Ski Technique: Measured versus Judged Performance

'MEASURED VERSUS JUDGED, BEAUTY IS IN THE EYE OF THE BEHOLDER'.
So often our ski performance is 'judged'. But who are the judges, where are they from, what's their background, beliefs, understandings? And as we all know sometimes judges may get it wrong as I did. By switching from a 'judged' to a 'measured' way of skiing you can double your confidence in moments, increase your control in all snow conditions, terrain and weather and totally transform your skiing. You will have more fun on skis than ever before. There's only one drawback, you'll wish you had changed from judged to measured years ago. It happened to me, one afternoon and I've never looked back. Now I enjoy every day of my skiing, always, whatever the terrain, whatever the snow, whatever the weather, whoever the judges.
Phil Smith, Director, Snoworks Ski Courses.

[@ilipika4105]

I am not yet at the level to ski real off piste, but thats my goal, to ski FREELY. mentally and physically. Thank you so much to enlighten us, to help us judging our performance with measurable indicators, abd most inportantly, judging ourselves by NOT judging solely on our performance but mental feeling, achievement, etc... those are in fact the embedded reason(s) we keep ourselves in the sports, no matter how good or how poor are are doing.

[@SnoworksSkiCourses]

Thanks Teressa. Onwards and upwards. Can't wait to get those skis on again.

[@englishconfidencewithkevin3930]

Great video and distinction Phil. Love it! :)

[@SnoworksSkiCourses]

Thanks Kev.

[@RichardHartley65]

Another great video, thanks Phil. A good example of a fantastically talented skier with an ‘unconventional’ technique is Candide Thovex - he’d have failed his BASI exams!

[@SnoworksSkiCourses]

Amazing. Love watching him. An amazing talented skier and as you say he does it his way.

[@Adiebigdog]

Morning Phil, loving the videos, a couple of questions about Measured vs Judged. I totally get this approach for customers on holiday but how do you deliver your training on instructor courses? It still feels like Instructor exams are still judged, so how do you deliver a measured approach (which sounds great) to improve the technical standard which is required for your tech and teach aspects of your exams. Secondly I mainly deliver lessons to groups of people with very little regard to their own safety! If I asked them how they skied they would all say they skied blacks and by the end of day one half of them would be in the hospital😂 Any Suggestion for a different way of splitting into classes without the ski off. I have the advantage that my ‘customers’ have no choice but to turn up every day so if they are slightly disappointed to not be in the ‘top’ group on day one they have every opportunity to move groups because it’s not an option to not just turn up.

[@SnoworksSkiCourses]

Thanks Adiebigdog for the comment. On the ski instructor assessment I understand the need for some kind of technical base level whilst still allowing for individual differences. A number of years ago I suggested that we take the 4 performance threads. Technical, Tactical, Psychological and Physical and use them all as a base. We then have a base line of proficiency in each Thread. This base line of a pass in each thread would be below the overall pass required. This way if a skier had a high level of Physical skills as an example (above the pass line) and a lower level of Technical skills (below the pass line but above the level of required proficiency for that Thread) it would be an overall pass. We could have this applied to all the 4 Threads. This way would get much greater differences in ski instructors performances and also would accommodate their strengths and weaknesses within each Thread. On the other question of 'no ski off'. We've honestly have found that the 'ski off' has little use as we are not in the environment where we will be taking skiers. So again the 'ski off' only usually shows 'Technical' skills. Not the other three Threads. In relation to your point that skiers would place themselves much higher if they have a high Emotional Threshold, this is something we work with. Yes we also get many skiers placing themselves higher if they have high Emotional Thresholds. But we have found it easier to develop Technical skills with a skier with high Emotional Thresholds than the other way around. With these skiers we then to dip the 'toe in the water' so to speak so the client recognises what they need to develop. Then go develop the skill, then come back and apply the skill. So if we have a group of skiers with high Emotional Thresholds and low Technical skills. A quick 'toe in the water' on steep terrain for example. They get an idea of what they need to develop. A quick developmental session then back to apply the skill. We have great success with this as it's a much more measured approach to ski teaching and guests know what they need to develop. Speed Control is measurable. So once they know they cannot control speed we have great 'buy in' to the developmental session.

[@Adiebigdog]

Thanks Phil for your really thorough reply, really interesting approach. I look forward to giving it a go.

[@pickletee]

Great video once again. In regards to sorting kids in to groups; do you have a different strategy or do you still do a verbal split at the start of the session rather than a ski off? I am asking this because there were times during this past season in the US where the verbal split didn't work and we spent a lot of time shuffling groups around on the hill and losing valuable skiing time. We found a ski off worked for us but I would always look at the outcome (how fast they were going, were they turning where they wanted to etc)

[@SnoworksSkiCourses]

Good points Tom. We currently only run kids race camps so we can cater for a large variation of ability within each group as it's a more round robin scenario. We still do a verbal sorting but also promote a lot of moving between groups constantly during the week. This year we plan to add Junior Freeride to the programme so the skiers within each group will need to be closer in ability level. With the adult groups we do a verbal sorting then ski with that group for the day. Sometimes we may suggest to guests to move groups within the first session. Coaches ski in close proximity to facilitate this and then chat to guests on the chairlifts. Our biggest challenge for coaches has been recognising the other skills (Physical, Tactical, Psychological) as much as Technical skills. New coaches would often prioritise Technical strengths. With our off-piste courses the other skills especially Physical and Psychological are often far more a priority than the Technical skills. This has been our biggest challenge as ski instructor training tends to focus more on Technical skills than Tactical, Psychological and Physical. Hence why the stories on the video with the ski off recognising only technical skills and us getting it so wrong when we got into the environment. Have a look at our blog 'Are You Developing Only 25% Of Your Potential'. For me this sums up the issue with the ski off. All the best and thanks for commenting. www.snoworks.co.uk/blog/are-you-developing-only-25-of-your-skiing-potential-2/