Apply the Five Fundamentals to further develop your mastery of skiing. ADVANCED skiing drills for ski instructors.
Show me what you can do – Nice! OK how many other ways can you do that?? In my view, truly expert skiers have in their repertoire the ability to make… micro, short, long and medium radius turns – and they can do THAT using variations & combos such as: carve, pivot, skid, stem, wedge, speed up, slow down, stop on a dime, crank, jam, rotate, counter rotate, pivot, check, block, lever, hop, step, transfer weight, ski one footed, ski two footed, turn in the air, in the mush, float thru pow or drive thru crust, hold an edge on the ice or shape a turn as they let ‘em slide, lead change early late or not at all. Holy smokes!!! In other words, they have really high levels of adaptability and versatility. And these drills can help YOU get there.
Purpose: This set of drills was pulled together for use by ski instructors to improve their advanced skier’s precision and versatility/agility, and thus develop their ability to vary technique on demand – a key mark mark of a truly expert instructor. When you’re free skiing, its all about having more choices in your toolbox, and when you’re teaching, to give you ideas for a spectrum of pathways you might use to meet whatever development needs or goals a guest might present.
In practice: Safety first!! Warm up your mind and body first. Unless specified otherwise, start on an easy pitch with moderate speed… picking appropriate conditions is a core skill of any good instructor – so apply that to yourself! Consider traffic and visibility, especially if a drill involves using the whole slope (traverses, garlands, wide radius turns), one-legged skiing or higher speeds. Or any unusual move that might surprise a skier coming up behind you. I remind you of this because I know from personal experience that there is a tendency to get absorbed in the challenge of the drill, which is good – but that can risk you diminishing your normally strong situational awareness. Have some fun with the learning process – many drills are very challenging and even a bit disorienting at first, its ok to experiment. Be aware that some ski schools may frown on you doing these sorts of drills in uniform (gasp, an instructor learning or practicing, OMG!!), so check it out first. One more uniform-related caveat – drills are not “correct skiing” per se, as they typically exaggerate or constrain a particular element of skiing to help you develop greater range and precision in your ability to adjust to task and terrain.
Focus: Your focus should be on experimenting with the new choices for movement that each drill is designed to shape or even force, breaking up automaticity and walking-based default movement patterns that we all have to some extent.
Being ready to do it: Be sure any skier (you included) trying these out has per-requisite skills in place for the drill – the purpose is to expand and refine skills, not teach/ re-enforce poor or defensive habits! If you’re unsure, watch it on video if available (I’m working toward having one or more video link per drill), consider getting a coach, or enroll in a clinic. **Please do not attempt these exercises unless you are skiing at Level Seven or above, or Level 2 or Level 3 instructor. Questions by email are welcome – charles@skibetter.pro
I’ve used the PSIA National Standards Telemark Fundamentals to group them by focus, though many of the drills with small modifications can be used for advancing capabilities in a different fundamental. Several progressions begin where the first step could be accessible to advanced intermediates – but quickly go into advanced skill territory. All assume a solid level of skill development across all the Fundamentals is in place. Again, these drills are intended for advanced skiers or Level 2 or Level 3 instructors.
Please keep in mind that though it is organized by PSIA’s Fundamentals, this is NOT some in any way some sort of “official” list.
Many drills could arguably be put in more than one category as by definition, skiing is at some level done through some combination of the five fundamentals. A given drill will foreground or stretch one or two of those fundamentals. The names of the drills listed are not important, many have multiple names. You may very well have done one or more of these, great! Are there any that you’ve not tried, or that present an interesting variation or focus for a drill you have done before? If you have a favorite that you think would add to the list and are willing to share it, please reach out so we can discuss and share the good stuff!
Please email charles@skibetter.pro if you’d like a copy of this list of drills.