The snowstorms over the weekend only added to the unseasonably good skiing and snowboarding. Mount Snow announced that they had their earliest opening in 10 years. Okemo said they had more terrain open in early December than they had for the last 10 years.
A week ago Friday at Mount Snow I met up with the editor of this paper, Tom Vannah. We’ve skied together before, but never at Mount Snow. He said he hadn’t been to Mount Snow in quite some time. I’ve learned a lot by contributing articles to the Valley Advocate. Getting phrases tweaked a bit and paragraphs moved around to make more sense helps you write better.
Tom asked me if there was anything I noticed in his skiing that we could correct to improve his form. There was. He needed to center himself so he faced downhill at all times. He was skiing fine on all the open terrain, but I knew that making a few subtle changes would make skiing on the steeper stuff even easier. Tom has been skiing a long time and is a finer athlete and in much better shape than I am. I never would have said anything if he hadn’t asked.
He took my advice last year when I told him it wasn’t a good idea for him to teach his six-year-old daughter, Charlotte, to ski without help from an instructor. I wasn’t so sure if it was any better an idea for me to coach my editor. If he didn’t think the things I was telling him helped out at all, I would lose a lot of credibility.
I’ve been golfing for a long time. I started when I was a little kid and we rode our bikes to Franconia in Springfield with golf bags over our backs. But I hardly consider myself a “golfer” because I don’t do it that often and can’t expect to take it seriously. Every once in a while somebody will point out a flaw (choosing the most obvious, I suppose) in my swing. Outwardly, I politely accept the advice. Inwardly I fume, “I know what I’m supposed to do. I just can’t do it!”
Skiing is easier to correct. Still, I didn’t want to turn a great ski day into something like a drill with instructions getting shouted out. All I wanted to do was get Tom to change his arm positioning.
When he stopped, his uphill arm was at his waist as he faced across the slope. I told him that his uphill hand should be out in front of his body so he would be anticipating the next turn. This would give him much better balance and make it easier to set up for the next turn. In that position he would already be halfway there.
Tom did better right away. He asked me if everything he had been doing was backwards. “Yes,” I said. How could that be? He had been watching skiers to see what the better ones were doing. That’s a good idea.
But when you get on steeper terrain, the natural movement is to lean into the hill. That makes your skis slide and not dig. If you position your upper body so that your shoulders are downhill from your waist as you cross the slope, your skis will dig into the snow.
This is hard to figure out without having someone explain it to you. A lot of things in skiing or snowboarding are the opposite of what you would figure. Instruction at any level is a great help.
I just wanted to leave Tom with this one tip for the day. He asked me about his pole planting, but I suggested he concentrate on the one thing that would get him over the hump quicker. He was planning to ski with Charlotte the next day and would be sure to become more proficient on his own.
It snowed about three inches that afternoon and I took the roller coaster ride up Route 100 to Okemo. The road grew darker and having a headlight out didn’t help. Then my windshield washer froze up. Next time I’m going to buy the more expensive stuff.
I entered a great race the next day and came in second in my division. Sounds good— but the guy who came in third was 86 years old!
