Visualizing the ideal ski style

Don’t we all need examples! Children generally follow their parents' example and somewhere, sometime, we all have met a friend, an actor or a top athlete we wanted to emulate. In skiing, having the visual model of an excellent skier helps a lot in becoming better. Jean-Claude Killy said it very clearly and quite eloquently: “The best and fastest way to learn a sport is to watch and imitate a champion.” So here we go, if we want to breakthrough into the realm of great skiing, we need to find someone whose style on skis inspires us and represents the perfect image we’re striving for. What’s difficult is that we may not always know what the ideal style is and that style, like all things, will change over time. Perhaps we can start with a ski instructor if we’ve one, a local skier we know and admire or a ski champion, but these days don’t these racers all look the same? If that fails, it might be time to re-run our internal movie camera and attempt to remember the skiers that have really made a lasting impression on us. If several examples come up, let’s pick the taller skier as it will amplify the gestures we want to make our own. Now, armed with that visual guide, we need to fix the mental picture of that superb skier, place him or her skiing just before us and copy all the body movements as we try to keep us with that individual. This may sound corny, but this is precisely what I do when I’m looking for a smooth run. I picture Léon Empereur, from Val d’Isère, a former colleague of mine (we both used to teach skiing in Australia) and it works. The man was smooth, featherlike on the snow and nothing could disturb his descents. Sure, the boost we get from this exercise will fade rather fast; it may only last to half-way down a run, so we just have to “refresh” it as we start the next run. On skis (like everywhere) visualizing is a powerful tool, so let’s keep our mind’s eye wide open!