Alex -2- Slalom Development

Skating Transition

The headcam video is with Alex practising the Skating Double Push. This is done well – better than my filming!

The hips are moving laterally into each turn – still causing difficulty staying forward over the ski and using the fronts of the skis. The following two video clips show this being corrected by working on the “Skating Transition” between turns.

Those names – like “skating transition” are just invented because there are no existing technical terms for those movements so I’m forced to invent them.

The “skating transition” is where the entire upper body including the pelvis remain facing downhill as the uphill ski takes over in turn transition. The body and/or pelvis don’t counter rotate towards the outside of the turn and the hips don’t move laterally across into the new turn. What happens instead resembles a speed skater action – when the body faces downhill and the ski skates forwards – turing the leg in the hip socket as the entire body moves into the new turn – then angulation is constructed automatically – as happens with a skater when striding. This literally keeps the skier forwards or centred over the skis. The action of moving laterally instead makes it slow to initiate turns and to develop power independently with the legs – plus it creates a tendency to be blocked in the backseat or to have to artificially tilt the upper body forwards to compensate.

Alex did a great job of integrating both the Skating Double Push and the Skating Transition.

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