Today Derin skied her first black run – an icy Face de Bellevarde. She managed without any difficulty. I’d been concerned that on the ice her tendency to rotate the body might cause problems – but either she adapted to the challenge or the work on angulation with the pelvis that we did yesterday helped.
We managed to use the “up and over” chair to Le Fornet and then came back over to Solaise on it – skiing non stop down the “L” and taking the bus back to the centre to ascend the Face on the return journey. Derin did start the session today with her usual request to ski on the Bollin – but I successfully deflected that!The video is of Derin’s first linked carved turns with no skidding in the turn transitions or initiations. Now that she has a proper feel for this she will be able to develop it much further. Getting to this point is the hardest part for most people. Carving is the basis for racing. Speed is no longer controlled by skidding to any degree – the skis are completely locked on edge and it’s the line and trajectory taken that control speed.
We worked on arm carriage (Elbows out and thumbs turned in) and used skating on the flats. Pivoting from the uphill ski was practised and the link between this and short turns explained in more detail. Derin needs to pull her skis closer together – bringing the uphill ski down to meet the lower ski before initiating a turn – and getting on the uphill edge (of the uphill ski) to pressure it before moving the body downhill. The effectiveness of this development in technique also depends on how well the skier can angulate. There’s a lot of work to be done… Derin doesn’t like working on technique and says “Can we just ski normally!”. Well “normal” right now might be appealing but I think we have to change that idea of “normal” slightly…
