Today we went straight over to the slalom where Derin would meet her sisters later on. Prior to the slalom we worked on angulation again and it looked like a little more progress was made – perhaps having her dad there to translate helped a bit. The “Chi Skiing” posture is difficult to develop but it is made harder by having the skis quite far apart – which is often the case with Derin. We have been working separately on pivoting to help to bring the legs closer together. Also, being on the backs of the boots makes it difficult to have the right posture and to stand properly on one ski – another aspect we are working on separately through both skating and pivoting.
Pivoting
After slalom both Derin and Berin worked together on pivoting. They first of all tried skiing on just one ski but both struggled – so we did some basic pivoting exercises which were all new for Berin. The fixed page on “pivot” is quite complete with those exercises and several more… http://skiinstruction.blogspot.co.uk/p/pivot.html. Berin managed very well for a first attempt. The key aspects are as follows
-
Understand that a turn can be executed from the outside edge of a ski
-
Separate the edge of the foot from the edge of the ski
-
Use pole support for constrained dynamics – using it to move the centre of mass
-
Eliminate forward momentum
-
Use the fronts of the skis
-
Pulling the ski inwards (instead of twisting the foot outwards) with the motion of the body and tensed adductor muscles
-
Standing properly on one leg
-
Keeping the feet close together
-
Skiing on one ski
-
Controlling body rotation (necessary for linking pivots)
The pivot is a braking action and is used in bumps, steep fall line skiing and narrow pasageways. The pole is used for support to replace the dynamics that are generated from forward travelling skis and associated movements of the centre of mass (see fixed page on dynamics also if necessary). During our final run I had to explain to Berin that there was another way to think about skiing from the one she is used to. Berin was then introduced to dynamics – “The magic Wall” – and it was explained to her that timing was “down/up” – like a motorbike in a turn – instead of “up/down” as taught by ski school. This might allow Berin to understand some of what was being discussed about using the pole in pivoting when there is no Magic Wall being used. Berin liked the feeling and ease of the Magic Wall. I had wanted it to be a session on skating timing, mainly for Derin – but then realised that Berin would not follow any of it without this basic background and this was also good revision for Derin. 
