Working in Movement

Promoting body awareness and balance skills in a safe environment encourages learning. We do that all the time in movement education, but it's usually for pretty generalized movement patterns.

Bumps for Boomers, a new program at Aspen, offers similar learning methodology to snow skiing difficult terrain. Difficult, that is, for skiers who have passed their 50th birthday. The program uses specially designed short skis to help 50+ skiers learn to feel balance and control speed--crucial factors for skiing any sort of challenging runs.

What's interesting about this is its use of awareness as a training method in an accelerated way helped by props that promote awareness in a safer, more comfortable environment. "You will understand the difference between being upright on your skis and being balanced on your skis ... a critical distinction." according to some promotional materials. And that it's counter to conventional skiing instruction, so most skiing boomers wouldn't think of it themselves. "... the secret to speed control, and your comfort level, is to do the unconventional ... that is to learn to do the opposite of what the whole ski industry is emphasizing."

Another interesting thing is how this program segments the market pretty precisely and seems to fill a demand that is only vaguely recognized by those in the marketing segment.