Video clips:
- Sideslipping – (controlling with motion of the centre of mass)
- Turning then traversing on uphill edges
- Skiing parallel led by Erin
Today started with some “one on one” coaching for Peter to try to sort him out. Being focused on one person always produces very different results from being focused on a group. After using “Padding the inside ski up and down during the turn to encourage independent leg action and “falling” to the inside of the turn.” It became apparent that this had to be incorporated slightly differently by just keeping the outside leg fully extended and the inside leg unweighted by retracting it – not actually lifting it off the snow. It worked!
The twins were encouraged to just go faster and get used to the clearer feedback from the skis at speed.
Natalie was doing well until we later went to the Village chair/slope at 1800m altitude and despite taking an early drinks break to allow the ice to melt it was still a bit icy for her – leading to a sequence of minor collisions and plummeting self confidence. Hopefully she returned to higher altitude for the afternoon and reset her confidence.
Sideslipping was introduced to everyone but specifically controlling the direction of the sideslip by using the centre of mass.
Traversing on the uphill edges was also introduced as an essential basic skill for many purposes.
Dynamics 3 (Basic – Using Gravity)
Padding the inside ski up and down during the turn to encourage independent leg action and “falling” to the inside of the turn. The skier during the use of dynamics (with clear forward travel across the slope) generally has to be perpendicular to the slope (including momentarily when travelling across the piste and preparing to transition from one turn to the next). Standing on one leg helps to get naturally into this relationship and avoid being vertical and in the back of the ski boots. Lifting the inside leg also prevents it from blocking motion of the centre of mass into the turn.
Refining removing weight from the inside ski you simply actively bend that knee and hip joint to make the leg very light on the snow.
Sideslipping (Joystick control)
The main practical purpose of sideslipping is to get down the mountain without picking up speed. Many learners are deprived of this skill because it is generally undervalued and has become even more neglected due to the complete domination of carving skis. Wider skis are easier for sideslipping in a greater range of conditions. Parabolic skis have some trouble gripping on ice during a sideslip, but modern “double rocker” off-piste skis give a smooth and grippy sideslip in just about every condition, including ice.
The skis are kept on edge by the lateral stiffness of the ski boot shafts. Skis over 100mm wide underfoot begin to create problems on hard snow due to the extra leverage from the edge through the shaft of the boot. Those skis can be very unpleasant on-piste and it’s one limit of how an “all round” ski can be defined. Anything wider than 100mm is not “all round”.
In ski teaching the sideslip serves specifically for developing fall-line skiing. Fall-line skiing is where the skier’s body travels directly downhill and not so much across the hill. This would apply to bumps, steep off-piste such as couloirs and deep powder snow. Slalom is not “fall-line” skiing. (The mechanism of initiating the turn with a sideslip is called “pivoting”.) The skier should be able to sideslip on either ski or both at the same time. It’s normal to start off with both skis on the snow, skis parallel and with the majority of weight on the lower ski just to get a feel for it. The stance is normally quite narrow to prevent the uphill ski from catching the lower edge. Most beginners have trouble keeping the skis close together if they have previously learned to snowplough.
It should be noticed that only the uphill edges of the skis are in contact with the snow so the downhill edges are in the air.
Pulling the legs together with the adductor muscles on both legs ensures the best options for control. Pulling both legs inwards keeps a narrow stance and when the skier practices sideslipping on one leg it ensures the that centre of mass can easily be placed above the appropriate hip joint. Sideslipping is facilitated by subtle movements of the centre of mass – moving it downhill to slide and slightly back uphill to stop. There’s no need to use the feet or knees to try to sideslip – just moving the centre of mass in a manner resembling a joystick rapidly leads to developing awareness of how subtle movement of the centre of mass has pronounced effects.
Sideslipping can be practiced on the uphill ski only, with the adductor muscle pulling in the downhill direction and the pressure still kept on the uphill edge of the ski and hence on the outside edge of the foot. You don’t try to stand on the outside edge of the foot the pressure there is an effect of the ski boot construction / lateral stiffness of the boot cuff running up the lower leg.
If the fronts of the skis are pushed downhill (Joystick Control – by moving the Centre of Mass forward slightly) then with there being no contact of the downhill edges the skier goes into a controlled forward diagonal sideslip on the uphill (braking) edges only. Likewise if the tails are pushed downwards during the sideslip then it turns into a backwards diagonal sideslip. Being able to alternate between straight down the fall-line and the two diagonals is a precursor to the skill necessary for pivoting in the fall-line.