It’s the first day in February of 96. The temperature gauge in my Jeep says it’s 24 below zero. I could be doing a lot of different things today. But it’s rare to get two days in a row to ski with one of the D-Team Members in the Mid-West. The snow today at Afton should be great, and there is little wind predicted.

It’s the second annual PSIA-C Mini-Academy. Our guest coaches are Shawn Smith from Copper Mountain, Dave McCormick residing locally in Washbourne, Wisconsin, and from Alta, Utah, Scott Mathers.

I have known Scott since his first year on the demonstration team. That must go back seven years now. But this will be the first time that I will have the opportunity to spend two days with him. There were over 30 participant in this Mini-Academy. All were excited to be here, some a bit anxious about the cold. As it will turn out, today will be the warmer day.

Scott started out by discussing some philosophy that was familiar. “When you are in balance, you can positively effect all the skills. When out of balance, your ability to positively effect the skills is limited.”

Scott went on to mention that many thoughts of stance are rather static. How we flex, finding our optimum range in how and where our body works best, to stay in a better balanced stance would be things we would discover. Scott talked about having to move to maintain your optimal stance and this starts with how your boots are set up. He discussed that if your body strength or weight changes, your optimal boot set-up may also change.

At one of our Professional Development Series Dry-Land presentations, Harry Campbell mentioned how your canting may change as you develop your “skiing” muscles. Re-measuring as the season progresses may be necessary.

To start our discovery on how we move and to seek efficiency and relaxation, Scott had us take three runs. The first skiing very tall, yet with some flex in your joints. The second skiing very low, grabbing our poles in the middle. With the third, somewhere in between. The group discussed some of the positive attributes of skiing tall as being more relaxed. Those of being low were quickness to adjust, stronger and more edge engagement. I’m sure some were missed, but it’s cold outside! Checking for frost-bit was a must.

Scott gathered us in a circle and asked, “When we are standing up and we decide to make a movement forward, how do we start that forward movement?” Some said you move your hand first or your head. “No, that’s what you might move, but how do you actually start the movement of your body forward?” Another said, “You stop holding yourself up.”

“That’s it, you relax part of your body. What’s holding you up are apposing, tensing groups of muscles. To move forward you relax certain muscles that prevent you from collapsing forward. Then as your upper body begins to move (fall) forward, your feet begin to move to catch up, or you will fall over.” This theme would permeate throughout day.

Scott mentioned a characteristic of a good stance as light contact against the front of your boots. Loosing that contact negatively effects your balance and your ability to positively effect all of the skills. He wanted us to focus when moving with our skis and feet, to be relaxed. If we are too far back or ahead, we have a lot of muscle tension to hold ourselves up. If you move your body with your feet, you have more relaxation and freedom to adjust. Muscle tension reduces our ability for balancing adjustments. Your body moving with your feet, rather than too far ahead or behind the feet was a goal for this session, along with being relaxed.
Our next skiing task was to do some up-hill christys. Scott wanted us to start in a straight run, then relax the part of your body that is keeping you up and keeping you from falling forward. That is to relax to move ahead and move into the front of your boot as you begin the up-hill christy. Keep moving your body ahead with the ski as it turns.

As a corrective for some, he mentioned to relax into the front of the boot with the entire thigh. Have some control of your middle, don’t collapse at the waist and bend excessively over.

Quite a few were able to relax to move ahead into the front of the boot, then as the turn developed, they tensed their legs and stood up and back. Scott offered a tip, that as you start the up-hill christy and relax into the front of the boot, to cock the ankle, almost like raising the top of the foot into the boot. Keeping this ankle tension helps you stay forward and to keep the body ahead and moving with the feet. This worked for most of us.

Scott reminded us that we are primarily working on aligning ourselves with our skis. To be more efficient, relaxed and able to adjust. Not too far ahead or behind our feet.

He now wanted to challenge our balance. Scott had us skate across the hill, to move our body up and down the hill as we skated. He asked us to repeat the task and to do it slower, to allow ourselves to fall down the hill as we gently skated from the uphill ski. To relax into gravity. A few of us were aggressively pushing ourselves up and down the hill as we skated across the hill. We then did 1000 steps, relaxing into gravity with each change in turning direction. This made the transition into the new turn very effortless. Our upper body accurately “fell” into the new turn. Keeping contact against the front of the boots helped to direct this movement.

Next he wanted to challenge our stance by really allowing ourselves to fall forward and into the turn by relaxing our legs in the 1000 steps. But to also create some angles with our bodies to stay in the turn.

We refined this by doing parallel garlands and allowing ourselves to fall ahead into the turn, keeping contact against the front of our boots. This was followed by making parallel shuffle turns with the same focus of relaxing into the front of the boot in the direction of the new turn. We then made many parallel turns, trying to relax our legs, to release our edges and to allow the upper body to fall into the direction of the new turn. It worked well.

Scott summarized the morning session as establishing the sensation of relaxing the legs to allow gravity to pull you forward and laterally into the turn. He also hoped we knew how to relax, to allow these things to happen and to direct this movement.

For the afternoon, Scott wanted our focus to be how we develop angles to make it easier for us to fall down the hill at the turn transition. We traversed, picking up the up-hill ski. We focused on our effective balance zone, keeping that ability to adjust all of the skills and to react, many needed to be more countered and angulated with the uphill half of our body higher and ahead of our downhill half. This was necessary to keep the downhill ski on edge and to stay relaxed and reactive with our stance.

We repeated this traversing on the downhill ski through some bumps. This forced us to be more accurate with our alignment of our upper body to our feet, skis, direction of travel and the fall line. Scott mentioned to adjust the angles of our upper body over the downhill ski verses banking uphill. This was a twisting angulation (counter), facing our upper body and hips towards the bottom of the hill. To solidify this balanced stance we linked parallel turns with picking up the inside ski, setting it down, not falling on it at the end of the turn. Contact against the front of the boots helped as before.

To refine this we linked parallel turns, picking up the inside ski in the middle of the turn, with a focus of bending over the downhill ski as the turn completes. This should place the upper body into a twisting angulated stance. It sets the upper body up for better balance, and when you release, it’s directed into the new turn. Those who were losing contact against the front of their boots had difficulty finishing their turns without a lot of extra body English.
This next task was very helpful. Making parallel turns on the outside ski only. Stay on that ski to a traverse and link a garland into it. That is, finish the turn on the outside ski to a traverse, start a new turn on that same ski, but before you reach the fall line turn it back uphill in the same direction as the traverse. We must be countered and forward to be in balance to have the ability to adjust and to do this. Keeping the inside ski tip down on the snow helped. Remembering to relax the body and to allow it to fall into the turn or garland was reinforced.

Scott talked about the timing of our relaxation efforts. To relax when you are still in the arc, while gravity and centrifugal forces are still pulling you down the hill. Or to let go and relax when you are still heavy and feel a lot of resistance. Resist with the outside leg and let the properly aligned upper body go.

SUMMARY
Allow your body to move in harmony with your feet and skis. Allow the center of mass to move with and slightly ahead of your feet, to maintain relaxation and your ability to positively adjust all of the skills.

A lot of people feel they have to actively move/push themselves into the new turn. This is instead of allowing or letting the body move into the new turn by stopping your resistance to the old turn. Learn to relax.

This ends our first day, we learned a lot. It seemed to be a bit warmer than the -24 of the morning. But when I started up my Jeep, the thermometer only registered a -12!
The activities of our second day with Scott will be in the next issue or our newsletter. I hope this article offers some useful ideas for your own personal skiing and teaching. In the mean time, keep your head down and follow through.

Day Two

Day one with Scott Mathers at PSIA-C’s Mini-Academy was written about in the previous issue of our newsletter. This article will highlight many of the activities that we did under Scott’s guidance during the second day of the mini-academy at Afton Alps on February 2, 1996.

The second day started with a balmy -32 degrees. It dawned on me as I was waking to the chalet, that if it were 100 degrees warmer outside, I still couldn’t walk around in shorts and a tee shirt comfortably. It did however warm up to a balmy -14 in the sun at the end of the day! The cold was taking a tool on the group. We spent a good portion of the morning viewing some very good videos, waiting for the sun to warm things up a bit. Hot chocolate was the drink of choice.

When we did venture out, Scott announced that the theme for the day would center on rotary skills. That is, turning both feet against and under the upper body to get countered. We started with some tasks that were familiar to most of us, we did some side slips from a straight run. For those who were certified before the skills concept, it was the old side slip II test figure. This was followed by linking sideslips.

For both tasks, the upper body was to remain facing down hill, with all of the turning happening with the legs. There was considerable upper body activity in those who were too far back. Light contact against the front of the boots helped as usual.

We then did what Scott called “outside ski turns”. In a wedge we focused on turning the outside ski to its edge while facing downhill with the upper body. He really wanted us to focus hard on turning the outside leg against the upper body. This was helpful, for the next tasks started to get pretty interesting.

From a one ski straight run to a one-ski sideslip of the outside leg. Establish the sense of turning the outside leg against the upper body. Repeat with the other leg, making sure the leg you are standing on is the outside leg of the sideslip. This definitely helped to separate the turning (rotary) skills from edging skills. The upper body had to be moved forward at the sideslip and not into the hill to remain in balance. That light contact against the front of the boot helped again.

“Inside ski turns” were next on the agenda. Picking up the inside ski, steer it first to turn, creating a big divergence of the skis and a definite twisting action of the inside leg against the upper body. To stay in good balance, it helped to keep the inside tip down on the snow and that light contact against the front of booth boots. You can definitely feel this inside leg rotary activity pulling you into and through the turn. Timing is critical, you turn the inside leg first (almost), then the outside leg. This establishes the power of the inside leg activity.
Now for some really challenging inside leg sideslips. From a straight run, on one ski to a sideslip on the inside leg. Trying to keep the lifted outside leg pointed down the fall line and low to the snow helped balance and develop a better counter. You can easily isolate the feeling of the inside leg turning against the stable upper body. Many of us found the one leg straight run to side slipping exercises difficult. Especially if you tried to make the side slip a true one and not an uphill christy. There was considerable upper body English observed during these tasks. Private practice was needed by most.

We next reviewed linked hockey slips (one both feet), keeping contact against the front of both boots. Doing this in a narrow corridor, trying not to christy out of the fall line path. We blended these with contact directed against the inside corner of the boot, not just the front of the boot. This created a more rounded arc, but still very little edge. Rotary skills are still to dominate. Sensing booth legs turning against the upper body in every part of the arc.
Scott had us making short radius turns, feeling the outside leg, inside corner of the boot by the action of the ankle. Focusing low in the ankle developed a strong link to the ski.
Another run of short radios turns, feeling the inside leg, inside corner of the boot by the activity of its ankle. Scott mentioned to start this effort with the ankles very early in the turn. Our turns were becoming very crisp. Though the focus was still on rotary efforts of the ankles, edging activity was very high.

Now our short radios turns were back to focusing on the outside foot, but try to feel the pressure on the inside corner of the boot, creating that pressure higher up from the foot, create it from the knee. This was a little faster with the knee, unless you did it without any ankle contribution. If it was from both the knee and ankle, it was fast.

Next was to add the inside knee to create inside boot, inside corner light contact. Start it early! These short radius turns are becoming very dynamic! This activity of the inside knee pulls the upper body into the turn earlier than with the inside ankle. The group is looking pretty hot! Burn that frigid cold away!

Back to the outside leg focus in these short radius turns. Start the activity above the knee. Use the entire outside thigh. Squeeze the inside half of the outside thigh, to create contact against the inside corner of the outside boot. Got it?

Of course now you can guess what was next. Short radius turns, focus on the inside thigh, its outside half (relative to your body, not the turn) to create light contact against the outside cuff of the inside boot. Are you confused yet!? This really creates some powerful and dynamic angles of our body. This pulls the center off mass to the inside of the turn, verses a tipping of the upper body over into the inside of the turn.

Scott summarized what happened during these tasks were the development of some very accurate and isolated references for our senses. We could put it all together to steer some very rounded and powerful accurate arcs. One of his best tasks was a static exercise that he used to conclude the day. It reminded me of doing snow angels as a kid, but with only one leg flat to the snow.

Kneel on only your left knee. Extend the right leg straight out to the right. Keeping that leg straight, arcing that leg as far forward, then backward as you can. Keep the toe of your boot down and dragging into the snow as you make these arcs. With this task you can isolate the powerful steering action of the outside leg during the entire arc. This is much better than the standing up task we do in scribing an arc with the outside boot in the snow. The kneeling variation isolates the sensation better. I hope to see this repeated often as we teach our students the sensations of turning our legs.

It has always been a privilege to spend time with other great skiers like Scott. I always feel better about my skiing and learn valuable progressions for my students and peers. Race Camps, Children’s and Women’s Symposiums or Mini-Academies are offered to bring our nation’s best clinicians to our division. I hope you will consider these events to expand your skiing and teaching experiences.

Let me know if these articles are helpful. Trying to write about skiing experiences can be difficult and hopefully not to confusing.