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Youth basketball coach teaches skiing (his wife)
- Thread starter gabrik
- Start date
Calling @LiquidFeet and @Nancy Hummel to the help desk (and any other instructor who can help)
This is @gabrik 's wife skiing. She has had a few male instructors, never felt confident about controlling speed, blew her acl (skiing I believe) and is now looking to ski again. He is looking for some guidance finding a female instructor in Europe to teach her enough to ski safely amd without fear.
I suggested he opens a thread for that, and here we are.
@gabrik : tell your wife she has good skiing instincts! She is a natural. She'll do great with a bit of instruction.
This is @gabrik 's wife skiing. She has had a few male instructors, never felt confident about controlling speed, blew her acl (skiing I believe) and is now looking to ski again. He is looking for some guidance finding a female instructor in Europe to teach her enough to ski safely amd without fear.
I suggested he opens a thread for that, and here we are.
@gabrik : tell your wife she has good skiing instincts! She is a natural. She'll do great with a bit of instruction.
She's doing well for a beginner. Her turns are symmetrical left and right, they stay consistent in tempo and speed, and I saw her come to an almost stop by turning. I can see she's following instructions she has been given in the past so she is a good student. Is this after one lesson? If yes, she's doing great. She may be disappointed in how she skis because she has unreasonable expectations for how long it takes to build skiing skills.
She is probably getting unnecessarily fatigued by her rigidity and bent over stance. That will go away with another one or two lessons. Does she feel like she isn't in control of her speed? She's in good shape to fix that, with good instruction.
Unfortunately I don't know any female instructions in Europe to suggest to her. But once she finds someone to work with, she'll be happy because she will get able to stay more relaxed and to go slower on command.
Well, if you want to spend a little scratch, Lynn Mill in Val d'Isere, +33 6 38 25 83 04 call or text. But a lot less than you'd spend in the U.S. She coached my group at Rookie Academy in New Zealand for a week. Check out her reviews on Tripadvisor. She's happy to teach at all levels.
First make sure her boots are a snug, comfortable, warm fit. If the boots are loose nothing can go right.
Is there an ever flatter slope she can ski on? One were she feels OK standing more upright and looser without any concerns of going too fast? And she can loosen her arms, wave at you, move them about? The skier's arm position should be loose, able to move easily, and in the position the body naturally puts one's arms in for balance when walking on a really slick surface. Up, a bit in front, and a bit out to the sides. Always loose.
I'm sure you've told her that any up & down movement should be in the knees, not in the waist.
I've had good results with first day skiers who were getting good in their wedge turns learning about counter where they turn their upper body the opposite way they turn their skis. And angulation where they lighten the ski that will be on the inside of the next turn as they lean slightly above that outside ski. I used to teach two 2-hour lessons to skiers on their first day. The afternoon lesson, 2nd lesson of the day, was where we made great progress.
Is there an ever flatter slope she can ski on? One were she feels OK standing more upright and looser without any concerns of going too fast? And she can loosen her arms, wave at you, move them about? The skier's arm position should be loose, able to move easily, and in the position the body naturally puts one's arms in for balance when walking on a really slick surface. Up, a bit in front, and a bit out to the sides. Always loose.
I'm sure you've told her that any up & down movement should be in the knees, not in the waist.
I've had good results with first day skiers who were getting good in their wedge turns learning about counter where they turn their upper body the opposite way they turn their skis. And angulation where they lighten the ski that will be on the inside of the next turn as they lean slightly above that outside ski. I used to teach two 2-hour lessons to skiers on their first day. The afternoon lesson, 2nd lesson of the day, was where we made great progress.
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Looks like she’s been taught to move and lean out over the outside ski. I’m not sure it's worth even getting into it here for her development. I mean it works, till it doesn’t. (It’s not taught that way in the US for decades, but Europe I’ve seen it done)
Turning left, everything goes left, inside, not right or outside. At that level the movement is very slight.
Balance on the outside ski. If it sounds bizarre to balance on a foot without moving the body out over it, think about it. We do it every time we walk. We don’t normally walk leaning our bodies out over the stance foot.
Don’t become obsessed with arm/hand position. Hers are very good. I’d take away the poles. If there’s terror over that, (tells you they’re just tension holders), try holding them in the middle like a briefcase handle, horizontal. It’s just to relax the upper body. Poles are good for adults to carry so if they fall they can take a ski off.
Turning left, everything goes left, inside, not right or outside. At that level the movement is very slight.
Balance on the outside ski. If it sounds bizarre to balance on a foot without moving the body out over it, think about it. We do it every time we walk. We don’t normally walk leaning our bodies out over the stance foot.
Don’t become obsessed with arm/hand position. Hers are very good. I’d take away the poles. If there’s terror over that, (tells you they’re just tension holders), try holding them in the middle like a briefcase handle, horizontal. It’s just to relax the upper body. Poles are good for adults to carry so if they fall they can take a ski off.
Boots is ok
That was the first mistakes - too early they told her to skiing on the red slope.
Yes, she is tense
Yes, i say bend your knee
Now I think about Airplane drill , Wedge Christie and relaxation upper body (arms). January we will go to Alta Badia, Kronplatz for the wide and long blue slopes.
If this is her first time on ski, she did very well indeed. I have seen much worse.
Tony, rectification - first with husband, she was about 4 hours with instructors and about 25 days on the slopes but with big fear.
She is doing great, most important is that she enjoys it, the potential is there. Patience and more time on snow and she’d be fine.
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Just remember if you “bend the knee”, what happens is your butt goes backwards.
You want to flex at the ankle, then use the knee joint (bend it) to compensate. If you just flex the ankle, (close it), and not compensate with the knee, you end up in a ski jumper position.
This sounds simple, but the majority of new skiers become very discombobulated when you try to get them to flex their ankle just standing there. Like put the hand in front of the knee, and have them move the knee to your hand. Usually, they either can’t, (boot likely way too big or buckled too tight), or they lunge the whole body forward ski jumper fashion.
You can work on that just standing there in boots.
I agree very gentle terrain is the most important. If you ski with her on that, to make it interesting for you when you’re behind, try to make a fully parallel turn. It’s not easy on flat terrain going very slowly.
Yes - and the one thing I couldn't recommend enough is thousand steps, even on straight, flat cat-tracks. They helped me get rid of some of the tension. It was liberating. That, and "playing" like a kid. Taking some of the side hits on beginner groomers, etc -- all recommendations from instructors. We adults are very tense when we start.
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This is very interesting aspect for me. Can we to talk in my other topic?
Very important. This is tip/key for good instructor
Yeah, had a few of those in my time!
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Yeah and a lot of it goes to the poles.