YourSkiCoach DVD's

 I just watched the second DVD "Edging" after having already seen the first "Balance."

These DVD's are really great.  The drills are extremely thorough, so for example when doing the falling leaf Rick has you do first tips falling exercises, then tails falling ones, then combining the two.  This type of breaking the task down into parts is a theme throughout the series and it seems like a great idea to me.

Drills are done in 1/2 turns first.  

All in all this series (there are 6 DVD's) is a wealth of progression if you have the time to do all the work, it seems like a perfect way to develop incredible skill if you follow it.

The laminated drill cards are fantastic you can take out in your pocket the drill you want to work on that day and the cards are very complete.

yourskicoach.com

Thanks, SkiMangoJazz, for posting your thoughts on the Building Blocks program.  Glad you're enjoying them.  Now lets pray for plenty of snow this season so you can really put them to work.

Just so everyone understands, Building Blocks is not really designed for day one beginners.  It's intended to provide an extremely conprehensive self training program that anyone, from those just learning to ski parallel, to skiers who have been skiing for years but feel their progress has stalled, can use to re-energize their skiing and take it to an extemely high level of expertise.

I've designed Building Blocks to be an easy to follow progression that gradually and gently builds your skills, baby step by baby step.  It doesn't skip the development of crucial foundation skills in a rush to get to expert skiing, or just provide a basket of nifty tips.  That quick and easy approach sounds appealing on the surface, but it just doesn't work, because it leave holes in a skiers skill base that imposes a barrier on how high up the ladder of skiing prowess thay can ultimately climb.   Building Blocks teaches the entire gamut of balance, edging, rotary, flexion/extension and angulation skills needed to realize and enjoy true expert level skiing. 

The Building Blocks Instructional Series is a 6 DVD program that contains approx 9 hours of comprehensive, no nonsense training.   It's not a get rich quick scheme, it's a real training program that provides an actual road map of how great skiing is achieved.  I've spent the last 2 years of my life filming and producing this series, knowing there was a need in the skiing world for it.  The huge number of glowing testimonials I've received from people who purchased and are now using the program to take their skiing to a new level suggests that need was even greater than I knew. 

Here's a link directly to the DVD page on my website.  www.yourskicoach.com/YourSkiCoach/Ski_Instruction_DVD_Video.html

From there you can navigate to a number of free resources, like articles, videos, and question/answer, designed to help my students, and all skiers, reach their goals.

Here's a video I put together that provides a quick overview of the Building Blocks Series.

Watching the video and reading SMJ's notes has me having happy flashbacks of CubeFest!  Sadly, my ski season is going to be woefully short this year. so to maximize fun-time on the snow, I'll be reviewing my BB DVD's to remind myself of the drills we practiced at CubeFest.  Having spent lots of time at the gym to rehab my knee, I'm excited to get back on the snow and see how I can continue to build on the skills I began to acquire last season. 

For anyone on the fence, I heartily recommend that you buy these DVD's.  They're so well done, and Rick's thorough explanation of everything--the do's and the don'ts--makes the drills and instruction easy to understand. 

 i just recently ordered and received the entire 6 part 'building blocks instructional series' , along with a few sets of the related 'drill cards' for when i'm on the slopes to practice the exercises from the series.

 just last night I watched the first dvd in the series 'Basic Balance' ...get this:.when i was first contemplating ordering the series i thought i was ''good enough'' (being a novice but not a real 'beginner') to skip this first ''basic balance'' dvd... but decided  at the last minute to order the whole 6 part series anyway....and in hindsight after watching it I am glad that I didn't skip it, for it has alot of great exercises that i've never had any ski instructor teach to me...ie just doing the fore/aft/centre weight distribution exercises alone in the first part of this dvd was an eye opener for better weight feel and recovery ie doing turns in a fore stance then to aft...or reverse...very interesting were the variations to really get a feel for balance and the different components of this fundamentally important skill....(the drills and exercises get more complex as you move through it)...sure i've done some exercises before in various skill sessions, ie tapping, but nothing as varied or as extensive.

for a 'basics' dvd in balance it has imo alot to offer...i can't imagine what the 'advanced balance' skills and drills it will go into....am now watching this 'basic' dvd a 2nd time, too.

Wish i'd had this before i went up to whistler for skiing my first time in deep powder and on ungroomed runs...i'm sure my confidence level would have been higher and i could have possibly avoided the tumble i had which resulted in a slightly fractured rib. (we were skiing some steeper blues and 'easier' blacks: all ungroomed, deep snow, mounds...we'd all only before this been on 'groomers' (what a contrast returning to my local mtn cypress  with its predominantly groomed runs).

fyi i haven't watched other instructional skiing dvds so can't make a comparison, but regardless i'm learning alot and enjoying the journey...so thus far the series is highly recommended.

Edited by canali - 12/26/09 at 12:39pm

 The youtube link above became broken.  Here's the new link:


Mod edit: fixed it for you -Rusty