Blue skies again today – Christmas day in Russia! We started off a bit slow – yesterday being a day off and recovery for Liliana and Timothy with a badly sore throat.
Liliana was still lacking confidence and rotating on the steeps and failing to use her poles – and Timothy was swinging his shoulders around – so it was time to focus more carefully on technique. For Liliana posture was an issue here. When pulling the outside hip backwards it’s important to hold the front of the pelvis upwards – because it tends to get pulled down during this process as the hip moves backwards. The combination of upwards pelvic tilt and counter rotation of the pelvis to the turn (shoulders kept slightly more facing the skis – not “downhill”) is critical for postural control. Getting the hip to come back and the pelvis to remain stable allows far better hip angulation – which makes it safer to tilt further forward over the fronts of the skis with the upper body during the turns – allowing a much freer entry into the next turn on steep terrain.
Liliana understood this and progressively managed to launch herself downhill into each new turn better and to use the downhill pole for support as she pushed her centre of mass with the uphill leg into the new turn. Liliana’s skiing jumped up to a new level by the end of the day. Timothy also stopped swinging his body around and made significant progress.
Timothy angulating during carving
