Another day of heavy weather – high winds and snowing with a slow opening of the mountain.
Fortunately everyone was keen enough to work on sideslipping and pivoting skills. Normally those skills are tackled only in small doses but to be honest if someone has the drive to do it then a concentrated effort is a very constructive thing. When we went up the Olympic and had to sideslip down a steep icy pitch in a gale force blizzard to the green slope I’m sure the practice was already being well appreciated.
After the battle to get out of the wind and a hot chocolate at the Follie Douce to recover we could then get down to applying the dynamics and pivoting skills (with the underlying skating biomechanics) to practical skiing – at last!
During the battle down the Vert to the Follie Douce everyone reverted to “survival mode” with pretty much all the wrong moves being made. No surprises there!
We did a “reset” with some pivots and then focusing on only the uphill leg at the start of the turn – Foot (rolling) – Adductors – Centre of mass…
Mary H did this well, resulting in parallel (dynamic) skiing. The First image in the sequence shows the hands too low and back – corresponding to the overall weight being slightly too far back. We never had time to address this. The full rotation of the body across the hill before and after turns isn’t ideal – remember the “angulation” exercise in the sideslip!
Lorna is bracing herself against the downhill ski instead of lifting up (exercise) the downhill ski to commit to the uphill leg BEFORE starting the turn. Stand up and strongly on on that uphill leg so that your reflexes work and centre you over the ski when it accelerates downhill – tendency to end up too far back at this phase of the turn (ski tip lifting!). Good last image in the sequence!
Liam – I don’t have to say it do I? The dynamics were good though resulting in good parallel skiing when staying centred on the skis and perpendicular.
