37 of 39 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Essential reading for ski improvement!, January 1, 2007
This review is from: Harald Harb's Essentials of Skiing (Includes Free DVD) (Paperback)
This book is a masterpiece of ski instruction and deserves to be appreciated on many levels.
At the simplest level, the book has drills, which, when practiced, will bring effective movements into your skiing. These movements give much greater control, with less effort.
For a more focused skier, cues are provided for self-coaching, to be sure you are performing the drills accurately. Review of video of your skiing, in slow motion, will disclose any movements, like stemming, steering, and skidding, that are clues that execution of the movements could be improved.
If you already ski well, but want to bump your performance up a few notches, then Harb's conceptual and technical explanations and diagrams can trigger an understanding of how even subtle movements can have a big impact. Each of the essentials has a significant interaction with the other essentials. Greater finesse in performing one essential will enhance the effectiveness of other movements. In its explanations of these reinforcing actions, the book demonstrates its greatest level of insight.
All of the above observations are based on serial readings of the book, dryland and on-snow practice of the drills, video analysis, and PMTS coaching. When the movements are done correctly, the skis just behave better!
Throughout the book, the writing is clear and the pictures and diagrams clarify the text. The included DVD complements the stop-action photos. The book is 202 pages long, not 104 as noted in the listing.
If you are serious about improving your skiing, look no further for a book to aid your development. Some suggestions about how to get the most benefit:
1. read it through cover to cover to get a good understanding of the concepts
2. practice the drills and pay careful attention to the cues that indicate whether you are performing the tasks correctly
3. spend time repeating the drills until you can easily do them accurately
4. verify your performance by analysis of your tracks, video, or a knowledgeable observer or coach, preferably Harb trained
5. alternate between drills and free skiing, but pay attention while free skiing to be sure you incorporate the movement patterns from the drills
6. The PMTS forum is a great place to get answers to both simple and complex questions and to post video for critiquing. Harb himself, as well as PMTS savvy folks, post responses. To find it, use the search terms: pmtsforum
While still technically consistent with the Anyone Can be An Expert Skier volumes I and II, the style of presentation is very different and the explanations and diagrams approach the concepts from a different angle than the earlier books.. Those who have studied volumes I and II in detail will still find new material, like dryland and on-the-snow drills. In short, Essentials is completely complementary to Harb's earlier works.
Updated review 2/12/2009:
Subsequent to the publication of the book/DVD combo, Harb published a 3 DVD set with 2 hours of additional instruction. These DVDs are available only from the harbskisystems web-site at a price of $75 for the set.
The book's DVD serves to make the many stop-action photos in the book dynamic. It provides a flavor for what the movements look like when executed in real life, effectively complementing the written descriptions in the book.
By comparison, the Essentials DVD set is more like taking a private lesson from Harb. Not only are the book's exercises more extensively demonstrated, there are a number of new drills that have been added. Plus, his demonstrations show the progression from stationary practice to incorporation into skiing in different types of terrain. He demonstrates not only the correct movements, but also shows errors that are commonly made--as though you are right there getting feedback from your last run.
The videography is superb, with close-ups showing key details and lots of stop-action shots and overlaying diagrams to highlight the specific movement pattern. Watching the DVD in slow-motion highlights the specific actions and is even better than watching him ski in person, kind of like watching a football game on TV instead of at the stadium. The chapters and exercises are also directly accessible from a menu.
The instructional content of the DVDs, like that of the book, is astoundingly good. Most in-person ski lessons seem to operate on the assumption that just a few selected tips from the instructor's bag of tricks will make all the difference. Harb offers no such illusions. On the other hand, he has laid out a detailed curriculum that in fact can completely change how one skis. With the complementing upper body movements his explication is particularly profound. The paradox is that the upper body appears "quiet," that is nearly motionless, but in reality is vigorously active, supporting the movements of the feet and legs. His explanations and demonstrations make these hidden actions completely evident and learnable. Once they are incorporated into skiing, the skis behave remarkably differently.
In short, the Essentials DVD series greatly amplifies the book/DVD content and makes it even more accessible.
December 4, 2009 Update:
At the moment, copies are in short supply on Amazon. The HarbSkiSystems web store still has them available.
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22 of 24 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
The Best Skiing Instruction Book, Bar None!!!, January 3, 2007
This review is from: Harald Harb's Essentials of Skiing (Includes Free DVD) (Paperback)
I have all of Harald Harb's books on skiing. I discovered them 5 years ago. I immeditely knew that he was teaching something different. I bought his first two books (anyone can be an expert 1 and 2) and now I have this book. In my opinion, this is the best manual on how to ski ever written. It is a treatise on how to carve and on how to ski effectively and effortlessly in all conditions. The book focuses on 5 fundamental movements in skiing which Harald calls the essentals. Each one is discussed in detail and each chapter contains specific drills that will enable the reader to perform each essential correctly. Because of this, the book is of equal value to both beginners and advanced skiers.
In my opinion, these are the tools that every skier needs and without them improvement in skiing can be hard fought. This is not traditional ski instruction!!
As with any sport or disciplne, practice makes permanent!! This book give you the the movements to practice that all great skiers use. If you have skied for years yet still have a stem in steeper or more difficult terrain, this book will rid you of it forever. If you want to ski like the best skiers and racers, parallel in all terrain, in all snow conditions, buy this book. It will give you the fundamentals to make you as good a skier as you want to be.
I highly reccommend this book!!!
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15 of 16 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Essentials is ESSENTIAL for expert skiing, December 12, 2006
This review is from: Harald Harb's Essentials of Skiing (Includes Free DVD) (Paperback)
Harald Harb is one of the true innovators in ski instruction worldwide. His first two books "Anyone can be an Expert Skier" 1 and 2 took the ski instruction establishment and droped it on it's head. Essentials is a refinement of the concepts introduced in those books.
Harb breaks the essentials down into the following chapters by skills:
1. Tipping
2. Flexing and Extending
3. Counterbalancing
4. Counteracting
5. Complete uper body
6. Fore/aft balance
The introduction takes you through an overview of his philosophy for how you get to expert skiing and why you need this approach with the new shaped skis. Each chapter on the skills is clear and takes you through an explanation of the goals and a series of drills to get you there. This is a very concise program. The photographs and demos are excellent and give you a clear visual image. Some of the dry land training exercises are extremely helpful. With no snow here in the east, I have been doing the drills in my boots and they immediately triggered connections for me in how and why I should be making those movements.
One thing many skiers do not understand is that when skiing in all conditions and terrain there really is not a technique change. The key is to be able to execute a bomb proof short radius turn. This book is the key to that turn and with it you will unlock the whole mountain and all conditions.
There is an included DVD that is not as in depth as in his previous books but still very helpful and it says that there is more to come on the Harb website.
My background in skiing is long and I do consider myself an expert skier and this book in essence is a manual for me for my own skiing and for my working with my kids and wife. There is nothing else out there that even comes close and the only thing that I can imagine would be better would be atending a Harb ski camp. If you want to improve your skiing no matter what your level then buy this book
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