On Line Instruction - A new way to improve any aspect of your cross country skiing

By Keith and Heather Nicol

      The best way to learn a sport is to have individual instruction by someone who has been trained to look for areas of improvement and then come up with drill or exercises to build the skills that are lacking.  I usually teach cross country skiing at a few different areas in B.C. in the winter but through my you tube channel  (https://www.youtube.com/user/k2nicol) get a number of requests for feedback on people’s skiing. These skiers live in various places in North America and beyond, often where they may not have regular access to good ski instruction. 

Want to glide longer when striding?

Improve your skating

     Often with lessons or clinics, skiers are presented with a variety of techniques that they try to learn in a short period of time. Usually change is slow and unless the skier comes back periodically for lessons through the winter they will invariably revert to their original ski errors once they leave the lesson.  Even if they practice the areas they need to improve , without guided feedback they often won’t know if they are improving or not. 

     With my new on line instructional programme the skier shoots video (using their smart phone or tablet) of the techniques that they would like to improve and then emails these to me for analysis. I review the video and provide video drills and other written feedback for how they can improve. A week or 2 later after more practice they send off some more examples of their skiing for more feedback. Then gradually over time they can begin to improve their skiing through this on line programme of feedback throughout the ski season. If you are interested in learning various aspects of cross country skiing from classic to skating to downhill technique including telemark skiing – contact Keith Nicol for information on how to sign up for this on line ski programme  and current pricing at k2nicol@gmail.com  Keith Nicol holds Canada's highest ranking in both as a cross country and telemark instructor and has taught 1000's of skiers since 1985. He has taught at Supercamp at Silver Star Ski Resort and Sovereign Lake in BC's  Interior for many years and also represented Canada at 4 Interski events.He was the CANSI Technical Board member for the Atlantic Provinces for many years.

Improve your ability on corners and hills

Another successful World Community Film Festival

By Keith and Heather Nicol

     We always like attending the World Community Film Festival and this year was no exception although we had to unfortunately miss the 2 feature films on both Friday, Feb 2 night and Saturday, Feb 3 night due to previous commitments. This year was the 27th anniversary of the event and we enjoyed most of what we saw.  On Saturday morning we headed to the Lower Native Sons Hall to see True Conviction.  It tells the story 3 previously incarcerated men from Dallas, Texas who were innocent of their crimes but had spent many years in prison before they were finally exonerated. These three  decided to help others in the same situation and this film shows their struggles with trying to get the law to reopen cases. Since 2 of the 3 men are black, race certainly played a huge role in wrongful convictions and by the stack of letters they would regularly receive many other inmates are in the same boat. One success was finally getting a man out on parole who had supposedly committed a $200 robbery. He had spent close to 35 years in prison for this offence! The next film Footprint: Population, Consumption and Sustainability was a disappointment. It blamed climate change and the world’s other environmental ills mainly on 3^rd world countries who have high rates of population growth.  The Western World’s high rates of resource utilization and energy was glossed over.

The Lower Native Sons Hall is a cozy film space

    We had lunch in the bazaar area of the Florence Filberg centre and noted that the “Stop site C Dam “booth was getting lots of attention.  Lots of people were signing petitions and donating money to this cause. After lunch we headed to the Sid Williams Theatre to see a great film called Bending the Arc. This film was amazing and if you didn’t see it , then join the World Community Society and get it from the lending library. The story of several American doctors who over many years travel to Haiti and other very poor nations to set up clinics and provide health care was truly inspiring. We finished our session by seeing a film about a local organic farm called Amara,located just outside of Comox and run by Arzeena  Hamir and her husband .This short film provides an insight into how hard small scale organic farming is but that it also provides a rural lifestyle that this family loves. This film is called The Hands that Feed Us and is worth seeing.  It goes without saying that we missed a large number of films since films were being shown simultaneously in 4 venues so we plan to hold on to our programme and check those of particular interest out of the lending library. The organizers should be pleased with the large number of people that attended this year’s event.

The bazaar offered a chance to learn about other environmental issues

       The World Community also has a travelling component so if you know people in Nanaimo, Prince George, Kelowna, Winnipeg, and Duncan be sure to let them know about it. For more info see: www.worldcommunity.ca