Today we reinforced the same subjects as yesterday – partly due to the session being shortened and also to bring Karly up to speed.
Our first exercise was simply sliding diagonally across the hill to get some speed, skis parallel and close together – then add a slight movement of the centre of mass downhill and forward to feel the the skis automatically turning downhill. Comparison was made with cycling with no hands on the handlebars – the bicycle direction is controlled by slight movements of the centre of mass. When you have space to make a longer turn that’s all it takes in skiing. The skis were close together in order to keep both skis on the uphill edges until after the turn was started – this aspect being studied more directly later in side slipping. This exercise was chosen because yesterday everyone was forcefully rushing the starts of the turns unnecessarily due to being anxious to avoid picking up too much speed.
To hold both skis together pull inwards all the time with the adductor muscles of both upper legs.
Side Slipping “joystick” control was briefly worked on – it is essential to get comfortable sliding sideways and doesn’t really take a lot of practise – but most people find it very tricky initially.
We also covered skating/pushing the centre of mass and “foot forward” technique.
Summer demonstrates keeping the feet together – but her very own “wide apart” version.
In the photo below this shows why the skis are getting stuck in a wedge when it’s steeper. The upper body is being rotated which in turn jams the uphill leg from the hip joint making it very uncomfortable. Shortly after this filming we started to address the upper body rotation (especially when turning to the right – the left ski/leg bearing the weight/pressure) and Summer was able to recover control while on an even steeper section of the slope.
Here is Karly proving that upper body rotation when on the left leg – is perhaps hereditary! Joking aside it probably is – most people function better on their right leg.
In the photo below you can see that Karly is in the back of her ski boots – probably enough to cause calf pains. This is because most of the time humans stand vertically to gravity and when they put skis on there’s a tendency to continue with that. We need to learn to have the body generally perpendicular to the slope when sliding or we end up stuck in the backs of the boots. We’ll look at this properly tomorrow.
The next photo shows how upper body rotation throws the centre of mass out of the turn (jamming that inside leg same as Summer) and how being on the backs of the boots causes the tip only of the inside ski to lift up when trying to get out of the snowplough wedge.
Lots of things to work on – but all perfectly “normal” and typical of the challenges that need to be overcome to ski well. Increased mileage gives the opportunity to improve much more rapidly.