High Country Fishing Charters is an equal opportunity employer and service provider operating under special use permit on the San Juan National forest. U.S. Coast Guard licensed & insured. Colorado Outfitters Lic. # 2352 Float Trips, Wade Trips, Learn to Fly Fish        Scott Taylor          970-946-5229        bass@highcountrycharters.com              Ski School Progressions and Exercises MA Beg Clinic Beginner errors and prescription to change. If you don’t know why you are doing a drill (and can’t do it correctly) don’t do it. Ex. Boot drills, one ski drills Don’t teach turning in the bullpen. NOVA first pitch work close to the fall line (gravity zone) help each if needed. Go to the flat spot.  Don’t make it a free for all. Then try to get your class to the other side of yikes hill. Then work next pitch, the same as the first. Stop over by the chair not under. MA of Beg, and the corrections. (All relate back to stance and balance) Side stepping slips and going backwards First make sure they are lined up on the fall line. Yeah yeah yeah. Draw a line in the snow or line up their skis. If they are having trouble stepping, (slipping) have them focus on the inside of the ankle of the down hill ski and the outside of the ankle of the uphill ski. Tap boots if needed. Most of the time they slip on the down hill ski. Stress that they need to “set an anchor first” I kick the ski in hard to have them emphasize this point. “Set the anchor, then step up hill”. If they are drifting backwards place your poles in the snow along the fall line, have them side step up with their ski tips close to the poles and at a 90-degree angle to the poles in the fall line. Have them make little lines in the snow as they are stepping up hill. Don’t short yourself on how important side stepping is. Knees coming in while in wedge We always hear instructors say push on the edges, push harder. What! Try to have them focus on a beech ball between the legs. The ski’s stop by creating friction against the snow, not by digging in the edges. This kind of teaching often leads to problems like crossed ski. When students have trouble, have them line up across the fall line and make a wedge with good stance and balance (static). Have them push out on both outside ankles at the same time. I like to have them relate to a heart pulse. Do a pulse once a second for 15 seconds. Take a break and do it again. Crossed skis  reason- too much twist of the feet, and not enough spreading of the feet. When we make a wedge it is a two-part movement. One is a rotary movement twisting the feet in; the other is pressure movement forcing the feet out. The feet have to be forced out from under the hips, to wider than the hips while the ski are twisted in to be effective. Tips and Tails have to be open Railed ski Reasons- weight on one ski, why, fear! Knock-knee Upper body rotation, why, fear. If the upper body rotates uphill, so does the uphill hip. Now the skier is out of alignment, the skier has to push the uphill hip fwd to re- align the body. Cure for railed skis – first off and most important, check stance and balance. This goes back to sidestepping. Railed skiers can’t side step efficiently in both directions. Sidestepping can be a great drill for a railed skier. Push ankle into the side of the boot, tap on the ankle (be body part specific). Have them look straight down the hill. Visually have them go straight with the focus of the body being aligned.  Tips of the skis will be even if they are aligned.
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