What are your thoughts during your day of skiing?

[HighAngles]

Are you a technique obsessed skier?  I wonder how many skiers are considering what they're doing to make their skis turn on each and every turn and if they're also concerned about what they "look like" on the slope.  I figured this would be a good place discuss this topic since we have a nice cross section of PMTS and non-PMTS skiers alike. 

Do you go all out in trying to make your best turns on every run or are you there more for the enjoyment of the mountain and friends?

[bushwacka]

first I never care what I look like.

Depends on the day. Someday I may be working on something specifically and doing my own drills, somedays I am freeskiing with a focus. Someday I am running gates. Somedays I just go out and ski woods, some days I just go out and search for powder.

I am there for my own enjoyment but the better I am the better I can ski the more enjoyable it is.

[jbotti]

I like what HH has to say on this topic. When you ski you are practicing your skiing whether you think you are or not. So with that in mind, I am always focused on the things I know I need to focus on so that my "practice time" is engraining the right movements.

[meput]

I am focusing on technique/movements as I ski. If I am losing my mental focus as I ski, I get off the mountain. At the speed and terrain that I ski, I can not afford not to focus. The mental engagement on the skiing at the moment is what makes me enjoy skiing so much. The need to focus allows me to forget about all the other stuff in my life. The focus is my escape.

[dan.boisvert]

I usually ski with a focus on whatever the last thing was that a coach gave me to work on, but I'm also at a point where I've spent the past year or two rebuilding my skiing into a kind that sucks less, and I'm not out of the woods yet.  I'm hoping that at some point I can back off on the constant focus and enjoy the view a bit more.

I don't care what my skiing looks like; I care how well it works.  What's that saying I keep hearing from racers?  "It ain't a beauty contest.."? 

[Liam]

Ok,  first of all, I'll come clean:  I care about how I look when I ski...and contrary to the above denials, I doubt I am the only one (judging from the amount of widely posted internet video of some people here, these denials are somewhat laughable--you guys are down-right skiing exhibitionists!).

Secondly, as an Adult learner (like a few others here) I have had to negotiate between skiing for pure fun and making the time I ski productive (that is, working on and thinking about technique) to make up for lost time and actually get good enough to really enjoy the sport.

Last season, I made an active attempt to silence the 'coach inside my head' while I'm skiing.  I started by making as big of turns as I could in just about every situation (in some situations, these are still small turns!).  Then I spent as much time as possible looking at the terrain I was skiing and trying to find every interesting knoll, dip, bump, roll, I could spy and then ski over/ through/ off of it.  I try to remember skiing is a game, it's play time...but, I often have to focus on the playful aspect because that nagging internal coach grew so dominant.

Anyway, as I stretch out my turns, play with the landscape, try to make each run very different from the last (which, this season, takes some effort on a small mountain with less than stellar coverage!), my skiing gets better and better.

I haven't killed the inner coach, I still need him--after all, I'm still new enough to skiing that I need the feedback and corrective impulses to keep improving (and to truly own the improvements I've already made), but I actively try to focus on fun, creativity and the feel and the shape of the landscape before me as much as possible.

And sometimes I think about how I look skiing as well...

[jim-ratliff]

I too think about how I look skiing, but I've had to recognize that I really enjoy skiing in spite of the way that I look.

Seriously, I think that I'm just in it for the poetry.  The poetry of the frequent vistas of grandeur, the poetry of the fluffy layered pillow of snow resting on the boughs of the evergreen tree (see my avatar), the sense of poetic peace just from being outdoors and among the stillness of nature.  The poetry of skiing through some trees and seeing a porcupine feasting on pine cones at the base of a tree.  And, sometimes, the poetry of the feeling of near-flying, especially on those trails that have some rollers where you are going down through the valley and up over the ridge.  The poetry of the adventure of getting off into the woods (but not Josh's kind) and just becoming a little bit one with nature and the feeling that you have the woods to yourself.

There is also a sense of wanting to ski "better" and it is productive to spend a little bit of each day doing some drills, but I don't think I'm obsessed with technique. 

[ToddW]

[snip] and I'm not out of the woods yet.

Hanging out with Josh and Lynn? 

[HighAngles]

So I have to admit that what prompted this thread is that I think I've become a bit too technique obsessed and I'm losing some of the joy of skiing.  I've even found myself looking down at my skis while I'm skiing and that's pretty much the "kiss of death" for my skiing - all kinds of things start going wrong if I'm looking down.  I have to make a concerted effort to go with just "feeling" my skiing since I can't really look at it while I'm doing it.

There have even been days when I'm skiing alone that I gravitate toward skiing under chairlifts to make sure somebody is getting some entertainment out of me being there skiing (whatever entertainment that might be!).

I guess in the end my goal is to get "good skiing" internalized enough in my movements that I just go ski and that's that.  Maybe it's just human nature to continually be pressing for improvement in the activities we pursue.

[midwif]

I find it helpful to do some drills at the beginning of each ski day to get my legs and feet
"in tune".

I do spend time during the day thinking about different parts of the turn.
Sometimes I am more "conscious" of skiing than other times.

And when in tight spots, do what I need to not hit a tree or have a serious collision.

Like Jim, those moments of stopping, looking around  at the vistas or listening to the hushed quiet
of the woods are some of the sweetest moments in skiing.

Those rare times, when you feel like you are skiing effortlessly but also with acute awareness, are the ones I strive.

I remember those times when running. They could never be programmed, but would just appear. Being completely in the moment and one with your body. Aaaahhhh.

L.

[dan.boisvert]

Hanging out with Josh and Lynn?

As often as possible!

(besides, then I can use "tactics" as an excuse for making crap turns, which is a harder sell on a boulevard-wide groomer..) 

[ToddW]

At my limited ability level, I need to be constantly aware of my movements.  Sometimes it's just a background kinesthetic self-awareness and other times it's a deliberate planning of movements or drills.  Both kinds of skiing are fun.  When I'm in the zone, it seems like the whole universe contracts to a small region containing my skis, my legs, my hips, the wind in my face, and nothing else.  Total focus ... cool.  The feel of sucking up and tilting the downhill ski to go upside down on a steep, firm slope is the best.  When at rest, I delight in watching sunsets in the mountains and the occasional good skier or hardboot snowboarder.

I am slow to hear advice from others.  But starting last April at 'Tux, Jasper, Geoffda, Harald, Max S., Walter, and Diana have all given me the same new single most important move:  CA.  Eventually the message got through my thick skull -- could they all be wrong?    So, I've been thinking about early CA in many of my turns for the last 30-40 days.  This focus has made skiing more fun, so it's worth it.  Especially with the firmer surfaces the East has seen this year.

Someone mentioned skiing for the lift crowds.  I have to admit that I'm generally unaware of the humans up in the chairs.  That awareness would require more spare cognitive power than I generally have when skiing.  To me, lifts are a succession of gates that don't yield if you hit them 

[bushwacka]

we were videoing some demos yesterday morning. This a really realization I am curious if others have felt the same.

When I sucked at skiing I always felt good, and as I get better I always feel like ****.

3-5 years ago I always felt as if I was skiing in good way, but I really was nt video showed that. Now I always feel like I suck but when I watch the video its is actually pretty good sometimes better than anyone else not all the time but sometimes. It still feel like crap most of the time.  Meaning that even though I feel like my skiing sucks, it has actually gotten much better.

[HighAngles]

bush - we've talk about that quite a bit on the PMTS forum.  The feeling that everything you're doing is "wrong", but it's because those "better" movements are not yet your natural movements.  When it feels really weird you're probably onto something.

[jim-ratliff]

we were videoing some demos yesterday morning. This a really realization I am curious if others have felt the same.

When I sucked at skiing I always felt good, and as I get better I always feel like ****.

3-5 years ago I always felt as if I was skiing in good way, but I really was nt video showed that. Now I always feel like I suck but when I watch the video its is actually pretty good sometimes better than anyone else not all the time but sometimes. It still feel like crap most of the time.  Meaning that even though I feel like my skiing sucks, it has actually gotten much better.

I also find this true in most everything I get involved with. The more knowledgeable you become about a subject, the more you realize how little you know. The better your turns on blue terrain get, the more you realize how much work you need in order to make those same turns on black trails.

And, sort of along that same vein, I heard a radio spot on the way to work this morning that studied people reactions to spending more than 10 minutes a day looking at themselves in a mirror; they begin to like themselves less and become slightly depressed. And these are people who started the study saying they were happy with their looks.  Maybe it's human nature -- whenever we put something under the microscope too much we tend to focus on the negative and ignore the positive.

If only I had video of how I skied 10 years ago, I would be a much happier guy.

How many of us ever stop to reflect on how much our skiing (or biking or golf) has improved in the last 3 years?