Ethan has only skied for the first time the day before – and had learned the “snowplough” and all that is implied in “static balance”. In the video his first run shows him in the plough and moving the centre of mass towards the outside of the turn. From then on he was doing the opposite. Refer to “Dynamics” for a detailed explanation.
Normally with a beginner we would go through skating and skating turns – but I didn’t want Ethan to end up using the inside edges of his skis too much so had other plans for him instead. To see the progression with skating however refer to the following “Beginners“.
Ethan was very capable of understanding the explanation of Dynamics so that helped a great deal and we were able to move on. Of course developing actual skill takes time and patience for anything worthwhile. We went into sideslipping to give Ethan a safe way to descend steep slopes that helps to build some fundamental skills involving edge control and dynamics. Sideslipping was used to bring us onto “pivot” skills – which involve controlling the dynamics with the use of the ski poles – and gives us “braking” turns instead of accelerating ones. Here’s a demo of linked pivoting…
Ethan was less comfortable on his left leg – try to become aware of the differences between the left and right sides of the body!
Spend time sideslipping and attempt the pivot from time to time. Otherwise always use dynamics and always be that “string” and pull inwards!