More from the interview with Ira Riklis. We have heard about his thoughts on skiing and life, his first experiences, and the importance of being able to stop on skis. But how did he learn his technique? He told us:
“So how does a fat, New York, non-athletic Jew learn to be such a talented skier? Not unlike the old joke about how does one get to Carnegie Hall: Practice, Practice, and Practice.
“Actually, that’s not exactly true. If your teacher is not skilled, you can practice until your feet fall off and you won’t develop great technique. I had a series of lessons, both group and private, with many different teachers over a period of about 20 years and was stuck in a rut of being an advanced skier. I was never going to be an expert skier. I was able to make parallel turns under perfect conditions. I could more or less handle any slope, but not with a high degree of confidence or elegance. I wasn’t making progress. I was going to be a hack skier the rest of my life.
“I was gazing longingly at those on the slopes that could gracefully master any terrain, their movements so fluid and beautiful. How I dreamed and wished that one day I would be able to do the same. However, I had pretty well resigned myself to the fact of life that, as one of my friends once said after watching me ski, “fat, Jewish, kids from New York don’t ski like that.” Then I met Mike Bartasuis.
What happens next to Ira Riklis? See the next post for more.
[...] More about success from Ira Riklis. [...]