M., Emir, Rani 2

M wobbled around for a while this morning then discreetly retired. He was frightened to slide on his own and this probably encouraged him to stop. Some children are exactly the opposite – they delight in sliding with absolutely no regard for the consequences (until they crash!).

Emir started to make progress – showing the first signs of identifying the edges of his feet and skis and being able to ride the button lift mainly on his own. Sliding downhill he is now managing to avoid leaning backwards and he even puts in his snowplough only to stop at the end.

Rani had an off piste experience in light powder snow – mainly involving complete somersaults and losing his skis and poles – but always with a huge smile! The problem is he hadn’t integrated dynamics enough and was skiing two dimensionally (as seen in the “Rani Before” video – repeated below) which guarantees a fall straight away in deep snow. The dynamics corresponds to creating a 3D banked track with the ski and with the centre of mass inside the turn.

Rani’s wide stance is mainly due to trying to get on the inside edge of the outside ski for grip – so he was shown that the push into the turn happens much earlier when the ski is even on its uphill (outside) edge – there is no need to find the inside edge of the ski to turn – it’s all about the ski following the centre of mass. Rani managed some descent dynamics for the “Rani After” video below – with early pressure on the turning ski and far smoother turns.

Mont Blanc in the clouds

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