Last Wednesday I delivered my final lesson of the season. Many months ago a friend contacted me and booked a lesson during the final week that the lifts were open. I was flattered to receive this booking because Cat is a Fitness Professional.
So what does a Fitness Professional do? In Cat’s instance she is a Pilates Instructor, a Personal Trainer, a motivator and an inspirational Spinning Coach. In other words Cat is a talented Instructor who knows how to teach, and she chose me to help improve her skiing performance. No pressure then?
Always up for a challenge, I thought we could both benefit using her teaching skills and background, and link them in with mine. Cat’s method of teaching uses the ‘What, Why and How’ sequence. So let’s look at how we could use this method with skiing. ‘What’ we were looking at was balancing on skis and using the sweet spot of the ski. ‘Why’ do we want to do this? A balanced skier can be more energy efficient; they can use the full length of the skis metal edge for grip; and they can steer (turn) the skis more easily. ‘How’ we were going to achieve this was by checking our position standing over the skis and ensuring we were flexing our ankles correctly. Did this teaching method work for me? I was happily surprised that it did, maybe I can try this in a few weeks time with my learner drivers back in Leamington Spa. Mind you, getting two Instructors talking to each other about technique almost led to overload and then meltdown.
Fortunately my wife Harriet came along to help keep it real. We had a great time over in Val Thorens, and celebrated our last day on skis for the winter of 2011. Good luck Cat with your new goals that you’ve set yourself in the Fitness Industry.
For over a week now I’ve been under the weather with Laryngitis (or was it maybe even the dreaded Man Flu?). So no sport or walks for me for ages. However as promised in my previous post, I can let you now know how Canon and I got on with the ever-elusive mountain deer, Chevreuil, here in France. They are impossible to get close to, but during my first attempt I was chuffed to achieve even these photos from this bumbling wildlife photographer.
Ok, so maybe I won’t be invited to enter the next Wildlife Photographer of the Year competition, but I had fun anyway.
I searched out some Marmots as well, up around Lac de Tueda above Mottaret.
I’m hoping to head out again with my walking boots very soon, especially heading further into the impressive Vanoise National Park before heading back to the UK at the end of next week.
Enjoy all of the Bank Holidays everyone, especially the Royal Wedding.
Martin
Plus it's been great being able to get fitter, what with more and more footpaths being exposed earlier than normal. On Thursday afternoon I decided to try to drop a little further down the valley to start my annual Widlife Photography challenge, which normally ends in failure, deer stalking. How did it go? They are still beating me hands down, and spotting me well before I see them.
I'll report more about that walk on my next post. Harriet has flown out from the UK to be with me during my time off work. Yesterday we went for our first walk together, in the sun again of course, up into the Vanoise Parc National. We saw our first few marmots of the Spring, from a distance. They are as gorgeous as ever, and so playful with each other.
I've my final lesson of this winter on Wednesday, and then it will be holiday time, yippee. Have a great week everybody.
Even though it was hot and sunny in Méribel, because Val Thorens is so high, you can still come across challenging weather, especially wind. That wasn't going to stop everyone from having fun though. 
One of the Tilsons, Gilly, is a keen photographer, so we were all happy to pose, practise and experiment with each others cameras. This next shot was fun, taken by my very own Canon, of Gilly wearing her goggles with a reflection of La Folie Douce mountain restaurant. 
Another fun shot was when I took Gilly's camera and squeezed her friends and family together in a tight semicircle in front of her goggles again. So instead of a mountain restaurant reflection, you could see everyone hugging each other. 
I've heard a rumour that the Folie Douce franchise may well spread into the Méribel valley soon, located at the Choucas restaurant close to the mid-station of the Burgin Saulire bubble. One of the many things I love about my job is being with people on their precious holiday. The relaxed, playful, happy and many other emotions are all very infectious. However, I also occasionally come across another mental state, competitiveness. This appeared on our final ski back down to Méribel, when the two Nicks wanted to go into the 'Fun Park' to do some jumps. There were two jumps close to each other, which were later discussed and judged down in Méribel during apres ski over a beer. So here goes with Nick T's first jump. 
At the end of my last day with Rohiyah my feelings swung from one extreme to the other, ie having loads of fun with her one minute to hard reality the next. After I left Rohiyah at her hotel, I skied down to the school to drop off my ski kit. However just before I reached the school I noticed a couple of my colleagues racing towards the Tougnete bubble. Immediately I thought that was a little odd, but as soon as I reached the school I was hastily told about an avalanche on the Combe Tougnete piste and rescuers were urgently needed. I took a huge gulp and rushed across to the bubble at the same time as Alain, the Big Cheese of the school. His phone was ringing like mad, as were different channels on his walky talky. 
