We started off with a warm up run as usual, taking advantage of a well groomed and empty piste. The only chair in the sun was the Borsat so I headed straight for it. Luke had a clear idea of what he needed to focus on in his skiing and Leonie needed to work on her dynamics to improve her flow. The Borsat brought us back down to the Bonnevie Stade so I decided to make use of it for working on steeps in security. It’s one thing developing technique but at some point it has to be applied in appropriate circumstances. Most “fall line” skiing is on steep terrain – with braking, pivoted turns in a narrow passage. Luke found himself automatically glued to the back of his ski boots again and with a rigid outside leg – despite all of his efforts. I pointed out the need to get across the downhill ski and how this merged with “perpendicular” as the skis turned to point downhill. Getting perpendicular is important for avoiding being superglued to the back of your ski boots – but this didn’t shift things. Softening the legs with selective muscle relaxation however follows a pattern and that most closely resembled “sitting down”. Standing facing across the hill if you “sit down” you fall backwards – exactly what we are trying to avoid. Facing downhill however the body goes into a very secure resting position with pressure against the shins! With skis off you can really feel this as gravity pulls you into the boots. During a turn there is a component of gravity and also the centripetal force from the skis. Once you turn into all of this you can relax and using the front of the boots is not an artificial or forced issue and neither is bending the knee. The hip angulation (with counter rotated base of the spine) then serves to maintain pressure on the front of the ski as the turn progresses and ends up across the hill – because the bottom is still facing uphill on that invisible chair. 
