Lack of mileage, lessons, practice, or bought the wrong gear?

[marzNC]

This article is a bit of a ramble by a 30-something woman who had skied blues in more than one place but didn't have a good time skiing after buying her first pair of boots as well as skis. Brings up some food for thought about how learning may change with age, and other ideas related to why learning to ski isn't can be harder than it looks.

March 19, 2022

What It’s Like to Get Worse at Something

I had been skiing since childhood. Why was I suddenly bad at it?

www.theatlantic.com

 

[liquidfeet]

The author of this article is working from many misunderstandings about how people develop as skiers. She has spent a little bit of time skiing and is telling stories about her limited experiences. She exaggerates to entertain her readers and make the stories funny. She succeeds in being funny.

But beyond the funny chuckle moments, there is nothing in the article that hits me as informational about either skiing or learning. I am probably being too critical of a piece meant simply to entertain.

So, lack of mileage, YES; lack of lessons, YES; misunderstanding of what practice consists of, YES; and wrong boots and skis, YES. You nailed it, @marzNC.

 

[Christy]

She only skied "7 or 8" times outside of some trips to the bunny hill as a kid? She was a beginner lol.

What I kind of like about this, though, was that it's unusual to encounter a woman that overestimates her abilities. That's such a guy thing. It was kind of refreshing to read this.

 

[marzNC]

The article's author wrote a book called "Weird: The Power of Being an Outsider in an Insider World" so she probably has a slightly off-kilter world view. Sounds like a pretty interesting read.

https://bookshop.org/books/weird-the-power-of-being-an-outsider-in-an-insider-world/9780316418478

 

[Pequenita]

She only skied "7 or 8" times outside of some trips to the bunny hill as a kid? She was a beginner lol

I read the story earlier this week and thought the same thing.

 

[liquidfeet]

She writes early in the article “I’ve skied many times before.” Evidently she thinks 7 or 8 times is a lot, and claims she is an intermediate.

One more thing she does not know, among all the other things she does not know, is that snow changes. If she knows only one way to turn, and if her balance is iffy which is most probably the case given her lack of experience on snow, she will be very wobbly when her skis encounter a snow with a different consistency than she is used to. She will feel like she's forgotten how to ski.

 

[Iwannaski]

I read it from a slightly different perspective. One thing that is really consistent is that as our prefrontal cortex matures, we get better at telling ourselves no. My guess is that when she skied as a younger person, she was more fearless, and that the increased “judgement” she has really affected her ability to learn.

Struggling with that fear sometimes myself, I think it’s actually a great perspective to hear someone else have a struggle.

This week, when husband looked at the slope he had just skied from the gondola, he was startled by how steep it was. If he hadn’t already skied it, i think it would have been harder/scarier.

Fear is not always rational, but it’s always real?

 

[Knitjenious]

She writes early in the article “I’ve skied many times before.” Evidently she thinks 7 or 8 times is a lot, and claims she is an intermediate.

This made me laugh a little (at myself) as I was recently reflecting on the couple of ski days I did with friends in my late 20s on my sister-in-law's 15-year-old gear where I felt like I must have been pretty good because I could make it down a couple blue hills! I did a ski day with one of those friends this year, who has maybe skied 3-4x since that day in our 20s (cough 15 years ago cough.) Watching her perma-wedge, I realized what a NOT good skier I was back then, but we somehow had fun nonetheless. But for people who are not SKIERS, having skied 7-8 times does maybe seem like a fair amount of experience.

The last 4 years of starting to ski in earnest (lessons; skiing 8-10 days a year and now more like 15-18 days) have been a journey from unconscious incompetence to conscious incompetence. I would say I am genuinely intermediate now. But still so far from fully competent.

 

[Amie H]

I enjoyed this article, and agree with what many of you have already brought up.

Some interesting points; thanks for sharing it, @marzNC

 

[liquidfeet]

The article's author wrote a book called "Weird: The Power of Being an Outsider in an Insider World" so she probably has a slightly off-kilter world view. Sounds like a pretty interesting read.

https://bookshop.org/books/weird-the-power-of-being-an-outsider-in-an-insider-world/9780316418478

Agree, this book by the same author looks like it should be interesting. I'm interested in reading it.

 

[floatingyardsale]

I read it from a slightly different perspective. One thing that is really consistent is that as our prefrontal cortex matures, we get better at telling ourselves no. My guess is that when she skied as a younger person, she was more fearless, and that the increased “judgement” she has really affected her ability to learn.

Struggling with that fear sometimes myself, I think it’s actually a great perspective to hear someone else have a struggle.

This week, when husband looked at the slope he had just skied from the gondola, he was startled by how steep it was. If he hadn’t already skied it, i think it would have been harder/scarier.

Fear is not always rational, but it’s always real?

Also, little kids can feel quite accomplished with fairly inefficient technique. My 5yo is pretty good for a 5yo. She's capable of doing turns that have just a slight wedge, and you can see the difference in stance and body language and control between her and a 5yo who is just beginning. She's either singing or howling like a wolf when she skis.

But she still straightline wedges when she gets lazy or tired, but as a 40 pound kid, she can get away with that. She's just not going to pick up that much speed on 100cm skis on a blue groomer. If conditions are right she can ski some of the easier blacks at Snowbasin. There is literally no way I could get down a fast black diamond gully in a power wedge and feel happy and in control.

It wouldn't surprise me if the author remembers feeling like skiing was fun and that she was in control, and that she remembered exactly how she used to ski. It just doesn't work in an adult woman's body.