Toppling Pub   Share

Toppling is one way to describe the way we create a turn, popularized by Tom Gellie⁺⁺. The idea is based on using gravity and inertia to help move you efficiently inside and out of a turn as opposed to forcing the movements.

Topple: to (cause to) lose balance and fall down

However, in some ways toppling is misunderstood as requiring banking of the shoulders into the turn, resulting in more inclination than otherwise. Instead, the biggest value of the concept is to focus the skier on not blocking the upper body's natural movement into the new turn rather than forcing an upper body movement or blocking a movement.

Disturbing the balance

Towards the end of the turn, we are balanced on the outside ski, in equilibrium in relation to the forces acting on us (gravity, centripetal etc). Something needs to be done to disturb this balance and allow us to end the turn, setting things in motion for the next turn.

Effective ways to disturb the balance include late angulation (allow the upper body to move towards the new turn), flexing the outside leg (remove the support that keeps us balanced against the forces) which allows the body to move towards the downhill etc.

Edge angles

To support any turning, the skis must be on edge and the COM, the Center Of Mass, must be inside the arc of the skis, a concept is called Inclination of COM (which is not a term we're fond of due to the implication of inclination versus the relative position of the center of mass to the snow). "Toppling" is an efficient way to get there, as the mass of the body must move lower and inside into the turn, to create the angles required to balance against the eventual forces of the turn.

Other elements that are important in the High-C, as we create the inclination at the top of the new turn, are Extending to maintain contact with the snow, Tipping the feet and ankles into the new turn and relaxation - a tense body does not allow an effective toppling.

Pull the inside boot up is how we allow the body to topple and create more angles in the later parts of the turn.

Toppling and inclination

Many skiers seem to equate toppling with upper body inclination or banking, resulting in them trying to bank the shoulders into the turn etc. This may have to do more with communicating the concept in conjunction with specific feedback to this or that skier.

There are many valid tactical or movement reasons why some great skiers appear more banked at the top of the turn, what is important to realize is that a good turn is always created with the lower body and supported by the upper body, rather than the other way around.

Tactics of toppling

More reading

See also:

• Upside down
• Inclination
• Inclination vs angulation
• High-C

Drills:

• The power release

References:

• Big Picture Skiing

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