In this instructional YouTube video, ski coach Tom Gellie explains how filming oneself while attempting a slightly faster short‑turn rhythm (about 10‑15% quicker than a skier’s comfort zone) can boost motivation and accelerate improvement. He recounts a session with Cardrona ski instructor trainers in New Zealand, where participants first skied at their normal tempo (e.g., 60 bpm) and then at a faster tempo (66‑70 bpm). By immediately reviewing the video, skiers discovered that some of the faster turns were actually better or more dynamic than they felt, counteracting the natural embarrassment of trying something new. Gellie argues that the visual proof helps overcome ego‑driven self‑sabotage, encourages continued practice, and makes the difficult feel achievable. He outlines a simple coaching routine: partner‑filmed short turns, immediate playback, and spotting at least one successful turn in the faster set. The video concludes with a plug for his extensive online ski tutorial library, bigpictureskiing.com.
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If you want to improve your skiing, you have to be ready to push yourself out of your comfort zone. Now it doesn't have to be much, only 10-15%, but you have to do that. But the problem is most people, myself included, when you do something new and challenging, you feel awkward, and so you feel out of place, especially if you're practicing in front of people, and so you don't keep doing it. You feel demotivated because you look, look or feel like an idiot. It doesn't feel right, so you stop practicing. However, I've got a really important tip that I shared with the Cardrona ski instructors that helps change this. It's about videoing yourself at the right time to help change that motivation. I'm currently in New Zealand, and yesterday morning I spent with the Cardrona ski instructor trainers because I wanted to share things I've learned about selfishly wanting to become the best skier I can be. The best coach I can be. So I wanted to share what I've found really helpful. One of the main things is, is getting video of you practicing something new and challenging. Okay, so the setup was, hey everyone, go make some short turns. Do it in your comfort zone rhythm, so whatever you like to make a short turn to. So, so maybe it's like 1, 2, 1, 2, like 60 beats per minute, for example. I want you to video it with a partner, swap around, and then second go, I want you to video your short turn rhythm that's 15 to 20% faster. So if it was 60 beats per minute, try like 66, 70 beats per minute, somewhere that's challenging your timing and your usual habits and default movements. So they went and did that, but I said, make sure you video it, you have to get video of it. Then we got to the bottom and I said, so which one, uh, which one felt better? Most of them said, uh, the, like, the comfort zone rhythm, okay, because nothing's different, it's not new. Whereas the one that they were like 20% faster, they said, ah, like, it felt like I was out of control, more mistakes, I felt like I was not getting the timing right, all that sort of stuff. I then said, now look at your videos and tell me what do you see? So look at their videos, they go, it's weird, it, uh, it doesn't look as bad as we thought. And so this is the whole point, uh, often, uh, even that they thought there were some turns in there that looked even better, okay, there's more dynamic, they're more reactive, they couldn't just kind of sit on their you know, comfort zone level. And so that was super important because then they were motivated to keep trying the challenges I was setting them. Now if we kind of rewind us and we didn't video, and there's all these people that, you know, we all have a, like, our own ego, we don't want to look silly and stupid. So if something feels not right, the safest thing to do is to not do that out of comfort zone thing again. It's to, it's to stay you know, protected and not look silly. So if they'd not done that, they might not have been motivated and go, oh, actually, you know what, there was actually some, some turns in there that were better than my normal rhythm, and it looks cooler, more exciting. I'm going to keep trying this. So that's the really important point. It's, it's not worth just practicing something, uh, because often if we do something that's difficult we feel silly, we don't keep doing it. And you have to keep doing something in order to get better. It's like so obvious, right? But we self-sabotage ourselves if it doesn't feel right, it's no good. However, if you video, you might even see 1 out of like the 10 turns that's actually kind of good. So you're more likely to keep going. So there's my tip. When you go out, getting better involves challenging yourself. You have to be out of your comfort zone. It only has to be like 10-15%, okay, to get better. But the important key part here is get some video of yourself doing it. Have a look straight away, not later that day, straight away, and try and look for at least a couple of turns, one even, that's successful, like different, of you you know, doing better. If you're doing the task of like faster short turns, 70 beats per minute instead of 66, don't worry about the mistakes. You can fix them with time. The fact that you did the change is, is awesome. So anyway, was so cool. Everyone started to get on board and push their skiing more, make improvements, learn new things. But if we hadn't had the video in that step there, I think I would have lost some of them and They might have gone into their shell because it's like, we don't want to look silly. We'll listen to this information, Tom, but maybe not, you know, try the different things. And yeah, so anyway, that's my advice. It really helps my own skiing. I try and do it. You're always— humans get better at everything, but only with practice. Part of the missing key is self-motivation to keep doing the more difficult thing. If you get video of it, you can see some little progress, little hints in there, you're more likely to keep doing it. Hope you enjoyed that video. I coach people how to ski online. I've got the, the biggest video library on the internet of ski tutorials and improvement, bigpictureskiing.com. Check it out, it's got a lot of great reviews. I love helping people get better. Hope this helped you. See you next time.
