Free Skiing Video
While Alex ran gates on his own we tried to bring Daisy’s level of skiing up a notch. This operation initially involved “The Angulator” and pressuring the fronts of the skis and boots through standing up on the balls of the feet. Later on we added “rebound” – using the energy of the ski and leg to get airborne as the body is brought up out of a turn and finally initiating the new turn from a skating stance. There were a total of four differents things to work on today.
- The Angulator
- Balls of the Feet (Front of Ski Pressure)
- Dynamics/Rebound
- Skating Stance
In Slalom both Alex and Daisy were working hard on pressuring the fronts of the skis – and creating angulation so as to work with this pressure. Rebound and use of the energy of the ski to come out of the turn is critical. Ruts and moguls make people afraid to stay forwards. “The Angulator” gives confidence to stay forwards and link turns properly even in ruts and moguls.
Alex came out of the course on one rut for a reason… The snow was dropping away from the pole steeply with the bottom of a deep rut below. Alex took a line close to the pole and when the skis didn’t hold they slid down laterally into the hole and Alex fell into the turn with his body unsupported – just recovering without a fall. When the ruts are made by good skiers you can’t cut them – you have to ride them as berms and forget about the pole.
The Angulator (and Balls of the Feet)
Working upwards from the feet!
- Stand up on the balls of the feet – slight extension of the ankle
- Invert both feet (subtaler joints) – rolling the feet onto inside edges inside the ski boots
- Adductor muscles engaged both legs (to stop the ski from flattening and pulling the knee outwards)
- Outside hip pulled backwards to activate postural reflex (lower abdomen) (counter rotating the pelvis)
- Inside hip pushed forwards to free up overall movement at the hip joints
- Chest following skis – centered over the inside ski and knee
Dynamics and Rebound
- The ski lifts you up by undercutting your trajectory !
- Allowing yourself to come up using the ski, gravity and some downhill momentum can be channelled into a rebound and exit of the turn over the top of the downhill ski
- This is the principal way to exit a turn – there are variations including leg retraction which are faster in some situations
Skating Stance (First Level)
- Engage “The Angulator”!
- As the body moves downhill across the skis do not counter rotate the body to angulate against the uphill ski for the new turn
- Skate the centre of mass down the fall line with the uphill foot (still pointing across the hill)
OK Daisy – this is where it all goes pear shaped. Failing to use the adductors on both legs! Look how flat the outside ski is!
