Harald Harb's Essentials of Skiing (Includes Free DVD) (Paperback)

by Harald Harb (Author)

Editorial Reviews

Review
“[Harald]’s unique perspective on technique and equipment is based in science, and he has used it to develop the most logical complete system for training all levels of skiers and racers.” – Crawford Pierce, former US Ski Team Men’s Technical Coach and US Regional Racer Development Director, Program Director, Crested Butte Race Academy

“Harald’s extensive background in coaching and racing makes him a perfect candidate for developing great teaching and training methods…. In this new book, Harald demonstrates his strong understanding of skiing by the breakout of fundamentals and foundations for skier development.” – Thor Kallerud, former US Ski Team Head Men’s Coach, Partner, Thomas Weisel Partners

“There is no substitute for learning the true fundamentals of skiing which Harald details in his work. There is no faster way to expert skiing.” – John Botti, aspiring expert skier, President, Botti Brown Asset, Management

“The ultimate operator's manual for expert skiing. Best twenty dollars on ski instruction you'll ever spend.” – Peter Keelty, Web Master, RealSkiers.com
“I thought I had heard it all before…. But this book presents a new way to look at PMTS…. A surprisingly refreshing look at what I thought was a familiar concept. This is the most complete, useful, and easily understood guide to making clean turns yet.” – Rick Kahl, Managing Editor, Ski Area Management Magazine

Product Description
The world's greatest ski instructor shows you the eight key steps to skiing perfection.

Twenty years ago, Harald Harb revolutionized learning to ski with his Primary Movement Teaching System. Harald has personally trained thousands of recreational skiers and many thousands more have mastered skiing through his books and videos. Now Harald reveals to readers everywhere the eight basic lessons that grant immediate improvement to any skier at any level.

Essentials of Skiing is an easy-to-use yet powerful eight-step program proven to create success on the slopes. With in-depth descriptions and clear, detailed photos, the techniques and exercises will benefit skiers at every level from the novice to the most advanced.

Essentials of Skiing will show you how to:
• Perfectly coordinate your upper and lower body movements
• Increase your pure balancing ability
• Improve your range of motion without muscle strain
• Expertly handle bumps, carving, turns, poles and much, much more

Whatever your level, Essentials of Skiing is your guarantee of skiing success. 200 photos.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 104 pages
• Publisher: Hatherleigh; Pap/DVD edition (December 12, 2006)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1578262178
• ISBN-13: 978-1578262175
• Product Dimensions: 9.9 x 8 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.6 out of 5 stars See all reviews (25 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #137,996 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

32 of 34 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Essential reading for ski improvement!, January 1, 2007

By	Richard Kremsdorf (San Diego CA USA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

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.

21 of 23 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The Best Skiing Instruction Book, Bar None!!!, January 3, 2007

By	John D. Botti (SF Bay Area) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

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!!!

15 of 17 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Great book that focuses on key skills, December 31, 2006

By	S. Schow (Seattle, WA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

This is now one of the best books in my ski library, and I have nearly everything that is currently in print as well as a few things that are no longer in print.

Harald Harb's "Essentials of Skiing" approaches 6 fundamental skill areas which are applicable to all types of skiing: Tipping, Flexing/Extending, Counterbalancing(ie, angulation), counteracting, fore/aft balance and thoughts about the upper body.

A skier at any level can benefit from the insights, mental imagary and drills contained in this book for each of these skill areas. Additionally, there are dryland exercises and other conceptual exercises to help understand and feel what the body is supposed to be doing while skiing.

The pictures and diagrams are all first rate.

One thing I really like about this book is that unlike his previous two books which provided learning progressions towards expert skiing, this book instead provides a toolbox of information and drills to fine tune the skiing of any skier at any level. It focuses individually on the fundamental skills which all skiers use and will help them discover which skills they are deficient in and how to change that fact. The book not only covers what these skills are, but helps you understand the nuances to continually improve your execution of each skill.

Additionally, this book is not biased towards any particular ski method, including Harald Harb's own PMTS system presented in his earlier books(which I also reccomend heartily). Any skier, using any system, can benefit from every word in this book.

But what I really like about this book are all of the many insights and nuances presented about each of these fundamental skills. After you read the chapter on tipping, for example, you will blow the minds of your friends, fellow skiers or ski students with all of your knowledge and insight on how and why we tip our skis to turn. Reading the book I felt like Harald was giving away many of his secret coaching tricks for the price of a book.

The provided DVD is quite a bit shorter than the previous ones, but its also included for free with the book, so who is complaining? More online video content is promised. The video content is primarily a series of demonstrations showing some of the drills which are presented in the book, executed by Harald Harb himself.

In short, this is a great book on how to ski better. All teachers and coaches should own this book. I don't care who you are, if you read this book and practice the drills, your skiing will improve.