mark_l wrote:A really motivating story with excellent results.
Hi Mark,
I'm glad you found this inspirational and useful. Most skiers never make the decision to 'break' their skiing and then rebuild it using the 'right' inputs. It is a tough thing to do. It means giving up powder days, hero-snow groomer zooming and skiing at a ‘high’ level like you always have in the past. It means giving up turns with friends, and probably receiving some sneering from them as they cruise by you while you practice slow drills on the side of green groomer (blue piste for you). Many here (Max_501, jbotti, ErikCO, me, etc.) have dedicated themselves to going through the same process. When a skier emerges out of this transformation the sneering stops and the conversation from peers becomes: “How do you ski like that!?”
For this skier it also meant skipping races, staying out of gates, not playing in the trees and off-piste on family vacations, etc. Even as recently as last spring he spent an entire weekend after his race season was over without making a single ‘actual’ turn because he couldn’t CA from the pelvis (so we did CA drills for an entire weekend). Beginning tomorrow I’ll have 4 consecutive days on snow with him and we will spend some of the time ripping turns, but most of it will be focused on adding discipline around a number of movements that need to improve.
Most skiers are not willing to do this. Most skiers—especially, if they skied like this skier—would never contemplate showing up for a 4-day mid-season tune-up of their skiing when they were already the best skier on their mountain(s). It takes a certain amount of internal drive to not only achieve this level in the first place, but to stay at this level while continuing to improve.
Despite limited snow time, in some ways you're lucky in that you have access to Hintertux, where HSS holds their spring camps. If you want to be sure you're on the right track through your journey, this is a must-do.
Discipline is the refining fire by which talent becomes ability.
www.youtube.com/c/heluvaskier