If you really want to get good at something you love, you often have to go through a little pain. That has certainly been Ira Riklis’ experience in his quest to become an expert skier. To become an exert skier, you need to be able to make expert turns. And as he notes: “There is no easy way to learn to make an expert turn.” Non-experts are scared of falling, so they tend to lean into the slope so that, if they fall, they fall on their soft, padded rear ends.
But to make an expert turn you have to lean away from the slope. That means that any mistake will basically launch you down the mountain face first—a move that Ira Riklis has dubbed a “face plant.” He’s performed many face plants as he was learning and can assure you that each one feels like getting a hard punch in the face. But that’s what it takes to master the turns. And if it’s any consolation, he likens it to what’s said about the childbirth—after a while you forget the pain you’ve endured and simply enjoy the results.