Concept: According to current psychological models there are four stages of learning, or competence, that we go through as part of improving or acquiring any skill.  

• Unconscious incompetence – At this stage you don't know what your problems are or how to identify them. You may or may not know that something is not working, but you have no idea what it is or how to go about fixing it. In other words, you don't know what you don't know. With skiing one doesn’t know what one is doing ineffectively. We often hear: “I’m in a rut and I’m not getting any better!”  

• Conscious incompetence – With conscious incompetence you are aware of a lot of your problems, but you don't know how to correct them.  With skiing one becomes aware of what one is doing ineffectually. 
• Conscious competence – In this stage you know how to correct your problems, but it will take time and practice. You know what you know and can apply it as long as you are concentrating and focusing on it. It is outside of your comfort zone. With skiing one learns a new movement (more efficient and effective habit) but has to think about it.  
  

• Unconscious competence – you know what you know, and you no longer have to think about it. You have become so skilled at it that it's automatic and comes naturally. In skiing one uses the more efficient and effective movement pattern automatically. This is the point when the body accepts the new movement without thought.  

Clendenin Method coaches pride themselves on their ability to guide you from a state of unconscious incompetence all the way to conscious competence.  The primary purpose of our Keys to the Kingdom is to introduce you to new more efficient habits as you gain conscious competence. When you first feel the effectiveness of a new movement, you begin to understand the movement and trust your body with the new movement. Perfect practice of the Keys develops and reinforces conscious competence.  

The next level, unconscious competence, arrives when the body embraces and executes the new effective move without thought. Helping you achieve unconscious competence is our coaching goal.  Reaching this wonderful level of great skiing will require the development of foot-eye coordination (See Tip #1) garnered from continuous deliberate practice.   

A simple explanation of the four stages of learning demonstrates your understanding of the concept. 

Tip #1 from Crystal: We all know what hand-eye coordination is – the communication between our brain and what our hand does, like brushing teething, drinking coffee, or buttering toast. We rarely have this connection with our feet – we walk, jog, and skip without being aware of the sensations in our feet. CM believes that most advances in our skiing start with the feet. If you want to advance in skiing, you need to develop what we call foot-eye coordination, awareness of the sensations and habits in your feet. 

Tip #2 from Johnny C: As the learning process goes through the four stages, often the most challenging is the second stage, conscious incompetence. Great athletes embrace the moment an inefficient or ineffective movement is exposed. Those of us less secure in our skills often experience considerable frustration when our flaws are exposed. Needless to say, athletes move through this stage quickly.  CM focuses on this phase of learning and helps all those who are experiencing conscious incompetence to relax and embrace the learning experience.  

Tip #3 from Andrew (Pisco): CM uses the stop light metaphor to describe the comfort level skiers have with the amount of attention terrain requires. For example:  

“green light” = skiers are comfortable because the terrain does not threaten them and requires little attention. 

“yellow light” = skiers have to pay attention – initially it could be trees, or people, or steepness that require our attention. 

“red light” = raises hair on the back of our necks. This terrain highjacks all our attention and survival instincts take over. 

CM's goal is to see the colors change when yellow becomes green and red becomes yellow! 

Concept: Understanding these four words is essential as they embody important concepts for your advancement in skiing.  Understand that the Four Words™ are paired off in two’s for good reason. We drift and center all the time. We touch and tip to initiate the new turn. Think of each word as a container for storing what is learned in relationship to each particular aspect of great skiing. A basic understanding of the Four Words™ is enough to achieve this CM Fundamentals objective. 

Tip #1 from Crystal: Some students struggle with the definition of the word drift. Drifting in CM means anything between one touch and the following touch or between the Love Spot™ and the end of the turn, as long as it is done with intention. The drift can be a carve, a sideslip, or any finessing of the edges in between, but not a skid!  Skidding occurs when the skier has unintended sideways movement. When we use the term drift, it can apply to soft edges or high edge angles for carving, as long as it's done with intention.  

These are two drawings looking down at the imprint of the right foot (like an imprint in the sand).  The darkened area shows where most of the weight or balance is located for each drawing. 

A. This imprint shows more balance on the “big-toe edge” as if tipping the foot slightly on edge causing the knee to bend towards the center of the body mass.

B. Shows the same foot with more balance on the “little-toe edge” as if tipping the foot out slightly on edge causing the knee to bend away from the center of mass (sensations in the foot define the Epiphany Pad).

The little-toe pad area B. (leaning out away from center) is larger and therefore is more area for perceiving sensations (proprioception) than is the smaller ball-of-the-foot area A. (inward). We call this fleshy pad (B.) on the outside of the foot, the Epiphany Pad™. When using the Epiphany Pad™, we consider the whole side of the foot, from the little toes to the side of the heel. 

Ingemar Stenmark has more World Cup wins (86) than any other alpine skier.

We Should Pay This Guy!

"He's a perfect demo for an All-Mountain CM skier. He's totally relaxed in his tall Killy-esque stance. His body is shaped in a perfect Kinetic curve in response to his edge angles. With his developed sense of momentum he owns angulation with inclination ….but most importantly, we see a slight divergence in his ski tips which clearly demonstrates pressure and balance on his Epiphany Pad. Even though everything about this picture looks attainable, it still hints that we may be looking at a ski sensei - oh...could this be... Stenmark?"

Tip #1 from Johnny C: The Epiphany Pad™ is what we use to engage the edge of our inside/uphill skis. Most instruction literature refers to this edge as the “little-toe edge”. This is misleading as the little-toe edge is the weakest part of the Epiphany Pad™. The strongest part of the Epiphany Pad™ is in the heel area. The heel area is where our bone structure connects up the body - up the ankle, up the femur and through the spine. One can learn a lot about skiing by standing and playing with these two moves! 

Tip #2 from Pisco: Why do we call it the Epiphany Pad™?  Because when you learn to find and center on the Epiphany Pad™, you will experience a dramatic realization of the power of CM to improve your skiing ability and you’ll have epiphanies!  

Tip #3 from Mark: If you were waiting for a cab in Melbourne, you’d park your haunches over your EP, specifically the heel area of your EP. Why? Because it’s the most restful way to stand.   

Anatomy of a turn – CM Fundamentals 

John’s Definition from the CM Video, Finding the Love Spot: Love Spot™ -- 1) the moment of rapture in skiing; 2) a fleeting, edgeless moment experienced by all great skiers and the rest of us who do not step, stem, or hop into a turn; 3) the spot in a turn where the Dance with Gravity begins. 

Concept: In CM, we define the turn initiation as the moment in time when the you release the engagement of the downhill edge. This release is always cued by the pole touch.  With the release, you move intentionally towards a new direction. All CM skiers should be aware of these movements and understand how the touch, then tip works together in initiating the new turn. The Love Spot™ (the edgeless moment) happens for parallel skiers and always occurs in the first third of the turn, before reaching the fall line. 

Tip #1 from Johnny C: The “Ah Ha” moment resides in the first third of a turn, the moment when our skis float edgeless with gravity in the Love Spot™. This “Ah Ha” Love Spot™ does not feel natural as human beings instinctively resist free-falling. The Clendenin Method is based on the tenet that stemming owes its existence to this innate instinctive fear of falling. Understand that when we were gorillas, we did not like slipping. We would set one claw in the mud and we would not pick it up until the other foot had dug its claw in the mud. Voila – the stem! With skiing experience, we may have learned to embrace the idea of slipping and sliding without fear. Unfortunately, the instinctual fear of gravity remains in the form of the stem habit. When we replace the habit of stemming with a parallel turn initiation (edges release instead of a weight transfer stem) the Love Spot™ is discovered and the magic dance with gravity begins.  

Tip #2 from Crystal: Eliminating the stem will be your initial focus of CM’s Keys to the Kingdom. Once you can consistently make parallel turns, a huge number of possibilities become available on every turn. 

Tip #3 from Johnny C: In all the ski technique literature, there is no consensus on the moment the inside ski becomes the new outside ski or when the outside becomes the inside. However, CM clearly says that the ski changes its identification with the edge change. One characteristic of the Love Spot™ is that it is edgeless. So, it is not until the skis find their new edges as they exit the Love Spot™, that they earn their new names. (outside ski becomes inside and inside ski becomes outside). 

Concept: The middle third of the turn occurs when your ski edges are first engaged as they approach the fall line having passed through the Love Spot™.  This is where your intention takes hold to shape your new turn.   

Tip #1 from Johnny C: If you execute a centered parallel turn entry coming out of the Love Spot™, you can shape an infinite variation of turns with intention. The Love Spot™ opens the door for all the options, including carving, steering softly, cascading, or engaging a Squeegee Move™, which truncates the turn and engages the new Epiphany Pad™.  

Tip #2 from Mark: Even after replacing the stem with a parallel entry, you may continue to be challenged by the innate fear of free falling. This instinct may cause you to rush through your release to gravity cutting off the Love Spot™. Be patient with yourself. Learning to embrace the Love Spot™ requires practice.  Try pausing in the Love Spot™ and experience the playfulness of rounded turns.  

Concept: This is where you show off the beauty of skiing with intention. You are driving the car, not riding in it. You are proactive, not reactive. You can finesse your edges at will and drift with intention choosing the best lines through terrain. 

Tip #1 from Pisco: The technical focus of this bottom third of the turn should be drifting and centering on the new Epiphany Pad™, thereby setting yourself up to make a parallel turn entry for the next turn. This habit opens the door for more turn possibilities.