The conversion and realization of PSIA instructors

[h.harb]

Here is a letter I received, self explanatory. Most PSIA followers are just going along for the ride and playing the PSIA game. They know they will never get better and they are Ok with that. Mediocrity and self; low level praise, is enough from them. There are some out there however, that do want to learn and go to a level way beyond what PSIA offers.

Harald,

I have been meaning to write you for quite awhile. I have to say that the tech camp was amazing. No clinics or psia events that I have attended have ever made such a difference in my skiing. I really worked on my hand positions and countering this winter. It was an incredible feeling to be standing over the downhill ski and having it hold on steeps. I was able to really get confident on the steeps this winter and ski them with speed. My mountain’s clinician noticed the difference from the first weekend of the season. He continually gave me compliments that I kept improving all winter. My son who competed in freestyle skiing finally went skiing with me near the end of the season. He said I occasionally was skiing at level 3. So I know I have improved so much.

At Hunter this year I ended up on one of their double diamonds and I just kept to my plan and I couldn’t believe how much better I skied it. Thank you!

Whenever I worked on keeping my skis close together the feeling was incredible. I can’t believe the response in the skis when I did that. Next season I will be working on that now that I have the countering down. I even worked with my friend who want level 2 with her hand position and countering. When she did it it made such a difference.

The last day of my season I was concentrating on tipping the skis (the O) on the diamond with large mounds of spring snow. It worked wonderfully. I have a lot to build on and you gave me a great foundation.

When I filled out my Psia-e survey they asked if I did any clinics. I told them I did a non psia clinic ( and which one it was) and how it changed my skiing and how I wish I could get that with them. I have had great examiners at the Snow Pro Jam at Killington but your clinic and system is far above anything else I have ever attended.

At the end of the season I tried to implement some of the teaching into my lesson and brushing the ski in from the wedge. It worked with the kids.

I am getting married in May, so I am not sure if I will be able to attend next year.( wedding expenses). I want to come back and hopefully one season I will. Skiing at A-basin with you was the highlight of my season. I feel incredibly blessed to have skied with you. I can’t thank you enough for what you do and how you helped me improve.

[skijim13]

I also have a PSIA background and have attended many of their clinics including the Pro Jam at Killington. However nothing I have ever learned from the PSIA came close to the training I received at my first Superblue Camp. I very pleased the changes the made in my skiing , my speed control has been never better, one of the most important changes was flexing into my turns. This move has made major improvements in speed control on the very steep runs I skied when at Mammoth. PSIA based training is about tips for the whole group without really knowing what single most important move each person needs to work on to make the most improvement in their skiing. One of the things we worked on at the Pro Jam was making round turns following each other, the coach told us make round turns but never gave any students key feedback that they needed to change in their skiing to make the change. The PSIA never taught us about how to release our skis in a turn a very important skill in skiing. I now look at the PSIA technical manual and find it is not a well written manual with much useful information. However, any of the books written by Harald on PMTS has the information and roadmap on how to carry out the new movement to improve your skiing. I realized I knew nothing about real skiing until I started to learn PMTS.

[DougD]

Nice letter. Any PSIA instructor who attended a PMTS camp would feel the same. It's sad that so few do or will.

In 30 years of skiing I've taken a few PSIA lessons. The most recent one was several years ago: a 2 hour private with a Level 3 in conjunction with buying new boots. The shop roughed in the alignment, then hooked me up with this instructor to confirm it on-snow. Just like a PMTS boot-fitting... right?

The instructor and I skied a couple of runs (free skiing, no drills or analytics). Then he said, "Your alignment looks okay, how does it feel to you?" Um... if I knew what correct alignment felt like, I wouldn't be paying you. Unsurprisingly, this inadequate evaluation was also wrong. My alignment was actually off and remained so until I visited HSS several years later.

Naturally, this instructor also commented on my skiing. His advice was, "See that skier over there. He has great feet. Try to ski more like that." Not a word about HOW to ski like that. Apparently, I was expected to magically transform my skiing without any plan, without even knowing what good skiing movements are.

Speaking of magic:
--- Arthur C. Clarke's 3rd law: "Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic."
--- Harald Harb's corollary: "Any sufficiently advanced skiing is indistinguishable from magic."

If you don't understand advanced skiing, it looks like magic. It's not. Like Clarke's advanced technology, Harald's advanced skiing is the result of profound knowledge and hard work. PSIA doesn't understand advanced skiing. Ergo, to them it looks like magic. A few of them may know this, but most don't. Unfortunately, if they want to be thought of as a teaching organization, they have to behave as if they understand their subject. The unfortunate result is that PSIA's unknowing and trusting members and students are subjected to a lot of mis-directed hocus-pocus.

[DougD]

PSIA based training is about tips for the whole group without really knowing what single most important move each person needs to work on to make the most improvement in their skiing. One of the things we worked on at the Pro Jam was making round turns following each other, the coach told us make round turns but never gave any students key feedback that they needed to change in their skiing to make the change.

This is true even in PSIA private lessons. See my story above, where an L3 told me to "ski like that guy" without any instruction on how to do it.

The skier the instructor advised me to emulate was in fact pretty good even by PMTS standards. From memory, he released by flexing, led each turn by lightening and tipping his inside foot (O-frame) and had good upper body and hand control. So far as I remember, he didn't extend, stem or push his BTE. Unfortunately, my L3 apparently lacked specific knowledge about these movements, so he couldn't convey anything useful to me.

[skijim13]

Doug, I think if we all get together again at Killington, we can all work together as a team on PMTS and learn a great deal from each other. I plan on spending the summer reading and runnning dryland training for PMTS. I met some other local people who may join us, great way to train before another camp.

[DougD]

Jim, you're on!

I've built us a slantboard and I'll be attending an early camp. Definitely want to get days in before that though. No point wasting camp time just to revive what I accomplished this season, and having PMTS eyes available to confirm what we think we're doing is critical.

[Bolter]

I just attended a two day PSIA clinic at Vail Spring Fling. The clinic topic was Teaching Contemporary Skiing

In a nut shell, this is what was presented to me:
Wider stance fallacy - at least hip width. When I asked "why?" The response was "to get higher edge angles." There was a perceived limitation due to my close stance BUT everyone in the group perked up about me getting the highest angles of anyone. Led by the examiner (lets use "Sal" as a name) there was confusion about vertical/horizontal separation, no one had ever been shown the difference. Lowering the hips (to get higher angles) by retracting the inside leg was a very fuzzy topic and knee to boot at some point in the turn was a revelation to most in the group, Sal included. The hip width mandate also had misconceptions. Sal said a plumb line from the hips (I nailed Sal down to the Iliac crest location) was the determining factor for stance width. Admittedly better than shoulder width but still too wide. I stated that the extension of the head of the femur (at ball joint with pelvis) is well inside of the boney iliac crest and maybe that should be a reference point. No reply . . . blinded and silenced by a whiff of science, the belief system was under scrutiny.

Getting forward- Sal used extension of the inside (new outside) ski to release and projection of the upper body (a leaning leap of faith) to move forward at the hips; to recenter and regroup with the the skis (during the shaping phase?). When I introduced bending the stance leg and tipping to release, using momentum, pulling both feet back to get forward, the concept of relaxing the inside leg to lower the hips and inside free foot management . . . the roof blew off of the clinic.

Push against the ski to pressure it- As a result of the extension to release focus, Sal had people pushing themselves out of balance in high C and they were guaranteed a loss of balance on the outside ski by "pushing against it" during the "shaping phase" of the turn. It was a mess!

All of this plus . . . steering the legs and a drill that actually produced rotation. Sal talked about "facing down the hill" but no movements or drills to "face down the hill" were given. In all demos Sal squared up at the end of the turn.

This clinic (given at the premier PSIA resort) was so far inferior to the Tech Camp I attended (conducted by Harald and Diana) that there is literally no way to look at both in the same light. The two are not even in the same era, as marked by the advent of modern shaped skis.There was nothing contemporary, modern or relevant to a balanced SL turn given in this clinic. What was presented was the same material I heard at PSIA clinics before the dawn of shaped skis- for that matter before the arrival of TOMBA!

PSIA never really changed, as a result many adjustments that were made to the methodology/mechanics, like "widen your stance" were misguided and counter productive.

To Sal's credit- new and contrary concepts were added to the clinic discussion and no PSIA dogma was forced on the group.

Look at the two skiers below. PMTS will produce one and PSIA will produce the other, guess which is which.

[blackthorn]

Those are two great photos. They really epitomise the difference between good technique and poor technique. The tragedy is that very few skiers would recognise this. PMTS is the only system that provides a complete way to learn, overcome, be supported, develop, recognise, understand, describe, teach, etcetc..........

[skijim13]

I can tell you at our mountain we produce the skier pictured in the last photo. The majority of our race coaches come from a PSIA background. Our mountain considers level II skiers are at a very high level and many times they get to move on to coach the racers using their flawed PSIA background. A friend of mind took three trys to finally pass Level II skiing. She now thinks her skiing is world class, but she still skids all her turns, and enters most turns in a slight wedge.

[DougD]

The skier in the second photo uses much better screaming movements.

[DougD]

Bolter, that was a brilliant writeup. WV hicks rule! It seems that "Sal" and the group were not utterly close-minded... progress of a sort. At least they acknowledged who was getting the highest edge angles. They displayed a telling reaction to your suggestion of femur heads... What? The iliac crests aren't essential links in the kinesthetic chain?

... Sal had people pushing themselves out of balance in high C and guaranteed loss of balance on the outside ski by "pushing against it" during the "shaping phase" of the turn.

I'd love to see him try that on a tree-lined New England (or WV) trail on an ice day. He'd better pick a trail with nets.

What does Sal/PSIA mean by the "shaping phase" of the turn? This terminology implies that there's also a "non-shaping" phase. When does that ever happen? In PMTS we're actively shaping each turn from start to finish.

[Bolter]

... Sal had people pushing themselves out of balance in high C and guaranteed loss of balance on the outside ski by "pushing against it" during the "shaping phase" of the turn.

I'd love to see him try that on a tree-lined New England (or WV) trail on an ice day. He'd better pick a trail with nets.

What does Sal/PSIA mean by the "shaping phase" of the turn? This terminology implies that there's also a "non-shaping" phase. When does that ever happen? In PMTS we're actively shaping each turn from start to finish.[/quote]

Speaking of nets, I was expecting the man with a net to come take me off to the detention area, for an "evaluation."

We talked about the "shaping phase" and placed it in and around the belly of the turn (approximately at the gate). As a result of the rising and steering there is no way to get legitimate purchase in high C and pressing against the snow while extending eliminates tipping. In a wide stance the free foot can't tip to release, it is pinned to the ground on the BTE. In the PSIA "shaping phase" it is impossible for most folks to control the skidding fleeting ski, it's hard to balance on. The only move remaining to get edging is to project and lean- bad moves as we know.

Nothing at the top (High C), shaping (a euphemism for skidding) at the gate and braking at the bottom with a big hit edge set is what you get from extension.

[Bolter]

There are PSIA members who truly want to get better, it's only a matter of time and development but there is a big problem . . . Progress using PSIA technique has a limitation for most skiers. Agreed that the PSIA movements are flawed but one can progress along the Cert path and be granted the L1,2 and 3 pin. Unfortunately the residual inefficient movements and misconceptions plague this skier- until purged.

PMTS is the only way for MOST skiers to rebuild and go beyond what PSIA offers. The best path to efficient skiing begins with Direct to Parallel. Like Max_501 says "Book 1 first and if you are an instructor get the manual."

One skier in my group said of my skiing "Your feet go out side to side." He saw something, that is great, but his understanding (as processed through his PSIA knowledge) left him mistaken as to how it was done. From his point of view, I pushed my skis out there. Unfortunately that is not the correct movements to get angles.

HH wrote "I love it when I hear Doug Lewis say, on TV, during a WC slalom run, "Look at how he gets his feet out to the side." This is so much BS, no WC skier is getting or moving their feet to the side. Move your feet to the side out from under you is another myth perpetuated by poor coaches.

The answer is the skis need to be angled, edged, tipped, and as soon as some grip is achieved, the inside leg can be flexed and shortened, which gets the body inside, not the feet to the outside.
Never try to develop big angles starting with your upper body, a sure way to disaster. Proper lower body Essentials develop big angles."

[Basil j]

Much to my dismay, Our young racers at my Mountain also look more like picture#2 than #1.

[Bolter]

Worth a look . . . balance personified.