Besides coaching?

[skispray]

What do you guys do to ensure you are improving when you can't get to a good coach? I feel a little 'lost' right now with my slalom skiing because the key movements that I have always focused on to ensure I'm skiing right don't seem to be helping anymore. I think I need some regular coaching but can't make that happen this year. Without access to a coach what else do you guys do to monitor your progress and improve your technique? I'm planning to video myself more often but I don't know if I'll be able to properly diagnose my own skiing. Any ideas?

[Horton]

Post video here

[TWB]

Your ski partners may be better coaches than you think. We ski most often with just a driver and a skier, but when there are 3 of us at the site, it helps me to know what I'm working on that day, and have the observer key in on that. It may feel like your performing those key movements, but an observer in the boat can tell you what your movements actually look like. I've had my ski partners tell me my knees aren't bent, or I'm looking cross course, or I'm reaching for the handle instead of skiing back to it. Some of the best advice I've had this year was free, from the guys I ski with every day. And watching a video of yourself skiing is very eye opening.

[MrB]

Get a trakker or gopro and video yourself. You are probably your best coach. I've been using the trakker lately and it has helped alot.

[Klundell]

I haven't really had a ski coach since I was 15. I've found that most of my improvements this year and last have come from video. The IPad 2 is my new best friend (if you have someone to hold it.) I can review the video right on the dock after the set with a screen that is big enough to see something. I also watch a lot of youtube video from the pros and compare myself to them. I don't even think that coaching from the boat is really a very good thing to do anymore. More often than not the coach from the boat sees what he has been working on. (I know as a coach I've been guilty of that).

[LeonL]

If you know a little about skiing, video can be very revealing. Especially if you slow it down. I hadn't had anyone video me in quite some time and then my ski partner had his wife videoing him and then filmed me. I had what I thought was a pretty good set, running a 22, 4 28's and a 32. I watched and again thought, "not so bad." That was before I slowed it down. Saw some bad things that I couldn't see at normal speed. Moral -- coach in the boat most likely would not have seen what I saw in slo-mo.

[6balls]

Some of my best coaching has been ski partners. Video and still pics help. I find rapid fire still pics s'times pick things up that video does not.

[Ed_Johnson]

My best Coach is my tracker and camera. Been using that combination since 1994. I can't even imagine skiing without it. Reviewing in slo-mo shows everything, good and bad. Skiing keeps evolving, ZO, step bottom skis, etc. You need to evolve your form to keep up.