(A) Ski

BEFORE THE ACTVITY:

PROJECT/ACTIVITY SHORT DESCRIPTION:

I have never been skiing but two of my classmates worked with Peio, the PE teacher, to organize a ski trip to Astun, which is a ski slope in Huesca, Spain, for the 19^th, 20^th and 21^st of February. Leaving on Friday afternoon, we will arrive Friday night and ski on Saturday and Sunday. In the mornings, we will be divided up into groups according to our levels (I will go into the beginner level) and have a monitor teach us the basic skills of skiing. Then, each afternoon, we will be given free time to ski on our own. The total skiing time per day is planned to be about three hours in the morning with the monitor and then about two hours in the afternoon.

My personal goal for this activity is quite a basic one and that is to learn as much as I can about skiing. I am going to Astun almost as if I were a blank canvas; I don’t even know how to out a pair of skis on. What I hope to accomplish is to at least be able to descend a slope without falling too much or without an excess of help from others. I think I that I will know that I have accomplished this not only if I am able to go down a slope, but because I will feel or not feel that I have gained some confidence in this sport which I have been scared of (because I have heard a lot about the injuries that can happen). I also want to do some physical activity and I will put a lot of effort and take on challenges in order to reach these two personal goals.

1. Increased their awareness of their own strengths and areas for growth I have never been skiing and hardly ever had the opportunity to do so so this activity will allow me to see how I can grow in my Action activities by considering another sport. I will also become aware of what aspects in ski I am good at and others which I have to work on if I am to continue.

2. Undertaken new challenges This activity is a huge challenge not only because I will have to learn to ski from nothing but also because most of my friends already know how to very well and if I want to keep up with them when we have the free time to ski, I will have to go the extra mile in my effort.

8. Developed new skills I will learn how to balance myself, turn, and brake and speed up on skis.

DURING THE ACTIVITY:

Saturday, February 20th, 2016

Today was my first day ever skiing and I would describe it as very interesting. I had no idea what to do and I was completely unfamiliar with the environment. When we got there, we were divided in groups according to our level and I went to the beginner group. Just putting on the skiis was intimidating for me because I was scared and did not know how to control my movements once I was doing that. However, I was excited to get started. We were first taught to skii without the sticks because our teacher said that it woul be more effective to do so, so that we would only concentrate on developping the basic skills of skiing, which entail the legs and knees. I started to decend a very small slope and fell several times, However, as I kept practicing, I found that I fell less frequently and that I started to feel more confident with this sport. After lunch, we had free time and because I had done relatively well that morning, I decided to take on the challenge of descending a "blue" slope with my friends. The experience was not the best, because I found it extremely steep. I kept falling and by the end, I was so frustrated with myself that I just wanted to finish. I got lot of help from one of my friends, Sarah, and thanks to her I was able to go all the way down. It was nice see that others were willing to help me. However, I thought that this was no way to end the day and in order to finish up in a better spirit. I decided to decend the slope I had done that morning to motivate me again for the next day.

This is a video of me decending the "easy" slope by the end of this day:

Sunday, February 21st, 2016

Today, my monitor decided that the group was going to decend the blue slope I had done the day before with my friends. i was nervous because of the bad experience I had had the day before but at the same time I was looking forward to overcoming this and facing my fears again. The pace we decended it at was extremely slow. We would do each diagonal one by one, and stop at each turn to make sure everyone was on track. Although slow, this was extremely helpfull because our monitor was able to concentrate on us iduvidually, giving us very relevant feedback on how to improve. I realised that a mistake I was making had to do with not putting my weight enough in front and found that this was a struggle I had had in surf as well. Relating skiing to another sport I am more familiar with really helped me put things in a nother perpective and be analytical about myself, allowing me to improve. After lunch this time, I was determined to go down this slope one more time, this time not stopping as often. I went just with Ian, other of my classmates in the beginner level who wanted to do the same thing and I decended the slope falling only three times (I counted) which was an incredible improvement from the 50 times I fell the day before (no, this time I didn't count...). We got to the end and realized we had done it fast enough to have time to decend it again. Since we were on a time limit we decided to do the same one one more time because we were familiar with it and I was just as successful!

I think that this was an extremely rewarding experience in which I was able to realize that I am capable of doing this I wouldn't have imagined if I set my mind to it.

AFTER THE ACTIVITY: