Skip to main content

Fun with Poles

I'm pretty sure this is from the wonderful Weems at edgechange.com

Reach for the pole plant. The toughest (read, scariest) thing for many skiers to do is to move the torso down the hill into the next turn. Yet the fluid linking of turns that results from this move is what makes good bump skiing happen. A great tool for moving your torso downhill is to reach, with the pole hand, straight down the hill towards the next turn’s pole plant while you’re still in the previous turn. If you reach early enough, the sensation will be like you’re “hand-walking” down the hill, and you will be totally ready for each successive turn.

Reach down the hill for the pole plant. You must be ready to make a 100- percent-committed move with the torso in order to keep up with and control the accelerating skis. If you plant the pole down the hill early, then your torso will be ready. (This is the same principle as for bumps, since each bump has a small steep on the downhill side.)

Put rhythm into your skiing. Sing a song, count the turns, trigger the rhythm with the poles—it doesn’t matter how you do it. Rhythm will carry you smoothly from turn to turn, through all the pitfalls, mistakes, and self-critiques that often derail non-rhythmical skiing. Let skiing be an elegant, artistic dance with the snow and the mountain. The rhythm will create it.

Touch, don’t plant, the pole. A jamming pole disrupts rhythm. Allow the pole to swing forward with the centrifugal force at the end of the turn. Touch it to the snow, then hang on to its handle so that it doesn’t drag back. And don’t load the pole. It is not there as a pivot point, a handle, a brake, or a safety bar; it’s there to help balance and time your turns.

Position the hands and arms forward, outward, and at waist height for balance.
Lift and spread the arms using the shoulder joint, with elbows bent, palms facing and tipped slightly upward, and poles held loosely. Imagine you’re carrying a giant beach ball. Having your hands lower than waist height is okay as long as you don’t let them drop back significantly. Holding them at higher than waist level, however, is a “de-balancing” move.

Move the hands with the turn. Push the inside hand/arm ahead to keep the inside half of the body strong and aligned. The outside hand/arm should rotate through the turn arc at the same speed as the legs.

Let the hands and arms float. If you hold them rigidly, the whole balancing system will fall apart.

This one is mine
Lead with your inside hand.  Keeping your inside (right hand on a right turn) ahead will keep keep your body aligned and ready for the next turn.

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

VAK - Visual, Auditory, Kinesthetic

Visual learners These students learn best by watching and imitating others. The following guidelines are helpful when teaching visual learners. • Ski well-executed demonstrations that illustrate the point. Be careful not to exaggerate and destroy the picture of good skiing. • Target the students’ attention to a certain part of your body or to particular movements.

Learning Styles – Doers, Feelers, Thinkers, Watchers

A learning style is the way a person’s sensory, perceptual, memorial, decision-making, and feedback mechanisms operate. Or more simply, the preferred technique to approach learning. Some students have a dominant style and others are comfortable in more than one. PSIA references different theories on learning styles, this is a classic one. Doers Values active experimentation Pragmatic, practical, functional Good problem solvers, work well with others Constantly active, doesn’t like being idle and gets frustrated with too much talking Learn by experimenting, trial and error Instructor should provide experiences that will guide the child Experiential learning is an effective method for all students

Ski good or eat wood

Ski good or eat wood. That’s only one of two mottos for White Grizzly Adventures , a cat skiing operation based in tiny Meadow Creek, British Columbia.  The other motto is considerably less family-friendly. I was a little excited to see the lodge sign... I should say, this was my first time ever cat skiing – it’s quite the splurge but can truly make a ski vacation a vacation – no worries, just lotsa skiing and eating (yes, we had sushi for lunch in the snowcat one day!). Appetizers.  Seriously.  The first question Carole asked when I called to give them my credit card - I’d already filled out about 3 pages of forms online! - was whether I’m an expert skier.  Did I know they ski steep, tight trees most of the time?  Did that sound fun?  Am I fit enough to ski a whole day without getting exhausted and increasing my chance of injury?  Um, yeah!!!  Epitome of a 'tree bomb'. Without a lot of wind, snow piles at the top of trees can be a problem. These stumps were more p