In the beginning there were snowploughs!

I understand just how debilitating the feeling of fear and anxiety can become when skiing, because it happened to me! If you think you are the only one who’s mouth dries up, who’s knees turn to jelly and who’s stomach makes being near a toilet a must, then read on, you just might feel differently afterwards.

Unfortunately for me, self-hypnosis does not work on the person who actually constructs and produces the script, and to date, I haven’t found any other Hypnotherapist that knows how it feels to ‘feel the fear and ski anyway’. I have written this article so that you know... that I know... exactly how you feel;  please try my “Overcome your Skiing Nerves” Self Hypnosis audio session, it has worked wonders for many, give it a try and stop those nerves now.

Written by Sharon Shinwell. Dip Couns. Dip HP Dip Sup. MBACP.

Here is my story:

I went skiing for the first time at the ripe old age of 46. Our son went twice with his school, and my brother and his family had always been on skiing holidays, so we had heard a lot about this fascinating pastime, but at that  time in our lives, we were tied at home with our horses and children, so it wasn’t possible to go. When we finally gave up riding and sold the horses, and our two sons were independent, we decide it was time have a go.

As this was our first trip, we opted for a ski package, that included 6 days of ski school.

The first morning was ok, learning how to put the boots on correctly, put on and release the skis, and learning how to side step up the hill. The snow plough position made sense, though it was painful on the thighs!

Everyone seemed to be progressing at the same rate, but then things took a turn for the worse. As we moved further up the nursery slope on the next day, using a tow rope, and I started the descent, I realised just how difficult it was to control those two pieces of wood underneath my boots. Going straight ahead in a snowplough position was no real problem, but when it came to the turns, the tips of the skis would cross, or the skis would get too close at the back, or I stopped moving altogether, or I went too fast and scared myself. Yet everyone else seemed to be so in control, and they appeared to have no problems at all. I went back to hotel that day feeling frustrated, angry with myself, demoralised and useless.

Worried about what the next day would bring, I procrastinated about what to do, do I drop out and have private lessons; remain with the group and hope things improved; or give up altogether and admit defeat. I decided to hang in there another day, as I wanted to continue skiing with my husband and try and conquer my fears.  Feeling quite sick in the morning, running there and back to the toilet, I pulled on my boots and headed for the nursery slope. This time we were going to learn how to use the T bar lift to get to the top of the nursery slope. I watched in terror as one by one the group went up, realising that split second timing was of the upmost importance, I had by now got myself into such a state of anxiety,  the T bar became an endurance test. The lift attendant was wonderful; they are so used to beginners using this equipment for the first time that I needed have worried about actually getting on the thing, of course getting off was quite another story. I hadn’t realised just how strongly I needed to pull on the bar to release the tension to throw the T section away; it caught me under my thigh as I tried to ‘ski’ away, (and I use the word “ski” very loosely) and tipped me over onto the floor! Very embarrassing, but no harm done – I’d know what to do next time!

I caught the rest of the group up, and we skied down the run. Nothing went right for me, the turns happened more by luck rather than skill, more times than not they didn’t happen at all, I felt as though I was on the brink of falling at any moment... I felt out of control, fearful, anxious, and nauseous and a total wimp. Undeterred by my cries of “I’m not ready yet” the instructor then took our group into our first blue run! I gritted my teeth, and going against what every fibre in my body was telling me not to do, I approached the chair lift, and sat down. The chair lift was wonderful, a much more civilised way to travel. Dismounting was easy too; I wondered why beginners on the nursery slope were subjected to such a difficult learning curve as using a T bar, when they needed it least.

Well you can imagine what happened next - more of the same only worse, because now I had to negotiate other skiers, mounds of snow left by snow boarders, narrow sections where turning would leave me far too near the edge for comfort, and the steepness meant facing down hill, even monetarily, was terrifying. Because I was so much slower than everyone else, every time the group got a break, I was still playing catch up, so didn’t get any rest beaks, and also missed out on some of the ongoing tuition. I can’t blame the ski instructor really, as I was the only one having problems. When we finally got to the bottom of the run, I decided enough was enough, and sat myself down at the cafe with a huge Hot Chocoate, with whipped cream and relaxed in the sun, agreeing to meet up with hubby at lunch time.

I wasn’t alone!

Whilst sitting there enjoying the scenery, two other English speaking skiers sat down next to me, and we got talking, as you do, about skiing. It turned out that they had both dropped out of their ski groups, because they too couldn’t keep up with the pace. We arranged to meet up the next day and have a joint private lesson. That was the best move I could have made. We were taught by an Australian girl, who seemed to know what we were doing wrong before we did it, and more importantly, was so empathic to how we were feeling; she never pushed us out of our comfort zone, and had us doing things with smiles on our faces, and much laughter.

We spent the next two days perfecting our stem turns, learning how to shift our weight at the appropriate times, the correct stance, and how to use our poles for balance.

Next year I would progress!

Well 6 years and 6 skiing holidays on, I hadn’t progressed nearly as far as I wanted to. I loved the whole skiing scene and so wanted to be a part of it, not just pottering around on the nursery or green runs, but seeing the mountains as everyone else did. But each time we arrived in the carefully chosen resort, that same feeling of dread, anxiety and fear would return. I guess the only solace was that the wife of the couple we ski with felt exactly the same as me.

Each year I would promise myself that this year would be different, but it never was! I would be ok for a while then something would unnerve me, it could be a patch of ice, snow in mounds that unbalanced me, unexpected steep section, on what was meant to be gentle run, the camber of the slope;  then I just couldn’t get past the mental block of fear. I had numerous lessons, was told my technique and skill was perfect, I knew all about wrong and right edges, parallel skiing, carving, bindings, Din settings, boot sizes and fitting, I attended the Ski and Snowboard show each year and read everything I could on the internet, but still the same feelings would return.

Then one evening, on our 6^th week of skiing, I noticed a bloke carrying a pair of skis that were only about 100cms long. They didn’t have traditional release bindings, but ones that clipped onto the boot. Later that day l mentioned what I had seen to a guest at our hotel, and he explained what they were and said he used them too. They were Snowblades (this is not a generic name, snowblades are made by Salomon) they are also called Skiboards, and they are made in various lengths and widths and from various materials. There is a great debate about what constitutes a Skiboard as oppose to a Snowblade, or short ski, and if you want to research this, there are some useful websites www.skibaords.com  and  http://www.sbol.ws/vbulletin/upload/index.php  which both have forums. The long of it is, they are much shorter than regular skis and wider. The width compensates for the shortness and length when it come to weight distribution. They come with either releasable or non releasable bindings. Skiboards usually have to be imported from the USA, whereas Salomon,  Head and Sporten snowblades are available in the UK, but I digress

The gentleman explained that some time ago, he lost his confidence skiing, though he had been a skier for many years, he then switched the Snowblades in order to regain his confidence, and perfect his parallel turns. This enabled him to move up a gear and widen his skiing experience without fearing the worst. As the blades are so short, they respond instantly and have a very small diameter turn. Fascinated by the idea that I might have found a solution to my problems of lack of control and being unbalanced on every turn,  I vowed that I would try these as soon as I got home, at our nearest indoor Snowdome.  I did just that...the gentleman who served me at the ski hire counter, was in fact a ski instructor helping out that day, and he tried everything to dissuade me, saying they were not proper ‘skis’, they were ‘girlie ‘and if I used them, I would probably not retune to full length skis...”all I needed were some lessons from a good ski instructor”!  I told him that skiing for me was about enjoying the scenery, the camaraderie, the moutain lodges, the apre ski, and I didn't care what I went down the mountain on, as long as i felt safe and in control! I made a deal with him that if I didn’t get on with the blades, I would indeed book a lesson with him.

Eureka...it all made sense at last!

Well let me tell you folks, that was the beginning of a beautiful relationship with Snowblades/Skiboards!  For the first time in 6 years, I could parallel ski on every turn and on every straight sections between. I could hockey stop when I wanted to, make the smallest of adjustment of weight to carve round an obstacle, and my skis never, ever, came anywhere near each other! Because I had such control over the skis, narrow trails or crowded pistes were no longer a problem, and all the effort and energy sapping anxiety disappeared.

Since that day, I have gone onto trying various models, testing out the different responses and feelings that longer/shorter, or  wider/narrower blades create, and moved from non-release bindings, to ski type releasable binding that offer a greater safety when falling over.

In conclusion:

If like me, you struggle to feel in control, and feel confident with normal length skies, which are normally promoted by the retailers, hire shops and ski instructors as the best things since sliced bread; try some Snowblades/Skiboards. Or you can go for an in between type, a crossbreed known as Short Adult Skis, which are usually 116 – 123 centimetres, in length. Go for release bindings as these are safer, and you can use the same ski boots as normal with all types. Be prepared to spend a little time getting used to them, because you don’t need to lean forwards as much, and you don’t have the length behind you to balance on when a drag lift suddenly stops!  But you will be amazed at how quickly you will progress on the slopes and you will at last appreciate what everyone is going on about.

You can of course always go back to full length skis if you want to, once you feel confident to do so, and it may interest you to know that this is exactly how some of the French and American Ski Instructors teach their new students.

Skievolutif – GML Taken from www.ifyouski.com (a brilliant website with lots of ski information and holidays)

“The idea of learning to ski on short skis was developed in the United States in the 1960s by Cliff Taylor, and imported to Les Arcs in 1970 by Martin Puchtler and Robert Blanc.

Known as the Graduated Length Method (GLM) in the States, and ski évolutif in France, you start on 1m skis, then graduate to 1m 35 after a couple of days. Progressing a few centimetres at a time, you end the one-week course on 1m 60.

Using these methods, you can skip snowploughing and stem turning and leap straight to the parallel level. On the positive side, it's good fun and you can make quick progress. On the negative side, you miss out on snowplough and stem turns, which play an important part in the learning process and provide an essential fallback in poor conditions.”

Snowploughing is difficult on anything less than 110 cms, as you don’t have the length of the outside edge to create the bracing “V” action.  It is possible, but you need to use a much wider “V” shape and much more thigh strength, and at speed, you will not have enough bracing to slow to a halt. But on the other hand, you will have enough room to hockey-stop without running out of space!

Some bladers don’t use ski poles as they are thought not to be necessary, as you can use a skating action to progress on flat areas, but I prefer to have them, they are good for poling into position on the lifts and offer support if you forget what you are doing!

I am now about to go on holiday using a new pair of Sporten Short Skis 116 cms. I’ve tried them out at the new Manchester ‘The Chillfactore’ Snow Centre, and although the diameter of the turn is larger than the 100’s I normally use, they feel great, because I can let them slide on the turns knowing they will slow down, if I wait patiently, and because I am in control I can afford the time, and parallel skiing is just as easy as on the shorter blades, only I can ski a little faster due to the large ski surface area.

So don’t give up, don’t let others put you off experimenting, there are hundreds of skiers who feel just like you, some give up, some become child minders and still enjoy their holidays in the mountains, but feel frustrated that they cannot fully experience this fantastic leisure activity, and others just struggle on, sticking to the pistes they feel comfortable on, accepting their limitations, but wishing for better things. If this sounds like you, (or anyone you know), Try my CD or download, and allow the forces of your subconscious mind to change how you think, react and feel and about skiing. Don't let ski instructors put you off using shorter skis, as they did with me, the "macho man" is not an empathic species!