Hello to SIA, I am watching your content and podcasts since the very beginning of SIA and please let me first applaud all of your team for making such great, informative, and up to modern date content here on free platforms such as RUclips. As I read through comments I usually see topics about technique, teaching, etc. But I would have a different topic to ask, maybe interesting enough for you to speak about in one of the next podcasts, if you consider it important to talk about. In each country of the EU, the ski instructor business is moderately a bit different. For example, if I remember it correctly, till 2009 you could not work in Austria as an independent ski instructor, even if you hold a Diploma level. The work under the ski school was needed. Since then the law changed a bit and if you meet enough certifications (In Wienna state at least Landes, in Salzburgerland Staatlich I think), you can somehow work also as an „entrepreneur“ instructor. But this applies to people living in Austria. Because of the EU, and the law about recognizing qualifications, the person who is legally able to teach in their country, should be able to teach their own clients in Austria Alps as well for a short period of time (14 - 28 days / year I think). We can talk about Czechia for example, where the standards for getting permission for work as an independent instructor (entrepreneur) is as „low“ as Landes 1 (approx), or Hungary or Poland. Usually, they do not arrive as one personal instructor but with a group of their clients. While I was finishing my Landes 1 some time ago, I saw many other groups of skiers with their instructors on Kitschteinhorn around us. They were from Poland, Czechia, Hungary, and even Germany. One group was there even as the course for new instructors. I know, they have their own clients from their own country usually, but still, they are using the Austria ski region to get their job done. I am asking because I consider, you have some business contract with the glacier, meanwhile they usually just arrive and teach? Or is it like, if they buy their own skipass, than everything other is just their business? What is your view on this topic? It is more the law and the business itself topic than the technique. I think the SIA as the largest snow Academy definitely can say something about it. Thank you, B.
I am going to do a separate podcast about this as I believe this is a very important subject that needs clarified. Great comment and stay tuned for my reply!
Thanks for bothering to look at my comment hha! Hopefully, this can give you a better understanding of the origin, essence of that flipping essay if you ever want to fully unpack it. I would like to point out that I believe I have now fully solved my dilema but I believe that reviewing it would definitely help many many other skiers and possibly correct or advance my own understanding. At the time of writing it, I was at a point in my skiing where I could actually sense and feel the skiing of experts but for some reason never being able to recreate it. At the time, I was trying to wrap my head around concepts in two different areas of the turn : the initiation phase and the last phase going into the transition. Regarding the Iniitiation part : At the time, I was always putting all my weight on the outside ski as early as possible with the nuance that I was also making sur that the edge was also holding ASAP and that, IMO looking back, was the problem because from then on I only had two ways to develop angles (which, as a freeskier, is what I am always looking for) which where both problematic. The first was to let my body fall (toppling motion) but this was wrong because, having already put put my weight on an edged ski which was already working (creating shape), falling on the inside would have meant that I would lose my edge grip and actually fall. To resituate, this is literally the first thing I talk about in the 4th paragraph. The second option I had to create angles, and this was what I was doing despite knowing it was wrong (but not really sure on what to do about it), was to push off eccentrically but this would force me to the same conclusion: falling from the loss of ability to pressure the outside ski. I internally knew it was wrong, and didn't know what to do until I saw you talk about concentric/eccentric motion - this is indicated at the start of the original cooment. Essentially, here the problem was that I was edging with pressure too early, too quickly but this was something I had internalized as an obligation and hence took me a long time to consider as wrong in my head, mainly because had never really seen anybody talk about how personnal and natural forces should come together in skiing. Regarding the the last phase going into the transition : Here my problem was that, due to the way I was skiing in the first half of the turn (mentionned above), to not fall I having to put a whole lot of angulation from the the first parts of the turn to the very latest parts because this was the only way I could hold pressure on my skis. My end phase was pretty much looking like my start or Apex phase because I had no forces to "catch", as Geri put it in another video, and hence had to create my own forces throughout the whole turn to stay balanced. This would make the initiation phase of my next turn an utter physical hell and only possible because I am fit compared to the average bloke (this is not a complement to myself but rather the opposite to show how appalling this skiing is). This is why I talk a lot about concentric mouvements and ask if they are natural or not (because I didn't yet have the notion that it was a type of muscle contraction) because, from my perspective, due to how I skied at the time, the only way I could get into the flexxed transition I could see in videos was to physically put myself into it - although I understood that theoretically there should be a natural force to resist concentrically against. By the way, if you can imagine, to put myself physically into this position would mean I would have had to pull myself from the the grip of the edges which is actually crazy and obviously doesn't really work. To finish, I understood and felt the right way too ski at the time - and this is shown in a weirdly expressed way at the end of the fourth paragraph from "However, ..." - but could only imagine it because I had only ever been skiing in this incorrect manner which is I why I asked so many questions and made such a long comment. I would like to point out that the original mistake of pushing eccentrically from a working edge came from this statement which I often still hear : "you need to push on your skis" . The people who say it range from instructors to their pupils and is a vague statement that leads to mistakes. I believe it comes a misdescription of the feeling of resisisting concentrically in the second half of the turn after "catching" the load or perhaps from the driving of the outside ski throughout the turn. Anyways this guide, if you will, has seemed to turn into another essay which I apologize for in advance but hope it can help you in any way to make a great educationnal review of the original comment.
Hello to SIA,
I am watching your content and podcasts since the very beginning of SIA and please let me first applaud all of your team for making such great, informative, and up to modern date content here on free platforms such as RUclips. As I read through comments I usually see topics about technique, teaching, etc. But I would have a different topic to ask, maybe interesting enough for you to speak about in one of the next podcasts, if you consider it important to talk about.
In each country of the EU, the ski instructor business is moderately a bit different. For example, if I remember it correctly, till 2009 you could not work in Austria as an independent ski instructor, even if you hold a Diploma level. The work under the ski school was needed. Since then the law changed a bit and if you meet enough certifications (In Wienna state at least Landes, in Salzburgerland Staatlich I think), you can somehow work also as an „entrepreneur“ instructor. But this applies to people living in Austria.
Because of the EU, and the law about recognizing qualifications, the person who is legally able to teach in their country, should be able to teach their own clients in Austria Alps as well for a short period of time (14 - 28 days / year I think). We can talk about Czechia for example, where the standards for getting permission for work as an independent instructor (entrepreneur) is as „low“ as Landes 1 (approx), or Hungary or Poland. Usually, they do not arrive as one personal instructor but with a group of their clients.
While I was finishing my Landes 1 some time ago, I saw many other groups of skiers with their instructors on Kitschteinhorn around us. They were from Poland, Czechia, Hungary, and even Germany. One group was there even as the course for new instructors. I know, they have their own clients from their own country usually, but still, they are using the Austria ski region to get their job done.
I am asking because I consider, you have some business contract with the glacier, meanwhile they usually just arrive and teach? Or is it like, if they buy their own skipass, than everything other is just their business? What is your view on this topic? It is more the law and the business itself topic than the technique. I think the SIA as the largest snow Academy definitely can say something about it.
Thank you,
B.
I am going to do a separate podcast about this as I believe this is a very important subject that needs clarified. Great comment and stay tuned for my reply!
Thanks for bothering to look at my comment hha! Hopefully, this can give you a better understanding of the origin, essence of that flipping essay if you ever want to fully unpack it.
I would like to point out that I believe I have now fully solved my dilema but I believe that reviewing it would definitely help many many other skiers and possibly correct or advance my own understanding.
At the time of writing it, I was at a point in my skiing where I could actually sense and feel the skiing of experts but for some reason never being able to recreate it. At the time, I was trying to wrap my head around concepts in two different areas of the turn : the initiation phase and the last phase going into the transition.
Regarding the Iniitiation part : At the time, I was always putting all my weight on the outside ski as early as possible with the nuance that I was also making sur that the edge was also holding ASAP and that, IMO looking back, was the problem because from then on I only had two ways to develop angles (which, as a freeskier, is what I am always looking for) which where both problematic. The first was to let my body fall (toppling motion) but this was wrong because, having already put put my weight on an edged ski which was already working (creating shape), falling on the inside would have meant that I would lose my edge grip and actually fall. To resituate, this is literally the first thing I talk about in the 4th paragraph. The second option I had to create angles, and this was what I was doing despite knowing it was wrong (but not really sure on what to do about it), was to push off eccentrically but this would force me to the same conclusion: falling from the loss of ability to pressure the outside ski. I internally knew it was wrong, and didn't know what to do until I saw you talk about concentric/eccentric motion - this is indicated at the start of the original cooment. Essentially, here the problem was that I was edging with pressure too early, too quickly but this was something I had internalized as an obligation and hence took me a long time to consider as wrong in my head, mainly because had never really seen anybody talk about how personnal and natural forces should come together in skiing.
Regarding the the last phase going into the transition : Here my problem was that, due to the way I was skiing in the first half of the turn (mentionned above), to not fall I having to put a whole lot of angulation from the the first parts of the turn to the very latest parts because this was the only way I could hold pressure on my skis. My end phase was pretty much looking like my start or Apex phase because I had no forces to "catch", as Geri put it in another video, and hence had to create my own forces throughout the whole turn to stay balanced. This would make the initiation phase of my next turn an utter physical hell and only possible because I am fit compared to the average bloke (this is not a complement to myself but rather the opposite to show how appalling this skiing is). This is why I talk a lot about concentric mouvements and ask if they are natural or not (because I didn't yet have the notion that it was a type of muscle contraction) because, from my perspective, due to how I skied at the time, the only way I could get into the flexxed transition I could see in videos was to physically put myself into it - although I understood that theoretically there should be a natural force to resist concentrically against. By the way, if you can imagine, to put myself physically into this position would mean I would have had to pull myself from the the grip of the edges which is actually crazy and obviously doesn't really work.
To finish, I understood and felt the right way too ski at the time - and this is shown in a weirdly expressed way at the end of the fourth paragraph from "However, ..." - but could only imagine it because I had only ever been skiing in this incorrect manner which is I why I asked so many questions and made such a long comment. I would like to point out that the original mistake of pushing eccentrically from a working edge came from this statement which I often still hear : "you need to push on your skis" . The people who say it range from instructors to their pupils and is a vague statement that leads to mistakes. I believe it comes a misdescription of the feeling of resisisting concentrically in the second half of the turn after "catching" the load or perhaps from the driving of the outside ski throughout the turn.
Anyways this guide, if you will, has seemed to turn into another essay which I apologize for in advance but hope it can help you in any way to make a great educationnal review of the original comment.