Of course I do what most caddies do on their days off. I go and do some ski teaching and tend to my flower shop.
Now it was great to get back into the skiing after a wee spell off and I was very pleased when I saw my class list as there was only one name on it. Even better it was a beginner’s lesson, which I like the most. I don’t feel comfortable teaching more advanced skiing and like some other things I have big issues with the way it is taught.
I think this all comes through bitter experience trying to learn the dynamics of the golf swing. I mean in my long golfing journey I went through probably thousands of attempts to find the philosopher’s stone of a golf swing. I went through mental turmoil over it for decades. Worse still I got into some very bad habits trying to dissect and adjust for the dynamics of a very natural thing. I spent thousands on golf lessons and many hours reading golf instruction books. And now and again I would believe that I had got it. I had cracked it and found the way. I would be on a high for days and the future looked great. But no, it was always a false dawn.
So I can’t tell you how satisfying it was with wee Johnnie after an hour yesterday. I had him skiing down from the halfway and starting to turn. And you know, I hadn’t told him to extend his outer leg to exert pressure while rotating his heels, flex his ankles and knees, and angulate his upper body from his leading hip. I just said ‘now you follow me’. And he did.