I won’t bore you with the trivial details of the entire day, but let’s just say it was a bit of an eye opener. One which left me analysing everything the instructors told me throughout the day and relating it back to my own self protection training. Hence the need to write this article to share my thoughts with you.

Whilst I was dubious about the marketing ploy of “learn to ski in a day” I realised that I was an instructor who also promised such successes and in fact, still believe I can deliver them.
I have often said that an honest self protection system should be able to deliver something useful within one session. It should be able to take a complete novice and send them away with at least something that will make them better placed to defend themselves should they need to on their way home. Even if that means to simply give them a better understanding of safety awareness and personal security.

Al - Fighting with Ski-boots

To my pleasure and immense satisfaction I indeed did learn to ski in one day. So long as you can call ploughing snow faster than a JCB, travelling so slowly they timed me with a calendar, remaining upright and ski-side-down all the way to the bottom of the slope, and stopping safely without the need to plunge headfirst into the safety crash mats at the bottom, skiing.
Certainly I did not set the snow on fire with my lightening speed, nor compel on-lookers to stand at the side of the slope jingling their cow bells, but I had made a massive improvement from the guy who could barely put on his skis in the morning without falling over. And an improvement that proved the course gave everything it said on the tin.

The upshot is that, it’s confirmed in my own instruction that I can to deliver something in one lesson. Sure, you’re not going to be a Chuck Norris after one lesson, but you will be on your way and that is refreshing.

So, how did I make such a massive leap in my skiing ability in one lesson? What was the key to the instruction that instilled such growth?
The Basics. It was all about the basics. I spent the whole day working on being a snow plough, and although I desperately wanted to be able to carve my way down icy hill with my skis parallel, I knew that was a long way off. The plough gave me everything I needed to be safe, to get going, to be able to turn, to stop. More importantly it gave me the body mechanics that were directly transferable to the proper skiing technique I will later master.

And to relate this back to self protection, as this article was intended, whilst drilling a basic pin or a basic choke on a compliant partner may not be very realistic, or by sparring with restricted techniques or restricted movements, such as body sparring or one hand sparring, it all contains the basics that we need for more advanced or more high pressure techniques in the future.

It’s all about the basics, without those you cannot progress to the real stuff. But whilst learning them, you are in fact learning the real stuff without realising it.

Al - At the end of a long day - check out that ski position (Franz eat your heart out)

It was on a brief break for some warm refreshments that I asked the instructor more about the basics. I wanted to know why so much time was spent learning a plough position that would ultimately not be used when I can ski “properly”, with parallel skis, carving and snaking my way down the slopes.
He explained that the plough position helped me have the control on the snow so that I could develop all of the other skills that I would continue to use as I progress. Leaning forwards, shins into the front of the boot, posture, etc etc.
What was also interesting was that, when he goes back to his advanced training courses, the first thing he does is go back to the plough and work on the basics. How refreshing, that such an advanced skier will take himself back to basics.

And yet, if someone had asked me what I spend most of my time doing in my own field of expertise (I still use that word loosely by the way). I would always reply – the basics. Isolating a single technique, working it until it’s instinctive and perfecting the body mechanics that are directly translated into every other advanced technique you can think of.

So, I may have digressed into a mini – skiing for amateurs by amateurs review here but my message is simple.

If you want to be good at anything, work on the basics. And when you think you’re getting good, go back to the basics again. Everything you need will be found in the basics. Like the foundations of a building and the plough on slopes, nothing else works unless you’ve got the basics.

Stay Safe and Have Fun

Al x