Effective
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Skiing
Technique
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Establishing a dynamic stance and balancing on the outside ski are fundamental skills for skiing anything anywhere. Here is a coaching plan for that.
Tech talk
The stance on skis should be athletic - in the sense that you should be flexed and have some tension in your body and be prepared to react. The stance is not a static notion, but a dynamic notion and we talk about stability with mobility.
A stance that is too wide will feel stable while standing still but will not help much while skiing on the outside ski. Likewise, too narrow - with the feet glued together.
Elements of a good, balanced stance:
- feet under hips, neutral... note that this is not hip width, but just naturally letting the feet drop down strait from the hips, see Skiing - the wide stance debugged
- boots even (top of the turn) or with tip lead (end of the turn)
- dynamic throughout the turn (narrow-wide-narrow)
- upper body used for balance: angulated joints, separated lower/upper body
- fore/aft balance allows tipping and untipping the skis
- an overall athletic stance (flexed/low) allows movements and balance
Stance, tipping and balance go together, see Tipping in balance.
Drills and progressions
-
braquage sliding sideways down the hill
- keep torso facing down the slope, Coiling
- notice the effect of shuffling the uphill ski forward on opening the hips and allowing the Coiling
- adjust stance while in braquage - leave a boot width between boots
-
see Welcome to braquage and Play with braquage
-
falling leaf
- from braquage progress to falling leaf
- move weight fore and aft to cause the skis to go tip down or tail down
-
see Falling leaf
-
360 clickers
- from braquage progress to 360s
- while turning, focus on keeping the boots even (not shuffled) by pulling (keeping) back the inside boot
- also, progress to lifting the inside boot and touch the heels
- the turning should be all done on the new downhill ski
- focus on the stance, vary it and feel the effects
- two/three turns on either side then switch
- don't get dizzy
- see Click your heels
-
railed turns on green and tuck turns
- squat, low position
- turn only by tipping the skis on edge from the ankles
- vary stance width - notice effect on upper body (higher) and tipping (easier)
- keep poles in the tuck position, handles forward: as the skis tip and you're turning to the right, twist the poles and entire torso the other way to exaggerate separation. Feel the effect this has onto the outside ski
-
phantom turns and Javelin turns on green
- phantom: lift the inside ski and pull it back and tip it on the inside
- javelin: lift the inside ski and overlap the tips of the skis
- balance only on the outside ski
- progress to blue
- see The Phantom and The Javelin
-
J turns on blue
- start down the hill, rail turns on the outside ski, across the hill, to finish facing up the hill
- start narrow going down the hill, open wide at apex / max pressure and close narrow again at end
- focus on feeling in balance on the outside ski
- exaggerate separation and angulation to balance over the outside ski
- vary the stance, from extremely wide to extremely narrow, fell the effects
- very effective if turned into a contest: who can stop higher up the hill...
-
stance alignment turns on blue
- start short skidded turns
- start with a very wide stance for a few turns, mid-stance then narrow stance for a few turns
- then settle on a "normal" comfortable stance
Read more
Related articles:
Lesson plans / drills:
References:
div.later
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carving-blog
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