Today was about patiently attending to the real underlying basic skills necessary for developing good, competent and safe skiing. Put it this way – no one knew what a “binding” was or a “brake” so despite everyone having some previous experience of skiing we were starting over from the beginning.
Skating (on flat terrain)
- Feet on inside edges – using pronation of the subtalar joints (beneath the ankle)
- Skis diverging – wide apart
- Tension in the adductor muscles (inside of the upper legs)
- Falling forward to slide
- Moving the centre of mass ( not pushing the skis to the side)
- Herringbone step (climbing uphill)
Snowplough
- Skis converging
- Feet rolled onto outside edges – using supination of the subtalar joints
- Let the skis flatten and knees come out so that the hip joints can open up – no use of adductors.
- Straight running with just the width of the plough controlling speed
- Turning – pronate the right foot, tense right leg adductor muscles to engage the right ski and be deflected to the left
- Control of speed by turning
Dynamics
Dynamics is about pushing the centre of mass into the centre of the turn – it is explained in detail at this link : Dynamics
Dynamics was added to the plough but starting with the right foot pronating and the right ski deflecting us to the left – then adding a push of the centre of mass with the right foot toward the turn centre. I.E. you push the body left to go left – using the right leg/foot/ski.
Essentially the “deflection” is no longer just from the ski held on edge but also includes a push of the centre of mass.
Everyone showed (on video) that they could carry this out accurately and correctly.
Here’s an image of where dynamics can take us…
Feedback
There wasn’t much time for individual feedback – I think everyone in the group will now appreciate why I encourage minimum 4 hr sessions – there is just a whole lot to be learned if it’s to be done properly. Chloe turned out to have misaligned boots – making skating (or dynamics) difficult – so I hope they have been successfully replaced. Sometimes just a boot with adjustable cuffs is required but no beginner’s boots have those adjustments.