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Are You Ready?

September 27, 2017 by Steve Hindman Leave a Comment

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It’s easy to be nothing but smiles and full of excitement standing on top of Telluride on a day like this. It’s harder to feel that same way after a couple of hours of enjoying the snow if you haven’t done at least something to build some strength and endurance as you float and fly down the piste.

If you’re not ready, it’s never too late to start. The main thing is to get up and move, hopefully for an hour or more, 4-5 days a week before showing up on the slopes. If group classes fit your temperament and schedule, join an aerobic, dance, fitness, or other class at a local gym. It doesn’t need to be a ski specific class, but try to find something that combines strength and aerobic conditioning, and make sure it includes lots of legwork. That may sound like Crossfit, but I don’t recommend beginning your fitness regime in such a demanding and competitive environment.

The simplest thing to do is find a gym, a trainer, or a class that gets your heart rate up while increasing your functional strength and endurance. This could be a simple as starting to walk or jog every other day, followed by adding hand weights to your forays after a week or two. If you want to get more involved, focus on three things:

  • Aerobic conditioning to build endurance to ski all day (and to breathe at 10,000 feet)
  • Functional strength, so that your core and limbs are ready to keep you over your skis and to take you where you want to go.
  • Interval training, so you can apply your fitness to the rhythm of skiing.

Aerobic or endurance conditioning

This takes a bit of time. Try to get your endurance sessions up to at least an hour. This can range from a brisk walk to a run or bike, but aerobic endurance is built on longer less intense sessions. Since you will be breathing hard and challenging your leg strength on skis, choose an activity that builds and challenges both.

Functional Strength

Functional or core strength is important for almost any other movement. Building functional strength means increasing your ability to move with strength and agility, especially when moving over shifting and varied terrain. Lifting weights and doing planks and push-ups on bosu balls, swinging kettlebells and clubbells, rolling tractor tires, and flipping lengths of heavy sissel rope are all forms of functional training. These are good, but I’ve found you can build specific functional strength without going to the gym that also builds awareness and reactions I can use on the ski slopes even while walking and running. All I do is wave my arms around like a trance dancer at jam band concert as I walk, run, and even bike.

This certainly looks weird, but I’ve discovered several benefits that outweigh (at least for me) the potential embarrassments. For starters, it takes away most of the pain I feel in my knees while running, especially while going downhill. I think that’s because I use my core, or the muscles of my trunk that connect my hips and shoulders, to avoid being flung from side to side as I wave my arms around. Each stride then comes from inside out as I direct each foot toward where it needs to be to keep me on course. As my foot lands, the entire chain of muscles, tendons and bones from foot to core is engaged and ready to absorb and redirect the energy of each footfall. I’ve found I can spend a few minutes finding my focus by waving my arms while running or walking and then take that that inside out focus back into running or walking without waving my arms around. I also do this on my bike, but would not recommend it unless you are already very very comfortable riding with no hands. And if you do try, you didn’t hear about it from me.

Interval Training

The rhythm of higher end skiing requires short and intense burst of high intensity effort as you negotiate a mogul field or steep section, followed either by a break or a section of easier skiing. To prepare for this, be sure to include some interval training, which is working somewhat to very hard for a short amount of time, recovering for about the same amount of time, then doing it again. You can walk, run, cycle, climb stairs or do a wide variety of other workouts to this rhythm. These intervals can be structured based on time and/or distance, or you can simply choose hilly terrain and push up and recover down each hill. A simple way to get started is to find a hill where you go push hard for 3 minutes and then rest as you coast back down (on a bike or roller skis or roller blades) or jog lightly back to the beginning. Then do a 4-minute effort, followed by a 5-minute effort, finishing with a 4 and then a 3-minute push. Adjust your effort so the final 3-minute effort takes you as far or farther up the hill as your first 3-minute effort. If you’re short on time or can’t get out outside, you can do a high intensity body weight exercise programs to get your heart pumping and build strength you can use on the slopes. See http://well.blogs.nytimes.com/projects/workouts/ for body weight program you could do in your hotel rood and Google interval training for more ideas.

Just do it

All of the above are simply suggestions. Please don’t do anything that will hurt you or goes against what your doctor and your common sense tell you not to do. The bottom line is, you’ll have a lot more fun and be able to ski more and improve your skiing more if you do something to get ready for you time on the slopes. Start by getting up right now and walking around your desk or house. Then extend that into at least walking around the block a time or two tonight. After that do more each day until you’re putting in 30-60 minutes a day of activity. Sign up for a group class. Start swimming. Hire a personal trainer. Just do something!

Filed Under: Alpine Skiing, Funtional Strength, High Intensity Training, Off Season Training, Ski Conditioning Tagged With: Colorado, Colorado Ski Instruction, Joy, learn to ski in Telluride, San Juan Mountains, ski instruction, ski with less effort, Ski with Steve, Telluride, Telluride Ski and Snowboard School

Camber, Rocker and In Between

July 11, 2017 by Steve Hindman Leave a Comment

https://www.wagnerskis.com/journal/ski-camber-vs-rocker-skiers-guide/?utm_source=Newsletter&utm_campaign=Camber%20vs%20Rocker

Filed Under: Alpine Skiing, Articles, Coaching, News Tagged With: alpine skiing, camber, Colorado Ski Instruction, easy, fun!, rocker, San Juan Mountains, ski design, ski instruction, ski with less effort, Telluride, Wagner skis

Turn to go, not to slow

December 28, 2016 by Steve Hindman Leave a Comment

Do you feel or fear being out of control on more challenging terrain? If so, I bet you suffer from turning to slow instead of turning to go syndrome.

Yes, contrary to widely spread and immensely popular rumors, turns are meant to help you go, not to help you slow. This is the closely guarded secret of folks who glide by with relaxed smiles as they dance down the mountain. Working with gravity instead of against it, they use a lot less effort and have a lot more fun. You can too – here’s how:

Understand speed control: The tracks you leave in the snow trace a path that controls your speed by taking a longer route from top to bottom than going straight. To go slower, make more turns or tighter turns, or do both. If you want to go faster, follow a straighter path.

Tip, then turn: You can only flop from turn to turn when you try to turn your skis before you tip them downhill. If you tip, then turn, you’ll be able to replace the desperate flop to get your skis back across the hill and dug into the snow as fast as possible with a flow from turn to turn. To flow instead of flop, start a new turn by moving your core toward where you want to go as you tip your feet downhill. This will roll your uphill edges out of the snow and flatten your bases against the snow. From this neutral position, it’s easy to  tip and then turn your skis into the next turn and to flow forward into the next arc on a smooth and sinuous path of speed control.

turning to go at the top or start of a new turn

turning to go at the top or start of a new turn with skis tipped into the new turn before they are turned

This is simple but not easy. It requires letting go of the natural tendency to lean uphill and away from the slope, an ability to tip your skis from edge to edge while staying over and moving with your feet, and knowing where you are going from turn to turn.

I can help you understand, experience, and own these and other skills in daily lessons and specialty clinics throughout the season. Call now to book a lesson to learn to turn to go instead of to slow and to flow instead of flop from turn to turn.

Filed Under: Alpine Skiing, Articles, Coaching Tagged With: bump skiing, carving, coaching, Colorado Ski Instruction, easy, fun!, learn to ski, powder skiing, ski instruction, ski with less effort, smooth, speed control, student centered teaching, technique, Telluride

Why Ski with Steve

February 16, 2014 by Steve Hindman Leave a Comment

Why Ski with Steve? The simplest answer is because I want to ski with you. Sure, I fit in days when I “ski for me”, but sharing the pure joy of sliding around on snow with folks like you is what’s kept me skiing and instructing for more than thirty years. Over those years I’ve learned to watch, listen and feel to understand how I can help you get what you want out of each lesson and to achieve your potential on skis.

Your goal might be to enjoy skiing and to get to know the mountain better with your family. It might be gaining confidence and control to move up to more challenging terrain. Perhaps you’ve always wanted to try skiing but have just made it to the mountains, so you are starting from scratch. Maybe you want to learn how to ski bumps, steeps, or powder, or you may be looking for a guide to help you enjoy Telluride. Regardless of your goals, I can take you, your children, and your friends to the runs that fit your level – from green to double black – and we will have an amazing time.

My approach to teaching skiing and/or improving the skills you have is based upon two simple concepts:

  1. Why skis turn
  2. How to use your body to turn the skis

These two things are simple to understand and tend not to vary much from person to person. What does differ is how each person hears, sees, thinks, and feels.

To match your unique way of learning and perceiving, I draw from a toolkit I have developed through years of experience. I offer different ways to articulate the same concept, to demonstrate what I am saying, and provide drills to help you feel what I’m talking about.

As I explain, demonstrate, and let you try it, I observe your skiing to see how you respond, and talk with you about what you have heard. My goal is to work with you to find an idea, a concept, or an experience that helps you get what you came to me to learn. I know I’ve succeeded when I see the smile on your face, the joy in your movements, and the glint in your eyes that tells me you’ve discovered your own passion for sliding on snow.

Please Come Ski with Me!

Sincerely,

Steve Hindman

Steve Hindman is a top instructor for the Telluride Ski School, a veteran of the PSIA Nordic Demo Team, and has been a certified ski instructor for over 30 years.

Filed Under: Alpine Skiing, Coaching, Cross-Country Skiing Tagged With: backcountry skiing, bump skiing, carving, coaching, Colorado, Colorado Ski Instruction, heli-skiing, learn to ski, learn to ski in Telluride, learning styles, mogul skiing, powder skiing, ski instruction, student centered teaching, Telluride

Camber, Rocker and In Between

https://www.wagnerskis.com/journal/ski-camber-vs-rocker-skiers-guide/?utm_source=Newsletter&utm_campaign=Camber%20vs%20Rocker

About Steve

Why Ski With Steve

Why Ski with Steve? The simplest answer is because I want to ski with you. Sure, I fit in days when … [Read More…]

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