Can freeskiing be learnt?

DHogg

DHogg

Active member
In your opinion, can someone be taught to become an amazing freeskier? I dont think so, i know many people who are too scared to try things and people like this can't become good. they can to a point, but not beyond that. Often people progress quickly until it come to bigger risks such as flipping and spinning on rails.

Just something that interested me.

Comments?
 
i'll tend to agree on that - i also think the same applies to if someone has style, or just plain doesn't..

to become extremely good at the sport, it probably CAN be learned, but not without serious grounding as a skier

 
it depends on the person.

if there a giant vagina; no. if they dont care what the throw them selves off with various rotations; yes.
 
some people are athletic and some people aren't, so you have to work with that, along with the fact that people have balls or not, people are flexible, are spinny, etc.
 
you can take a horse to a creek but you cant teach it to drink...

some people just have the "it" to be great at freeskiing and some people dont...

 
yes it can. take that person who is scared and put them in training with the right person, and they wont be. Different coaches have different ways of teaching things that work for different people. i remeber watching vanular do a backflip on a trap when he was like 12 or so. he was scared shitless, but he worked through it and now look at him...
 
free skiing absolutly positivly cannot be tought. i teach the freestyle clinics and at my hill we show them how but thats not freeskiing freeskiing is individuallity and style defined by the skier him/herself. it is not written how to be a freeskier because it cant. point proven end of thread... PEACE
 
I think that its mostly natural abilitity.  I mean... people can learn new stuff and get better by going to camps, but your natural ability defines how far you can progress.  I skiied with one of my brother's friends last year a lot. He was a snowboarder until last year-never skiied in his life. He just went all out every day and by the end of the season he was stomping switch 9s and 270s on and off ridiculous rails and crazy stuff.  He is now better than me at freeskiing. And ive been at it for like 4 years. So I think a lot of it is a natural ability-especially presence in the air and balance on rails.
 
Natural ability has a lot to do with it. Not everyone will become the next Jon just by getting some lessons and practicing. However, they can get a lot better. Repetition and working up to tricks helps cement it in your head and take away the fear. Think about it, would people spend thousands of dollars to go to a summer camp if they couldn't learn something? Natural ability determines whether you'll be great. However, if people are willing to put the time, discipline, and energy into it, they can learn.

I've got a friend who was 5'8 and around 300 lbs. (a big fella) That kid was throwing 5's and getting darn close on his misty's last time I saw him...

 
Natural skiing ability has a lot to do with it, but I feel that if you can ski fundamentally and can get over the fear that moist people can become good freeskiers.

I feel it is more of over coming fear than pure talent. Given the pros have natural talent that none of us will be able to reach if we were not born with it. But I feel anyone can slide a rail and anyone can 3 5 or 9 if they put in the work.
 
It's just like any other sport. If you're born with natural talent, then you are going to be naturally good at it. Just like with sports like football or soccer. Maybe you are good naturally at football, but suck at soccer and vice versa. It's all about what your body was made to do.
 
You can only get so good before you will have to overcome your fear if you want to keep progressing.
 
its more mental then anything, you could be the worlds most athletic person but if youre scared or feel like you cant do something then you probably wont do it.

like obviously just telling yourself i can spin a 900 isnt going to give you the ability to spin a 900 but if you can do a 360 then you can probably do a 540 and so on, and in my experience 9 times out of 10 i can do something i didnt think i could do, the only thing holding me back was my mindset.

i think the basic things you need to know like how to actually ski and how much speed you need to hit a certain jump can be taught and theres always pointers you can give like to spot your landing or lead a spin with your head but the rest you have to actually try to learn how to do it, and the person has to have the right attitude, like if theyre one of those "oh im just gunna kill myself and become a giant snowball rolling down the hill then hit a fence and slice my body into 50 pieces" kind of people theyre never going to progress until they have a different attitude about it.

mine is that the only way to know how far you can go is to get out there and try new things, and knowing what youre capable of is worth a few bruises or broken bones.

i probably just rambled on there but i have alot to say
 
everything can be learnt, it's just a matter of time for (motoric) knowledge to pass from conscious action to instinctive / unconscious actions.

good freeskiers are so good because they don't have to think about what they are doing, it seems natural, but it came through practice and became part of their instinct. There are several studies on this (not for skiing, but in general).

human reactions are 10x faster when they are unconscious vs. conscious actions. Usually it takes up to 10 years of experience for something to pass from conscious to unconscious.

Fear is not limiting people most of the time. Fear is a natural way to protect yourself because you don't have the experience necessary. As soon as your subconsciousness is ready, the fear passes away. At least I lost my fear for spin ons, flips, etc.. along the way.

Just let things come naturally and keep having fun (the mind learns faster when you are happy), otherwise you'll just be breaking yourself.
 
Anything can be learned, but its more up to the indivual then coaching. If the person truely wants to improve their skiing ability and is willing to do commit 100% people can become better even if their not the most physically fit person. Its more mental then physical i think, coaching is great but only if the skiier is willing to commit 100% everytime. A coach can only teach you techniques and tricks but you have to have the balls to try things that you havent done before. Obviously you wont become a pro unless you have alot of natural talent to begin with, but you can become good.
 
I think if they really wanted to get good they could just suck it up and do it and build their confidence
 
I remembered when I tried my first 270 onto a box which was in my backyard. I spun and tilted backwards and ate shit. My arm started to bleed and now I have a nasty scar all the way down my arm. A couple months later I balls up and laced it and now I can do 270s on. So my opinion is yes you have to not be fearless but sometimes after something bad happens from doing the trick you won't try it again for a while.
 
75% of skiing ability comes from how you look at skiing. You need the right attitude. The rest is talent and practice, and the practice part could be included with the attitude I suppose
 
you could force someone to try something if they didnt have the balls. so i guess it could be learnt but some people are just naturally not good.
 
youre right, but if someone wants to start learning corks for the first time or wants to do their first rodeo or something like that, they can ask someone whos good at them to try to explain how to throw it and stuff. other than that, everything else is pretty much mental id say
 
That's totally true. To be really good at freeskiing you do have to have natural skills, but to unlock your own skills you have to devote yourself, your body, and your life to skiing, If you don't ski everyday and think about skiing a lot, you just won't be at the very top of your game.
 
Freeskiing can't be learnet, I heard all top pros did corked rotations when they came out of their mums
 
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