liquidfeet
Ski Diva Extraordinaire
@newbieM, thanks for those answers. They can help people know where you're coming from so they can gear their responses to your specific situation.
I'm going to pick a few things you just said to respond to. Your words are in red.
1. Your fear and rigidity come from lack of speed control.
I get scared... freak out a bit... my body positioning is too rigid so it’s just all tense ...tense muscles.
--It sounds like you cannot go slow enough to purge the fear. Your skis take off on their own. Learning to go slow has to happen before learning to go fast for everyone. You can't skip that step. Your body is telling you with its rigidity and fatigue that your speed is out of control, and your mind is telling you this with its fear and panic. The fear is legitimate. It's protecting you. Once you are able to go slow, once you have real speed control, your rigidity and fatigue and fear will fall away. You will be able to feel confident and safe. Learn to go slow before learning to go fast.
2. Purge the speed, not the fear.
I want effortless speed... not be scared by speed but just embrace it... to feel comfortable with an appropriate amount of speed for the terrain and still feel in control
--Going fast effortlessly is something to look forward to later as your skills increase. Asking for effortless and fearless speed now is premature.
--Your current fear is legitimate. It's telling you your speed is too fast. Listen to that fear. You need to learn to go slow, not learn to go fast. Going slow is a technique thing.
--Your next learning step is to learn how to go slow without fatigue or fear. The solution is not to purge your fear so you can go fast effortlessly. That's something that comes much later in your learning curve, years later. Right now you need to learn how to go slower. I know I'm repeating myself, but it's a very important fact about how we learn to ski.
3. Your lack of speed control is a technique issue. It can be fixed with better technique. Fix your technique.
I sometimes find I gain speed so I stop and then start again. I can’t usually do a whole run without stopping... the turning feels like hard work.... working too hard through the turns.
--Learning to go slow will purge the fatigue and the fear and the rigidity that accompanies fear. It sounds like right now you are gaining speed on every run. Your body goes rigid because of the fear that comes from skis not doing what you tell them to do. This fear is good. Better technique will get your skis to do what you tell them to do, give you confidence, purge the rigidity, and help eliminate the fatigue and breathlessness. You can find that effortlessness you seek when you ski with better technique.
4. What technique issues need to be addressed?
4a. You probably need to get out of "the back seat."
my legs get tired... This is all on the easiest greens... I just get tired... it’s so much work... working too hard through the turns... turning feels like hard work
--Beginner's fatigue is often in large part caused by skiing with hips too far back over the tails of the skis. You are probably skiing "in the back seat." This is normal. Your large quad muscles in your thighs are working hard holding your body in a squatted position (known as the "toilet seat position"), demanding an enormous amount of oxygen, and consequently getting you out of breath. When more of your body weight is over the back of the skis, the fronts of the skis are light on the snow; they are not helping you to turn. So your turns are uncertain, wobbly, likely to not work very well. This leaves the poor skier legitimately insecure and afraid because some turns work but others don't. This is not imaginary, it's real.
Solution: Stand up taller and bend forward at the ankles; these actions will move your hips forward from where they usually are as you ski.
--Stand tall to bring your hips up. Bend forward at the ankles, with shins contacting the tongues of your boots, to bring the hips forward. This stance will feel insecure at first. But it's absolutely essential.This will help you get the fronts of your skis pressed down onto the snow. The control that's available when skiing with this stance will take more than an hour of deliberate practice. It will take lots of days on skis with this specific focus. The easier the terrain, the lower the pitch, the easier it will be for your body to discover that it can control your skis better from a "forward" position (not back seat), with ankles bent forward and hips up higher. Work on this exclusively on beginner terrain.
--Note: do not swing your arms as we do when walking and running. Keep them hovering forward as if holding a cafeteria tray. Weird, I know. Just do it. That's pounds of body weight forward over the fronts of the skis.
4b. You probably need to complete your turns.
I sometimes find I gain speed so I stop and then start again. I can’t usually do a whole run without stopping.
--Gaining speed comes from not completing turns. This is a major reason beginners need to stop mid-run. "Completing the turn" means you get your skis to point across the hill at the end of every single turn. Every Single Turn. The skis will take you directly across the trail instead of down it so they will slow down as they do this. Work on getting the skis to point ever-so-slightly uphill at the end of each turn. This will stop the skis from taking you for a long ride across the hill. This is an essential skill.
--Completing turns can be difficult for beginner skiers who are in the back seat. The tails of the skis are not powerful enough on their own to shape the turns this way; the fronts of the skis need to be involved.
4c. You may be using "upper body rotation" to turn. If you suspect you are doing this, take a lesson to learn how to turn without using the upper body that way.
--It can be impossible to complete turns if the skier makes the turns happen by turning the shoulders and hips first. This is called using "upper body rotation." It's a common problem for beginners because it's an easy way to start each turn, and it works. To complete turns using upper body rotation, you'd have to turn your shoulders to look uphill at the end of each turn. That's awkward, and throws balance off, and is obviously not how other skiers ski. Upper-body-rotation skiers gain speed because they can't complete their turns.
--Take a lesson if you think you are turning your shoulders (and hips) to face the new direction in order to get the turn to work. How to start a turn is a big deal and using the upper body shuts down learning the better way to start your turns.
5. Learning to go slow must be done on friendly low-pitch terrain where fear is not present. Work on getting out of the back seat and completing your turns on the beginner slope.
I get scared of perceived steepness...
--We all get scared when our minds recognize danger. That's good; it protects us. So, use the beginner slope to practice staying out of the back seat and completing your turns. Monitor your perceived fear. Keep at both of those new skills until the fear is gone. No one can learn a new body movement pattern when their mind is trying to save them from a threat. Fear inhibits learning. Fear causes body rigidity and brain fuzz. You and everyone else needs to work on new stuff where you feel fearless.
"Speed before Pitch"
--This is a general rule of building skills in skiing. Ramp up the speed on that beginner terrain once you can go snail-slow -- before heading to anything with more pitch. Go faster before going steeper.
--Go faster by not completing the turns as much. Turn completion controls speed, on all terrain, always. Monitor your fear and rigidity. If the fear/rigidity comes back as you speed up on the beginner slope, go back to completing your turns more. Be able to go a bit faster on the beginner slope without fear, and without stopping before the lift, before heading up to terrain with a bit more pitch.
--Increase pitch slowly, always completing turns and trying to go so slow that you can stop between each turn at any point.
6. Knowing you can slow waay down between each turn on a green or blue pitch will eliminate the fear.
--This is your ultimate goal. If you know you can complete your turns on a pitch, then you can speed up. You will know you are in total control of your speed, not the pitch. You may even discover "effortlessness" comes to you.
--One day when you have become an "advanced" skier, this will still be your goal - to get on increasingly challenging terrain while controlling your speed so as to purge the fear.
--The call to do this never goes away. It's a big part of skiing.
I'm going to pick a few things you just said to respond to. Your words are in red.
1. Your fear and rigidity come from lack of speed control.
I get scared... freak out a bit... my body positioning is too rigid so it’s just all tense ...tense muscles.
--It sounds like you cannot go slow enough to purge the fear. Your skis take off on their own. Learning to go slow has to happen before learning to go fast for everyone. You can't skip that step. Your body is telling you with its rigidity and fatigue that your speed is out of control, and your mind is telling you this with its fear and panic. The fear is legitimate. It's protecting you. Once you are able to go slow, once you have real speed control, your rigidity and fatigue and fear will fall away. You will be able to feel confident and safe. Learn to go slow before learning to go fast.
2. Purge the speed, not the fear.
I want effortless speed... not be scared by speed but just embrace it... to feel comfortable with an appropriate amount of speed for the terrain and still feel in control
--Going fast effortlessly is something to look forward to later as your skills increase. Asking for effortless and fearless speed now is premature.
--Your current fear is legitimate. It's telling you your speed is too fast. Listen to that fear. You need to learn to go slow, not learn to go fast. Going slow is a technique thing.
--Your next learning step is to learn how to go slow without fatigue or fear. The solution is not to purge your fear so you can go fast effortlessly. That's something that comes much later in your learning curve, years later. Right now you need to learn how to go slower. I know I'm repeating myself, but it's a very important fact about how we learn to ski.
3. Your lack of speed control is a technique issue. It can be fixed with better technique. Fix your technique.
I sometimes find I gain speed so I stop and then start again. I can’t usually do a whole run without stopping... the turning feels like hard work.... working too hard through the turns.
--Learning to go slow will purge the fatigue and the fear and the rigidity that accompanies fear. It sounds like right now you are gaining speed on every run. Your body goes rigid because of the fear that comes from skis not doing what you tell them to do. This fear is good. Better technique will get your skis to do what you tell them to do, give you confidence, purge the rigidity, and help eliminate the fatigue and breathlessness. You can find that effortlessness you seek when you ski with better technique.
4. What technique issues need to be addressed?
4a. You probably need to get out of "the back seat."
my legs get tired... This is all on the easiest greens... I just get tired... it’s so much work... working too hard through the turns... turning feels like hard work
--Beginner's fatigue is often in large part caused by skiing with hips too far back over the tails of the skis. You are probably skiing "in the back seat." This is normal. Your large quad muscles in your thighs are working hard holding your body in a squatted position (known as the "toilet seat position"), demanding an enormous amount of oxygen, and consequently getting you out of breath. When more of your body weight is over the back of the skis, the fronts of the skis are light on the snow; they are not helping you to turn. So your turns are uncertain, wobbly, likely to not work very well. This leaves the poor skier legitimately insecure and afraid because some turns work but others don't. This is not imaginary, it's real.
Solution: Stand up taller and bend forward at the ankles; these actions will move your hips forward from where they usually are as you ski.
--Stand tall to bring your hips up. Bend forward at the ankles, with shins contacting the tongues of your boots, to bring the hips forward. This stance will feel insecure at first. But it's absolutely essential.This will help you get the fronts of your skis pressed down onto the snow. The control that's available when skiing with this stance will take more than an hour of deliberate practice. It will take lots of days on skis with this specific focus. The easier the terrain, the lower the pitch, the easier it will be for your body to discover that it can control your skis better from a "forward" position (not back seat), with ankles bent forward and hips up higher. Work on this exclusively on beginner terrain.
--Note: do not swing your arms as we do when walking and running. Keep them hovering forward as if holding a cafeteria tray. Weird, I know. Just do it. That's pounds of body weight forward over the fronts of the skis.
4b. You probably need to complete your turns.
I sometimes find I gain speed so I stop and then start again. I can’t usually do a whole run without stopping.
--Gaining speed comes from not completing turns. This is a major reason beginners need to stop mid-run. "Completing the turn" means you get your skis to point across the hill at the end of every single turn. Every Single Turn. The skis will take you directly across the trail instead of down it so they will slow down as they do this. Work on getting the skis to point ever-so-slightly uphill at the end of each turn. This will stop the skis from taking you for a long ride across the hill. This is an essential skill.
--Completing turns can be difficult for beginner skiers who are in the back seat. The tails of the skis are not powerful enough on their own to shape the turns this way; the fronts of the skis need to be involved.
4c. You may be using "upper body rotation" to turn. If you suspect you are doing this, take a lesson to learn how to turn without using the upper body that way.
--It can be impossible to complete turns if the skier makes the turns happen by turning the shoulders and hips first. This is called using "upper body rotation." It's a common problem for beginners because it's an easy way to start each turn, and it works. To complete turns using upper body rotation, you'd have to turn your shoulders to look uphill at the end of each turn. That's awkward, and throws balance off, and is obviously not how other skiers ski. Upper-body-rotation skiers gain speed because they can't complete their turns.
--Take a lesson if you think you are turning your shoulders (and hips) to face the new direction in order to get the turn to work. How to start a turn is a big deal and using the upper body shuts down learning the better way to start your turns.
5. Learning to go slow must be done on friendly low-pitch terrain where fear is not present. Work on getting out of the back seat and completing your turns on the beginner slope.
I get scared of perceived steepness...
--We all get scared when our minds recognize danger. That's good; it protects us. So, use the beginner slope to practice staying out of the back seat and completing your turns. Monitor your perceived fear. Keep at both of those new skills until the fear is gone. No one can learn a new body movement pattern when their mind is trying to save them from a threat. Fear inhibits learning. Fear causes body rigidity and brain fuzz. You and everyone else needs to work on new stuff where you feel fearless.
"Speed before Pitch"
--This is a general rule of building skills in skiing. Ramp up the speed on that beginner terrain once you can go snail-slow -- before heading to anything with more pitch. Go faster before going steeper.
--Go faster by not completing the turns as much. Turn completion controls speed, on all terrain, always. Monitor your fear and rigidity. If the fear/rigidity comes back as you speed up on the beginner slope, go back to completing your turns more. Be able to go a bit faster on the beginner slope without fear, and without stopping before the lift, before heading up to terrain with a bit more pitch.
--Increase pitch slowly, always completing turns and trying to go so slow that you can stop between each turn at any point.
6. Knowing you can slow waay down between each turn on a green or blue pitch will eliminate the fear.
--This is your ultimate goal. If you know you can complete your turns on a pitch, then you can speed up. You will know you are in total control of your speed, not the pitch. You may even discover "effortlessness" comes to you.
--One day when you have become an "advanced" skier, this will still be your goal - to get on increasingly challenging terrain while controlling your speed so as to purge the fear.
--The call to do this never goes away. It's a big part of skiing.
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