Introduction to Skier Analysis and the Skier Analysis Model
There are four areas that you will need to give details on and integrate into your skier analysis.
- Observation/description of ski performance (“WHAT” is happening)
- Relate the movements of the skier’s body to the ski performance, and identify some cause-and-effect relationships (“WHY” is it happening)
- Prioritisation of technical needs to achieve the stated goal (comparison to the ideal).
- Step-by-step lesson plan that is relevant to analysis of the skier and facilitates the stated goal.
Analysis; detailed examination of the elements or structure of something.
When Structuring your analysis of skiing we recommend this structure.
Let’s break that down.
Overall Impression
Give an overall impression of the skier. This should include an assessment of athletic ability and how comfortable they appear on the terrain.
Describe Ski Performance
- Describe the turn shape.
- Identify and describe what you consider to be the most relevant areas of the ski’s performance.
- Be phase and outcome specific when describing the ski’s performance.
Relate the Skis Performance to the Body's Movements
- Identify cause and effect relationships.
- Identify and describe what you consider to be the most relevant areas of body movements that are affecting the skis or other movements.
- Be phase, movement, and body part specific, when relating movements of the body to the ski performance or to other movements.
Compare to the Ideal
- Based on your descriptions, how do the ski performance and body movements compare to the ideal?
- Comparison to the ideal enables identification of the skier’s technical “needs”.
Now let’s look and listen to an example of Skier Analysis.
As you are watching and listening can you identify
- WHAT – description of the skis
- WHY – related to what the body is doing and identify cause and effect relationships
Note how the descriptions of WHAT and WHY are related to the individual skier on the video.
Now that we have described the WHAT and WHY the next step is to Compare To the Ideal.
This is where you identify the individual skiers technical needs.
The technical needs are the areas where you feel the skier needs to develop to get better.
Watch and listen again to the video example and identify how comparing to the ideal allows for these technical needs to be clearly identified.
Once we have the technical needs then we can start to create a lesson plan.
We will do this in the next topic.