How to be good (at skiing)

To follow on from the last post about how long it takes to get good at skiing, here are a few thoughts on how to get there.

Firstly, to get really good you need to ski regularly. As it takes many weeks of skiing to get to a level most people would consider to be good, a single week's holiday a year will get you there very slowly. Leaving a whole year between each time you ski also gives you a long time to get out of practice. If you are going to spend more time skiing each year, it makes sense to spread that time around the season, or even the whole year, as much as possible. That way you will have less time to forget between each visit to the slopes.

Consider a second holiday in the winter, maybe to a cheaper resort, or a long weekend ski break as well as a week's holiday. If you are lucky enough to live within an easy drive of a ski area, even a small one, then take advantage of that and go there as often as you can. The cheaper local ski centres are ignored by many in favour of saving up for a big trip to a big name resort, but each has its own unique offering which may be well worth a visit.

If you cannot manage a visit to the mountains then artificial slopes can help keep your skiing on form. A few visits before your ski holiday will get your ski legs back so that you hit the pistes in good form on the first day of the holiday. Most artificial slopes will have clubs with regular coaching sessions so you can keep improving your skiing throughout the year.

Two of the best options to extend your annual ski time are to live in a ski resort for a season, and to get at least some skiing in during the summer months. There are many ways to do a ski season, be it working in resort, or funding yourself to take a year out, but those can wait until a future post as it is a bit late for this season and early for next. Having said that, it is always worth asking around when you are in a resort this year if you want to organise something for next winter, and there may even be vacancies where people have left the resort for some reason.

Skiing during the summer months is a fantastic way to improve, as you will at least halve the gap between your skiing trips. There are many options from this ranging from a few hours on an artificial slope, through a week or two at a resort with summer skiing up to doing a whole season in the opposite hemisphere.

 Summer race training camp in Les 2 Alpes
Spreading ski training over the year

As well as increasing the time spent on skis, your rate of improvement depends a lot on what you do with that time. I am a firm believer in lessons or coaching in order to improve your skills, as practice alone can only take you so far. Skiers at any level from beginners to world champions benefit from coaching. This does not mean you have to book into ski school for a week. If you already know how to ski then an hour or two with an instructor to fine tune your technique and get an idea of what to work on can be very productive. If you are at a high level then there are many performance skiing courses you can take to improve your skiing in specific areas, be it recreationally or as a competitor.

Lastly, you can improve much faster if you approach all your skiing with this as your goal. Many skiers spend their time cruising about the same pistes, never challenging themselves, spending as much time on lunches and coffee breaks as they do on skiing. There is absolutely nothing wrong with this - it is a very pleasant way to spend time in a beautiful environment, and holidays are supposed to be enjoyable after all. However you will improve faster if you constantly challenge yourself. Ski challenging runs or ski faster (always with respect for other slope users of course). Try to make every turn a good one. On easy slopes set yourself challenges - ski on one ski or do some other exercise, try not to allow the ski to skid, try to make a set number of turns in a given length of piste, or restrict yourself to skiing in a certain corridor. There are many things you can do to push yourself, but it is very easy to let your skiing stagnate if you don't do them.

How long does it take to be a good skier?

I have been asked how long it takes to be a good skier, which is pretty much an impossible question to answer. For one thing, everybody improves at a different pace. More crucial though is the question of what is meant by a good skier. However good you are, there is always somebody better. Is an instructor like myself, with an ISIA badge and a few hundred weeks on snow an example of a a good skier? I hope the people I teach would think so, but put me in a ski race and it is apparent that there are lots of skiers out there who are far better (and faster) skiers than I am. To get to a really top level requires investing a huge amount of time, from a fairly young age, as well as having the talent and opportunities and funding and determination to succeed.

If a good skier is someone who can ski black runs competently (short parallel turns for example) you are probably looking at 3 - 10 weeks from complete beginner, depending on natural ability, confidence, determination and amount/quality of instruction. To be competent off piste in any sort of snow conditions takes a good few weeks longer. Getting to an instructor level will take most people tens of weeks of skiing, whilst getting through the top level instructor courses may well take hundreds. Getting into top level competition, where the really good skiers are, will require dedicating a huge part of your life to the sport.

Lynsey Vonn - Getting to this level of skiing takes many years of dedication

Photo credits here

In the next post I plan to give a few tips on how to get good (or at least better, since 'good' is such a subjective word) at skiing.

More on slacklining

For anyone who read my last post on slacklining, you might want to have a look at this pretty inspiring video made by some crazy French people who are really good at it...

Off topic plug - Paintings of Cows

This is nothing to do with skiing, but it's my blog so I guess I can post what I like ;-)

I just want to give a quick mention to my friend Nikki's recently revamped website. Nikki is an artist living in Cheshire (one of the flattest and least snowy parts of the UK, so really not to do with skiing), and she is currently promoting her Funky Cow range of original artwork, limited edition prints along with themed gifts and cards. Daisy (below) is one of my favourites. If you like it have a look at more cow themed artwork at Nikki's website.

Fit for your ski holiday?

Are you fit enough to cruise the pistes all day?

I have mentioned ski fitness a few times before in this blog, but I thought I would revisit it as the winter season is kicking off right now (in the Northern Hemishpere at least). Let me say first that you do not need to be super fit to enjoy a ski holiday. On the other hand if you are very unfit you will struggle, and you may find yourself not having much fun at all, or even giving up early and resigning yourself to sitting in the hotel with a book. I have talked before about fitness for more advanced skiers, but this time around I want to cover fitness for beginner and intermediate skiers, especially those planning their first or second week's holiday.

Skiing is a sport which can be enjoyed at many levels, but it is still a sport. If your skiing holiday is the one week of exercise you take in a year then you will not get the most out of it. At the least you will be on your feet several hours each day, at a higher altitude than your body is used to. Add in the pressures on your legs, and the fact that you will be relying on muscles that are often under used in everyday life, and it is not surprising that the first day on the slopes really takes it out of a lot of people.

So to get through the days with enough energy left to enjoy the apres ski (which is an important part of the holiday of course) what do you need to do? Basically, for the average recreational skier, you want to have a decent level of aerobic fitness and endurance. Skiing does not have to be strenuous (although it can be if you want it to be) but it does keep you working all day, so if you are happy going out for a long walk in the country for a few hours, for example, you should be happy skiing all day. Any sort of aerobic exercise is going to be good of course; running, cycling, football, tennis and so on. If you don't do any other sports already then start gradually - all the things you will have heard before like walking instead of driving, taking the stairs instead of the lift, maybe joining a gymn or fitness class. The key here is not to do too much too quickly -  try to enjoy getting fitter. It is all too easy to get enthusiastic about getting fit, do everything you can for a couple of weeks, and then get tired and lose motivation. Keep in mind that goal of being able to cruise the slopes effortlessly when you get to your holiday.

You may hear about 'ski exercises' such as adopting a sitting position with your back against a wall so your quads support your weight, or using leg extension machines in the gymn. Ignore any such well meaning advice - these exercises are not effective, and can do more harm than good. If you want to do weights, or ski specific exercises, you should concentrate on legs (not just quads) and core. Squats and lunges are good, as are crunches, the plank and other abdominal exercises. For me though, balance exercises are the most useful. Kneeling on a Swiss ball, standing on a balance board, riding a unicycle or walking a slackline have all been part of my ski training at some time.

Remember though, it is supposed to be about enjoying yourself, so whatever you do, keep it fun.

Winter's nearly here

Les Marades, Arinsal - Yesterday

Well, I guess summer is finally over, although I've had some pretty good days rock climbing in shorts and T-Shirt as recently as a week ago. Winter is fast approaching, as you can see from the photos above taken whilst ski touring yesterday (well skinning up the closed pistes which is sort of like ski touring). Over the next month or so ski resorts around the northern hemisphere will be opening - some in November to cater for the early bird skiers, others waiting until December giving them more time to get the pistes in good condition. Opening early is good publicity for a resort, but doesn't necessarily mean they have better snow than their neighbours. It is also true that resorts opening early may well have quite a limited portion of the ski area open.

Having said all that, there is something really satisfying about skiing up to a month before most people even consider taking their holiday. The resorts are quiet apart from the arriving seasonal staff, and the pistes that are open will probably be well prepared and empty. Squeezing in a ski weekend in November is not that dificult with budget flights and a hire car - renting a car is recommended though as it can be harder to find transfers  at this time of year. A hire car also gives you more flexibility to drive in search of the best snow. If you work Monday to Friday you will probably need to take some time off on the Friday or Monday, but it will be worth it for the envious looks of your colleagues when you get back from the slopes.

Don't be worried if you arrive in the resort and there is no snow on the ground. The best skiing will usually be higher up, and the natural snow will be backed up with snow making. Unless you are very lucky you probably will not be skiing much back country and powder, so just enjoy the empty pistes and the privilege of being amongst the first people on the slopes this year.

New Hobby - Slackline

You may remember me writing about the benefits of riding a unicyle as training for skiing. Pretty much any activity that develops good balance should be helpful in improving ski technique, since good balance is such a big part of skiing. Unicycling, Swiss ball excercises, wobble boards, balancing on a beam and even the Wii Balance Board (more on that in a future post) will all be useful in this respect. There is plenty more to be said about the importance of balance, but for now I want to talk about slackline.

For those who have not come across it before, a slackline is like a tightrope, but (perhaps stating the obvious here) not as tight. The idea is to walk on it, like a tightrope, and progress to various tricks. Since the tension is far lower than a tightrope (although still pretty tight) it can be set up more easily and cheaply. I have set up mine in the garden between two trees, but you can find plenty of footage on Youtube of the experts doing crazy tricks over gorges or between rock spires - something to aspire to perhaps. For now I'm still a beginner, but as you can see from the photo - taken whilst rock climbing in the UK Peak District - I can at least manage a low level line already (until I try to turn around anyway).

I was inspired to have a go at slacklining after seeing Jelena Schradi and Ingrid Laillaut de Wacquant slackline over the Arve river in Chamonix to promote their film 'Send it Sistah' (see below) at the Chamonix Adventure Film Festival in late August. I found it surprisingly easy to get started, but surprisingly difficult to be able to do it consistently well, even on my short line in the garden. It really is a great exercise for leg and core strength and stability and balance, as you are constantly moving and making adjustments to stay in balance.

I made my slackline from old climbing equipment and a couple of lengths of webbing tape which I picked up cheaply from climbing shops in Chamonix. If you don't happen to have spare climbing gear lying around you can buy a slackline kit, like these Amazon.com for example, or look at slackline sites like www.slackline.org.uk or www.slack.fr (in French) for loads of info on how to set up a slackline and where to buy the bits you need.