CSCF Update - Dec 13-14

In the xmas rush, I haven't had a chance to post before now. I hope I can do the CSCF Update justice by memory because it was an awesome two days! Every CSIA instructor could benefit from doing this update yet I so seldom see anyone I know from the instructing side there. My friend Michelle who just got her CSIA Level 1 last season came this year and her feedback was that with her limited experience with the CSIA and CSCF, the CSCF sure seemed a lot more fun!

I would guess that there were about 50 people participating in the update. Groups are completely random. You ski with whoever sets off with that instructor. Michelle and I stuck together. We were the only instructor-types in our group. We had the opportunity to ski with four coaches over the two days which is fantastic to get exposed to different coaching styles, information, and ways of presenting it.

The first morning we were with Larry. (Sorry, I don't know last names!) What I took most out of the morning with Larry was skiing the rhythm of the hill. It was a new and fun way of skiing for me. While I was quite familiar with skiing the same speed the length of the hill by shortening the radius on the steeps it was quite another thing to look ahead and play with rolls and dips and go where the hill wants to take you. It made the same run feel completely new and exciting every time depending on the path you took. A great trick to make Ontario hills exciting! Larry also informed me that my 120 cm poles are 5-10 cm too short for me and that as a result I am skiing with my hands too low. This after having just lamented having to buy new boots and two new pairs of skis this year. Looks like I'll be shopping for poles over Christmas. Mmmmm.....new Leki's!

In the afternoon we skiied with Matt Distefano. I had heard rave reviews about Matt's coaching over the years so I was excited for a chance to ski with him. Matt took us through the five fundamentals stressed in coaching - active balance, mobility, weight over outside ski, pole touch, and separation. God, I hope I got those right! Weigh in if I didn't. Unlike the CSIA where I can refer to the manual I find at CSCF training that I am trying to memorize everything as I don't have as source to go back to and check. The good part is that if I get it right, I hold onto and retain it forever. The bad part is that there is nowhere (that I know of) to check if I remembered it correctly.

I had a new experience in Matt's group. We were working on lateral balance (my favourite!). I was having one of those runs where you are feeling really good, testing out my new Head Speed GS skis, when I was suddenly flying through the air sans skis. As far as falls go, it was a good one. It was spectacular for spectators and I didn't hurt myself a bit. I had no idea whatsoever what had caused it though. When I skiied down to the group Matt made me feel a lot better by telling me that I had "booted out" - gone inside so far that my boots actually grabbed the snow and released themselves from the bindings. Cool! The next run the whole group wanted to watch me to see if I could/would do it again. I figured it was a fluke the time before and tried to hold nothing back. I could tell I was a bit slower and more hesitant this second run but I still managed to boot out with one ski. This time it was video'd so I could see it myself. Now that I have found out how far is too far my next challenge will be to bring it back while not sacrificing performance. Hmmmm....

There was an excellent dryland session after we got of snow led by Pierre Ruel. Then some great apres-ski and hot tubbing for Michelle and I before we met up with friends at Twist Martini Lounge for dinner and drinks. Dinner and the company were fantastic. Luckily noone was up for too crazy a night.

The next day we started off with Keith. Conditions were changed so we were advised to put safety first. With Keith we got a lot of mileage in. He had us doing laps and called us over to stop only if he had something to tell us. After my boot outs the day before,I had forgotten to unlock my hip and move my body up and down the hill to build momentum. It felt much better once I made the change.

In the afternoon we were with Sarah. We did a lot of fun, wacky things with her to shake things up - mixing turn shapes, pole planting differently than we usually do, and follow-the-leader. I want to make sure to introduce some of these tactics in my teaching this year to shake things up with my athletes.

All in all, it was a fabulous couple of days. I learned a ton. I love that the CSIA and CSCF seem to be getting closer every year. Both have been empasizing mixing up turn shape and trying fun techniques to take us out of our box. I can't wait to apply all that I have learned!