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What motivates you to improve your skiing?

liquidfeet

Ski Diva Extraordinaire
There are so many reasons. I'm wondering how many different motivations there are.
If you are working on improving your skiing, what's your purpose in doing that?

... to confidently keep up speed-wise with friends/family?
... to confidently ski more challenging terrain where family/friends often ski?
... obsessed with doing well on the terrain you already ski?
... a desire to become an expert ... just because?


Other.....?
 

kiki

Angel Diva
Good question. I want to enjoy fresh air and scenery while getting some exercise, and feel comfortable and safe doing so. I want to ski without terror or knee pain. Improving my skills will (hopefully!) facilitate that.
 

Tvan

Angel Diva
I want to age actively and with a measure of grace. Its the same reason I run 3 days a week, take Pilates and do weights in the gym. Also, I live in the Northeast. A quarter of the year is cold and snowy - having something fu to do outside is a necessity for sanity.
 

HikenSki

Angel Diva
What motivates me to improve is to be stronger and more confident to tackle more challenging terrain. Being able to keep up with others is nice, but I am more concerned about getting down safely while also having fun. By improving, I can explore more terrain, and often get away from some of the crowds.
 

newboots

Angel Diva
Most of you have beaten me to it: to enjoy it more, to ski without injuries, to exercise in the winter. To be in the mountains. To meet up with/run into friends. To have a reason to love the snow!
 

liquidfeet

Ski Diva Extraordinaire
Here's a way to expand the conversation, if anyone wants to think about improvement in this alternative way.

Assuming you are seeking improvement (I'm aware that not everyone is), do you ever realize that you have stopped "improving" --- and are now just skiing for fun at a stable skill level??

If you stop improving and progressing towards that motivating goal you were originally seeking, are you OK with that? How do you deal with lack of progress? (I assume this happens to all of us.)
 

badger

Ski Diva Extraordinaire
For me, the desire to improve is directly related to what I may be struggling with on a frequent basis. If I find myself repeating a bad habit too often, I then attempt to address it seriously.
 

alison wong

Angel Diva
... to confidently keep up speed-wise with friends/family?
... to confidently ski more challenging terrain where family/friends often ski?
... obsessed with doing well on the terrain you already ski?
... a desire to become an expert ... just because?

None of the above.

My main reason (initially) to ski better is because of my poor sense of direction and I am not good at reading maps. When I started skiing, I only have 1 ski friend (Eunice), her sense of direction is very good but she does not like to travel far for ski trips.

So if I go to a place on my own, I don't want to get lost, end up in some gnarly terrains and don't know how to get myself out of it.... Therefore, I need to "up my game". Hence my motivation. (I figure it's impossible to work on my sense of direction at this stage of my life.)

As I ski more days, I realize my knee joints start to hurt very bad. Then I added 2nd motivation, I need to improve my form and have better body alignment, to preserve my aging joints. (Learned that from swimming, having a poor form can "strain" my joints, and I don't want the same problem w/ skiing).

Guess I am the odd one out in terms of reasons for motivations.
 

SkiBam

Angel Diva
Interesting question. I fear I'm getting to an age where I just want to keep being able to ski. I'm well aware that I will likely have to slow down, take it easier and all that. Maybe not quite yet though!

I doubt there's a huge amount of improvement in my future, but I hope that by working on good technique and all that, I'll be able to ski well into my old (and older) age. Hope so.

One thing that in the past has truly motivated me is seeing video of myself. That can be such an eye-opener and has encouraged me to improve.
 

DeeSki

Ski Diva Extraordinaire
What @Kimmyt says but also because the better I ski, the more fun I have. That said, I do sometime have to remind myself I ski for fun.

@alison wong you’re not alone. Part of my motivation is also to be able to get down anything in one piece without feeling terrified. I’m a hopeless map reader and I almost always get lost. I think I actually have more or less achieved this. Now I’d also like to have fun doing it.

I guess this all falls into the become an expert just because category. I fear it’s a slightly perfectionist and not terribly helpful personality trait.
 

Olesya Chornoguz

Ski Diva Extraordinaire
I like to challenge myself, safely of course. Skiing challenging terrain well or skiing well in difficult snow/visibility conditions feels like an accomplishment to me and it is fun. I also want to ski challenging terrain safely and have fun doing it. I am less concerned about what I look like doing it as long as I am enjoying it. But it is likely that if I am enjoying it I am skiing well, with a good form so it is all connected.

Skiing longer days with less fatigue comes with better technique. I also enjoy lessons and learning so taking lessons to improve my skiing is a no brainer for me. I hope I won't stop improving anytime soon, and I take a lot of lessons every season to ensure that. I have a lot to improve on, even though I more or less got to the point of being an advanced skier, maybe somewhat tentative, but with good technique. What I like about skiing is that the improvement is never ending no matter what stage of skiing you are at.
 

KBee

Angel Diva
At this point, I just want to have fun, keep from getting injured, and keep up with the kid. Not really sure how to do that, but I do take lessons. I do like the idea of longer days with less fatigue! Also apparently need steeper, deeper, and faster to keep up with the little guy.
 

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