Adductors
Adductor muscles were used to narrow the stance for more effective use of both dynamics and pivot. The first video of Charlotte skiing shows a good stance but I was concerned there was no use of the poles for a pole touch – however the skis were maintained parallel. In her second video clip when concentrating on the poles the skis were allowed to stem slightly on most turns. I’d suggest that the first clip is better. There is no genuine need for a pole touch anyway. Everyone looked more comfortable and effective with the narrower stance. Ruth’s fall was due to being a little bit too far back – putting her weight on the inside ski too far back.
Carving
Ruth demonstrated that she could carve. We covered some exercises using a wider stance to provide a platform and using hip angulation to put the skis on carving edges. Lucas was picking up on the carving effect quite strongly – those things take time to develop – and carving (or racing) skis make the effect more obvious. Traversing with angulation showed Ruth how she has a tendency to lose angulation unless she focuses hard on it at the moment.
Linked Short Turns
Using the solid pole plant to pass the body over the downhill ski front to link turns. Everyone was assisted through a pivot turn on the “wrong” ski – to show how coming over the front of that ski works to make a turn and the level of commitment required.
This is the first time I’ve seen Ruth properly forward – but cultivate the hip angulation for more security. Charlotte was doing fine on the steeper slope but then when the slope was flatter she started to try to twist the skis into the turn – that’s because the flatter ground needs finer control of the dynamics.
I intended to take this all into a proper bumps session with compression turns but we decided to just ski – and the bumps we did find were pretty horrible, very icy, irregular steep ones where it was best to just get down. Lucas however benefited from understanding that coming over a bump it was important to use hip angulation through the finish of the turn and to remain in the fall line rather than to rotate and end up bombing across the slope with uncontrolled speed.
Overall Lucas has made the biggest changes to his skiing and this is just the beginning! Hopefully this blog will act as a reminder to refresh this and move forward during future ski holidays. Charlotte was doing well and looks tidy but simply needs more skiing time to work things out. Ruth is technically very competent and aware – likewise needing more skiing time to consolidate.
Keep on working on those principles, Dynamics, Pivot, Carving, Angulation, Forward Pressure (and all of the details) and be aware and focused on what your body is doing every turn.
