Video feedback and BASI 1 starts

It’s never nice seeing yourself on video but when it’s combined with your fellow aspiring instructors pointing out the faults of your run, it’s even worse.

questionable fashion choice speeding bullet

I had an idea in my head of how I looked when I skied but the reality is more that of a 1980s ski video. All I am missing is the neon one piece suit.

The Warren Smith course that I am on makes extensive use of video feedback on two weekday evening sessions and I can already see the progress that I’ve made in just one week. My skis are cutting across the fall line more and I’m making more use of my poles to set up short radius turns.

We started this week at a very slow pace – zero speed in actual fact. We spent a morning of trying to turn in a tight space with no speed, the idea being to bring the use of our hip projection into our skiing and rotation of the thighs, rather than just flicking the skis into skiddy turns. I can tell you that this was more difficult than it sounds.

This progressed into lots of work on short to medium radius turns, the emphasis being on carving the short turn and making dollar signs down the fall line. Personally, I’m working on a wider stance while turning, a stronger left pole plant and driving the skis out of the end of the turn and into the next one.

Towards the end of the week, we spent a day working on our medium/GS turns, which was a great day of carving great big trenches in the piste over and over again. My superior bulk compared to my fellow gappies seemed to help keep me settled when cranked right over, although some credit must go to my new Head Supershape Magnums, which absolutely love that kind of stuff.

The course that we are on is pretty relaxed, although at some points this week it did feel a bit like a boot camp but there are two things that are sacred – the morning warm up and post ski stretching. For me, the stretching is a revelation - day after day, I wake up with no stiffness as you would with a regular ski holiday. We stretch on the lawn outside the hotel (much to the amusement of Saas passers by) for about 20-30 minutes and we each have individual areas that we pay special attention to in order to improve our performance up top.

Our BASI 1 course starts this week and I’ve spent my day off trying to re-learn how to snowplough again


published here