Whistler/Blackcomb PMTS Tech Camp

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Whistler/Blackcomb PMTS Tech Camp

Postby Ihamilton » Fri Dec 16, 2011 6:35 pm

I am one of two coaches in the inaugural PMTS Tech Camp to be held in W/B from Dec. 20 to 23. The other coach, the head coach, is Wendell Moore, who was recently named as a PMTS contributor. The camp is somewhat different from the Nov. PMTS camp at A-Basin in set up. In our camp the lower age limit is 50, the sessions are only 3 hours, there are only 3 days on the snow, one dry land day and the campers must go through a physical assessment prior to the camp. Wendell arranged for a Structural Alignment and Functional Movement Screening to be conduct by a local Whistler Doctor who is duly trained and who works in a local clinic. Wendell is using the results to initially divide the campers.
The camp is advertised on the W/B web site as being a camp conducted on the teaching principles from PMTS. We became sold out on Wednesday. Some of the late sign ups are very good skiers who have been coached by Wendell and me and want to learn the very basics of PMTS, which is what the camp is advertised as being ie. a camp in which basic PMTS movements are taught. There has been interest created in the SS by this camp. We had 3 coaches at the PMTS camp in November and word has been spreading since we got back. Wendell told me today that there are going to be between 3 and 6 SS observers watching us conduct the camp. Some are coaches that I know who are keenly interested in PMTS. Some of the others that I don't know are level 4 CSIA. It is a great opportunity for us to demonstrate what the PMTS movements can do to the campers skiing.
Wendell and I met on the slopes today to go over various things. We picked our slopes and ran through our ideas to teach the very basic movements. We will likely be within eyesight of each other most of the time, so that we can talk to each other if need be. We discussed various coaching methods and both of us have recently been influenced by the "Talent Code". Each of us has campers who have specifically requested one of us. Each of those will get us the first day but then we are going to switch groups for day 2 and then back to the original group for day 3.
In our first day, which is not on the snow, we are going to have each skier's alignment checked by boot fitters chosen by Wendell, and while that is going on we are going to do dryland coaching with incline boards, walk S turns, etc. I understand that we will also have a special guest on that day.
This is not the first PMTS camp conducted in Canada but I think it is the first one to be conducted by the local ski instructors on the home mountain. I am pretty pumped to be part of it. I will be doing lots of reading of PMTS materials over the next few days and watching HH do his thing on the DVD's. I am not nervous about doing the camp although I may get a few butterflies the first time on the snow, especially if I have a couple of observers. I am confident that the basic movements will be picked up by the campers so quickly that their skiing will take over the show.
I wasn't sure if this topic was "worthy" of this forum, because it is a local news item in our SS and may not have wide spread interest. This is the best ski forum in the world, thanks to the contributors, and we are all keenly interested in PMTS, so I thought I would try it. I am relatively new to the forum and I have noticed how you help each other. I would appreciate any coaching help that you can give me. There isn't a PMTS community here in Whistler, but this forum is a great community. If there is interest I will submit a day by day report, and reveal the identity of the special guest. Thanks in advance for any suggestions you have.
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Re: Whistler/Blackcomb PMTS Tech Camp

Postby dan.boisvert » Fri Dec 16, 2011 7:37 pm

Ihamilton wrote:If there is interest I will submit a day by day report, and reveal the identity of the special guest.


YES, PLEASE! :mrgreen:

I'm sorry I don't have any suggestions or anything to offer. I'm really interested in hearing more about this both on a day-by-day coaching level as well as on a political level and how things are received by the SS people. A few of us in the New England region are looking for ways to get more PMTS instruction available here, and part of that is getting the word out and dealing with politics. I'd be grateful for any lessons you'd be willing to share, especially about the political end of things.
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Re: Whistler/Blackcomb PMTS Tech Camp

Postby h.harb » Fri Dec 16, 2011 8:01 pm

Irwin your contributions are more than worthwhile, they are revealing and enlightening. They are also encouraging and motivating. Please contribute them.
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Re: Whistler/Blackcomb PMTS Tech Camp

Postby HeluvaSkier » Fri Dec 16, 2011 9:09 pm

Not only are your continuations motivating, but they are promising. Ten years ago this post would have never been possible unless Harald posted it himself. Hell, ten years ago I wouldn't have even been here.

I don't have anything to add to what you've posted, accept produce results and show the results. The results don't even have to come from you - get your students to post video of before and after in addition to their experience and what they've learned. If it is anything like my experiences with coaching, they will be bursting to share their improvements [unless they are racers, in which case it comes out at the first race]. Keep it up, and ski that first run with confidence, to the best of your ability. You'll gain their respect right there. Someone very wise told me that once; and it worked like a charm. Never a doubt.
Discipline is the refining fire by which talent becomes ability.

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Re: Whistler/Blackcomb PMTS Tech Camp

Postby federico » Sat Dec 17, 2011 4:04 am

Great professionality + great passion = outstanding results + big impact on your ski community.

Keep on posting, it's very interesting and useful.

Lot of compliments Irwin,
knowing you in person I was not surprised.

Ciao,
Federico

p.s. Now I want to see the faces of those instructors looking at you and the others PMTS followers
as *RENEGADES"...(from the height of their 0,0000001 percent of client fidelization!!! :mrgreen: )
MAIORA VIRIBUS AUDERE
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Re: Whistler/Blackcomb PMTS Tech Camp

Postby h.harb » Sat Dec 17, 2011 1:14 pm

What is amazing about PMTS instructors and instruction, is the quality of the people who have signed on. I'm awed and thankful. PMTS is getting stronger by the day due to the great people involved.
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Re: Whistler/Blackcomb PMTS Tech Camp

Postby Ihamilton » Sat Dec 17, 2011 5:59 pm

Thanks for your encouragement. I will keep you updated. I intend to video the campers and will post it assuming the clients give their ok, which is most likely not a problem.
I would like to get your opinion on a coaching issue I have with a client, her name is Nikki. I have been thinking about this since Wednesday. On Wednesday I gave her a lesson, part of a 12 week program she signed up for. She is the best skier I have. On Wednesday she was making good turns as always, but I noticed her turns to the right were not as strong as her turns to the left. I would characterize her ski performance on the turns to the left as dynamic and her ski performance on the turns to the right as more journeyman. As I watched her come down, I remembered Harald's anaylsis of the Ted (in the Ted/Hirscher series of stop frames) in a turn to the left, Ted's ski performance was sub standard compared to Hirscher's. As I watched Nikki she had the same body position as Ted in that stop frame and I had her problem nailed. Harald noted that Ted had dropped his hip. Nikkis turns to the left she has a great high C with her left hip higher than her right, but in the turns to the right her right hip was slightly lower than her left so her high C position was weaker. Thanks to this forum and Harald's great description of Ted's faulty movement, I was saved for another lesson, because with a skier like Nikki it is hard to spot a faulty movement. After pointing this out to Nikki she picked up her right hip on her right turns and bingo she was rippin turns in both directions. Three hours later in the Whistler roundhouse where we have lunch after the lesson, she headed straight to Wendell and told him she didn't have enough knowledge of the very basics of PMTS and wanted in the tech camp. She got the last spot and is having her physical assessement on Monday.
Here is the problem. Nikki with her ski boots on probably weights between 105 and 110 pounds. With my boots on I weight around 190. I have Dodge boots which weight half of Nikki's. Boots to total weight as a ratio for me is 4 - 5%, with Nikki the boots are almost 10% of her total weight. As I watched her the rest of the day, she was skiing great but is it her best? Harald has been posting a lot about the boot problems on the FIS. I think that I see in Nikki so much weight in her boots that it takes more effort than what it should for her to get them to change directions. She seems to be "foot heavy". Just looking at her the boots seem so large in comparison to her small stature. It could be her skis, which are 76 mm. under foot but I am tending to think it is not a ski problem. I think the boots get so much momentum going one way and her center of mass is so low that they take too much effort to get maximum performance. With such a boot weight to total weight that Nikki has is it possible that the boots can almost look to get away on her? That is what I think I saw.
A short word about Nikki. In athletics she excels at anything she does. She swims for 2 hours, 5 days a week and has a swim coach for 3 of those days. She enters masters swimming races. She is strong and extremely coachable. She lives in Whistler in the winter and skis about 100 days a year. If I thought she could improve she wants to know how. I told her last spring she needs to ski with Harald, or Diana or Jay or some black level Pmts coach. She was a very good skier despite having TTS coaching for most of her life. She said last year that she had not improved her skiing for at least 25 years until she started to learn PMTS.
I am going to try to ski with her Monday and see if I can shoot some video. If I can I will post it.
In the tech camp I am going to have to dig deeper with her. She will get the drills quickly, but I want her to feel the bottom of her feet and be aware of exactly what she is doing at all times. I am not confident that she will be able to get a good feel with such heavy boots.
Any suggestions?
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Re: Whistler/Blackcomb PMTS Tech Camp

Postby Ihamilton » Sat Dec 17, 2011 6:45 pm

I had an error in my posting. My boots are 2 to 3 % of my total weight not 4 to 5%. My boots are minimal weight wise, Nikki's are like sledge hammers on her feet.
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Re: Whistler/Blackcomb PMTS Tech Camp

Postby h.harb » Sat Dec 17, 2011 7:15 pm

Video will really help but it could be alignment.
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Re: Whistler/Blackcomb PMTS Tech Camp

Postby Max_501 » Sat Dec 17, 2011 7:43 pm

Ihamilton wrote:I am not confident that she will be able to get a good feel with such heavy boots.
Any suggestions?


Given her strength, I doubt its the weight of the boots. Would be interesting to see video.
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Re: Whistler/Blackcomb PMTS Tech Camp

Postby h.harb » Sat Dec 17, 2011 8:24 pm

Lots of great skiers on heavy boots, even light women.
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Re: Whistler/Blackcomb PMTS Tech Camp

Postby HeluvaSkier » Sat Dec 17, 2011 9:51 pm

Video would be great. I doubt it has to do with the weight of the boots. Even at her weight, the boots are a tiny percentage of not just her weight, but the forces she is likely resisting in her turns. It may not be lateral alignment, but rather fore/aft that is making the turns look sluggish. If you can get video I'd be really interested to hear Harald's analysis.
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Re: Whistler/Blackcomb PMTS Tech Camp

Postby BigE » Sat Dec 17, 2011 10:18 pm

With a small person like that ( and lacking video), I'd guess that "trouble changing direction" may mean her skis are too wide. But, without video, it's impossible to do anything but give random suggestions. As Harald says, there's plenty of skiers with heavy boots. Here's another random thought... are they actually the right size?
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Re: Whistler/Blackcomb PMTS Tech Camp

Postby geoffda » Sun Dec 18, 2011 9:44 am

Great posts Irwin! Keep 'em coming!
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Re: Whistler/Blackcomb PMTS Tech Camp

Postby Ihamilton » Sun Dec 18, 2011 11:03 am

I really appreciate the feed back that was what I was looking for when I posted this topic. I hear you about the video, will try for tomorrow night. Nikki will be starting with the rest of the campers at the very beginning, incline board, etc. Just knowing what each foot is to do is a huge step. Her boots are being checked on Tuesday, I will sit in with her session with the boot fitter.
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