Everything we covered today can be found at this link: http://madeinmountains.com/beginners/
There’s not too much for me to write today because everything that happened was within the normal range of beginner issues. More on Dynamics can be found here: http://madeinmountains.com/dynamics/
Alex had a jump start over the others as he has skied once before even if it was a long time ago – but this time he was learning from scratch using “dynamics”. The turn to the left when skiing is employing a slight twist to the left when on the right leg – that’s why that side feels unstable.
Will found his accelerations leaving him behind all the time but we were on top of this issue from the start. Later when we introduced the “modified snowplough” I could see Will allowing the centre of mass to move outward slightly during the turn. I suggested a remedy for this by asking everyone using a plough to bring the supporting foot (outside foot of the turn) back onto its inside edge even though there was still some degree of plough. This would help to drive the centre of mass inward during the entire turn.
Holly Likes to look at her ski tips and the ground and to twist the upper body into the turn. Other than that there was a good degree of feeling so just train hard to eliminate those initial quirks.
The goal is to focus on dynamics as much as possible and to completely lose the plough in just a day or two at max.
Remember – both feet rolled onto inside edges for dynamics (subtaler joints) – and both feet rolled onto outside edges for a wide plough. The narrow plough has the feet half way – effectively just neutral inside the ski boots. Personally I prefer when in a wide plough to roll my outside foot onto it’s inside edge and my inside foot onto its outside edge.
Remember, activating the turn with dynamics even in a plough is like skating from that outside leg pushing an “accelerator pedal” – moving the centre of mass inward during the entire turn start to end. Do not allow the upper body to move toward the outside of a turn during its development.
Everyone did fine for a first morning – no wipe-outs getting off the chairlifts.
