Bag of Tricks -- what are the staples?

Backwards skiing:

In a wedge, ski backwards in a straight line, without looking behind you.  Ski to instructor's voice.

Do it again, making a turn in one direction.

Then do it again, making a turn in the other direction. 

Analyze how you did that.  

 

Now turn around and do it forwards.

In no particular order

 

Leapers or "jump shots" as I like to use with kids that are basketball players. Find your center at the transition of every turn.

 

Shuffle turns.

 

For hotshot kids that think they can do anything (assuming they are pretty solid skiers) One legged skiing. (leave the other ski at the bottom of the hill) I have also found this is a great way to slow down a hotshot skier when teaching a "split" class. Some strong parallel skiers and some beginning parallel skiers. The hotshot kids have a great time and learn to move their center of mass over their balance foot. And the less strong kids do the same drill but with both skis on. Security of being able to put a foot down and still work on one legged (balance) skiing.

 

"Feet follow the hands" Works great with adults as well as kids. Have them set their poles down somewhere and have them mimic the movements with their hands. Most of the time the feet will follow. With their hands out in front so they can see them, it causes them to move forward on their feet as well.

Works with wedge turners, parallel turners, carvers. You just have to use the right movements with your hands.

Just standing backwards on a slight hill for beginners and timid skiers can be a great exercise. Just to get them to feel how their feet should feel if they are skiing in balance. (fore/aft)

playing cat and mouse with the mouse's job is to lose the cat by making turns (not just going straight) and the cat must follow the mouse's track, no short cuts.

 

Leading the game as an instructor for a few times so they get the idea... Then let them go at it with each other. Teaches attitude of "going somewhere" rather than braking to turn. for kids that have started to skate, it will make them want to skate..Teaches tactics for rolling hills and speed control tactics for variable terrain.

 

 

and its FUN

For some reason I started writing down drills and exercises that I was using for specific skill development. I think because I thought would it help me retain more of my bag of tricks... The problem is I started inventing things and made up names for them... now I can't even remember what they all are!

 

Tobin’s Tool Box

Stance & Balance	Pivoting	Edging	Pressure Control	Timing & Coordination
Hands on Knees Hops Hop Variations (Tips Down) (Tails Down) (Multi-Hops) Pole Dragging Poles all Over Hands All Over (Behind knees) (Out In Front) (Behind Butt) One Ski Hip Box Double Pole Plants Foot Shuffle (Independent Foot Shuffle) Punch In Gut (Pole) Core Push Ball Kick Foot Push Arc Feelers Boots Undone Jumps & Bumps On Snow 360’s Back Pedal Bumps Hockey Stops Eyes Closed Extreme Exaggerations Side Slips Switch Skiing Inside Tip Down (Up) Phantom Move Telemark Turns Spece Dolphin Turns Boot Skiing Log Flexes Inside/Outside Ski Falling Leaf Pole Punch Dwarf Turns Wheely Turns Rodeo Retractions Line Plant Switch Nollies 2X6 Squats Poles Tied Legs Tied Glove/Ball in Legs Commitment Dives Traverses Boot Ski Toilet Sit Beer Tray Poles Balanced on Wrists Super slinkys vs pops Free tactics	Braquage Nude Neighbors Hockey Stops Poles On Outside Knee Poles Down the Hill Spece Javelyn Turns / Traverses Jaberwalkies Hippy Poles (w/ Hands pushes) Poles Behind Butt & Back Hands on Hips Corridor Backwards Skate Stem Christies Chair/Bar Sits Partner Drag Texas Two Step Clock Face Tuck Turns Up Hill Turns Gorilla Turns Inside Ski Pivot 1000 Turns Children’s Spece Cigarette Butt Pill Bottle John Travolta Turns Cat & Mouse Canoe paddle Super pivots to carve Hockey Stick Point the Knees Norwegian Pole Plants Tip Lead Ski The hump Phantom Turns Telemark Chair Pivots Poles Tied Red Light, Green Phantom Plants Inside Ski Pivots Free tactics Snow Boot Arcs Lay on Back leg turns	Pole Tilts Touch-A- Boot Roller Blade turns (Traverses) Outside/Inside Ski Pole Tilts Hand(s)/Hip Touch Inside Euro-Carves Pole Dragging Side Slip Races Air Plane Turns White Pass Turns Pairs Traverse Partner Drag Hockey Stops Spaghetti Legs Backwards Skate Power Plow 1000 Steps Frog Hops Hop to Higher Track Turns Down Hill Skate Hit, Hit, Hit Edge Set Sounds game Hyper Plow Stops Angulation Shapers Tomato Slice Baby To Lift Push Over/ Pull Over Base Ball Bat Pole Swing Phantom Move Sponsor Turns One Ski Down Hill Reaches Beer Cans Ahoy Knee in Arm Pit Red Light, Green NorwegianGroomerGropers Glove Golf Downhill Ski to Boot One Ski Roller Blades Free Tactics OutsideHand InsideHippies Crossed Knee Poles Reverse a pass turn	Avalement Jumps & Bumps Dwarf Turns Double Hops Touch-A-Bump Limbo Poles Hockey Stops Sound Game Egg Shells No Air/Big Air Side Slips/ Falling Leaf Explodo-Bumps Hops turns Dolphin turns (Dolphin Variations) Backpedal Bumps Ski The Hump/Ridge Counting Turns Braquage Edge Releases Powder Bounces Ceiling Turns Bump Traverses Small Tall Super slinky’s vs pops Free Tactics Follow Wider Deflections	Visualization Drill Pole Walking Poles With Feet Pole Strap Plants Syncro Skiing Follow the Leader Counting Turns Plant a Line Pole on the Hole Spece Texas two Step One Ski Corridor Gate Drills Decision Training Hard First Switch Skiing Ski Juggle Traverses Free tactics

Have we reached the point where we begin to whittle down the list?

Good LORD what a list!!!  I've been looking for something like that for years.

 

BRAVO ZULU skinerd!!!! Thank you thank you thank you.

 

I'm stealing it and passing it out.

 

Now, what the heck is a "John Travolta Turn??????"

Backwards skate is just what it sounds like. Skate backwards..

Love doing it and teaching others to..

Knee in armpit..

In a right turn, try to put your right knee in your right arm pit.
Left turn, left knee to left arm pit.
Develops angles, creates counter and long leg short leg. Gets your upper body moving down the hill..

DC

 

- Ahh. Whoops 'spece' is just a typo... yes it's 'speiss' (a.k.a. hop... pivot... edge set)

- Jaberwalkies - are are just a progression towards a javelin turn (because javelins are too difficult for many students). It is essentially a hockey stop followed by picking up the uphill ski and pointing it down the hill. I like to think of it as reverse engineering the skill of pivoting. It is really teaching a position of upper and lower body separation at the end of the turn.... but hopefully once students understand that feeling they will eventually get there as a result of turning the legs to start the turn. I've had really good results with it.

Cigarette butt - is just an analogy to give the feeling of pushing down and twisting like you are butting out a cigarette (suitable for certain audiences only)... ie: extending the leg to create pressure and turning it simultaneously.

Pill Bottle -  Same as the cigarette butt but using the analogy of opening a child proof pill bottle... push down and twist.

Norwegian pole plants - A double pole plant except both poles are planted to the outside of the turn... looks ridiculous but fun

Spaghetti Legs - A favorite of mine for developing lateral leg movements... can't explain... must demonstrate... sorry.

Norwegian Groomer Gropers - Super fun... ditch the poles and try to carve turns touching both hands to the snow on the inside of the turn.

Sponsor Turns - Flashing the base of your skis (showing the logo) towards a person (the media) at the top of the run... for tipping moves/early edging.

Beer Cans Ahoy - Guided discovery exercise... attempting to get maximum inclination at the start of a turn with a bit of a delay and letting the skis drift... then quickly adding angulation and pressure to carve through the rest of the turn. Don't be afraid to get too far inside and throw your arm in the air (ie the beer can)... you want to see how far you can go.

Knee in Armpit - Exaggeration drill for lateral movements... bend the inside knee so much that it ends up in your armpit.

Pole Strap Plant - Hold on to the pole straps and just let the pole swing with it's own momentum until it plants itself... helps with timing of the pole plant.

 

 

John Travolta Turns - these were actually shown to me by one of my students... helps develop angulation and rotational separation between the hips and legs... you will have to use your imagination a little but think Saturday Night Fever.

 

Glad you found some things to play with on there.

Cheers

"Travolta turns" are sometimes also known as the "Schlopy Drill":
http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?v=2661510569600&set=vb.108374479188634

To do them correctly you need to hold some tension in the core and use some intensity. It kills me to watch coaches especially race coaches, teach their athletes this drill and do it half heartedly. Then you see a whole group of kids making medium radius turns just flinging up one hand, then the other. No increase in angulation or counter

I think of bag of tricks = all known drills + all known variations

 

Pain in the S turns

Tracer turns (variation of 1 ski - but weight 99-1 instead of 100-0)

Heisman turns (aka gay haitian drill)

TV/picture turns (hold poles in the middle of the pole and frame an object down the trail)

bamboo turns (ditch poles - hold bamboo across the shoulders)

lane changes

88 million different boot drills :)

Chair shadow slalom

Various line drills (line drawer hold poles between legs to draw a straight line in the snow, drillee makes edge changes on line, turns equally on each side of the line, hops over the line then turns, etc. etc.)

skate to shape

hop to shape

worm turns!

carved traverse to an uphill stop

static drills (e.g. tug of war)

heel drag (one ski on, drag heel of free boot to cause a turn) (direct to parallel drill)

tractor turns (wedge side slip with alternating one ski flat to leave tractor tire marks in the snow)

poles looped around the waist - keep them pointing to the side of the trail

poles resting on top of hands

racquetball turns - toss a ball down the hill - make only turn to get to the ball

blindfold turns (also a drill to teach coaching)

traverse with ski tip tapping (uphill or downhill ski)

1/4 pipe hits

"W" falling leafs

skiing with boots unbuckled

dollar bills half stuffed down the front of the boots

Rusty... can you please elaborate on 'Pain in the S' turns and "Heisman Turns'

The "Pain in the S turns" consist of making a bunch of short turns in an "S" pattern down the slope, maintaining consistent timing and size to the little turns.

The "Heisman" I think is similar to the Schlopy drill of pushing on the hip with the outside hand while holding the inside hand above the inside ski shovel. Think of the Heisman trophy image:

Thanks Kneale!

 

Think of "Pain in the S" as little turns made in the shape of big turns.

 

Heisman turns are made with one hand touching the hip and the other hand extended. If you finish a turn with your outside hand on the hip and the inside hand extended, you will be in a countered position to begin the next turn. They are great for skiers that have pole swing mechanics that interfere with counter.

I love nerd's tobin's tool box but I often use drills to teach "different" skills. For example, for a skier who has great edge control skills I might have that skier do hockey stops for pressure control skill development by adding variations for how much snow to throw during the stop, which ski to throw it with and which end of the ski to throw snow, etc. Then we need to get into deciding which category a drill belongs in. For example, I would not call White Pass turns an edging drill. What about using "primary skill" and "secondary skill" categories? This looks like a damned if you do and damned if you don't problem.

 

At some point this gets better handled by having a database.

 

I had a vision of a series of wikis with high level wikis like Tobin's tool box drilling down to individual "tricks". In addition to video I'd like to see prerequisites for terrain/conditions/skills/mind set, things that you want to see happen/should be given positive feedback for, things you need to watch out for/give negative feedback on, success tricks, safety concerns, things to ignore and variation suggestions.

 

A good example of variations/conditions is flat spin 360s. I've done this with first timers where I break this up into 2 turns to an uphill stop (the second turn is done skiing backwards). More experienced skiers don't need this step. This drill is easier to do on firmer snow, but attempting in slushy/soft conditions is more appropriate for an advanced skier.

Like The Rusty I think it's important to know what skill pool you are targeting before settling on an activity but most drills include elements from all of the skill classifications. So they can be used to focus on different skills. We can focus on strengthening a weaker skill set, or refining one. It all depends on the student's skill set and skill bias.

To demonstrate this, take sideslips as an example.

• A student who habitually pivots their skis when they disengage their edges might benefit from a focus on a release without adding the strong rotary (skis stay perpendicular to the fall line).
• If they habitually lean forward or back excessively, keeping the skis moving parallel to the fall line but remaining perpendicular to the fall line would correct that stance issue but that would be a pressure management focus.
• If we are using that drill to focus on edging two different focuses can be used, A focus on developing stronger edging would shift our focus to the re-engagement phase. Angulation / inclination are the usual stance and balance focus here. (too much inclination cause the student to fall up the hill, too much angulation cause them to fall down the hill). A focus on the release phase shifts our focus to developing better near flat edging skills but would again include exploring different degrees of angulation and inclination as stance options.

 

My point here is to suggest lists and classifications are somewhat helpful but a deeper understanding of the fundamental skills usually lead away from using rote classifications and toolbox lists. Especially if those lists are seen as rigid prescriptive solutions. Knowing what you are trying to change usually leads us in the right direction. At least as far as which fundamental skill will be our primary focus. Additionally, which activity you use depends not only on the student's needs but your familiarity with that activity. Which is a long winded way of saying knowing how to use five tools very well is superior to trying to use twenty tools poorly. That is exactly why new coaches are given scripted lesson plans and encouraged to expand on that only after they learn more about why that scripted lesson plan works so well in the first place.

 

OK enough soap box stuff, I want to offer a somewhat unique drill I developed years ago. It's an offshoot of a move a gal pal did back then. Although in her case I would say her intent was mostly to make everyone watch her wiggle her cute little behind. But that's another story...

The primary focus of the drill is to vary our core location and explore how that effects what the skis do. I call it the hula hoop drill because the hip action resembles what we would do if we were playing with a hula hoop. It's starts in a straight run and can be done as a traverse or straight down the fall line (on a gentle slope). The focus is on moving the hips in a circle without adding any leg or foot steering. The result is neat little railroad track like turns, or if done as a traverse, garlands. Eventually this morphs into diagonal projections of the core into the new turn which was my original intent years ago. So it's a pressure management activity but was originally designed to develop better edge release and re-engagement skills. That's the beauty of the fundamental skills concept, they overlap and as I mentioned earlier most movements include elements from all of the fundamental skill pools.

Edited by justanotherskipro - 6/8/12 at 11:44am

What's the intended use for this list/sublist/sidelist/ drill through? Does this differ from PSIA's pocket lesson guide? Are we remaking the Matrix?

Maybe reviewing it isn't a bad idea. Especially if it drives interest in exploring it in greater depth and detail.

Nolo, compulsory figures are very similar to the reference maneuvers we see in the cert tests. So they already exist in the teaching world. Considering how flat STAR fell, I 'm not sure Epic wants to go there. I could be wrong though.

Nolo, as a less experienced instructor than many of the contibutors above I've been following this thread keenly and would really welcome what you're trying to aheive. I get the impression some are a bit resistant at the moment. I think it would be an amazing and invaluable resource for many of us.

What Nolo is asking for has already been done by Rick Schnellman, and is available in a set of DVDs.  From the website yourskicoach.com:

 

 

BUILDING BLOCKS is a skill based training program. 

It will teach you the base skills from which all extraordinary skiing is built.  

The skiing skills you will learn are broken down into  6 basic categories:

1. •Balance, 

2. •Edging, 

3. •Rotation, 

4. •Angulation, 

5. •Flexion/Extension, and 

6. •Transitions

Totally agree with the last point. Also my feeling as to my previous point a couple of posts back is that while I understand that this is not just an instructors drills bible, so many of the ways that skills are taught/ approached in our teaching are equally valid in our self coaching. To benefit from the experience of some of our higher end friends on here would be brilliant both as an instructor and as a skier trying to improve as we all are trying to do!