Diva Ski Tips

Since you are a ski instructor, you likely learned to ski many years ago. That feeling of uncertainty at the sight of the long slog down the beginner trail is a distant memory to you. For our students, it is foremost in their minds when they start sliding down the hill. One of the best ways to understand your students’ feelings, and therefore be able to help them be successful in the lesson, is to become a student yourself. I’m not talking about taking a ski lesson; we all know we can be successful in that or you wouldn’t be reading this blog. I’m suggesting you try an entirely new sport, with new skills and situations that will help you empathize with your students once you return to the snow. Hey, you might even have fun while you do it. This past summer I took whitewater kayaking lessons with Liquid Adventures Kayaking School . I had a couple of lessons last year and a couple of rolling sessions this year, on flat water. Wave-free, no current, and very non-threatening water conditio...

Every season I’ve taught skiing but one I have been preparing for or taking an exam.  The only season I didn’t, I was opening a $500 million museum on Pennsylvania Avenue in Washington, D.C. Thanks to the help of my fellow divas, friends, family and my trainers I earned a gold pin.  While I’m proud that I finally got here, I’m not sure what to do now.  I’m a very goal and deadline oriented person.  This time last year I had posted to this blog 55 times.  My whole season of prep was planned and my technical director and ski school director signed off on it. This year I’ve been adjusting to a new, challenging (in a good way) job and racing cross.  Side note: Cyclocross is a great activity to keep your fitness up going into the season and have a good time in the dirt and with friends. I know that I want to keep improving as a skier and teacher.  How can I do that with out a target to aim at? Some of my closet friends are on the examiner track so...

The weather is crisp - well, and raining here.  Are you ready for the season?  I'm already doing a bunch of the physical fitness parts of early season success.  But in addition to raking leaves, there's some homebound tasks I need to complete before my season starts on December 1st at training.  Guess I'd better get these done during the dark days of November. My to do list: Find my boots in the basement.  They are somewhere behind the bike wheels, spare tires, rags, boxes of powdered drink mixes and camping gear.  somewhere. Try them on and call my bootfitter if I need to.  It's always easier to get work done in November than the week before Christmas. Find some skis, get the bindings set , wax 'em, tune them.  We left our skis in pretty good shape after our late Spring Utah trip last year, but I also picked up a new pair and we have a bit of switching around to do. Find poles .  Seems these are easy to forget the first trip of the s...

Here in the Mid-Atlantic, our ski season is short, our goals are high, and most of us have full-time jobs, families, pets, and other hobbies that impinge upon the ability to ski every day of the winter on man-made snow in Pennsylvania with 600 feet (generously counting) of vertical drop.  Ski season is coming (2 months!) - if you want to hit your goals this year, you'd better start now.  You have goals, right?  Set yourself up for success.  Don't be just a winter athlete .  It just doesn't work like that. 1)  Find a fall sport that gets you strong and builds aerobic capacity.   Picture December 27th, the Monday after Christmas.  Hundreds of beginner children show up with new skis.  The people at 3pm paid just as much as the morning folks - do you want to be the one to let them down?  Are you going to be that instructor ... you know, the one that stands at the bottom of the class, yelling at them, rolling their eyes and sauntering...

I've spent a lot of time trying to correct this thing when I would just shove my hips to the side to edge by skis then I dumped by body inside. To fix this, I spent a lot of time working on edging from the feet up. Caveat: It’s pretty common for people to do this and move purely laterally. Make sure your instructions and demos emphasize forward and diagonal movement. Also, keep an eye out and fix it quickly. Start statically by rolling the uphill instep towards the little toe. You might have to point out where the instep is. You can enhance this by moving to the corner of the boot. I try this out using a garland moving from the corner one boot to the other. You will likely see students try to twist the ski instead of tipping it. Remind students that we want to tip the ski before we twist it. Then I bring up the focus to the thigh. Moving the thigh forward and inside the turn will draw the hips and upper body inside. Thanks to the Elk guy who taught me this and helped me m...

I love teaching bumps. I’m a recovering bump-a-phobe. Learning lots of tactics and tricks really helped me love them. I like to think I can help someone make a similar breakthrough. This post has general ideas on teaching bumps. But I’d like to talk about how I develop tactics and skills before I take someone in there. My mom’s family is from New York and they love their bagels with a heaping mass of cream cheese. A cheese knife, spreader or what we call a “schmearer” is a key piece of equipment. The flat blade easily spreads cream cheese or peanut butter. I like to ski bumps like I use a schmearer by standing tall and keeping the edge angle low. This makes it easier for my legs to steer my skis and create nice “C” shaped turns. Standing tall gives us the added bonus of lots of room to flex and extend later. You can pair students up and ask the follower to watch the tips. Are the tips leading the tails? Are the tips pointing across the hill before they change direction? Once...

I like to use the zones of the foot as a way to get students to feel where they are balanced and play with different movements to keep them in balance. The credit for this goes to a certain terrific teacher from Elk Mountain. Introduce the zones I draw a foot in the snow and explain: Zone 1 is the toes Zone 2 is the arch Zone 3 is the heel I ask students what they feel in each zone and what it looks like. Ski it, what zone are you in? Often students will tell you they are in zone 1.  When most will be in zone 3.  To match perception and reality pair students up and ask the follower what the zone their partner is in or give feedback directly. Explore zones to feel and see different outcomes If you have some time, you can try skiing in zone 1 then zone 3 to see and feel how it affects what you can and can’t do. Then try zone 2. In zone 2 you are centered over the skis and able to move fore/aft to make necessary corrections. How do we get t...