BMR
Ski Diva Extraordinaire
I got sick and tired of my husband 'teaching' me (you may recall my gripes from seasons past, lol) and booked us both a private lesson this past Sunday. It was THE best thing ever for a couple of reasons. Reason one, we both got a lot out of it. Reason two (and the more important one, haha) is that it was humbling for my husband who realized that just because he skis faster and is more adventurous does not mean he is better. SWEET!
It was supposed to be raining that day, but when I woke up and saw nice and clear skies I called up the office and asked for the same instructor I had a private lesson with at the beginning of the season. She was not working that day, but they recommended a different instructor who was apparently very popular. The office asked me about our level and what we wanted to work on. I said we ski all blues comfortably, blacks less comfortably when conditions are not ideal but quite comfortably when it is not icy. Wanted to work on upper-lower body separation, bumps, and hubby wanted to work on carving. They said we will love this instructor, and so I booked a 3-hr lesson with Justin. We left the kids at the condo and went.
First, Justin asked us what we usually ski. We told him we usually warm up on the blues down here and then go to the peaks and would do the blues and blacks there. So with that we went up to our warm up blues and he had us ski a bit while skiing around us watching. First comment out of his mouth: "Wow, you guys really undersold yourselves, you can actually ski!" It was so great to hear... until I started thinking yeah right, he is just saying that to be encouraging, all instructors say good things before digging in, lol. Then he proceeded to say "however, we can always improve, no matter how well we ski", and the work began. First things first, pivot slips. We did it in my previous lesson early in the season, but for some reason I never practiced past the lesson. I should have. Husband was just as bad as me. It was funny, Justin demonstrated, I tried first, it was not pretty. Asked husband, can you do these? He said, yes, of course, and proceeded to NOT be able to do it. LOL. We eventually got it, and it is easier on steeper pitches.
Then we went into the bumps. OMG, that was hard. They were not small bumps, they were huge. Perhaps Justin should have started us on smaller ones, but he did not. We could traverse them, but actually turning was a bit dicy, and we fell a bunch of times, yard sales everywhere. Problem: when flying up on top of a bump we ended up in the back seat and did not correct for that making it harder to turn. We were somewhat more successful with smaller bumps.
After we had enough of the bumps he suggested we try one of the blacks. It is one of the steeper blacks on the mountain, and we do it from time to time, but get defensive on it when it is icy. He started us out with pivot slips. Reason: to get us used to staying in a narrow corridor of snow to stay off the icy middle portion. It is amazing how that one drill is so incredibly helpful. I am going to do it every single morning as a warmup. After pivot slipping for a bit I was able to do short dynamic turns with rhythmical pole plants all the way down, no defensiveness, feeling completely confident and in control. That was my best black run ever. Hooray!
We finished off the lesson with doing some one-legged skiing (both skis still on) on a green run to get used to balancing on the new outside ski sooner. He suggested we try and do this any time it is flat, while traversing, etc, just to make a good use of these sections instead of just cruising. On the subject of carving... Hubby was obsessed with wanting to do it, but Justin set him straight. There is a time and a place for doing that, but it is not on every terrain and not in all conditions. We did a bit, but personally, it was not too helpful because yeah, ok, I get wanting to do it but it is not a goal of mine, and I don't like to go fast anyway.
Overall, such a great lesson. Hubby noticed a huge difference in my skiing, and he himself learned a ton and was very humbled. I am glad. He needed to be taken down a notch to slow down and take it down to the fundamentals instead of just going fast all the time. As everyone always says, speed hides a multitude of sins.
It was supposed to be raining that day, but when I woke up and saw nice and clear skies I called up the office and asked for the same instructor I had a private lesson with at the beginning of the season. She was not working that day, but they recommended a different instructor who was apparently very popular. The office asked me about our level and what we wanted to work on. I said we ski all blues comfortably, blacks less comfortably when conditions are not ideal but quite comfortably when it is not icy. Wanted to work on upper-lower body separation, bumps, and hubby wanted to work on carving. They said we will love this instructor, and so I booked a 3-hr lesson with Justin. We left the kids at the condo and went.
First, Justin asked us what we usually ski. We told him we usually warm up on the blues down here and then go to the peaks and would do the blues and blacks there. So with that we went up to our warm up blues and he had us ski a bit while skiing around us watching. First comment out of his mouth: "Wow, you guys really undersold yourselves, you can actually ski!" It was so great to hear... until I started thinking yeah right, he is just saying that to be encouraging, all instructors say good things before digging in, lol. Then he proceeded to say "however, we can always improve, no matter how well we ski", and the work began. First things first, pivot slips. We did it in my previous lesson early in the season, but for some reason I never practiced past the lesson. I should have. Husband was just as bad as me. It was funny, Justin demonstrated, I tried first, it was not pretty. Asked husband, can you do these? He said, yes, of course, and proceeded to NOT be able to do it. LOL. We eventually got it, and it is easier on steeper pitches.
Then we went into the bumps. OMG, that was hard. They were not small bumps, they were huge. Perhaps Justin should have started us on smaller ones, but he did not. We could traverse them, but actually turning was a bit dicy, and we fell a bunch of times, yard sales everywhere. Problem: when flying up on top of a bump we ended up in the back seat and did not correct for that making it harder to turn. We were somewhat more successful with smaller bumps.
After we had enough of the bumps he suggested we try one of the blacks. It is one of the steeper blacks on the mountain, and we do it from time to time, but get defensive on it when it is icy. He started us out with pivot slips. Reason: to get us used to staying in a narrow corridor of snow to stay off the icy middle portion. It is amazing how that one drill is so incredibly helpful. I am going to do it every single morning as a warmup. After pivot slipping for a bit I was able to do short dynamic turns with rhythmical pole plants all the way down, no defensiveness, feeling completely confident and in control. That was my best black run ever. Hooray!
We finished off the lesson with doing some one-legged skiing (both skis still on) on a green run to get used to balancing on the new outside ski sooner. He suggested we try and do this any time it is flat, while traversing, etc, just to make a good use of these sections instead of just cruising. On the subject of carving... Hubby was obsessed with wanting to do it, but Justin set him straight. There is a time and a place for doing that, but it is not on every terrain and not in all conditions. We did a bit, but personally, it was not too helpful because yeah, ok, I get wanting to do it but it is not a goal of mine, and I don't like to go fast anyway.
Overall, such a great lesson. Hubby noticed a huge difference in my skiing, and he himself learned a ton and was very humbled. I am glad. He needed to be taken down a notch to slow down and take it down to the fundamentals instead of just going fast all the time. As everyone always says, speed hides a multitude of sins.
