Luke–Leonie day 1

Leonie hadn’t skied since last summer so we had a warm up period for her to find her feet. On piste the snow was excellent quality and there was a good covering of fresh snow available off piste – with good visibility.While warming up I watched Leonie for a while and decided that her dynamics were too limited – this being the key issue to improve – but fully recognising that trying to change this would certainly uncover other issues that might be the underlying cause.Luke meanwhile was using dynamics generally well – happily lobbing his body into each turn – but still not coming over his downhill skiMeanwhile the off piste was too inviting so we went into it almost immediately to take advantage of it being light and fresh. Skis can move sideways in this snow so the pivot can be exploited – though dynamics, particularly coming over the downhill ski – is the most important skill to have.It’s hard to outline the day because we king of jumped around several different issues, adapting to requirements. There were a few key issues that cropped up however…

  1. Leonie – pulling the ski front into the turn (not twisting)
  2. Luke – being able to bend the knee and angulate while holding the foot and ankle extended
  3. Both – feeling and using the fronts of the skis due to angulation
  4. Both – moving cleanly over the ski fronts to complete a turn instead of over the backs of the skis

The overall goal of the exercises we carried out was to feel the front of the ski working – to pull it inwards in front of the body and feel pressure on it. To this effect we used pivoting, skiing backwards, static exercises for hi angulation , extreme leaning forwards and finally putting it into practice on a long run down the Face in poor visibility after 5pm. Good results and some clear changes being made!


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