Skiing Saga Continues

[anarfea]

So I went taught skiing against last week. No teaching the week before because they had a lot of cancellations and pretty much all the students who did show up were sit down skiers and I can't tether a monoski.

This week I worked with my first adult student. She was pretty easy. She's an advanced beginner. Just starting to ski blue runs but still turning across the whole hill and using a wedge.

I had a lot of fun with the second student--a sixteen year old with autism. She's a strong intermediate skier on the cusp of transitioning to advanced. Most of the lessons I've taken recently have been for learning advanced skills. So I felt like I had a lot to teach this student. She's trying to learn how to separate the upper and lower body. Skiing is really a lower body sport. You want the hips and legs to move dynamically but for the upper body to stay quiet. Basically the lower body turns and the upper body doesn't. This is tricky. Most beginner and intermediate skiers turn their whole body, keeping the shoulders over the feet. Learning to turn your feet without turning your shoulders is hard. It's pretty essentially if you want to ski moguls, though.

Comments

[violsva]

You know, I learned to cross-country ski about the same time I learned to walk, but now that my dad isn't really up for it anymore I haven't in ... oh god, probably a decade now. And you posting about skiing is giving me all kinds of lovely/weird nostalgia.

[breathedout]

It sounds like this continues to be a really rewarding experience. You sound like you're feeling less apprehensive & more confident/comfortable in your role; is that accurate?

[anarfea]

I think that's fair. It helps that this co-instructor and I have gone skiing together a couple of times, and I feel like we're about on the same level or even that I'm a slightly stronger skier than she is. So I feel a bit more as an equal. Plus working with students with a higher skill set means it's a little bit easier. I feel a bit more out of my element with true beginners because I don't feel like I know what to show them.

[anarfea]

Awww, I'm glad it's making you nostalgic. I tried cross-country skiing a couple times but it's not really my thing. But there's something about being out in nature, among the trees, that's really wonderful.

[breathedout]

*Nods* That makes sense about the more skilled students; I definitely felt that when teaching knitting classes. Great that you're settling into your instructor role, though!

[pennypaperbrain]

I'm curious about how you got badass enough about skiing to become an instructor in the first place. Would that be an idea for a post? Or have I missed something already?

[anarfea]

Lol I wouldn't say I'm a "Badass." I still have a lot to learn. The short story is my mom was a ski instructor and I took lessons for a couple years as a kid. Then I stopped skiing for a long time because it's fucking expensive, but I was hiking up around the ski basin about 10 years ago and I remembered how much I used to like it, so I got back into it. I've taken lessons as an adult for about 4-5 seasons, and I'm pretty decent. I still need to get better at skiing non-groomed terrain, though. I can ski in moguls and trees, but not particularly gracefully or fast.