A newcomer's view of PMTS

[SFF]

I took a private lesson with Harald two Fridays ago (Jan. 22) at Loveland, and wanted to share my thoughts as a newcomer to PMTS.

There were four of us in the group that took the lesson. All of us could ski most areas of the mountain with varying degrees of success, finesse, and fluidity. To give you an idea, the skiers were:

geoffda: A poster here that many of you know. Obviously very much into PMTS (and who actually started us down the path of getting the lesson), and had taken some PMTS lesson(s)/camp(s) already. A very, very strong skier to begin with.
M: A long-time skier (30+ years), who can ski just about anything on the mountain (with some old-school movements). Had read all of Harald's books. Had taken some Epic camps.
SFF (myself): Started skiing about 6 years ago, but have progressed pretty well. Can carve decently on groomers, and am confident on steep off-piste stuff when conditions are good -- things tend to fall apart in tough conditions combined with steep. Have ACBEAS 1 and 2, and have been following the YouTube videos. Have done an Epic camp and some lessons from Epic/PSIA instructors.
S: Seriously started skiing somewhat recently too (~7 years). Mostly self-taught, following better skiers around. Didn't have any exposure to PMTS prior to lesson.

Harald asked what we wanted to achieve, and we told him that our goal was to get better at off-piste skiing, so we wanted to learn anything that would help us achieve that. After a few warmup runs where Harald watched us ski, he made us following his tracks of varying shapes, sizes, and speeds. Almost all of us had trouble replicating exactly. Harald mentioned that he was showing us what was possible. And now he would show us how to achieve that. So we started on drills. Lots and lots of drills. We drilled tipping, releases (one-footed and two-footed). We drilled flexing. We drilled pole-grounding, CB and CA. I won't go over the drills since they're described in the books in detail. Some drills were easier for some of us than others, and some were harder. It was amazing that we thought we were skiing decently, suddenly felt like we were skiing for the first time. M for instance was having a really hard time with one-footed releases. So here's a person who's been skiing for many years and can ski just about anything, but couldn't make a single turn suddenly. I thought I had been flexing pretty well without any up movement, but obviously I was not. What was amazing was watching Harald point out the weaknesses in someone like geoffda's skiing -- we thought geoffda already skied really well, and to see Harald point out the areas of improvement were eye-opening. M and I had both read all the drills and done a few ourselves, but what we both found interesting was that reading them and even doing them by ourselves was no match for actually doing them with someone like Harald -- drills that we thought were easy or that we were doing correctly were shown to be quite different under Harald's watchful eyes.

Harald broke our skiing down, broke down the old movements by doing drills where the old movements wouldn't work. And then he rebuilt our skiing with the correct movements. They were hard. We felt stiff and awkward. But we persevered. Slowly we started making more turns where we were making the proper movements than not. S, who had started the day out skiing very upright with little to no flexing, visibly improved by leaps and bounds. M cut out most of the up-extension and upper body movements. I was getting the hang of flexing to release at every turn and cutting out the up movement. By the end of the day, we weren't feeling as awkward as before. We ended feeling quite happy with the changes we'd already made in one day. But I think with the exception of geoffda (who had taken PMTS lessons before), we were wondering how these drills would translate into our freeskiing. We'd all had experiences where exercises worked great, but didn't really translate during freeskiing. The movements were different and felt better (e.g. more fluid controlled turns down Spillway), but how would they all come together? One thing that Harald said stuck in my mind. He said that the drills are no different than freeskiing. The exercises should be carried over into freeskiing -- there's no difference. The same things that we were focusing on doing the drills, we should focus on while freeskiing.

Since the lesson, I've been out skiing several times with M. The difference in my skiing has been phenomenal. I'll be the first to admit that I just don't have the patience to do drills on groomers when I'm freeskiing (doing drills in a lesson = different matter). Taking Harald's comment to heart, what I've been doing is focusing on the movements that we did during the drills -- no difference. The exercises are the same when freeskiing -- I'm still focusing on the same things.

And boy, has my skiing improved in just this short time. Skied Whales Tail, Y-Chutes, Boundary Chutes, Magic Carpet/CJs at Breck this past Friday, and a lot of the Ridge off Chair 9 at Loveland yesterday -- some of it pretty steep (approaching 40+ degrees) with cruddy snow. What a difference from before! For me, the movements really come alive in the steeper, cruddier stuff -- I can tell how well they're working much better than I can on groomers. The tougher terrain/conditions really amplify the benefits of PMTS. Focusing on the movements have made my turns way smoother, way more in control. Previously I'd get too much speed at the bottom of the turn; so I'd have to traverse to slow down a lot before restarting another turn. But now, I can maintain a more constant speed throughout the turn. Narrow rock-lined chutes that I would never have approached before are now skiable because I can keep my speed under control and turn whenever/wherever. By flexing to release instead of "standing/bracing" against the outside leg, means I can breeze through uneven crud without feeling a thing. Steep/big bump runs, which have always been my nemesis, are now way more approachable because I can ski them slowly and in control much more than before. And my legs are nowhere near as tired at the end of the day (because I'm not rotating/steering my legs).

Now I do not mean to suggest that I am suddenly an expert skier after one lesson and a few days. I still have a long way to go. But I have been blown away by the change in my skiing after just a few days. I still catch myself doing some up-extensions, rotating, and other old movements from time to time. But wow, what a change! I can't wait for more terrain to open up so I can try my new-found movements in more stuff.

Three things that, in my mind, make PMTS a great learning system:
- There are only 3 or 4 things to focus on, they are consistently stressed, and they serve in all terrain and all conditions. No dozen different cues with a dozen different interpretations/ways of explaining each of them.
- The movements/cues used in the drills are no different than those used in freeskiing. One example is grounding the uphill pole to get CA. We focused on that during drills, and I focus on the same thing during freeskiing, and it works wonders.
- It works! For me at least!

Huge thanks to Harald for setting us on the path. Can't wait to explore more of the mountain with these new movements under my belt.

[h.harb]

Wow, thanks, great review! What is amazing is that after the last camp, although lower level skiers, they said the same thing. Everyone gets a private lesson even in a group when skiing with a Harb Ski Systems coach. I am as proud of this remark and ability by our instructors as any other single thing we have accomplished. Our instructors are super, hand picked and well trained. In other words, our coaches are better trained and have more knowledge about skiing then anything comparable.

HARB
SKI SYSTEMS
The Leader in Modern Ski Technique and Instruction

[Max_501]

M and I had both read all the drills and done a few ourselves, but what we both found interesting was that reading them and even doing them by ourselves was no match for actually doing them with someone like Harald -- drills that we thought were easy or that we were doing correctly were shown to be quite different under Harald's watchful eyes.

So true!

Harald broke our skiing down, broke down the old movements by doing drills where the old movements wouldn't work. And then he rebuilt our skiing with the correct movements. They were hard. We felt stiff and awkward. But we persevered. Slowly we started making more turns where we were making the proper movements than not.

This is a wonderful summary of how it works! Well Said!!!

If I was to leave you with one bit of advice...DO THE DRILLS as often as you can.

[Icanski]

HARB
SKI SYSTEMS
The Leader in Modern Ski Technique and Instruction

CSIA
Leaders in Ski Teaching

Hmmmm.....verrrrrrry interesting....


Icanski

[meput]

HARB
SKI SYSTEMS
The Leader in Modern Ski Technique and Instruction

Where do I get my stickers and T shirts?

[NoCleverName]

Everyone gets a private lesson even in a group when skiing with a Harb Ski Systems coach. I am as proud of this remark and ability by our instructors as any other single thing we have accomplished.

And you get a private lesson even if you don't know it. During December camp HH commented at lunch to one student who wasn't even in HH's group about the progress he observed in some far-away run and made a couple of recommendations.

Now he's "triple H" ...
Harald "Hawkeye" Harb?

[jclayton]

meput ,
I ski mainly in Europe and am very proud of my HarbSkiSystems boot stickers . If anyone asks I just say , " best boot fitters , best teaching system in the world " . He he . I still like looking at them on the lift . My boots are still going strong aftger 6 years , I used to change them every 1 or 2 looking for a decent fit , never knowing why I could never find it .

[h.harb]

HARB
SKI SYSTEMS
The Leader in Modern Ski Technique and Instruction

CSIA
Leaders in Ski Teaching

Hmmmm.....verrrrrrry interesting....

The stickers are coming! The patches as well.

There seems to be some similarity between the statements at first glance however if you read more closely, you might see this:
"The Leader" there is just one leader, in the statement we are using and that is Harb Ski Systems.
"in Modern Ski Technique" that means what is happening today and what has had to change to be current and moving the agenda forward.
"Leaders in Ski Teaching" that says more than one, leaders of what, the status quo? It could mean leaders in TTS, with the rest of the TTS gang, which includes every other National System.
Leading what, "the same old stuff" that's not leadership, that's copying.

[SFF]

Another interesting observation...

Skied a little chute today that I'd only survived before, stopping after every turn. Today, I skied it top to bottom without stopping (other than to check for rocks and other downhill skiers to clear out), with complete control and confidence. The difference? Flexing instead of extending/up movement. I realized that before, since I was doing the up movement, I was always searching for a solid platform to brace (my old inside/soon-to-be outside ski) against before I could make the turn. So in a narrow area with lots of obstacles, bumps, and cut up snow, it was stop-and-go all the time as I was always searching for a good place to turn. But with flexing, I don't have to worry about the terrain. There's nothing preventing me from pulling my feet up to release and go into the next turn at any time. The terrain no longer dictates where and when I can turn. It has been quite liberating.