Fall Tips

Follow Up to Slumpin’ Article by Seth Stisher

So I wrote an entire tip last edition about how to find your way out of a slump… the only problem is that I was in one, and I wasn’t sure how to find my way out. Well, I won’t say I’m completely out, but I am starting to feel the flow again and I want to share a few of the simple thoughts and revelations that might have pulled me out of the slump:

1. Check your gear. I probably spend a lot more time working on other skiers gear than mine, but this time I should have paid more attention to mine. I think I had my fin setup such that I was killing myself and never getting positive feedback from positive movements.
2. Be in the moment. I have had so many things going on over the course of this season, I was never fully in the moment. My training partners made a lot of jokes about how many different places my mind could be in the course of one set. I was spouting off random thoughts at each end of the lake almost as though I forgot I was in the middle of a ski set.
3. Have some confidence and fight! I spent most of this summer talking poorly about my skiing whether it was in practice or at an event…almost as though I was giving myself an excuse. Ever heard of the self-fulfilling prophecy. Well, if you say your bad, you start to think your bad. If you start to think you’re bad, then eventually you will be.
4. Take a hint. Listen to what other people have to say. I am not saying that you need to take coaching blindly from anyone who gives a tip to you, but listen to people and try to put all of those random tips together into one theme and make some changes.

If all else fails, just fall until you get it right!

These things have helped me and I hope I am finding my way out of my slump. I hope to be better than ever for the 2009 season…rephrase, I WILL be better than ever for the 2009 season!

GATES-GATES-GATES by Seth Stisher

I have always placed a great deal of emphasis on the gates, but perhaps not enough. No matter what you try to do in the course, if you have a bad gate, you make success a more difficult goal. Nine times out of ten when I am having trouble with my skiing, it can be traced back to the gate. Without getting into the details of a perfect gate (because I happen to think you can achieve it in several ways), here are a few principles you must stick to:

1. Keep some speed so that you stay light on the line on your turn in to the gates. This will allow you to really carry your direction out after the second wake.
2. Move early. All I mean when I say this is to begin your turn in before you think you should. This really relates back to the first tip in that it forces you to start carrying your speed toward the gates and ultimately across course before you lose it (speed that is). If you do this, you gain cross-course speed with less effort.
3. Ride the ski in. Don’t move your upper body toward the gates without paying attention to where you are on the ski. You need to fall off the right edge of the ski (from the core) and carry your mass toward the gates all the way to and through the edge change. This means that you have to move not only across the course, but with the boat as well. This allos you to use the boat to generate speed rather than fighting the boat.

These simple concepts may allow you to accomplish a gate that is unique to your style, but efficient as well.