Following the cues for effective skiing are cues for ineffective skiing. When teaching someone to ski, we have to be able to identify this area too so we can help our students eliminate these barriers to skill improvement. Use these cues as a starting point in learning to recognize the movements that make up solid, proficient skiing-as well as those that frustrate the student's efforts. Once you've gained experience in identifying these movements, you can work more freely toward creating teaching scenarios that benefit your students. As instructors, it is our job to recognize the area in which our students need improvement, then share with them how to apply those skills in an efficient way.
Recognition is the focal point.
Until we can determine what the student is doing, we cannot help them become better skiers. Here are some additional thoughts on the categories of balance, rotary movements, edging, and pressure-control movements. The skills concept empowers instructors to pick out important movement patterns that may be grossly over- or underused. If these situations can be recognized, we can redirect the student to apply the skills in a more efficient and timely manner. When we are looking at a skier and trying to analyze his or her movements, it is helpful to understand why each skill area is so important to the overall picture.