Off Piste Introduction – on the Face de Bellevarde
Derin’s introduction to Off Piste here – first time ever – we on the Face de Bellevarde with 30 to 40 cm of fresh snow on the surface. I had no doubt at all that she would manage to ski this because that’s all enabled automatically by the competent basic use of dynamics. You need to be aware that only the emotions change and to make the moves you need to believe that they are going to work – or you will hold back. Derin never needed to be corrected – she did what was necessary from the start.
Derin’s agility is – as expected at this stage – limited by a certain amount of body rotation and the need to be taught how to produce hip angulation – so we worked on this during the afternoon. The third video clip is Derin starting to improve her posture and hence managing a much closer stance than previously. Her previous wide stance was partly due to lack of hip angulation.
Angulation
There’s a compilation of notes on the subject here: http://madeinmountains.com/chiskiing/
For today all I’m going to say is to look at the two Olympic champion skiers in the photograph below.
Killy’s image from the 1960s has his chest facing downhill whereas Noel’s image from 2022 has his chest facing forward. What Killy is doing destroys your lower back and is probably why he never went on skis again after he stopped racing.
Notes from today…
- Hold the front of the pelvis up – aiming for “neutral pelvis”
- During the turn pull the outer hip backwards so that the ski doesn’t pull it in front of your ribs
- Look for a stretch between the ribs and hip joint
- Look for a reflex contraction of the lower abdominals – the postural reflex
- Keep the shoulders/chest following the skis
- Assist the hips to relax by pulling the inside knee and foot toward the outside leg
- Meanwhile move both arms laterally into the new turn to help direct the centre of mass
Today’s views…
