We started off today with a warm up run – practising dynamics in individual parallel turns on gentle terrain and making the skis parallel and close together on traverses – lower ski stem being used for plough turns. Romée managed to keep up well so this was extended into a long run down to a lower altitude with lots of opportunity for dynamics/parallel skiing practice. Romée actually follows my track accurately (most kids cut the corners) so this is useful because it helps her develop the correct feel for the turns and for linking turns.
Additionally we worked on trying to pressure the fronts of the skis through standing on the balls of the feet and leaning forward. It’s the front of the ski that does the driving – just like on a bicycle or in a car. The main objective here was to feel the front of the ski being activated.
Pivot
Pivoting was introduced and Romée was physically supported through several turns to provide her with the correct feelings. Details on pivoting are found at this link: “Pivot” Romée isn’t expected to fully master pivoting at this stage – but any degree of success and even the intent helps – it all compliments the dynamics because it’s about moving the centre of mass in a controlled manner.
Foot Forward Technique
Romée seemed ready for preparation to ski steep blues and red runs properly and this entailed learning “foot forward technique”. Romée demonstrates this well in the video clip at the top of the page with her skis off. (followed by film of her skiing down a red run) The pushing of the outside foot forward is how to tighten the turn radius when using dynamics – this is because it accelerates the ski cutting underneath the skier’s trajectory lifting the skier up (hence turning). When on steep terrain this action must be immediate and accompanies the push of the centre of mass across the skis. The next video clip is an ice hockey trainer using the same basic movement – remember skiing is really skating with gravity added.
More advanced skiing involves using the pivot for control on steep terrain but some of the pivot comes naturally on steep terrain due to starting the push from a parallel uphill ski still on its top/uphill edge.
Romée did really well!