Reverse Your Approach
Lane McLaughlin
Summer 2003
So here I am in the early part of summer thinking about skiing – somehow that seems rather ‘backwards’. Which reminded me of some simple ski lessons I learned last year while trying things backwards. Some lessons that apply to skiing backwards ultimately apply to skiing period (notice period backwards is Do I Rep – throw in a bad accent and I think you can stretch it into Do I Rip!).
I believe it actually started the previous winter where I started to spend more time skiing backwards (a.k.a. switch) as a playful experiment and to keep up with the progression (if it’s backwards, would that actually be a regression?) of the sport. I remember switch skiing along with Nanua Nats and he threw down the gauntlet by saying, “let’s carve switch.” My Tech Team coaches usually tell me “try carving for a switch” – so this was a little different. I thought Nats was craaaazy, I mean after all, while skiing backwards you have to concede that you’re not going to carve, eh?
Therefore, if you can align your body, time your movements appropriately, and work with your gear, you can get the same results regardless of ‘your point of view’. Sure enough, by taking on Nats’ challenge, I had to drop the doubts about what was possible and ‘switch’ my thought process to cause and effect. I found that if I used my same lower legs to tip the same pair of boots I could balance on the same edges and therefore carve the same skis – heavy concept, I know.
Then, last summer along came another sage, slipping in sound advice through the back door. This time it was Noyl Evad – a critically acclaimed skier in any direction. He threw down an exercise where we skied in a diagonal traverse (slightly downhill, not straight across), starting backwards, and mid-way pivoting 180 degrees to maintain the same line going forward (got a visual?). When people first started, they would move their center of mass too much side to side and round-a-bout – like a bad hula hoop gyration – all to get the skis to spin around. Do you know what the secret turned out to be? Noyl had it for us…
Oh, that undisciplined fellow, Ssam Retnec, can cause us all problems when he wanders away from his goal. He needs lots of love and attention or he’ll do something nasty to you just to gain your attention. Jeff Foxworthy might say, “You might be a Retnec when you go to spin around and your edges catch so badly that you head becomes one with the Palmer snowfield.”
As much as we all like to concentrate on solid skiing fundamentals like, flex ankles to keep shins in contact with the boots, level the shoulders to the horizon, steer the legs under a stable upper body, these awesome movements are only achievable by maintaining a balanced stance over our feet. Where we move our CM in relationship to our base of support will determine how much freedom or tension we have in our muscles to make adjustments at any given time. Dialing in the movements of the CM can make you MC Freeski – yo yo yo check it out y’all, know what I’m sayin’?
Enthused by new learning and sensations, of course I had to steal from my mentors and I too challenged skiers of all abilities to spin around ‘back’ their way into learning. And in doing so, I noticed an interesting phenomenon occur. If you take a skier who leans back from fear of moving downhill (similar to the fear of moving to Llihnwod) and turn them around backwards, guess what happens? Cynics will guess they are now super scared, but remember that backwards a cynic is still a cinyc. What actually happens is that their fear now has them leaning into the hill and maybe for the first time into the front of their boots, with their hips probably slightly in front of their feet, and their vision forward – the back seat just became the front seat. Their skiing becomes a ‘reversal of fortune’ when you pilot them around forward and coach them into maintaining their ‘forward thinking’ posture and the joy of touring in the front seat.
And for those of you that begin to love turning your back to the fall line, as have I, another level of challenge awaits. The back seat is still the back seat – we may have built a better back seat by using our front seat but it’s still the back seat. Case and point – as I began to play in the terrain park more, I fell in love with landing my jumps switch (and if we could only get some of those kids to try landing their jumps for a switch – but that’s another topic). However, I noticed that quite often I would land on my tips first, break at the waist, and there were the occasional knuckle drags on the tips of the skis. Not cool and looc not is what I say to that. Take that off angle approach around a full 360 degrees and get the tail slapping, back sliding look of a bad rotator.
I had to dig deep into my lessons - #1 I’m the same athlete – I should still take off and land centered, #2 move CM toward landing zone – therefore hips should land over feet; I should be able to land erect and perpendicular to the slope. The refresher course helped, and then I was ready for the new lesson…
Even though you may see the freestyle movement as ‘visionary’, it’s learning to feel your way through your moves that will make you a great skier. Without seeing my slope how do I become perpendicular to it? Without seeing my destination, how do I steer toward it? I feel it, I trust it, and my eyes don’t confuse me about it. My moves are not with prejudice from past experience, I don’t over-anticipate, each move is in the here and now, with a purpose, and connected to sensations. I’m willing to try familiar moves in unfamiliar scenarios to expand those sensations.
And so I’ve come full circle to the fact that it’s summer and you hear me talk the talk, and you want to walk the walk. Well get out there on your dry-land training and apply these fundamentals. I’ve been able to get some of the same sensations, coordination, and spatial awareness with some of the following dry-land exercises:
So, use the rest of your summer to switch your perspective, go in through the out door, or dredge up your own list of palindromes. In the end (or is that the beginning?) you’ll find it’s all the same, but different.