espite being T 3 ’s Outdoors
editor,my skiskills leave
something to be desired. I never
did it as a child, and I tried itfor
the first time in myearly twenties,when
both physicaldistancefrom the ground and
awareness of potential for harm were
significantly higher. I was keen to plugthis
gap inmy outdoorsperson CV though, so
when I wasoffered the opportunity to test
out the latest versionof Carv, I was all over
it. Could this digital coach help me find my
ski legs at last?
Fast forward to November and I found
myselfin an Austrian ski hire shop having
Carv fitted into my boots. e system uses a
sensor-packed insole in each boot, alongside
a matchbox-sized batterypack that clips
onto the topstrap.ese pair with a
companion app on yourphone, which
delivers guidance through your headphones
as you ski.
e coaching isshaped around four key
areas– balance,edging, pressureand
rotation – and all of yourefforts add up toa
top-line ‘Ski:IQ’.Master all four, and you
will havetransformed into the ski legend
you were bornto be. Except you won’t
master allfour, because this coach is
designed to keep offering new ways to
Dprogress, even if you’vebeen familiar with
the slopes for decades. One recentupgradeis
aimed at recommending areas ofprogression
for skilledskiers who have hit a
(metaphorical) plateau.
Not a problem for me though, because I
had plentyof room to improve. Wekicked
off the day with Free Skimode, in which the
app quietly captures data inthe background,to feed that all-important Ski:IQ. If youpop
yourheadphonesin, Carv willrecognise
when you’re on a skilift and offer you a tip to
level-up yournext run, but that’s the extent
of the chat.
My journey to ski supremo really began
when we switched to Monitor mode, which
is all about teaching you the correct
techniques. You’regiven a numerical target
rangeto aim for,and Carv announces your
score for each turn via your headphones. It’s
an extremely efficient wayto learn what a
‘good’or ‘bad’ move feels like, so you can
start developing your muscle memory for
the correctsensations.
e benchmarksare based ondata
captured by world-class ski instructors, soif
you were one of those ski-savvy tots who
was tearing up the slopes when you could
barelywalk, the baris sufficiently lofty. But
the Carv team haverealised that measuring
wobbly beginners against eliteathletes isn’t
necessarily conducive to staying motivated,
so yourtarget zonesare nowadjusted based
on current ability. A realisticbar equals more
encouraging feedback equals lesschance
you’ll end up chucking your ski poles away
and crying intoyouraprès-ski fondue.
e first drill we tried focused on Fore:Aft
foot pressure– essentially howforwardor62 T 3 JANUARY 2022
A smarter skicoach