Welcome Back!!

[jbotti]

Wow, that was too long!! Hopefully our technical issues are behind us.

Just to get us going again, I posted this over at the PMTS forum a few days ago. My practcie habits have improved immensely and it is a worthy topic as we approach the ski season. So here goes:
 

I have had the benefit of skiing with Max 501 quite a bit over the last few years. No one has better practice habits than Max and his skiing shows it. For quite some time I had the misconception that time on snow mattered a ton. While there is no substitute for being on snow, it really is about the quality of the skiing and focus that we bring while skiing that matters. For me at this point in my skiing, less is more. I can only bring a very high level of focus and intensity for a limited amount of time each ski day. As well the legs have only so much ability to fire aggressivley when we are skiing at a high level. Most would be surprised to know that WC skiers rarely spend more than 2-3 of hours on snow per day (and many days a lot less than that), but the work is incredibly intense and focused. This is how we improve fastest.

So here are a few of my focus points for practice:
We are practicing the whole time we are skiing. Get off the mountain when tired. This is when bad movements take over.
Highly Challenging terrain is also where bad movements come back out. Limit ski time here. Better to find terrain that is challenging (not highly challenging) where the proper movements stay in place (or have a fighting chance to do so)
Never ski more than 4 days in a row without a day off
Never go more than a day of sking without doing quality drill work
Never go more than 5 skis days without getting video shot so that you can see what is occurring (which as we know is often different than what we think is occuring)
Always know what you are working on, always have a focus on every run. If you find you can't focus well, maybe it's time to call it a day.
Have fun!

These are all guidelines (which is different than hard and fast rules) and yours may be different.

I skied less total hours last year than in years past and made better progress. Hard to argue with that.

[LivingProof]

Yup, t's great to have the forum running again. Never know how much it's missed until it disappears.

Reading your post above, I immediately thought of the day we skied last year in Squaw. It was my 6th straight day on skis, and, my body was letting me know that it had too much. I did not ski after lunch and, perhaps for the first time, I just sat in lodge very content to rest.

Good thoughts to implement this season. Helluvaskier did some video of me last season, and, very clearly told me to go back to the very basics.

[midwif]

Yes, glad to have one of my addictions restored.

And I think we need to look around for a new home.

Jim has pretty clear idea of what went wrong, which made him more understanding.

I am not as understanding. 

Annoyed with SMF, I am.

[HighAngles]

I was starting to wonder if this forum would ever get back up.

BTW - I really like the new avatar pic John.  That's a heck of a shot.

[smackboy1]

Feels good to be back after a long hot summer. Skis waxed and tuned, now all we need is some of the white powdery stuff 

[jim-ratliff]

Yes, glad to have one of my addictions restored.

And I think we need to look around for a new home.

Jim has pretty clear idea of what went wrong, which made him more understanding.

I am not as understanding. 

Annoyed with SMF, I am.

Not more understanding, just more aware that it was beyond my control.
Pretty frustrating to have to go back to Peter's forum to get email addresses trying to update a few people.
I'm impressed with the current system performance, but not at all with the processes and procedures of the SMFNEW organization.
Living Proof has a point about not making changes with ski season so close, but.... 
To paraphrase, let us down one time and shame on them, let us down repeatedly and shame on us/me.