Beginner ski lesson #1 with Deb Armstrong, intro equipment and movement

Hey everybody, I'm Deb Armstrong and I'm going to deliver you a beginner ski lesson. So maybe you're the first time never ever skier, this lesson is for you. Or maybe you're a ski instructor and you're looking for some ideas on how to deliver a beginning lesson. This video is also for you. This is the first of three videos in this series for the beginner skier. We're skiing with Tuesday. Tuesday is a mom and she has skied before once five years ago but she considers herself a first time never ever skier. And this is just one way to go about it. There's a lot of ways to go about it. Take into account the individual of who you're skiing with. Take into account the terrain at the mountain and the facilities that you've got. But this is one way to approach a lesson and I hope you all enjoy it. You have skied before. We're gonna really start from scratch. Okay. Like right from the very beginning. Good. Sound okay? Yeah because for me like they never spent enough time with getting the boots in the skis and I felt like that was a big step. Good. We got to get to know the equipment and everything. Okay. All right. Tuesday this is your day. Yeah. I know. Did you get any sleep last night with the kiddos? Not much but that's okay. I know you're you're normal. This is going to be our area right in here Tuesday. Okay. And then we'll we'll move on over into there. Okay. What other activities do you like to do? Oh I like to do yoga. You're okay. You do a lot of yoga and what else do you like? I like to go on walks. Okay. And I like to dance. You are a dancer. Oh there's going to be a lot of body awareness here. That's awesome. Okay. Let's let's first just kind of introduce ourselves to our equipment. Okay. Okay. And I asked you how your boots felt. You said they felt really good and I noticed you kind of do this right off the bat. You just bent those ankles a little bit. Let's walk and when we walk Tuesday I want you to pay attention to your ankle. Okay. Because that boot feels like a cast but it's not a cast. Okay. Your ankle and your foot moves in your boot. Okay. And I'm going to we're going to walk right here and I want you to notice that. Pay particular attention just to your to your to your ankle and how there are moments when your shin hits the front of your boot. We'll kind of walk in circles here. I'm going to be talking about the front of your boot a lot. I am going to be talking about your shin at the front of your boot. That boot contact. And you it doesn't really matter the when. I just want you to notice the feeling that it gets there. Right. You got that. Okay. And let's do something else. We're gonna we're gonna kind of do some side steps like this. That's called the side step. Okay. We can kind of we can tip our boots. Yeah. Yeah. Get to the side of your boot a little bit. Yeah. There you go. We are going to get into our skis. Here's the thing. These are ski brakes. That's going to keep our ski from sliding away from us if it ever falls off. Okay. Do you notice that there's metal? There's black. You see that? Yeah. Those are edges. Okay. Okay. Those are going to come in handy. I that metal grabs the snow. That metal grabs the mountain. Okay. There's going to be times we're talking about that. Okay. Okay. And also this ski is really long. I mean notice notice your boot how it's real short. All of a sudden you have got a long base of support. This thing really comes in handy. Okay. All right. Let's get into one of our skis. Okay. Okay. So you grab your poles and what you're going to do is I'm going to have you straddle your ski like this. Okay. You're going to pick up one foot. We're getting all that snow off so your your binding works properly. Okay. Now toe in first. There you go. And then click down. Are you feeling secure and happy and safe? Are you? Okay. Good. It's flat right here. We're actually just going to kind of walk in circles. Okay. I want you to just get used to this really long base of support and the weight of it and how you can step it in circles. Let's do some circles Tuesday. See that's good. Here's here's what a lot of people do Tuesday. You're making really baby steps which is good. A lot of people make a big step like this. See that doesn't work. Yeah. Right. So we're getting used when we step around just small baby steps. Okay. Come on up here. Let's do some side step like this. Yeah. Side stepping uphill feels different doesn't it? And watch Tuesday. Watch me. Remember I showed you those edges? Uh-huh. How the edges grab the mountain? Yeah. You can roll that ski on edge to the and now you can side step up. Okay. And the ski grabs. Oh yeah. Got that? Okay. Come on down here. Okay. So here's the deal. When we're skiing we're we're moving. This is a moving sport. Yeah. This is a moving wall in motion. This is a balancing wall in motion sport. Okay. Your skis are going to slide that way. Okay. And we want to make sure that our body stays on top of our feet and kind of keeps up while we slide that we don't get left behind back here. Okay. And we're going to give ourselves a little push and we're looking for a little bit of a glide. Okay. You're just you're going to balance on this foot. You're looking for a little glide. We're nice and safe because we have our other foot and watch me here. We're going to push and glide just like that. There you go. Yeah. We're getting a sense for that. Okay. A feel for that. Yeah. And when you push and glide Tuesday, remember how I talked about the shin? Yes. Everything pushes forward. Okay. Here we go. Everything pushes forward into that ski tip. Yeah. That's good. Nice. Look at you. Okay. Now let's sidestep up this hill. Yeah. And yeah. Find that edge that I showed you about. That's good. If you don't find that edge Tuesday, here's what's going to happen. Your ski slips down. Okay. You fought, you roll your ski on edge and now you can step up. Okay. Try to glide to me. Find that edge a little bit so that your ski doesn't slip away from you. Are you noticing how it's your lower leg that is affecting that ski? It's your foot and your leg that affects that ski a little bit. Yeah. Just to notice that's all. Yeah. Nice Tuesday. I want you to notice something while you're standing here right now with me, you are standing beautifully. You are totally stacked, meaning you're kind of bone on bone. I mean, you're standing beautifully when you walk and you stand, we don't do this. Right. We don't over bend anywhere. Okay. Skiing can be counterintuitive. We need to stand up just like this. You got good bend here. You have nice bend here. We're just, and everything is going to slide on your other foot. Why don't you take this ski off? So put your, put your, your, your pole right there and press down. We're going to get all that snow out of there. Okay. Toe first, then click the heel. Okay. Awesome. Okay. So now what are you going to do? Stand up. Stand up. Yeah. And then feel the whole body moving forward. Yes. And, but also feel the weight into my shin. Okay. That's a lot. Find that flow. You told me earlier, you wanted to feel the swoosh and hear the swoosh and just go that way and find the flow a little bit. Okay. Give. Yeah. Yeah. You're doing great. Okay. Let's do, I'll show you another one. This is called the herringbone. Look at this. It's like a duck walk. Try this one. Yeah. And you're gonna, you're gonna see how I'm doing. You're going to tip the ski on edge there a little bit. Tip the ski on edge. That's another way to walk uphill. Okay. Now we can go this way. I'm going to go get your other ski on now. Okay. We've done enough of this. Okay. We're big old click. Do you have snow on there? No. Give it a big press. There you go. That's a sidestep. Hugely important skill. We're going to now work on a wedge, which is important just for gliding. Okay. As we glide downhill before we've learned to turn. So let's ski with our hands to start. Put your hands flat. That's for our girls. We're going to say we're in french fry. Okay. Our skis are flat and now we're going to steer our toes in and now back to flat. And when we steer, we can't have our feet too close together because when we steer our toes in, our ski tips are going to cross. Yeah. You know what I mean? Okay. So we need our stance to kind of wide, steer our toes in, back to flat. That's what we're going to do. Okay. We're going to keep those skis nice and flat. This is what it's going to look like. Can I show you? Okay. We're going to give a little push. I'm going to steer my toes in. There you go. Now steer your toes in and look at how you stopped. You just skied to a stop. That's your control. Okay. Start in our parallel. Now remember, you're going to be gliding forward. We want our shins at the front of the boots and your whole midsection works forward towards your ski tips. Okay. And then you steer your toes in for your wedge. Give yourself a push. Move. Your whole body moves forward. Steer your toes in to a stop. Jose, you're brilliant. That's so good. Okay. Tuesday, we're going to go to a little bit steeper section. I want you to have a couple other tools before we get there. Okay. Whenever it's downhill and you're not real comfortable, you can put your poles below you and just baby steps like this. Yeah. There you go. Now put your poles behind you Tuesday so that you don't slide backwards. Let's do a circle. Okay. Put your poles in front of you so you don't slide forwards. There you go. Keep doing the circle Tuesday. Put your poles then behind you so you don't slip backwards.