HandsInView

Problem: The skier fails to commit downhill on steeps and bumps, resulting in slides, backward falls, and "yard sales."

Context: In order to explore the entire mountain environment, a skier must be comfortable and adaptable to any terrain and rapid terrain change. To take advantage of this pattern the skier should be skiing at a level at which parallel turns can be linked consistently.

Forces:

• Fear of falling is the most basic of all responses
• Reliance on equipment is essential
• Continuous movement is essential
• Fatigue can be a factor in long descents
• Commitment downhill over skis is essential for skis to function as designed

Solution: Concentrate on keeping the hands in view. Bring them into sight immediately after each pole plant and turn.

Resulting Context: Keeping the hands in view changes the alignment of the body from sitting timidly back and allowing the edges to skid out from under the skier. Thus, keeping the hands in view pulls the body forward and thus downhill, bringing the skier's weight over the downhill ski, forcing the edge to bite and turn.

Rationale: As steepness increases, the natural tendency of any sane person is to sit back against the hill and retain the perpendicularity the inner ear prefers. Unfortunately, skis must be weighted to perform as designed, the weight causing flex, which in turn pushes the edges into the snow in an arc, making a turn. Therefore it is essential to "throw" oneself down the mountain and over the skis, depending on them to "catch" the fall as they bite into the snow to turn underneath the perpetually falling skier. Intellectually this can be clearly understood but fear prevents execution. Concentrating on something as simple and indirect as "look at your hands" causes the desired behavior without directly confronting the fear. This is directly analogous to what occurs when an individual walks: the weight is thrown forward in a fall, with the consequent forward thrust of the leg to catch this fall, repeated for left and right sides in a continuous tension and release of yielding to gravity in order to defy it.

Author: DonOlson 95/07/07

Originator: Anonymous ski instructor somewhere in Utah. Wherever you are, thanks for providing the breakthrough to better skiing for the author.

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Remind me to write HandsOnThighs as a companion pattern someday. I use it as a simpler version for (my) children. Just have them put their hands on their thighs while they snowplow. It sets all the right body weight, angle, etc. parameters to give them good control. I hope it leads to HandsInView when they move to parallel

-- AlistairCockburn

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Something I recently discovered when riding a dirt bike is BodyFollowsEyes. Your body tends to go where you're eyes are looking, so when trying to avoid an obstacle like a rock, focus on the path around the rock, not on the rock. Also, don't look down where you're at, look ahead and feel where you're at.

-- KentSchnaith

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I can confirm the same for Mountain Biking, you always look way ahead on the trail.

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Justin

This is also the same for arcade shoot-em-ups ("shmups"), e.g. DoDonPachi. If you look the bullets filling the screen, and try to dodge them, you hesitate and trap yourself, or fly straight into a bullet. But if you ignore the bullets and concentrate on moving your ship into place to shoot the enemies, you fly amazingly smoothly through complex bullet patterns, even though you're not looking at the bullets or your ship.

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Funny, isn't it, how this technique Kent limns works so well? The same principle applies to tree skiing. An instructor once told me, "You don't ski the trees, you ski the spaces between the trees." I gave him the "Oh yeah? Is this profound?" look, so he continued. "Look at the spaces, where you want to go, not at the trees." Man, what a difference!!! That doesn't mean I don't do some bark-biting now and then, but it sure happens a lot less. Is there some lesson in project management here?

-- DonOlson

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There's a related pattern to HandsInView in horse-back riding that doesn't involve the eyes. It might be called WeightHeels. As above, the natural tendency of a sane person running is to weight the balls of the feet - with the result on a horse that the rider is perpetually unstable in gaits faster than a walk. I'm not much of a horse-rider myself, but the epiphany experienced when I was first taught WeightHeels was quite extraordinary. I suddenly looked like one of the Cartwright boys - didn't know anything but felt stable as hell.

Actually this reminds me of another epiphany from taoist yoga which might be called DirectSensationUpTheSpine ... but there are details in that unsuited to readers of delicate sensibility, so I'll omit them unless someone insists. -- PeterMerel --- And who here has a delicate sensibility? Okay, I'll insist. -- BetsyHanesPerry

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Okay, but delicate folk be warned what follows is not your usual wiki fare: SexPatterns -- PeterMerel

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Here's another similar pattern that I needed to add: PolePlant

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Forgive me, but am I the only one who finds it interesting that PolePlant immediately followed the introduction of SexPatterns? Juxtaposition is everything. --DonOlson

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CategorySkiPatterns ? -- StijnSanders

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I am sure anyone who was ever enjoyed(?) playing Golf recognises Kents BodyFollowsEyes pattern - in this case the body of the golfball. However small an obstacle might be, look at it once, and you can't miss it. -- Johan