G_Harry_Stine

Greetings from The Professor, my friends. I see my musings from the previous post have stirred a few comments and that is always good. The Professor, wishing to remain (mostly) anonymous, does wish to protect the guilty parties he described from any further self-inflicted abuse. He (She?) can also assure you of sterling, if not sparkling credentials from the all too distant past. So, examine the message and don't focus on the messenger. That being said, most of the replies were right on the money; skiers, just like any other sport, MUST pay attention to training methods in order to improve. And those training methods MUST facilitate and encourage correct, repetitive movements that ensure success, not failure. And we know too many skiers who ignore reality. If some of you have not run into these folks who refuse to check their egos at the dock, you just haven't skied long enough. Several of you had stories of just such people and, sadly, they are doomed to never improving. Now, The Professor agrees that fun can be achieved in different ways on the same ski, but we are limiting our discussion to tourney skiers who are diligently searching for that next PB. Class, let me repeat my theme about practicing failure; STOP IT!! Let's look at the pros in other sports and take note how they practice to get better at their chosen game. They do it by repeating fundamentals, pretty much on a daily basis. Do Dirk Nowitzski or LeBron James just play basketball every day of practice? Of course not. They run drills that reinforce success and train muscles to “memorize” certain movements. Do Derek Jeter or Josh Hamilton just play baseball every single day of practice? No. For crying out loud, you can see them hitting off of a tee, a drill I daresay some of our ski buddies would liken to lengthening the rope or slowing the boat. Heaven Forbid! Who are known to be two of the hardest working golfers on the driving range, sometimes going days without playing a single hole of golf? That would be Tiger Woods and Phil Mickelson. Reckon they know a thing or two about consistent, muscle memory practice? My friends, constantly skiing for a PB every set is anathema to improving your skiing. The Professor is into real people and real numbers, so let's look at some successful skiers. Understanding not all excellent skiers train the same way, you can bet the rent they do not seek a PB every set on the water. Skier A is a reigning National Champ and if anyone ever upset your boat concerning practice, it would be him. He loves to run a set of nothing but spins. Six passes to improve his strength, he says, never sitting down on either end. Or starting 1 pass below his opener and running 6 passes with both hands on the handle. Yep, BOTH hands on the handle at all times. Or a set of free skiing at the balls (he calls it pre-shadowing) while working on his most difficult loop. He figures he skis a tourney set about every third, maybe fourth set, but is always thinking correct technique. Skier B is a former National and World champion. She could never be confused for associating slalom with muscle strength. Barely tipping the scales at 120 lbs, her entire practice regimen was to ensure correct technique, then to hone that technique through repetition. She recognized that slalom is one of the most tiring sports one can engage, being pretty much an isometric exercise. Therefore, her practice sessions rarely involved more than 6 passes per set, and never more than two sets per day, never more than 3 days a week. Those sessions included running the loop 2 cuts below her money pass the entire set. In fact, the week of a tourney she NEVER ran a tourney set. Only technique enhancing, muscle memory, fundamental enforcing, successful mindset practices for this champion. As you might tell, The Professor can be rather loquacious about this subject, but passion rules and I want to see all of you good people improve in the sport we love so much. Heaven knows, you are free to ignore The Professor, but do so at your own peril. With improvement, the fun increases, and more fun is what our beloved sport is all about, so Cheers, The Professor

Greetings, class. Let us start today’s lesson with 2 statements that have proven the test of time: Truth #1. The unexamined life is not worth living. Truth #2. Practicing failure nearly always results in failure. The first is a tad heavy, and you may be wondering where I can possibly go with it in relation to skiing. Stick with me. The second is rather self-evident, but can still make so little difference in behavior for so many skiers, even veterans. I have spent over 30 years of Springs, and no few Winters, watching so many skiers completely defy these two timeless truths that I start to question their sanity. I am talking about extremely smart people in the workplace, very successful in all phases of their life, but they are completely insane when it comes to skiing. If a definition for insanity is doing the same thing repeatedly, yet expecting a different result, then the two skiers in the following examples have their picture in the dictionary. The Professor skied with some friends last Spring who are running slalom at 90%, or greater, FAILURE rate. I’m talking veterans, decades of slalom skiing, who never consider Truth #1 and, therefore, are a victim of Truth #2. Let’s take a look at some real numbers from some real people. Skier A loves to Winter ski, which is quite easy in _____, his home. He even agrees that Winter skiing, averaging once a week, should involve running passes and staying dry. Falling is to be avoided. So what does he do? From October through March, he runs about 40 sets, at least 6 passes per set. He has completed, actually run, no more than 15 passes, some sets not making a single pass. He has either trailed, or fallen, over 220 passes. That is over a 90% failure rate according to my slide rule. Plus, he refuses to slow the boat or lengthen the rope. Class, this is insanity; his approach to skiing goes without examination (Truth #1) and, therefore, he does nothing but practice failure (Truth #2). Skier B does no Winter skiing, but comes out in March to begin the season. He steps right out of his vehicle, onto the dock, puts his ski on, and starts with his usual opener. No warmup, no free skiing, no shadowing, just automatically resuming everything from 5 months ago, October, when he last skied. He does not run a pass the first set (6 tries), runs a very shaky pass the second set, and immediately shortens the rope. Shall we guess the results? So the first day back after at least 5 months of no skiing, skier B is 1 for 12. In case you are keeping score at home, that, too, is over 90% failure. Unfortunately for Skier B, this is repeated about 10 days later, his second time back. Now he is still sore from the first time and figures he needs to ski to get back in shape. But instead of skiing, he practices falling. No warmups to get the juices flowing. No slowing the boat to actually run some passes. No lengthening the rope to actually build up some rhythm. No shadowing to actually ski the length of the lake to build a little stamina. In other words, he approaches his skiing UNLIKE any other phase of his life -- totally unexamined, and (let’s say it together) spends his time practicing failure. Class, I would say this is insanity, but I would be repeating myself. The Professor has been with skier B the 10 sets he attempted this last Spring. Our skier is 4 for 60, yet the next time he skis, he will repeat the same process. In fact, skier B is beyond upset that things are not like they were just 5 short months ago and he is beginning to think that skiing is just not that much fun anymore. Class, if the fun in slalom is going around the balls, then I can understand our two skier’s frustrations. They are always trailing or falling, and how much fun is that? Of course skiing is supposed to be fun! But, it is an athletic event that takes some real attention to detail. Could we, by chance, learn a little something from the people who do this skiing thing for a living? There is not a professional skier in the world who does not do some kind of warmup activity. I’m not talking about the Winter months of weights or gym or cycling (hit a sore spot, anybody?). I’m talking about 10 minutes before their turn to ski. Hopping out of your vehicle and onto the water just makes no sense. Would our skiers approach any other sport this way? (Well, bowling, perhaps, but don't distract The Professor.) I know, class, that you have read countless articles on returning to the water after a long Winter of no skiing. They all encourage slowing the boat, lengthening the line, shadowing the balls the first few sets, establishing some rhythm. But when is the last time you saw that employed? Certainly not from our examples above, and remember, skiers A and B are veterans of decades of skiing. They should know better than anyone. In addition, do you ever see the professionals (or Big Dawgs) ski one pass before their most difficult pass? No! They usually run at least three, if not four passes, before their money pass. How do our pros approach training? They run passes! A big part of their sessions are what we call muscle memory sets. They run the same pass, at least two or three below their money pass, until they are blue in the face. Then they run it some more until they are sick of it, only they never get sick of it because they are building confidence and training muscles with repetition. Going around the balls has never been known to make one sick. Class, I hope you get my point. Examine what you are doing. Don’t practice failure. Don’t reinforce bad habits. Do whatever it takes to go around those balls. Run a ton of passes before that next loop. Reinforce success. Practice good technique, consistently. You will be glad you did, and when you cruise around 6 ball and out the gate, you will always be reminded of why our sport is so great and so much fun. A Good Ski Season To All, The Professor

I hear they are going to the next step beyond RTM.

I suspect that it will be built with a Toray T300 or T700 fiber. The T700g seems like a good option.

http://www.ballofspray.com/forum#/discussion/4457/surreptitious-slalom-session

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