Question: Speed control for beginners/intemediate?

[marzNC]

from 2016
Most of the suggestions come from pretty experience instructors. I had a private lesson with snoWYmonkey at JH a few years ago as an advanced skier. Learned a lot! Hoping to get a chance to ski a little with skisailor at Big Sky this season when she isn't giving a lesson. First time I went to Big Sky was for a Diva West and she was part of the group.

While most beginners/intermediates can improve technique at any size ski area, those who can swing a trip to a big mountain shouldn't hesitate and think they need to wait until they are better skiers. Green and easy blue groomers that are long slopes make it much easier to add the necessary mileage to gain confidence and move to the next level. Doesn't matter if you've been skiing on and off for decades or if you're a beginner who has just started.

 

[marzNC]

This thread from 2014 has good info for advanced beginners and intermediates. Wanders about a bit in terms of topics, but good comments from instructors (Ursula, skisailor, SkiBam, Jilly, Volklgirl).

https://www.theskidiva.com/forums/index.php?threads/tips-for-narrow-runs.18810

 

[marzNC]

@liquidfeet wrote up ideas based on retraining the "co-pilot" in a beginner's head in a recent thread started by a beginner and mother in the UK. Good stuff!

https://www.theskidiva.com/forums/index.php?threads/please-help.23468/page-3#post-380141

" . . .
How far ahead are you looking? Can you see your skis as you ski? You should be looking fare enough ahead so that the tips of your skis are not visible. But many people look closer than that, and sometimes people look right down at the skis. Something is telling them this is safer, but it isn't. It means they can't see where they are going and they can't plan ahead. So it's unsafe.

Here's why I ask. It sounds like your inner copilot, the one whose job is to keep you upright on two legs and balanced, is telling you it's unsafe to proceed. So your legs freeze. I'm not sure, but I think this is probably the case.

We all have that inner copilot. It learns what "balanced" means on dryland, beginning when we are toddlers starting to walk. It keeps adding information about what will keep us from falling as we grow and encounter new balancing challenges. But almost all that learning the inner copilot does is on dryland, where our feet are stuck to the surface beneath them. It's management of our balance works fine on dryland.

But when we learn to ski, that copilot needs to be retrained. The old dryland tactics don't work on snow. They make the skier fall down.
. . ."

 

[catherinajoe]

As to the shooting across the hill, it sounds like you never actually flattened both skis out to allow the skid, so you ended up traversing across on both uphill edges. Have you learned hockey stops yet?

One thing I'm seeing with people learning on the newer skis and the "direct to parallel" movement is that newer skiers never learn the Christie phase of the turn and can't learn to scrub speed as the terrain gets steeper.

Exactly what I thought.