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Download Breakthrough on the New Skis 3 Ed Say Goodbye to the Intermediate Blues Lito TejadaFlores 9780967674728 Books

Product details Paperback 315 pages Publisher Mountain Sports Press; 3 edition (November 9, 2001) Language English ISBN-10 0967674727

Breakthrough on the New Skis 3 Ed Say Goodbye to the Intermediate Blues Lito TejadaFlores 9780967674728 Books Reviews

• I was one of those people who have been skiing for a couple decades, usually a couple three times a year, who love the sport, but are trapped in that perpetual intermediate plane I was good enough to have fun, to avoid wiping out and getting hurt, and could ski most of the mountain; but I was uncomfortable and clumsy on moguls, and very uncomfortable on steeper grades and uneven or slicker surfaces. I would respond to them by becoming rigid and very tentative, taking everything slow and choppy. Even on blue and green slopes I was skiing by turning my body to change direction, and edging far too much, always scrubbing off speed with my edges using my thighs, which meant that at the end of a vigorous run, or the end of the day, my legs would be rubbery, like I'd just finished a intense leg and back routine.. Because I had.
  
  More than this, I knew I lacked grace and finesse. I watched really good skiers sail and float about me, taking moguls and steep slopes with flair and ease, and was envious. I wanted that. But I didn't now how to get there.
  
  Last year I decided to change, to really commit to improving my technique. I did a little research, and dug up this book and the accompanying 3 DVD set.. I thought that it would be a nice prelude to taking some lessons, and way of doing some preparatory homework. I got it, read most of the book once, watched the first DVD a few times, and went skiing.
  
  I found that I really didn't need those lessons. The first DVD in the set is the key that unlocks the mystery. It's really very simple expert skiing is essentially riding one ski at a time, putting all your weight on one ski at a time. Skis are designed to bend subtly, to cut arcs when weight is applied upon them. You don't turn the ski, you put pressure on the ski and it turns you. That's what good skiers are almost always (but often very subtly) doing. In my intermediate haze, I could sort of intuit this essential fact, but I didn't know how to fully exploit it. This book - and the DVD set, I really recommend the DVDs - shows you this essential trick, then walks you through all the essential techniques and tweaks, teaching you how to let your skis start really working for you.
  
  The weight issue is the primary one you really do ride one ski at time. No weight on the inside, all weight on the outside, upon the ski opposite the direction you want to arc, or turn. But there's more needed to fine tune your technique, and Lito (the author) walks you through the nuances. Good skiing is essentially a series of linked arcs, or arcs that flow in to new arcs you flow from one ski to the other and back again. He explains how to shift your weight (early, before you actually want to turn) and how to dynamically link your arcs, how to move your upper body and poles. How to ski with flow and verve.
  
  The second part of the book and the second DVD in the set tell you how to apply these principal techniques to moguls and powder. Moguls, which I used to hate and avoid, have become interesting and fun. They are where things actually start to get really poetic, somehow. Instead of grinding my teeth nervously through them like I used to, I now take them to the prom, so to speak. This is where the analogy of skiing to dancing really clicks. It's like holding a girl and flowing with and into her that's what you are doing with the mountain when you really nail this technique. Moving with, and into. It feels sublime.
  
  Lito has a series of exercises in the book and DVD that I realized - after initially ignoring them - are really helpful. Kinda like Mr. Miagi, he has you do some "wax on, wax off" type stuff in order to really start exploiting the muscles, creating the muscle memory, that you need to develop so as to make progress. Learn to stand and balance on one ski while stationary. Then, start playing around with the ski, moving it in various ways. I immediately hit on trying to do the stork pose like the Karate Kid, which while revealing me for the idiot I am, makes me laugh. Then, do your routine while sliding on a catwalk or gentle slope. Thus inspired, I now often use lift time to do stretches. Next, learn to slideslip with flair, stem christi lyrically and even pirouette and ski backwards (something Lito-San does not tell us to do, but that I have begun from what the master has revealed). I have started extrapolating like this a lot, developing a sort of yogic routine that I try to elaborate. How many ways can I flex my body and move while wearing skis? I've come to see that skiing is a lot like yoga you take some simple principles as premises, and then you apply them, extrapolating upon them infinitely.
  
  It's like how most yoga poses are interpretive, and everyone who applies themselves develops their own practice and flow, their own physical vocabulary. I now know that skiing is exactly like this. The basic movements and principles are fecund. Skiing is self expression, like dance. I watch other skiers now, and I now understand, properly admire, and even can imitate what they are doing. Before, I was crudely attacking the mountain, with force and rigid physicality. These techniques are radically different. It's like pulsing down the mountain, undulating side to side with the hips not pushing up down around with the thighs; modulating velocity with the slope rather than scrubbing off speed with your thighs and edges. More result, less effort. Try softer.
  
  Another world really. I'm not exceptionally good yet, but I now know I have the potential to be. I am a better skier and hence athlete than before, for sure though, and that pleases me to no end.
  
  Wax on wax off enough, and next you know you may find yourself pinching flies with chop sticks, right?
  
  So, I give this course my very highest recommendation. If you feel stuck in the intermediate doldrums, then this is the book and DVD set for you. Try them, you won't be sorry. Happy trails.
• I have always been a skier stuck in the `intermediate rut'; if I was even that good. Two things are for sure. I started skiing at about 30 years of age and reached the point after a couple years of skiing about 1 week a year, where I could get down any blue and most black runs, but would look erratic and out of control (I was) doing so. Any I stayed at that level for about the next 10 years, with virtually no improvement.
  
  Then I bought the predecessor to this book and later bought this book. And the 1st year (remember, this is once a year for about 6 days each trip) I did what was taught in the book and I saw improvement, though nobody else really saw it. But I learned things and was in a little better control. The next time, more improvement. And then last spring it all clicked. Skis together, smooth carving turns, balance dead on, I actually knew what I was doing and was having the time of my life. And other people noticed. Of course, I still have a long way to go, but already I have reached a level I had previously convinced myself I would never reach.
  
  Buy the book, do what the man says, give it a little time and you will ski they way you always dreamed of skiing.
• This book has the best advice for the intermediate, intuitive skier. I was an very good intermediate skier for years on my old, long, straight skis and finally bought a pair of those new shaped things. I liked them, but didn't see much advantage because I would always skid my turns with both legs and "muscle" my way down mountain, having fun and coming home with sore thighs. After reading the first chapter of this book I become a significantly better skier in one day. One hour, actually. The technique is that good - I ski better, faster, turn more easily, and come home with no leg fatigue at all. I get better each time I go now, instead of going for years and never getting any better.
  
  The only drawback to this book is that you have to wade through tons of rather cutesy, repetitive, faux-folksy writing... lots of it. Hundreds of pages of personal satori, observational "humor" and hawking equipment sales and ski services, when the actual instructions could take maybe ten pages to cover.
  
  Still, if you're been a good intermediate skier for a while, this book will make you a beginning expert instantly. If you're new to skiing, this book will save you time.
• Great old school coffee table book... that the dog enjoyed chewing on.
• If, like me, you desire a book that breaks down each aspect of skiing into bite size, easily digestible pieces and then continue to build on what is already practiced and learned, then this is the book for you. The author is methodical in his explanations and the writing is clear, straight forward, engaging and fresh. The section on bumps alone is worth the price of the book. Again, this is an excellent intermediate skier book. Those more advanced may wish to look elsewhere. Bottom line; read the book and you are sure to improve.
• I lived in the Alps for a few years, and Lito's book taught me how to ski. He is a natural teacher... at least for me. I am an engineer and connected with his explanations.
• I think some of us can improve our skiing from a book and most of us can't. If you're one of the lucky ones who can improve from reading, then this book and Harald Harb's latest book are your best bets. This year I checked out all the books my local library had on skiing. Most of them were hopelessly outdated. Thanks to these two books and watching the Olympics I've had a couple of breakthroughs with my skiing. I credit them with a drastic improvement in Mogul skiing and high speed downhill skiing. Thanks Lito.
• Easy and fast read. Good tips/techniques.