Drills: fun, work or both?

[piggyslayer]

An interesting posts on the Carver Camp thread, including excellent intro to Jaegermeister and yodeling by Ott have raised a question: Drills, how much is too much?

Here is an opposite point of view to the one presented by Rusty and Ott:
We all heard statements like this: ?The top part of this hill is OK but I hate the bottom part, it is boring and flat, I wish there where lifts starting mid-way.?.

I notice that skiers who say things like that are not that good. And, what is most important, they admit to NOT HAVING FUN. You have a choice of being bored or challenging yourself with drills.

I do not think drills are boring, I think they are fun. Drills are work and fun.
The point Rusty and Ott have made is that there is something like overdoing it. Is it? I wonder what people think about it. Why would going left and right be fun, but going left and right on one leg would not be?

In his article on realskiers web site Harald has defined what Expert skier is. Here is a proposed definition of EXPERT SKIER APTITUDE TEST:

You have answered 3 in the above pool.

[Ott Gangl]

>>> You have a choice of being bored or challenging yourself with drills. <<<

Why not just ski the flat part of the hill? As long as your skis are moving foward on their own you are skiing and if they don't move forward on their own you can always skate. Personally I don't find any part of skiing boring, though I must admit that long cat track skiing to get from one part of the mountain to the other, where I am constantly making gentle turns so that my skis are somewhat on edge (I do this mostly to avoid my skis getting stuck in ruts left by skier who straightlined the cat track) can get tiring.

But if you WANT to do drills that is great, but once you own the maneuver you are drilling for you should not need to drill it anymore.

Just my opinion, please don't let it sound like I'm looking down on doing drills, because practice makes perfect, or so they say, at least it can't hurt.

And you are right, they can be fun.

....Ott

[John Mason]

I relate my skiing experience to another sport I took up late and got quite good at. Over time, in this other sport, I moved from 3 to 1 as I'm sure will also happen in my skiing.

While I'm still in the "discovery mode" in my skiing, even when I'm skiing just for fun, I'll be dual purposing - ie - playing with a new idea while I ski.

For instance, I've been plagued for some time with a difference between my left and right turns. This was apparent to me even in my just fun skiing times. Now that I have a tool to fix that problem, even when I'm skiing just for fun, I'm actually going to be thinking about and feedbacking some on my turns to the left, till the new movement patterns are into my muscle memory.

Then some other aspect about my skiing will move to the fore and I'll work on that. Even when I'm skiing for fun, I'll probably be aware of that. In my racquetball, this improvement/awareness process took about 5 years. Even then, I still drill the basics in that sport just to keep focused - but it's not needed like it used to be. If I was doing racquetball competitively, though, the drill to fun ratio would be reversed again.

[John Mason]

But if you WANT to do drills that is great, but once you own the maneuver you are drilling for you should not need to drill it anymore.

....Ott

Yes, at some point the movement pattern is committed to muscle memory, becomes habit, and that particullar drill is not that relevant anymore.

Then you can up the ante and work on the next more difficult drill. (like one ski in short radius turns equally well with either leg)

[Hobbit]

Hi Piggyslayer,

Your poll is missing the option that I would like to choose:

I do the drills on carvers and I have more fun skiing.

I think that there is some misconception about the carvers because many people view them as a ?summer time? toy to chaise their ski blues away. After attending the carvers camp I am convinced that carvers are the main ski season drills tool. In a one hour practice on carvers you may accomplish more than doing the drills on the slope for the whole day. On the carvers you are getting instant feedback and the movement patterns you are practicing are directly transferred to skiing.

[milesb]

Yes, Hobbit, I thought that was the whole point of the carvers, to have a cheap easy way to be able to get the practice time, so that the expensive inconvenient ski time can be used for fun.
It's supposed to be the skiers' equivalent of the golfer's putting into a coffee cup in the office.

[piggyslayer]

Hobbit,
I totally agree this is good option, but it seems I have no option to add a poll question, edit does not let me to add, besides it would be not fair for people who already voted.

I think carvers are MUCH MORE than summer conditioning tool.
I agree with most what SkierSynergy friend wrote in the other thread. Carvers are FUN, they feel like skis, they require the same movements, and they are not substitute teacher, they are on many level THE teacher for me. In some respects they feel more like skis than ... well skis.

I use them now at nite after work, I will use them in winter in addition to skiing. And I wish I was at that camp....

My point is also that to do good skiing on the snow you have to pay attention on what you are doing and that is like a drill.
I try to focus an an aspect of my skiing with almost each turn, on carvers or on skis. And this is FUN for me.

Robert

[John Mason]

In some respects they feel more like skis than ... well skis.

I "carvered" last night and my prior outing - 6 days prior - was on skis. For those who have not used carvers, I will give my take on what "piggykiller" just said.

On skis you can twist, cheat, stem entry or whatever. On Carvers, only very clean movement patterns that work with balance rather than disturb balance work. They are like skis that carve very very well.

My brother, who is just learning skiing, carvered with me last night. He had reviewed the videos and it was neat watching him 'have' to use the correct moves to get the things to respond.

[skier_j]

I relate my skiing experience to another sport I took up late and got quite good at. Over time, in this other sport, I moved from 3 to 1 as I'm sure will also happen in my skiing.

While I'm still in the "discovery mode" in my skiing, even when I'm skiing just for fun, I'll be dual purposing - ie - playing with a new idea while I ski.

For instance, I've been plagued for some time with a difference between my left and right turns. This was apparent to me even in my just fun skiing times. Now that I have a tool to fix that problem, even when I'm skiing just for fun, I'm actually going to be thinking about and feedbacking some on my turns to the left, till the new movement patterns are into my muscle memory.

Then some other aspect about my skiing will move to the fore and I'll work on that. Even when I'm skiing for fun, I'll probably be aware of that. In my racquetball, this improvement/awareness process took about 5 years. Even then, I still drill the basics in that sport just to keep focused - but it's not needed like it used to be. If I was doing racquetball competitively, though, the drill to fun ratio would be reversed again.

This is BY FAR AND AWAY your best post IMHO!!

Some insight into the man behind the drills!!

Get the patterns down man---and go ski!

BTW with mileage and ---as you say---feedbacking---or awarness, you will make the disparity between sides lessen to the point of nearly disappearing!

Bravo John!