Explaining CSM Can Get You In Trouble
Some CSM graduates have expressed their frustration when trying to explain what makes CSM different. Equally frustrating is when people have approached me with concepts of CSM that they have garnered from graduates. Unfortunately most of what I hear doesn't make sense, even to me, and I cringe when I imagine how they have interpreted whatever they have heard. That said; please understand that I respect any evangelic effort. CSM programs are primarily supported by word of mouth and what sells best is CSM clients’ skiing. The fact that some have advanced so far is the inspiration for the Mogul Masters inner-circle website. Another inspiration is to start a graduated certificate level where you can participate in advanced levels determined by objective criteria including the ability to accurately describe the method. In the meantime, the following blog is intended to help you explain the basic tenets of the CSM. First some simple concepts to keep in mind when describing CSM methodology:
1) CSM wakes up the inside: both a) the feelings inside the feet related to great skiing and b) how the inside ski (dormant in most) relates to great skiing.
2) CSM is at war with the stem epidemic that blocks people from experiencing the great skier within.
3) The following is paraphrased from the CSM book ‘Four Words for Great Skiing’ and is the stuff for a great conversation.
Why You Have the Skiers’ Flu (and Why It's Not Your Fault!)
Humans have never felt comfortable when their feet are sliding or slipping across the surface of the earth. The protective instinct is to brace against the slip. When learning to ski, the same protective instincts (millions of years of survival-motivated behavior) react by:
1) Grabbing the surface with our claws, our big-toe edges,
2) Leaning up the hill – it's closer. (After all, how often are you fearful of falling UP?)
3) Tensing and bracing for impact!
To master skiing, each of us must overcome the basic protective instincts we bring from living on earth.
In order to ski well, we need to learn to embrace slipping and do the opposite of the above:
1) Release (not grab) the big-toe edge
2) Move our center down the hill into the jaws of gravity
3) Relax and enjoy the flight
“Perform an unnatural act. Go skiing!” - Howard Freeman
Fear of sliding or falling may diminish with ski mileage, but the influence of protective instincts has wormed its way into technique, tainting us with Skier's Flu. Why call it the “Skiers Flu” – because it is epidemic and so many have it and don’t know it.
This fatal flaw that is prevalent in 90% of all skiers, the germ that supports a diagnosis of the flu, is the stem.
Why is the STEM the root of all evil?
The stem is an instinctive survival technique for turning.It appears when even advanced skiers feel threatened, mostly in bumps and steeps. When threatened, we dig in with our claws and step from one big toe edge to the other. This stem step may give a sense of stability, but limits the ability to flow down the mountain. A stem however small, quick, or fleeting, always prevents a flowing parallel turn because it never allows the downhill ski—the big-toe claw—to release first.
This ugly out-of-center step when turning becomes a habitual, unconscious security move. The foundation of the stem always goes back to our initial protective-instinctive response to sliding and falling. Skiers will always revert back to this stem habit when skiing in their red-light terrain.
Unfortunately skiers have no easy way to detect this ingrained flaw. They know they don’t look good and lack confidence in challenging situations. They experience loss of control just when they need it most—when the going gets bumpy, deep or steep. They wonder why they can ski fast with aplomb on groomed terrain, yet deteriorate dramatically in off-piste terrain, especially in moguls.
Most skiers arrive at our camps unaware of their stems and remain in denial until video analysis pulls their heads out of the snow.
A linchpin of the CSM is to introduce clients to the primary movements which create parallel turn entry, and rid them of the need to STEM!
