Today’s main objective was to sort out Brian’s intractable posture/stance issue – the source of which still wasn’t clear.
Windscreen Wiper Pivots
Fortunately I remembered about pivoting on two skis with a wide stance and independent leg action.
Here there is no “inside/outside” ski with one ski coming below the other. Both feet remain at the same height on the mountain and the body literally faces downhill. There is no pulling around of the hips due to one ski coming below the other on the mountain – so there is no need to protect the lower back by pulling the outside hip backward. In a way this simplifies the pivot while automatically eliminating hip rotation. Each leg is rotated independently by the ski – first the femur in the hip socket and then the tibia if the leg is flexed – even more if the foot is everted onto its outside edge inside the ski boot. This new feeling allowed Brian to understand the hip rotation issue and eliminate it even when one ski was passing below the other on the mountain with the skis close together.
Bumps
We skied bumps with pivot and sideslip – well angulated. One or two compression turns were attempted but not in the actual bumps – so this only simulates compression without feeling it. The main objective for the time being was the controlled sideslip without either hip or body rotation.
Carving
Carving was worked on to fill in a gap in Alex’s tool kit. When slow angulation was used to edge the skis – then when fast this gave way to inclination. There was clear progress at holding the skis on edge over just a few hours. Remember – we are all on off piste skis – not carving skis!
Brian worked on extending his outside leg from the turn initiation and forward pressure – despite the big off piste skis we can see in the two photos below the converging of Brian’s angulation with that of the “other” Alex in race course with slalom skis. (Not quite the same angle of view)
Off Piste
We gradually ventured into deeper cruddy snow and with everyone remaining faithful to their training – using forward pressure – the skis continued to turn.
