Moving on from yesterday it was clear that Summer and Karly (and also Harry) had to work to eliminate upper body rotation. Skating, while giving the idea posture, tends to get overwhelmed when turning and dealing with a steep slope so we needed to begin to explore the subject of “hip angulation”.
Standing across the hill one at a time each did an exercise where I went below and pulled a ski pole that was being held in both hands across the front of the body. One pull with the downhill hip pulled backward and into the hill – (solid support) – and another pull with the hip rotated to be side on to me down the hill – (no support or resistance). This allows the skier to feel the huge difference with respect to the hips being in a strong “skating stance” and “rotated stance”.
After covering some mileage working with this on gentle pistes Summer really started to look like a skier…
Karly was also rotating excessively and on the back of her ski boots – but a big part of that was linked to trying to “face downhill” – something she remembered from her only experience of skiing decades ago. Like many half truths this creates even bigger problems than ever. The “facing downhill” error is also a part of the complex of “hip angulation”. Karly consequently does a good job of eliminating rotation and is better centered over her skis…
Harry simply stopped rotating and allowed himself to ride the ski through the start of his turns – feeling the support of the ski all the way through the turn from start to finish…
(Hip Angulation)
While trying to keep things simple it’s important to realise that when skiing the body is supported on a single hip joint at any moment – just like an ice skater. When the outside (in the turn) ski turns you it has a tendency to pull that hip forward (rotation) and crush it against your front lower ribs – destroying your postural reflexes in the process. This is why it’s of critical importance to pull that hip back and inward beneath your core from the start to the end of the turn. Effectively, the shoulders/chest should face forward and only the pelvis should partially “face downhill” if at all.
Take a look at the two Olympic champion skiers in the photograph below.
Killy’s image from the 1960s has his chest facing downhill whereas Noel’s image from 2022 has his chest facing forward. What Killy is doing destroys your lower back and is probably why he never went on skis again after he stopped racing.
