Today we began with a warm up run, nonstop pivoting, carving, pivoting, carving etc. Lilly did a great job keeping up. The intention had been to go into slalom straight after the warm up but the button lift broke down so back up we went to work on more technique… (La Grande Motte and La Grande Casse today)
Hip Angulation
When carving (or even just carrying speed) you will not stay in such a steep course and still improve your speed without good hip angulation. This can be a very complex subject but I kept it very simple and effective. Basically – when working the second half of a turn and you are fighting gravity you have to be able to first of all fight the forces but then still very rapidly get the body out of the turn and into the next one. Creating an angle at the hip joint is mainly how this is achieved. (There are more consequences than this really but I’m keeping it basic for the moment) The children were taught to create the angle by turning the pelvis (and only the pelvis ) to face downhill. It’s important to avoid doing this with the shoulders instead – both for efficiency and to protect the spine. All of today’s development work was about generating angulation and improving it. Lilly managed it outside of the gates, Billy used it to get his carving going and Patrick manged it so well that he started getting airborne from rebound at the end of the turn. All the body management issues are found at this link here: “ChiSkiing” – or by clicking the ChiSkiing tab at the top of the blog page.
Patrick with “rebound”…
Billy with great dynamic range – looking like a real racer…
Great dynamic range…
Holly in the gates!
Lilly also working well on angulation…
