Marty Heckelman responds to recent comments, questions and suggestions by users if the Apps and comments on related news items.

How to use the Apps with a Buddy/Partner
These Apps have been designed in short Chapters so that you concentrate on one exercise at a time. When training with a partner, watch the App to see how the ski maneuver should be done and then place the iPhone in your pocket, press the ‘audio loop’ button so that you can listen to the instruction that explains how to perform the maneuver & follow your partner down the ski run & see if he or she is doing it correctly. Refer back to the video images on the App to see the differences. It’s very useful to film your partner & compare how your they are skiing with the demonstration in the App.

How long to spend on each Chapter or Lesson
Skiing is a fun sport & one should endeavour to learn to ski well enough to be able to enjoy it.
Everyone’s level & type of enjoyment is different – some like speed, some like control and some (probably most) like a combination of the two. Learning to ski better should enable you to ski faster in more control. I would recommend putting aside a brief period of each day to practice one or two exercises. If you are a beginner or low intermediate you should practice as many of the fundamentals in the first two Chapters of SkiTips 1 as you can. If you are a more advanced skier, the various Chapters in the different Apps are each focussed on specific skill areas, so simply dip in and select the Chapter of exercises which best matches your chosen improvement area.

Best time for individual training?
If you are beyond total beginner, I think it is always best to loosen up by starting the day skiing a few warm up runs on easy pistes. Since its always best to learn new skills when your body is fresh and not tired I would recommend that you then choose an appropriate ski run and work on your selected Chapters or exercises. Immediately after your lunch break is also a good time as your body will have had a chance to rest up. A great time to practice the exercises is when the weather is foul – whiteout, snowy or very windy and you don’t want to venture across the mountain. By doing this you can profit from the day instead of wasting it.

Integrating it with my regular ski-school lessons
Over many,many years I have discovered that people who had watched the Ski Tips Videos/DVDs or read my book before they took lessons made very much faster progress during their lessons as they already had an understanding of what the lesson was about and were able to form mental images of the skiing maneuvers prior to the lessons. With the Apps this effect seems to be even more pronounced, probably because the App can be brought onto the snow and watched immediately before the lesson. I thus highly recommend watching the App before taking a lesson and then watching the App after your lesson and practicing what you were taught.

Gloves & Freezing Hands
The iPhone/iPod have been designed to be used by skin contact. Out on the slopes it can be cold holding the iPhone & navigating the App without gloves. Fortunately some glove manufacturers are developing gloves that can be used with electronic devices. (Northface currently has the Etip glove that has silicone gripper palms that enables you to use laptops and MP3 players with the gloves on. Can they be used with the iPhone or iPod? Perhaps – it needs to be tested. If not, I suspect that they soon should have one that will work). One of major design criteria for the Apps has been outdoor use in the mountains, which should minimise the amount of time you need to have your gloves off. We also, by the way, tested the Apps using our noses to select the buttons – and it works! – but watch out if you have lots of sun cream on…

Visibility (of the screen)
Visibility & ease of use have been at the heart of the design: large buttons and large text together with simple non-scrolling navigation mean that you should always be able to navigate the App quickly and easily and we selected and edited the video content so as to maximise contrast in bright light. In very bright sunshine, we recommend shading the device with your free hand or holding the iPhone so that your body blocks the direct sunlight.