Your "Aha!" moment

[snoWYmonkey]

Great thread! I'm working on thinking positively about my skiing in between the usual efforts to complete my turns and stay forward over my skis. Aha moment about pole placement was to think about the tops of the poles like flashlights. Women's Alpine Adventure Clinic at Okemo, January 2022.

Shine up the path down the hill! I use falshlight analogies as well.

 

[jthree]

Shine up the path down the hill! I use falshlight analogies as well.

Oh! I like that! I feel like my pole placement improved after seeing a Deb Armstrong video where she talked about using your wrists to move the poles, and keeping your hands steady.

I also feel like I don't have huge aha moments but little things along the way. This was my third year of taking multi-week lessons at a local mountain with the same instructor (who is a PSIA level 3). Even though some of the advice and lessons are repeats I feel like some of these I'm finally getting. One of the things this year is "drive the inside knee". I remember her talking about this last year, but only this year it really clicked for me.

Also I had a recent realization about side slipping and getting the skis completely flat. I thought this was a basic skill I had mastered until last week when we were doing it in powder-- really hard to keep it going!

 

[marzNC]

Slightly off topic but feels relevant for people who choose to improve their skiing by taking lessons, as many of the posters in this thread have. Following some of the suggestions in the article might mean more Aha! Moments during a lesson.

November 2015

How to get the most out of a lesson. | The Ski Diva

I remember once telling a non-skiing friend that I was going to take a lesson. “Why?” she said. “Don’t you already know how to ski?” Well, yeah, I do. And yeah, I don’t, too. Skiing is one of those things that the more you know, the more you realize how much you don’t know. Which sounds kind...

www.theskidiva.com

 

[Eera]

Relaxing and not fighting the snow; I didn't realise how tense I was until husband filmed me and I looked like a Lego figurine!

 

[scandium]

Would love to hear any of these that stick out to you as well!

Probably the big gradual realisation is that I move my upper body much, much more than I think I do and my lower body much, much less. That's what always surprises me in the rare videos I get of myself, because that's the thing that I can't "feel" in the same way as balance, edging etc.

 

[floatingyardsale]

I've had a couple of AHA's this season.

The good:
-Feeling the sensation of making a round turn, which to me feels like my feet are going WAY out to the side at the turn inititation. (I'm sure it's quite small).
-Feeling my feet roll within the boot to control the edging. I was skiing slowly behind the kid parade and just made a series of turns with what felt like nothing more than my ankles.

The excellent:
-Borrowed, then bought a pair of 73 waist width carving skis and I love them so much. I thought based on their description they'd be too much ski. But man, they like to go fast! I am *catching up* to people on runs now and completely re-evaluating what I thought was fun in skiing.

The weird:
- I'm noticing that I can keep pressure on my left shin with very little effort, but that pressure on my right shin is very much an on/off thing still. It's like I'm in the backseat on only one leg.

 

[jumperlass]

Reading these reinforces how much I have yet to learn! I don’t understand how to use my poles, really, despite having watched Deb Armstrong’s video. (I watched videos out of order, so now I have practiced flicking with my wrist, but I still don’t know why/when to use my poles.) Nonetheless, my big aha this year was just how much of a difference it makes when I really commit to staying forward and then trust myself to be able to handle my turns. I need to stay out of my head. (apparently, singing the Star Wars theme to myself helps, too.) As of this year I’ve safely skied every green and blue non-glade trail on my home mountain. And I enjoyed them! I wasn’t fighting panic; I had fun. Next year I need a lesson so I can learn to ski the glades. I need to try the black single diamond trails on some least-icy day.

Next year I want to get the Indy Pass and finally go further than fifteen miles from home to ski. Try some new places and unfamiliar trails and views.

 

[Jilly]

Before you start in the glades learn what those poles are for besides pushing you around. A basic parallel lesson will do that.

 

[jumperlass]

Before you start in the glades learn what those poles are for besides pushing you around. A basic parallel lesson will do that.

Yeah, i figured the glades are a good ways off. But I’m trying to arrange my work life to allow for a two hour lesson midweek every few weeks, so I hope to progress faster next year.

 

[Jilly]

Yeah, i figured the glades are a good ways off. But I’m trying to arrange my work life to allow for a two hour lesson midweek every few weeks, so I hope to progress faster next year.

That would be perfect....

 

[volklgirl]

I’ve had 2, and both were from the same clinician/coach.

The first was “parallel shins”. That rolls your inside knee into the third and out of the way, gives both skis similar edge angles, and stops the inside hip from getting stuck at the end of the turn.
The second one was to ski part of a run, stop, and immediately close your eyes and make your hands do exactly what your feet and legs just did. Continue the hand and arm motions while slowly opening your eyes. Efficient and active carvers should see their hands roll to equal edges clos to center chest, remaining on that edge as the arm work way out to the side, then back to the chest where the edge change should happen. Being able to physically see what your feet are feeling really helps with technique analysts and problem correction.

 

[flyingsquirrel]

I have an incredible story about this!!

Last season, I was skiing alone in Deer Valley and met an incredible older gentleman (I believe he was in his 80s) on the lift who lived in Utah full time during the season. We got to talking and he found out that it was something like my 8th or 9th day skiing and decided that he wanted to watch how I skiied for himself. We went down Nabob together and stopped at the end of a pitch where he drew my turning arc in the snow and told me I should be more confident in spending more time with my skis facing straight down the mountain before initiating a turn to get a better S-Curve rather than turning swiftly at sharp angles.

He skiied away after that but that was a definite "aha" moment for me throughout the rest of the day as I focused on not being afraid of picking up some speed and turning smoother. I tell this story to my friends a lot, and we refer to him fondly as my ski-god-fairy.

 

[liquidfeet]

What a great story.

 

[Jilly]

Sometimes it takes everything being said in a different way to make you understand. There is one example and one success.

 

[flyingsquirrel]

Sometimes it takes everything being said in a different way to make you understand. There is one example and one success.

1000%

I had heard that feedback in a different way previously, but the advice to be more confident in my ability to make a turn at the right time rather than immediately somehow meant a lot more coming from a stranger. That was also the day I started skiing trees and groomed blacks, so it definitely made a huge difference, even mentally.

 

[Skidreamer]

This season I've been telling myself "Stop fighting your gear!". I've got the right skis, boots, etc, there are no excuses, I have to remind myself that all my gear is there to help me, they're my ultimate support crew! All the amazing design, passion and technology which goes into the creation of ski gear today, just gobsmacking. Also, the sound of icy snow scares me, but one instructor said a few years ago to our whole group, yes it looks icy and it sounds icy today but it's actually not. And most days, it's not! I'm learning to trust my edges to hold. What else? Starting to feel your amazing skis feel like they are running on rails when you get really coordinated in your turns. And having the confidence to actually lean down the hill and realise it actually gives you more control, not less. So many learnings. Long may they continue!

 

[liquidfeet]

... And having the confidence to actually lean down the hill and realise it actually gives you more control, not less. ....

That's a big one.

 

[SallyCat]

Last summer I achieved much better control riding my mountain bike by getting better at keeping my weight over the bottom bracket, primarily through using a hip hinge. That winter, the hinge thing transferred to my skiing without any conscious thought or effort. It gave me a ton more control and confidence. That, plus taking up snowboarding; I think the combo of the two things (bottom bracket-centered weight and the body positions of boarding) Just translated perfectly to skiing.

The other thing is that I got sick of being frustrated by slow progress. I decided the ski season was short, time off work was precious, and my goal would be 100% to have fun and nothing else. I ignored my gear, didn't take any lessons, didn't watch or read tutorials, etc. I just shifted to a completely play-based mindset. Except for it being a pretty lousy snow year, I had great fun every time I was on the mountain.

 

[EdithP]

My AHA! moment started with realising that I am really pushing the stance ski away during turns (which means I do not have my weight on it). I have heard that before, but there came a moment I finally saw it (on video) and felt it. From that moment on my work has become specifically focussed on this issue. Though, hey, very hard to fix! Thank you @liquidfeet for patiently advising on remedies. Still working on it (on a rolling carpet) .

 

[Matro]

Can someone discuss the ankle closing thing a bit more? I thought that actively dorsiflexing at ankles was a good thing, in order to keep shins forward. Maybe its good to think about this on the more weighted ski during part of a turn?