Follow Me!
by Karin Harjo, NW Technical Team Member
photos by Cookie Hale

Recently I had the wonderful opportunity to ski with a couple of my friends and mentors Paul Jones, better known as PJ, and Cookie Hale. Throughout the course of the day, we did several forms of sync skiing or follow me to help me work on my skiing. I had to move, change and adapt my movements to match what he was doing. I learned very quickly why PJ was asking for the movement changes in my skiing when I couldn’t keep up with him while sync skiing in his track. This experience, along with those from my own lessons, have made me a huge fan of the classic ski instructor saying of…”Follow me!

”Playing follow the leader in a lesson is much more than a way to move a group of young kids or adults down the hill. A visual image can be a very powerful learning tool for most students. Playing Follow Me combines this with attention to matching ski behavior, turn size and shape or timing of movements. It is a way to teach people what they need to do by setting the parameters they must follow in the turns you make. The following are just a few examples of Follow Me that can be used in any private or group lesson. Combining any of these scenarios with a skill focus for your student may help them understand how that skill focus will help achieve their ski improvement goal. Use follow me to teach turn shape:

Many times we talk about the round C or S shape of a turn to our students. We draw it in the snow with our ski pole and describe its power to help control their speed on that steeper pitch, but find it challenging to cure them of their Z shaped ways. A great way to enable your student to ski a round turn is to have them follow you (or if part of a group pair them up) and have them ski outside your (or their partner’s) tracks. This gives the second skier a point of reference on the snow to move to. The next key is to explain that they have to keep up with you (or their partner) while they do this. Keeping up means staying a half a turn or turn behind. If they chop off the top of their turn, they will catch up to you. If they traverse or hold on to their turns too long, they will not be able to keep up with you. Much like setting race gates in the snow, it will force the skier to make a turn where they are not used to doing so…or better yet, where and how they need to.

Use follow me to teach the timing and difference of movements:

Sync skiing is a great way to help a skier move differently within a specified turn size. In setting this up, highlight the movement pattern the lead skier exhibits that you would like the second skier to mimic. In a group scenario, match up your opposites. For example: match the strong rotary skilled skier with the strong edging skilled skier; match the super flexed skier with the really tall skier; etc. The next key is to emphasize the importance of keeping up with the leader while matching the tempo and timing of their movements turn for turn. For a great variation, also try this while sync skiing figure eights. Similar to the tactical planning of skiing the moguls or trees, a skier’s turns are dictated by an external factor causing them to anticipate, react, plan and look ahead. Sync skiing with a partner can take any plain groomed run and turn it into a fun challenge. Use follow me to teach speed control in a variety of turn sizes and terrain:

In this scenario, have the second skier ski in the exact track of the lead skier. (Within a half a turn or turn as seen above.) The next key is to have the skiers ski terrain from flats to steeps or vice versa, keeping the same turn size and tempo. Doing so, the second skier will have to change their turn shape to keep up or prevent themselves from running the lead skier over (not recommended). To be effective in controlling one’s speed, not all of the turns performed will look like the perfect C or S shape turn. Ski too round on the flats and you will come to a halt. Ski too shallow on the steeps and you will be screaming down the hill before you know it. With this understanding in mind, play follow me while skiing a series of short radius turns through varying terrain followed by a run of medium turns on the same terrain. The goal should be to keep the medium radius turn medium in size on steeper terrain (not a short radius turn with a traverse) and the short radius turns from turning into mediums on the flats. Attempting to keep up and stay in a partner’s tracks will teach that there are several varieties of “round turn shapes”. Doing so will ensure that the speed, tempo and size of the turn will stay consistent regardless of what the terrain does. I have found from participating in or setting up any one of these scenarios, that it allows the skier to turn the brain off and just SKI! For many of us that suffer from “paralysis by analysis”, playing follow me is a great way to ingrain the movements or ski/snow interaction you would like your students (or yourself) to have. So the next time you send your group down the hill, have them follow you or each other, add the little spice of parameters they must meet, and sit back and watch the change begin.

Karin is the YSL Program Manager & J3 Coach for Schweitzer Alpine Racing School. She spends her summers as the Big Winds Windsurf School & Rental Manager in Hood River.