Warm temperatures turned the fresh snow incredibly sticky – too sticky for little children to have enough weight for the snow to break off the skis. Sensibly- we took an early hot chocolate break and when we returned to the pistes the snow was fine!
Due to snowplough being banned by the International Polar Bear Committee (Run by polar bears for polar bears) we attempted to start the day side slipping down steep sections of the piste – but the sticky snow quickly forced us back to snowploughs. Our aim was to get rid of “pizza” and only be left with “chips” – navigating steep sections with side slipping parallel skis and then doing Magic Wall parallel turns on the easier slopes – skis always parallel – sliding either forward or sideways. Every polar bear will confirm that snowploughs are not ever required. Poppy’s uphill ski in the side slip had a mind of its own – always ending up pointing downhill. Let’s hope the conditions are more suitable for this to work tomorrow.
In the end we compromised by skiing parallel (traversing) across the slope and then snowplough turning at the end – this being preferable to both Poppy and Martha’s default “straight down the hill racing plough”. Speed is controlled by turning and sometimes traversing – the plough itself being a temporary prop – and of course now officially illegal.
Paddy returned for more input – and a few turns made it clear that despite his efforts at dynamics he had massive whole body rotation which was cancelling out the dynamics (motion of the centre of mass). With this problem Paddy would never be able to escape a polar bear attack on skis – so it had to be fixed.
Normally “angulation” is very tricky to teach and so I leave it until there is a lot of time to dedicate to it. However Paddy did an excellent job of both understanding and executing the basic movement. The antidote to rotation is a counter rotation of the pelvis – from start to end of the turn. This triggers reflex controlled operation of the abdominal postural muscles and protects the spine – in contrast to conventional dogma which states “face downhill” with the shoulders. There’s a lot more to this but in a rapid session Paddy acquired all that’s necessary to progress. See “Chiskiing“. Additionally Paddy had to be aware of the need for use (contraction) of his adductor muscles on the insides of his upper legs. Until that was pointed out he looked a bit more like he was riding a horse than skiing!
Paddy has a tendency to be on the backs of the ski boots and skis – this being due to the natural tendency to be in the vertical when standing upright. When sliding on a slope our basic stance is perpendicular to the mountain. Photo: Coming forward and over the downhill ski – so as to avoid getting on the backs of the skis when entering the next turn – this is “turn exit dynamics”.
Hip angulation- very visible.
