Teddy and Belle (French version) are great little characters – bubbling with enthusiasm, humour and joy despite snow (ice) and weather conditions that would discourage the large majority of skiers.
Despite a frightful degree of wind chill hammering over the border from Italy (The Lombard) both Teddy and Belle were able to focus and listen to instruction – which I appropriately tried to condense but still keep effective.
Straight away we worked on the Magic Wall helped by the magic poles (ski poles) and eventually by the magic belly button.
There’s an explanation of the Magic Wall here: Dynamics
For this particular report let’s keep it simple! When you want to turn right you must actively and consciously push your belly button to the right. In reality nothing else matters – the skis follow the magic belly button. It’s not even a question of which ski has pressure on it etc. (One caveat – the belly button motion must be lateral relative to the skis – can’t be a rotation! )
This particular racer is one of the best in the world at using the magic belly button. Ideally the magic belly button should be approximately in line with the inside ski during a turn – and it has to be driven to the inside of the turn from start to finish – the second part of the turn being the hardest and taking the most work because you are working against gravity. (The reason why Teddy flies off straight down the hill sometimes when it gets steeper!)
Feet
Both feet need to be actively rolled onto their inside edges – as in the foot on the right in the picture…
There’s more detail about differentiating the edges of the feet and edges of the skis in the Pivot page linked below.
Skating
Skiing is skating! We worked on skating turns – because they move the magic belly button directly …
Pivot
Trying to get Teddy to reduce his stemming I decided to rapidly introduce pivoting. Here’s a detailed set of demos for pivot: PIVOT
Belle was the one who really caught on to the principle – understanding that it’s easier to start a turn from the uphill edge of the uphill ski than from the stemmed inside edge of the uphill ski. She found this working immediately. Teddy didn’t quite have enough time get it due to his tendency to stem defensively on steeper ground. He needed more time and support to grow accustomed to the new sensation – despite being physically assisted through several pivots with me supporting him. To his credit however he never became frustrated – he just reverted to throwing snowballs instead.
