Going back to my analysis of a GS turn, I left out some of the finer or more advanced points of ski technique and just focused on what I consider to be the basics. Mastering these finer elements of technique makes the difference between the best and the rest.
Giant Slalom turns are great for practicing technique, as it draws out the turn, giving one more time to focus on the proper movements, while this great photo montage from Mr Ron Le Master of Lindsey Vonn at an Aspen GS race, 2011, gives us a great view of most of the technical points of a GS turn:
Back to skis flat, in frame 4, you can see her maintaining the hips countered. Also, she is not overly hunched forward at the hip, although there is a good amount of forward bend at the hips!
This keeps the hips "open" and allows her to move forward and down the slope, among other things. If she rotated to be square in transition, the hips would be closed (i.e. pointed where the skis are pointed) and not allow the body to move easily toward the next apex.
Many instead, tend to rotate with the skis at this point and "square up" and the first effect is shooting up straight and long instead of down the slope. Also, movement down the hill becomes limited, leading to building angles via inclination into the turn instead of rolling the ankles - it just gets worse and worse, the more square, the worse it gets.
If the turns you make allow for more time between apexes and you're on good snow or hero snow, then you could get away with less counter.
As the turn ends, the best racers are coiling: as the skis turn across the scope, the hips and upper body are turning the other way (resulting in a relatively stable position to the snow - what some would call "square to the fall line"). First of all, this enhances the finish of the previous turn and "builds up" energy in the body, much like a spring or rubber band that you twist.
Again, the hips are well countered in frames 4-5, she does not rotate with the skis. Another advantage is that it keeps the hips "open", allowing movement down the slope - see discussion above on that subject.
As the next turn begins, the "stored" energy is used to "uncoil" and it helps dig the skis into the snow sooner, helps establish a new platform early, and even starts the new turn sooner.
Since we're talking about the counter, a weaker skier or an out-of-balance skier or one that was late at the gate may have been countering more even at the fall line, turning the hips to the outside, to get more grip and aligning the weaker body better on the outside ski, when max pressure built up. However, there is such a thing as "excessive counter", so be mindful of how much you use and where in the turn.
Many skiers prefer to incline more or less into turns, but not the best. You can see the play between separation (coiling or counteracting) and counterbalancing (angulation) throughout the turn, above. This is how she balances on the outside ski when it matters, i.e. at maximum pressure and in-between.
The timing of angulation is important as well - you can see that she uses it to end the turn as well, this is another important element - sending the upper body early towards the next apex.
The hips are the last to move into the new turn. After the skis are flat in frame 4, the ankles tip the knees into the turn and the hips are effectively held back through 5-6-7-8 while the large angles develop.
Only around frame 8 does she let the hips move down and more into the turn, to get even more mass inside and bigger angles. Until that point, the lack of snow spray denotes a lack of weight/pressure on the skis, so it was all done with edging the skis and a clean extension of the new outside leg.
Speaking of the timing and magnitude of pressure throughout the turn, Floating is a term describing how the skis/skier "floats" unweighted through the transition to the next turn, if you manage to get enough energy from the previous turn (here she is floating from frame 3 all the way to frame 8, when the pressure appears again) - you can see that her skis are mostly unweighted through transition - any pressure when the ski is on edge is visible as a snow spray.
In an effective transition, the floating is limited to the skis - the body is decoupled from this and not disturbed, via flexing, which absorbs the energy from the snow. If you're not effectively separating the upper body, it will get pushed up and out of balance... do not confuse "floating" for getting shot up and out of the turn!
The skis don't have to be in the air to be a good "float", like in frame 4. Just skimming the surface is good too and in fact preferable. The point is that there is no weight on them and this makes them very easy to adjust, tip on edge or whatever.
It is not the case here, but stepping is an old technique where, in frame 4, you would be standing on the old outside ski and actually make a step with the uphill ski (old inside ski) up the hill, to get a higher line at the gate. Nowadays this stepping is generally considered a "recovery move" when one is late in the line (i.e. your line is too low for the next gate).
There is more to discuss here, there are other more interesting technique elements, which I left for the final post of this series, on the finest points of ski technique. Until next time, read these related posts:
The series on GS ski technique: