Most recent 'breakthrough?'

[SkiMonster]

I was just posting in the "you know your skiing has improved..." thread, and got to wondering what big stumbling blocks/breakthroughs for other people have been. For me it was learning to trust myself and commit to a trail/turn/line instead of hesitating, or stopping and getting mentally stuck so I'm frozen by the side of the trail. (still happens once in a while, but not nearly like it used to... I'm embarrassed looking back :o )

What were some of the most important, pivotal things you remember learning?

oh, hah- and this is good for a laugh maybe; for me the FIRST "breakthrough," being as I grew up in a totally flat place and only saw pro skiers & snowboarders on TV, was understanding that you don't just go straight down. I tried snowboarding first, since I had surfed & thought it would be easier, but I just didn't get it. My husband kept telling me to go across the mountain, when I would fall; but I thought he just meant dig the board in across to stand up; so I'd get up and jump around pointing straight down again, and just go until I crashed When he took me skiing, he went backwards in front of me, and said things like "aim for that tree, now turn and aim for that rock" and it was like one of those cartoon lightbulbs went off. Why did I not get that before? :p

 

[Quiver Queen]

A couple of weeks ago I was skiing in Utah on huge concrete bumps in chopped up fairly heavy powder, and I'm not good at bumps and I'm intimidated by powder, so I was stiff and awkward. Then, abruptly, I realized the basics (hand position, weight distribution, etc.) still applied--I'd known this for a long time, but hadn't truly known it--and it's just skiing and I can ski. At the bottom of the run my husband, with no prompting, observed that something had changed and that he could see how relaxed and fluid I'd become. It seems so simple, but sometimes the brain just clicks.