2 November , 2006
PMTS for Seniors: Theo at 84

Many times I am asked by seniors, "What should I work on? I'm not as flexible as you are!"

If you don't have the strength or stamina that you used to, it's even more important to use efficient technique, and to get the most performance out of your skis that you can.

Last season, my father visited us in Colorado for several weeks. Normally, he spends winters in Austria, so I hadn't skied much with him in several years. The spectacular season that we had in Colorado was a treat for him, and he skied with us at Loveland, Vail, and Arapahoe Basin. (Actually, his best adventures at A-Basin didn't involve me, but that's a different story.)

He has two artificial knees. Do they slow him down? Not at all - he's simply happy to have less pain and better range of motion than before they were replaced.

My father has been skiing his whole life, and has lived through many changes in technique. One could certainly imagine that after all those years of skiing, he would be too set in his ways, or too jaded, to pay attention to his technique. But that's not the case. Not only did he have his own thoughts on what he should practice, he was open to my input, and was enthusiastic about watching video of his skiing for the sake of learning!

Here is a segment of video in which Theo was working on improving his counterbalancing (QuickTime movie, 2.95 Mb)...

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