Going to Ski or Boarding School is fun and memorable. You'll talk about it with friends and fellow skiers for years to come. It will also be work and will require some physical and mental effort on your part. It is however, the kind of work you'll look forward to doing.

We know that your primary reason for going is to elevate your skiing or boarding. That will happen, but let's be totally candid about the prospects for improvement. You are the key ingredient that will govern the amount of improvement that takes place. Your attitude toward learning and your desire to learn will make the difference between modest and dramatic improvement. Learning implies change. No matter what your age or skill level, you have the ability to change. We all do. But you must be willing to work at change. The basic function of the instruction staff is to teach you not only what to learn but how to learn and to help you stay motivated to further the learning task. The staff will do its job. You, as the learner, must do yours. Part of that job is to prepare yourself before you arrive.

How to Prepare for the School

Start thinking about skiing. Think about your own style so that you'll be able to properly identify the problems you perennially face on the water. There are specific things that plague your skiing and need our attention. Do you have a clear picture of what your mechanics are; of the changes you desire to run the course as you wish? Start writing some of these things down.

If you haven't skied much lately, take time to make 12 to 15 passes weekly. Don't just think about it - do it. Set a regular time like just before dinner or in the evening. Use whatever you can that will allow a full motion even if you are indoors, tie a handle to the door and practice skiing and body position. This practice can prevent stiffness and soreness, which will hinder your learning at the school.

It's possible that during the school you will ski more than you normally do during an entire summer season. Skiing, when practiced for several hours a day, can be quite tiring. Doing some specific physical exercise before arriving will not only help your endurance but possibly your techniques as well. We encourage you to do the exercises that are sent to you before the school.

Good instructors will explain the principles behind the various skills, offer suggestions on improving technique, and have you participate under their tutelage. The following suggestions will help you to get the most from these instructional sessions

1. If you have any physical impairments or problems that could have an affect on your performance, inform the instructor immediately. Be candid. Don't try to be a hero.

2. Ski with your style, not as you think the instructor would like, or as something new you are trying. Ski just as you would on your own home course.

3. If asked about your ability level, give a straightforward, accurate answer reflecting what you really run, (not what you sometimes run, what you'd like to run, or what you once ran).

4. Be willing to try what is suggested even if it may seem alien to you. Habits are built over an extended period of time. If they are bad habits, they will need to be replaced by good ones, which will take time.

5. Don't pay attention to the falls while making changes, and set up on each pass. Make all practice passes with your eyes closed and do your drills.

6. Ask questions if you don't understand, don’t be the least bit hesitant. The instructor may ask you to tell him what he's just told you. That's simply to check to see that he is communicating effectively. There is no such thing as a stupid question. Remember the instructors are there for you.

7. Your instruction staff is going to be patient. It's a trait they couldn't be without in the skiing instruction business. You must be patient as well, particularly with yourself. Change takes time.

8. Be willing to work. It's only natural for an instructor to give a little extra when he finds a pupil eager to learn and willing to work.

9. You'll literally be going back to school, some of you for the first time in twenty or thirty years. As a student you'll be expected to take notes. Focus on two or three major points given in the instruction. Write them again before returning to that area of instruction. Then, if something is not clear, you can ask to have it explained. This will help you while at the school and may be even more beneficial when you return home.

10. Remember that a good skiing is based on fundamentals which may not be all that exciting: grip, posture, position, alignment and angle, for example, but consistency, in skiing is critical to good performance. This is where you'll find it, in the preparation stage. Appreciate the time the instruction staff spends with you on getting these essentials correct. Always consider fundamentals important.

11. Remember everyone is a unique individual with unique problems that pertain to him or her, so work on your individual problems not someone else's.

Before you leave the school, be sure you learn to analyze skiing style patterns and relate them to the basic teaching concept. It will help you, the learner, to become more self-sufficient - a worthy goal of any instruction.

Teamwork

The teaching-learning process requires teamwork on the part of the learner and the instructor. It can't be as effective if the learner doesn't shoulder his share of the responsibility for learning. To learn you will need to practice. The staff will give you the knowledge and skill to practice correctly. But use good sense and pace yourself during the week. Mental and physical fatigue hinders learning. You can bum yourself out in the first couple of days by trying to ski so many passes. Resist that temptation and you'll be in a better position at the end of the school to perform your newly learned skills.

Skiing, the Game

Skiing in practice and skiing in competition may be as different as constructing a violin and playing it. In the violin's construction phase, you have various parts that need to be glued together just as in skiing. But playing a violin requires emotions, feelings and judgment. So does skiing.

Learning to ski properly involves controlling psychological factors and developing the ability to make intelligent decisions in the course. We are interested in having you become better competitors, not just better skiers. Before coming to the school, think back on your past skiing experiences and identify situations that most clearly cost you buoys, feet, or points. Write them down on the last page of this memorandum and ask questions at the school to find a solution. You may find that changing your thinking may help your skiing as much as changing your style.

How Do We Learn a Motor Skill?

So let's try to understand what learning means. When referring to a motor skill like the skiing, "Learning is a relatively permanent change in behavior that comes about by practice." Notice how the word "practice" prominently appears. So you'll be given the opportunity to ski tons of passes to allow your muscles to memorize what your mind has been asked to understand and accept.

Note also in the definition of learning the phrase "relatively permanent change in behavior,” signifies that you'll be given something of lasting substance. The instruction is not based on tips and gimmicks or quickie "band-aid" remedies which are answers today and additional problems tomorrow. To get positive improvement that has lasting value, you'll be exposed to principles rather than tips and shown how you can apply them to your game.

How do we learn skiing? We learn through our senses - hearing, sight and touch. The instruction will be verbal, visual and kinesthetic - the latter referring to the development of muscular awareness. Most skiing instruction is verbal. Though it is the fastest way to communicate concepts and ideas, verbal instruction alone falls short of the best way to teach a motor skill. The instructors will present verbal instruction as a way to communicate the feeling of a skiing. Besides being articulate about the skiing, our teachers are also creative and inventive. They will provide interesting demonstrations to help drive home a point. Visual aids will show you what cannot easily be described in words. Drills and skiing enhancement devices will be assigned to help you get the "feel" of what you're asked to do. Close personal attention will assure that if one medium of communication isn't working, another will be tried.

Our staff realizes that with all the information you'll be getting, much of it will not be "learned" in the sense of being able to perform it, at least not yet. But we also know that a great deal will be stored for future use to be pulled out of your brain or from your notebook during the remainder of your skiing career. You will find your greatest improvement occurring after you leave the school, you will learn to practice and what to practice so you will continue to improve. The instructors will work to have you conceptually understand the fundamentals of the skiing and to physically experience the correct technique.

You'll receive instruction both reinforcing and correcting the basic skiing principles, or those first order priorities that have an influence on results.

The systems that are used to communicate those principles are what we have determined through study and research as the soundest way to train individuals in a motor skill. All teachers have their own preferences in their approach to developing solid fundamentals with the student. You'll find the Academy staff consistent in their well-conceived approach. Confusion is the barrier to learning.

Most likely you'll be skiing better in practice than you've ever have. You may find your power improving, your timing coming together and above all, your consistency improving. That's a great feeling. But one note of caution: at the end of the session you will have skied enough good passes to know you are on the right track, but enough bad ones to know you need more practice. You may not yet have practiced enough to have the "new feeling style" hold up on the skiing course at the school, let alone in front of your regular ski partners at home. So, be patient. Allow enough practice time on the water to let your body reproduce automatically "a better technique." And finally, you very well may be exposed to as much skiing information in a session as you have a lifetime of skiing. However, it's unlikely that you will be able to perform physically initially all that you understand conceptually. Some of the information you are exposed to will take time to be fully understood and appreciated. You will however, shorten that period by taking good notes at the school, asking appropriate, relevant questions and be preparing yourself as recommended in this memorandum.

HOW YOU WILL BE TAUGHT

Skiing styles are as individualized as the people who make them. With this in mind, realize that no two skiers will ever ski exactly the same. So don’t attempt to achieve the same style for everyone. Strive for a consistent set-up and approach to skiing.

Basically you respond to two things, balance and timing. Everything you do in your skiing is to maintain balance, and get to the proper position in the course. Your ski can be your best instructor, if you know how to understand it and will listen to what it is telling you. They will be very honest and direct, they will tell you right away on every pass exactly what your body and your timing was doing during the pass. The ski doesn’t know how you grip the rope, whether you keep your head up, or whether or not you keep your arms straight. All that matters to the ski is what direction the boat traveling and facing when you turn it.

This is not to say that we don't determine our turn conditions by the way that we grip the rope, set up, and actually turn, because WE DO. But, the corrections that we need to make in your technique will be explained so that you are aware of how they will improve your balance, timing and consequently your ski path.

One of the reasons that skiing is such a difficult sport is that one bad technique often leads us to make adjustments that will only make your mistakes worse. Many of the changes that you may need to make in your set up and style may feel unorthodox and uncomfortable at first. Never confuse comfort with correct. This occurs because you have become comfortable with your bad habits. We always try to make your adjustments as simple as possible.


Instruction always follows the same format - DIAGNOSIS, EXPLANATION, AND 
CORRECTION.

DIAGNOSIS comes from watching a few passes and determining your set problems, what the ski is doing in the course and what in your style compensation you are making to maintain balance and maintain timing in the course.

EXPLANATION will tell you what your ski is doing at every point and what you are doing incorrectly in your technique.

We then will explain and demonstrate what CORRECTIONS you need to make in your technique in order to correct your timing and balance. We will prescribe drills that will help you to experience the correct skiing style and assist you in creating a correct habit

The first day of the school we will establish a correct concept and proper fundamentals. The second day you will reinforce the fundamentals and learn the strategy of each shot. The final day you will learn to execute on the water.

Although most of our time is spent in improving your fundamentals and set up, we believe there is more to skiing than that, so we also spend time on the course learning how to cope with competition situations.

What's It All About?

You are going to undertake a serious attempt at improving your skiing. But don't ever lose sight of the primary purpose of skiing. Skiing should be fun - an event to look forward to and enjoy. As with other of life's experiences, the greatest enjoyment can come not from arriving but in the journey. Keep trying to learn and improve your skiing, for it is in this state that skiing is its most engaging, most challenging, and most fun.

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