Harry
Improvement with arms, less rotation and good attempt at using dynamics – needs to close off the turns more to control line and speed before using the dynamics to exit the turn.
Tom
Nice feel for the turns and natural timing (CoM going down/up). With practice and confidence this will only get stronger – practice side slipping/pivot to feel more at ease with this motion. Let the arms relax a bit.
Laura
Using dynamics to exit the turns seems to eliminate the stemming and make the skiing much more fluid.
Ben
Ben is developing a really good feel for the skis and the full dynamics of the turns. You can probably afford to stand up a bit more to relax. The skating skills are starting to show their advantage!
Daniel
Apart from skiing on an invisible horse it’s all heading in the right direction and looking strong! Practice the pivot and holding the inside knee close to the outside one – pronation of both subtalar joints!
Dynamics Part 2
Great progress had already been made in the group with using dynamics to start and then develop turns by driving the centre of mass inward.
Let’s clarify once again – “inward” is not “into the mountain” although historically this is a location where mining was a leading industry prior to the rise of the ski industry. “Inward” means in toward the new turn centre – which can be in any arbitrary direction.
Completing a turn downhill by driving the CoM inward generates a lot of pressure as the outside ski comes back around across the fall-line – this being due to combining resistance against gravity and centripetal force as the ski cuts under your trajectory. When you decide the turn is over and allow the ski to lift you up and hence out of the turn then all this energy can be used to link with the next turn. Exiting a turn like this requires confidence and experience as you have to aim to use the “downhill” ski to keep standing on it as your body travels over the top of it out of one turn and starting to enter the next. Then – hopefully – you get onto the new outside ski to continue the new turn.
This part of dynamics is the fun part – because it works and even if your brain is screaming “Nooooooooooo!” just ignore it.
When skiing in difficult – snow off piste it’s more important to use the forces this way than to rely on generating an impulse by pushing the CoM over with the uphill leg. On solid ground – as in racing – both ways of approaching a turn transition work well.
“Carving Hell” – according to Tom
Tom survived Carving Hell with a relatively positive outcome. The idea of this introduction to Hell was to feel the absolute solidity of a “carve” grip on the ground and sense its potential for generating very powerful dynamics.
Tomorrow go and get some short turn skis – you will probably want to stay on them for the rest of the week. Your current skis are “all mountain” skis – but you are only using the pistes.
This is the ski boot I recommend – probably to be found even cheaper out of season. Don’t worry about width etc because it’s normal to adapt boot shells by deforming the plastics – so don’t go buying too big! (take out the insole and see if it’s the same size as your foot. ) The woman’s version has the same name – all white in colour and no doubt anatomically corrected.