There’s two fundamental ways to ski – either with breaking turns or accelerating turns. Our focus has been on breaking turns to build confidence on steep terrain.
Accelerating (racing) turns require early pressure on the inside edge of the uphill ski at the start of the turn.
Breaking turns require early pressure on the outside (uphill) edge of the uphill ski at the start of the turn.
Today we worked on this early pressure in breaking turns. With the new turning ski being on its uphill edge – pressure on the outside edge of the foot – Derin has to extend the leg pushing herself (joy stick Centre of Mass) into the new turn. This causes the ski to pivot into the turn braking the speed. It needs the feet to be close together or the uphill ski switches to its inside edge too quickly. This also completely prevents “stemming” the ski tails apart and keeps them properly parallel.
Derin does a good job – as with everything else we have focused on.
