Alpine Movement Analysis
Movement Analysis
Movement Analysis is a method for analyzing skiing in which you observe skiers and collect information to help you understand the underlying cause and effect relationships of their movements. The Skills Concept describes the technical aspects of a student’s skiing you will look for when performing Movement Analysis. After looking at a specific skill and how it is executed, you can compare it to ideal movements and create a roadmap for what the skier needs to change in their movements to achieve their desired outcomes. The PSIA standard model for movement analysis involves: observation of movements, evaluation of cause and effect relationships to create a prescription for a change in movement patterns.
Observation
During this phase you will identify specific body movements to observe. When watching our students, it can be difficult to identify the underlying cause and effect relationships involved. As you observe it is important to frame your observation on one specific movement rather than many at the same time.
Evaluation
This phase helps you assess your observations and distill complex technical information into a digestible conclusion. As you evaluate you will compare the student’s current performance (real) verses the optimal performance (ideal). As you observe your students and identify an intended outcome you will start to compare your student’s performance (real) to the performance that would be optimal (ideal).
Prescription
As you observe and evaluate you will move towards prescribing information and feedback on simple changes they can make that will help them to move towards ideal skiing for the specific movement being analyzed. Throughout this phase you will provide your student with feedback using common strategies to improve their skiing performance.
Keys to Observing and Evaluating Performance
Accurately observing your student’s movement will create a foundation for making comparisons between real and ideal ski movements. Here are the four keys to observing and comparing the performance of a skier:
Observe and compare one outcome or skill at a time.
Identify the phase of the turn that an action happened (for skills analysis) and compare phases of the turn or one turn to the next if helpful.
Compare what the skier actually did (how they skied) against your interpretation of the ideal.
Create a relevant and accurate assessment of a skier’s performance.
The Skills Concept
The Skills Concept is the primary model that the Professional Ski Instructors of America (PSIA) use to discuss the technical aspects of skiing. The skills concept breaks a skier’s movements down into three basic skiing skills:
Pressure Control refers to managing forces acting on the skis, both how the snow pushes on the skis base and the skier pressuring their boot. To develop their skills, skiers must learn how to control the pressure distributed along the length of their skis, from one ski to the next, and adjust the overall magnitude of forces acting on the skis.
Rotational Control refers to how the skis turn. Skiers must learn how to rotate their skis to control where the skis are pointed.
Edge Control refers to how the skis are tipped on and off their edges. Skiers must learn how to control the edges of the skis through increasing and decreasing the angle of the ski on the snow.
Each skill translates to how skiers control their skis and are therefore fundamental to the sport of skiing.