiing, exploring, having fun and safely.

Once you're hooked you want to learn more to explore more. This is were learning the rest of the skills come in just to have more fun.

It's good to see thinking outside the conventional box (but the really good instructors do that anyway, despite what the instructors associations say).

Thumbs up for posting it.

 

[bud heishman]

Uke, I like the way you are thinking! I always tell instructors, I don't teach wedge turns, I use a wedge as training wheels to teach expert movements. I believe strongly that if I can cause the first attempts at speed control to come from turning up the hill rather than a braking wedge, I can ingrain this into their psyche as the go to move to stop or slow down. With steeper beginner terrain, it makes much more sense to teach across the hill and keep them out of the fall line until they have lots of practice finishing a turn via uphill christies and garlands. I also encourage my students to embrace and enjoy the exhileration of acceleration in their turn initiations knowing that speed control will come as they finish the turns. We focus on the rotary skill of leg steering and lower edge angles to facilitate developing the early stages of skiing into and out of a countered neutral.

As you suggest, I find if I am successful with this goal in the early stages, we are skiing wide track slippy parallel turns in no time. From this basis the sky is the limit!

 

[jimmy]

Nice post Uke. I don't think you are thinking outside the box, more like you understand the thinking inside the box. We discussed the difference between a braking wedge and a gliding wedge in clinic on Sunday. My gripe was too much focus in some lessons on stopping and not enough about going somewhere. I like your emphasis on the new or soon to be outside ski, not pushing on it but being balanced over it. That frees the student up to do just about anything with the inside ski, steer it, rotate it, pick it up, flatten it or tip it.

 

[AmyPJ]

My little daughter wants to ski with me tomorrow, and we want to go visit the porcupine who hangs out near one of the lifts. There are a few pitches to get over that way that are as steep as she's probably skied, but they are short and the snow is just fantastic right now. I think I might do garlands with her on those pitches since they are not very long and we might end up doing one turn total if we garland across. Thanks for the great idea! I think it'd be a great tool for her to have in her toolbox. That is, if she'll listen to me and actually DO it, and not pitch a fit because it's too steep. She's a feisty little thing, hence why we typically put her in lessons. She behaves like a lamb for teachers and ski instructors (she really does, they love her.)

She's just starting to work on more parallel turns, and garlands might help her a lot. She still tends to go in a terminal wedge, then wedge HARD on steeper stuff. Then she of course is exhausted. I'm going to hunt down videos of it tonight so I can show her what we're going to do.