Twist and Shout

Turning Point

by David Sword

When I was first hired as a ski instructor at Mt. Hood Meadows in 1982, 1 thought I had a pretty good handle on how to ski, especially since most of my formal education came from the world of ski racing. However, one overcast mid-week day, I was participating in a clinic taught by my Training Supervisor Ron Kipp, and was caught completely unaware of my own limitations. Standing on top of 4 Bowl, Ron was introducing the concept of "Balance in Motion", and talked about the relationship between the many movements of our body, and the elusive creature we call balance. As a teenage full-timer, much of Ron's clinic was being filtered through thoughts of my girlfriend and images of that new 4x4 I wanted, but when he perched the clinic on top of the steep and deep, my ears perked up. The pearl of wisdom that I would soon receive would change my thinking and my abilities forever. As I dropped in to the steepest portion of the run I was immediately greeted by deep snow with the consistency of cream-of-wheat ... with out the lubricating qualities of milk. Ron, a former NW Tech Team member and current Director of Athlete Preparation for the United States Ski Team, is no stronger to the developmental needs of a youngster like me. He immediately noticed that in more challenging conditions I had the tendency to .. square up" at the completion of each turn, which led to an unbalanced posture and a difficulty in linking turns together. Ran suggested that I work on a strong "counter" movement, where my upper and lower body worked in opposition yet remarkably was able to stay in balance. He gave me the image of hop turns (now my all time favorite drill) utilizing a strong pole plant, and attempting to link the movements together, somewhat like a connect-the-dots picture. "Each hop and pole plant represent a dot. Slow down the flexing and extending movements, so your tempo remains quick, but you have rhythm and f low from one turn to the next". After flailing on the first run, I practiced hop turns on the groomed, and as I approached 4 Bowl for my second assault I held the image of my ski's slicing through my overcooked breakfast, leaving a swirly signature of success behind me. Diving in my tips began to sink, but I held onto the notion of the twisting nature of hop turns, and before I knew it, I was linking turns. Shouts of success filled the mid-week mountain air, and I knew at that very moment I had made a change in my skiing which would stay with me forever.