Angulation Day
We struggled to find the best open slopes for safe carving – some had been stripped down to ice by the high winds and others closed, too busy or not the right gradient. The Val d’Isère glacier came to the rescue even though we arrived there only in time for doing two complete runs. Derin is starting to look like a real racer.
Hip Angulation is the key for “low carving”. Outside leg straight to bear the load and bending – at the hip joint – dropping down (like taking a seat) – into the turn – gives increased edging along with dynamics and a very powerful, solid carve. The inside leg is pulled toward the outside leg with the adductor muscles. I’ve never said what to do with the arms and so they are finding their own place naturally.
Angulation when upright and pivoting has another function – when ANTICIPATING the next turn it is used to get the Centre of Mass out of the existing turn (by tilting the torso forward at the hip ) and letting the Centre of Mass move over the skis to plant the ski pole downhill for a strong, clear and definite support. This still needs a bit of work but good progress made here already.