Outdoor on-snow workshop
The title of the Danish outdoor on-snow workshop that I attended was, "The Lost Art of Patience – Round Turn Shape as Good Skiing"
Delivered by Jacob Elgaard
The title of this workshop certainly piqued my interest and I had been following the Danish team's preparations for Interski 2023 very closely. The demo team were trained by the Austrian Patrick Bätz who is one of the best technical skiers posting on social media these days and the face of St. Anton am Arlberg. I was impressed by the Danes standard of skiing and that combined with this important 'technical' topic of 'patience' meant I wanted to be a part of this workshop. The content really resonated with me as I often spend time with my learners working on patience, gradual, and continuous movements. While this particular session focused on high performance skiing it was equally applicable to all levels of performance. We had plenty of skiing time and did some great drills. It was also awesome and inspiring to ski with some amazing skiers from other nations.
So why might patience be considered a lost art? And what was the important message here that the Danish team were wanting to convey?
In my opinion there are several aspects of skiing that could be considered a 'lost art' such as pole planting! But, I agree that patience with the first part, or even half, of the turn is something that is a challenge at all levels of skiing. Many intermediate skiers are so focused on getting their skis through the fall line and pointing the other way that they never give the first part of the turn a chance to develop. Others seem to speed up their movements to coincide with an increase in speed. Instructors entering the certification pathway can be very guilty of the latter. And there is often a pre occupation with edging and getting to as high an angle as possible as quickly as possible. So, my conclusion from attending this workshop and chatting with other participants (in terms of the key message the Danes wanted to convey) is that as instructors we need to encourage gradual and progressive movements which involves all of the steering elements: rotation, pressure and edging and in particular remember that edging is a process that involves both an increase and decrease in angle (something that also came out of the Argentinian workshop).
To read the full report of the Danish on-snow workshop and their excellent indoor lecture titled Cooperative Learning: Involving the guests in the teaching process to enhance the experience download the Congress ebook report for your favourite ereader. The report is FREE on my store, Google Play, and Amazon.com where it has been price matched to zero.
About the author
Derek Tate is an alpine skiing coach and director of British Alpine Ski School Chamonix. He is a mental skills coach, positive psychology practitioner and author. His recent books include, "Six Steps for Training the Mind", "Learn, Enjoy, Flow & Grow" and "Transformational Flow Coaching". You can learn more from his author page.
And to listen to Derek's Interski 2023 Review on The Ski Instructor Podcast with host Dave Burrows click on the relevant podcast link:
Comments