Breakthrough On Skis I, Expert Skiing Simplified
Welcome to Breakthrough on Skis #1, my first ski teaching video. Creating this video has been one of my most exciting ski teaching experiences. I think this video may be one of the best ski lessons I’ve ever given. And of course, I’m hoping that using this video will be one of your very best ski-learning experiences…
But calling this video of Breakthrough on Skis a ski lesson is a bit inaccurate. This one-hour tape contains all the material–the movements and techniques, the practice patterns and explanations–that I would normally share with intermediate skiers during one full week of lessons. And this tells you that however useful this video may be, it’s not an instant shortcut to expert skiing. But it is a clear, effective, workable road map that can get you there. Using this tape to guide your own learning experience on skis, you can become an expert skier. And you should. It’s well worth it. The payoff for the concentration, patience and practice you put into this process is enormous. You’ve suspected it all along, and I can confirm it. Expert skiers have more fun. And the freedom of effortless, efficient turns on any slope is not an unreasonable goal for most skiers-even though few seem to reach it.
My explanation of this distressing fact is simple. Most skiers, even experienced long-time skiers, don’t ski like experts simply because they don’t know how experts do it. Superficially, expert skiing looks like an improved, polished version of average intermediate skiing. But it’s not. Experts use a fundamentally different set of movements patterns as they sail down the slopes. And the goal of this video (and of my book, ) is to show you these few critical expert movement patterns in such a clear, easy to understand way that you can literally transform your skiing. It works.
Of course, it would be easier if I could ski with you for a week. I could make sure it worked, by carefully structuring our time together, by choosing the practice terrain, by balancing short intense periods of concentrated practice with longer breaks of relaxing skiing where new skills “soak in” through repetition, by repeating demonstrations and explanations often enough that the key ideas and images of expert skiing remain sharp and clearly focused.
But instead of a week-long series of ski lessons, you have a videotape, a television and a VCR–and a lot of good will, a real desire for a breakthrough on skis. So I’d like to offer you a few suggestions on the best ways you can use this tape to achieve that breakthrough: some are obvious, some less so, some not at all.
Customer Review: Great ski lesson… with a couple of cautions…
I love, love, love this ski video. My sister and I ski about 30-40 days a year and we watch this video a LOT. We watch it practically nightly, when we are off skiing. And with every viewing we get something out of the “video lesson”.
I agree with nearly all of the positive reviews.
My only caveat… many people are in the Intermediate Rut because of some perpetually hanging on, unbroken bad habit (or habits).
A very common bad habit is being too far back on the skis. I spend the first few days of every ski season… and every ski week for that matter… retraining myself to get those shins solidly in the front of my boots. This is not my natural inclination and I have to really WORK at this habit. Even after years and years of skiing.
And Lito’s advice of “And forget that old thing about being forward on your skis. Stand tall… on the middle of your ski… in the middle of your boot…” REALLY set me back for a couple of years. You may be balanced on the middle of your ski… but you still have to be flexed and have that shin FIRMLY in the tongue of your boot!
Another habit… Upper and lower body separation (or dynamic anticipation, as Lito calls it) is also a very difficult concept to master. There are MANY more good tips for working on this skill, in addition to the ones suggested in this video. And taking a lesson may give you some BETTER tips than this video provides for breaking that habit.
Sometimes the best feedback is to have somebody video tape you… and to actually SEE yourself skiing, locked in position with a rigid body. You may FEEL like you are following Lito’s advice. You may FEEL like you are skiing with dynamic anticipation, or that you have gotten the habit of upper and lower body anticipation down. But getting feedback from another person, an instructor, a clinic or a video of yourself, can tell you otherwise.
Many, many times the thing that keeps us in an intermediate rut is a bad habit. If you know or suspect that you have a bad habit (or two… or six!) keep working at it. Go ahead and watch this video. It is really GREAT to watch really, really good skiers; skiing really, really, well. He gives a LOT of good tips and advice.
But in addition to this video, get feedback and take some lessons from real life skiing instructors. The tips on this video may not be enough to break your bad habits that are keeping you in that intermediate rut… and, if like me… if you have been told that YOUR particular bad habit, that continues to plague you, is skiing from the back seat… this video my actually encourage your faulty skiing technique.
Thus, my 4 stars rather than 5.
Customer Review: Out of this world
My wife and I are intermediate skiers who began skiing a couple of years ago. Our first ski was where we were told that ‘the wedge’ is the ONE and ONLY way to go. After two years we were still stuck with the wedge even down the intermediate slopes. True, the wedge idea got us going, but we were unable to get ouf that rut… unitl we bought this DVD. This is such a wonderful video that I bet it is better than any class out there. The booklet that is attached on the DVD conver summarizes all the lessons. The lessons themselves, are not difficult to memorize as they are all about building your foundations. We improved dramatically overnight. I got the other two videos too. Can’t wait to see and learn from them. Good bye Wedge.. and all you ski schools out there…!
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