Deb, I've been coaching 5-9 year olds at Palisades Tahoe for three winters now and I keep coming back to your channel for inspiration and direction on what to do with the kids to get them ready to enter the race and big mountain programs, but I think my own skiing has actually benefitted the most since I have no racing background and only really started skiing at 38 years old. Your coaching cues are so great and the way you are always reinforcing the positive instead of saying what not to do are so key. Thank you for all of your amazing posts. I know we are a niche audience with extremely limited funds, but we are so grateful! You and this channel are an asset to U.S. Skiing and the feeder programs that provide athletes for it! Go Team USA!!!
Love that you are giving instant feedback as he skis. I wish more coaches would do this, so the student can make adjustments in real time. Too many lazy coaches are all about "follow me and do as I do" which is like asking a beginner piano player to play Chopin by looking at the piano teacher''s fingers!
I like the positivity and it’s interesting to hear your thought process for how to coach. Seeing his immediate response to your prompts is great & he’s so engaged!
Deb is so awesome. What she has done with her students is absolutely amazing and inspiring. Hands all over? Give them something to do with their hands! A life chosen to be lived positively. That what Deb reinforced for me.
you're such a great coach and role model! I can't ski this season but I look forward to practicing a more positive instruction with my daughter next year! happy new year! I hope you enjoy your winter!
Deb. You are an amazing coach and an inspiration to me. I repost your videos for my masters buddies. I’m a cancer survivor. I have a very rare disease, Amyloidosis AL. My heart was damaged. It is healing. I may never rave again, but I will ski again!! All my Drs are encouraging me. Going to buy boots this week!! Thanks for being you and sharing your passion!!
Thank you Thomas yes, go ski again. Get those boots. I am so happy yiu found my channel. Go make some sweet turns feeling that wind in your face. All the best to you Thomas.
Kid is impressive. But more impressive is that you are behind him with two poles in one hand filming perfectly with your other hand, making every move he is making the whole way down. Just damn... Deb!
Man, the kid has incredible ankle control for 9yrs old. He’s so attentive too, as soon as you give him any feedback he’s applying it. He’ll be an incredible skier at this pace. Not that he already isn’t better than most on the hill lol.
Great set of drills (and a great student). You are uniquely able to help your students feel the nuance of flexion, balance and angulation better than any instructor I've seen. With modern skis many skiers have lost touch with the front of their ski boots. Not your crew though!
I love “move like a cat” in the moguls, and “super G hands” while carving, and “explosive” at Speiss turns. Awesome. Choice of words to create images is key! You’ll find instructors around the world picking up on your creative language, Deb, thank you so much✨
This audio is a master class in teaching - of any topic! What’s more important than the turn” is nurturing a student’s self-confidence in their ability to learn new skills so they want to keep at it. Bravo!
@@DebArmstrongSkiStrong I taught m.s. and spent years researching & developing youth programs - so I know a master when I see one! Heading to CO for a week of skiing later this month. Your videos are getting me ready!
All the lessons are so brilliant, this is really inspiring! I used to be an instructor myself when younger but now just want to learn how to teach my kids better, Deb you play at such a different level, thanks!!!
As a former skier from the Hot Dog era I used to practice tapping my hands together between turns as a reminder that hand position leads to upper body position. That kid will be skiing the heavy crud in Chute 75 in no time!
This was a very interesting video. Watching this kid ski, I will say that at 9 years of age, he can outski me and I'm CSIA Level 2 instructor. This kid is very close to or at CSIA Level 3 standard skiing the way he carves as well as the way he can ski bumps. Then the question for the rest of us becomes -- why? Assuming that he started skiing at age 3, let's say he's been ski training for 6 years. Why can he after 6 years outski many of us who have been skiing for much longer (decades) and many of us still spend time to work on our own skiing. Would it be because he started skiing through a race program rather than the PSIA/CSIA route? Maybe he just never had any bad habits from the very start like most of us. His example does create questions ...
Leffler also talked about gait reflex and how hand and arm movements are helpful in natural motion. Bi pedal actions require cross lateral upper body symmetry. that's the secret daddy.
Such good stuff! I just asked this question / a similar question on another recent video, but this is actually more what I'm getting at: can you translate the "explosive" turns around the whiskers to a slalom or GS turn? When in a slalom or GS turn do you explode your energy? Is it a push off your legs like a jump, or more of a pulling your momentum forward?
