Pivot
Today we had an introduction to “Pivot” – full explanations and demos are found here:
http://madeinmountains.com/pivo/
The goal was just to get across the idea that the turning ski does not need to be on its inside edge to start a turn – it does a better job in most instances if it is on its outside edge. This is particularly useful on steep slopes for starting a turn without picking up too much speed.
Prior to looking at the pivot we did some side slipping to get everyone used to travelling sideways on the skis – using “joystick” control with the centre of mass.
When I assisted everyone – one by one – through a pivoted turn by physically guiding their centre of mass – everyone had immense tension that made it even hard for me to guide them through the turn. This is a form of resistance – where all the muscles are clenched instead of just selecting the necessary ones. The first step in changing this is right here – being aware of the issue in the first place. Selective muscle use improves and becomes finer and more detailed with practice and experience – so persistence and patience are required!
Dynamics
Although elements of the pivot brought some immediate benefit to parallel turns it was only Sally who appeared to benefit so we had to revert back to skating to see if that could get things moving. Here I suggested just starting the turn with one skating step downhill – so instead of getting stuck in a plough the skis would actually be diverging at the turn initiation.
There’s two main choices really – either stem/plough where most of the weight goes on the downhill/inside ski which then acts as a brake – or remove that downhill/inside ski and fully commit to the turning action of the uphill/outside ski. Both work – because both move the centre of mass in the right direction – but it was obvious that the latter was exactly what Steve needed to free things up.