Eilidh

Discussing Eilidh’s skiing prior to the lesson it was apparent that she had skied for a number of years but failed to progress to a satisfactory level. Jon suggested that it was perhaps a “head” issue, meaning fear and tension and also a “balance” issue. Without even seeing Eilidh on skis I informed Jon that this was almost certainly an incorrect assessment. Most “head” issues are actually technical issues at root and “balance” issues are simply not “balance” issues.

Demonstration and Assessment

Once we were on the training slope Eilidh demonstrated her current skiing level. It was clear to see that her skiing involved a long traverse, a stem (push out) of the upper ski followed by a shifting of her weight towards that ski – towards the outside of the turn. She was very upright, static, unstable and insecure. My earlier deduction about her “technical issues” was completely correct – and for the precise reasons that I had anticipated. Those reasons are not due to Eilidh making mistakes or doing something badly – they are due to her being intelligent, competent and her accurate application of inappropriate instruction – that is, standard, classic ski instruction. 

Prior to changing anything - the CM visibly moves in the wrong direction

After a moment’s reflection I decided to simply correct the basic problems directly rather than build up slowly from scratch. This proved to be the right choice as Eilidh responded positively right from the start.

 

Dynamics:

Eilidh needed an explanation of dynamics. Most people are brainwashed into thinking that they are in balance when skiing, so they try their hardest to remain upright on two legs. Eilidh had been taught to transfer her weight to the “outside” ski. This is correct if your aim is to place your CM (Centre of mass) over that ski/foot and to balance on it in the vertical with gravity. Turning however is not about balancing, it is about generating accelerations other than gravity and to achieve that the body (CM) must move in the other direction – towards the inside of the turn.

Exercise one: The Wall -Five ways of moving

I removed my skis and stood uphill of Eilidh and asked her to lean against me with her shoulder against mine – and then push hard against me as if she was trying to push in a blocked door. Eilidh was pushing to her right and so was able to observe that all the pressure was on her left foot and leg with pressure being completely removed from the right leg. This pressure change was not intentional it was a "consequence". At this point already it is important to note the difference between cause and effect. 

I wanted Eilidh to use the "wall" to begin to explore five different ways of moving her Centre of Mass. Without explaining what was going on, the simple and natural act of pushing against the "wall" causes the entire body to incline, but creates a small angle at the hips with the legs being more inclined than the upper body. The skier at this stage doesn't need to think about this - or to analyse the shape of the body. Just practising pushing against the wall will get everything just about right. 

Way one: balance

The first thing I wanted Eilidh to feel was that if I asked her to place her weight on the left leg she would move her CM AWAY from me to "balance" over her left leg. 

Way two: feel the force (angular acceleration)

Next I asked Eilidh to push hard against me in the opposite direction from her previous movement. This creates even more force against the left leg than simply placing the CM above the foot because there is now the combined muscular force and gravity together. The point to note was that the directions of movement were opposite. The force against the shoulder would obviously not be present while skiing, but the force through the leg and foot would be identical. The explanation for this is revealed in Newton's second law of motion where F (force) = M(mass) x A(acceleration). The two sides of the equation are equal so quite simply the force F (against the shoulder) can be replace by an acceleration of the body. In this case that acceleration is provided when skiing by the ski itself and it is an angular acceleration. The "push" against the wall is replace by an identical "push" into the inside of the turn. Although this exercise is effectively static and the skier is really in balance against the shoulder - this is only a simulation of a dynamic activity. During skiing itself the skier would have to accept the quality of angular acceleration and all the risks implied - though the feeling though the body would be identical. The word "dynamic" comes from the Greek word for "power" - but it essentially means "unbalanced force" or "disequilibrium" - which is always the consequence of power.

Way three: proactive dynamics (Muscular impulse)

Next I asked Eilidh to bridge the gap between our shoulders rapidly by accelerating her body towards me rapidly. The instant she started to move she could feel the strong pressure on her left foot and the removal of pressure on the right foot. This involves a muscular impulse.

Way four: statics (Slow movement)

Eilidh was next asked to bridge the gap very slowly. This time the weight moved onto the right foot. Slow movement turns out to be almost a "constant speed" which means there is no acceleration of the CM. This has the opposite effect at the feet and skis. When a skier hesitates too much this likewise causes the force to go to the wrong foot when turning and can cause real problems. This is why a confident person can often progress in skiing much better than someone who is either timid or tied in knots through stupid instruction.

Way five: Gravity

The fifth aspect of moving the CM involves discerning what motion is caused by gravity, muscular input and the ski itself. This aspect was left until later and it did cause a little confusion - but the reasons for that will become apparent later. The point is that "toppling" over simply due to gravity is an "acceleration" and so counts as "dynamics"

Later on we have to identify how to work with the dynamics (power) and how to organise and channel it appropriately. The following "bicycle" analogy heps us to get there...

The bicycle analogy

Eilidh mentioned that even on a bicycle, when turning to the left the right leg is extended with pressure on the right pedal - and if you stand on the left pedal you fall over. Well, the mechanism of the ski and the bicycle are extremely similar - so it's not a big surprise to find that we have to do the same thing. It's this simple: The skier has one job - to fall over (laterally). The ski has one job: to bring the skier back up. A bicycle does the same thing, by changing shape in response to the rider falling to one side, the bicycle cuts under the rider's new trajectory and brings him up. At all moments the rider is in control and can decide to increase the fall or to allow the bicycle to bring him back up. Experience and practice are necessary to anticipate the mechanisms and consequences of subtle shifts of the CM necessary to control all the processes, but the primary control always involves the Centre of Mass.

First Dynamics

Best executed on gentle terrain with moderate speed (as on a bicycle) and small but definite accelerations of the CM in the appropriate direction (direction of turning). Shallow turns only - just a few degrees either direction. 

Eilidh's first attempt saw her push away her support ski to the outside of the turn, but she soon corrected this and managed to keep the skis parallel and provide a good support for her dynamics. Eilidh immediately recognised how "effortless" turning like this felt in comparison to what she had been doing up until now. 

Subtle but definite use of dynamics to control a turn

Training Response

I pointed out to Eilidh that the moment she went on something steeper she would be unable to sustain the new movement pattern because she would reflexively revert to her previous defensive and trained movement patterns. The previous training is already well absorbed and functioning partially at an unconscious level - so it can happen even without realising it. Because we were now trying to do the complete opposite this could create various different levels of conflict - both conscious and unconscious - which often imparts a strong sense of confusion. The pushing out of a ski into a plough or stem involves the use of the abductor muscles in the legs. This is basically the wrong movement pattern for skiing and the opposite is required at all levels.

Emotional Response

The CM control that we were attempting to develop, despite being completely natural -i.e. move to the left to go left etc. nevertheless initially remains extremely counter-intuitive in the context of standing on skis and accelerating on the side of an intimidating mountain. We have the ability to "learn" either by osmosis (absorbing) from copying, adapting to constraints or though conscious understanding and through this process we can apply our natural abilities to relatively unnatural situations. This process can still be somewhat personally challenging and requires that defensive reflexes be overcome or suppressed to some extent. Defensive, reflexive and emotional  acts usually involve braking or blocking actions with great levels of tension and physical resistance. This can also involve fixating a stare on the ground consequently distorting the sense of speed. It can involve a physical desensitising of the body and feeling through tension. Unfortunately standard teaching methods do not address those issues - they in fact directly play along with them - encouraging them so that the individual is not required to confront those issues on a personal level and the instructor is not required to have a brain. This makes the instructor's job easy but the more intelligent and precise the student is the worse the result will be. Those emotionally defensive acts such as the pushing out of the ski appear to be very emotionally reassuring to being with - but they lead to permanent conflict with natural movement at all future levels of development.

Cause and Effect

Proactively creating the dynamics on shallow truns and noticing the change of pressure happening under the feet due to the intentional acceleration of the CM to the side and then the skis sustaining the accelerations. The pressure change on the feet is an effect not a cause. Even where muscular impulse is involved this is only caused by our intention to move the CM and it is not our objective.

Perception

Our perceptions are largely dependent upon our understanding, training and emotional disposition. More than all of that perception involves awareness and it is a holistic, emergent quality that appears on different levels. Some forms of perception require specific orientation towards certain brain functions that can be overridden  unconsciously to the permanent detriment of the individual - such as in the ability to observe, feel, listen etc.  When all of the surrounding conditions are wrong - as in BASI (British), American, French or other national teaching systems, then perception develops in an inappropriate manner inhibiting future development at all levels. The individual directly loses the ability to visualise internally and "confusion" remains the predominant sensation at all levels.  

After the first exercise I pointed out to Eilidh that she would now be able to see (perceive) that skiers skiing by who she might have previously considered good and well above her level, were actually pushing their feet outwards and seriously limiting their performance. Prior to this new understanding this would have been invisible.

Frame of Reference

The difference between Einstein's physics and Newton's was claimed by Einstein to be due to the "frame of reference". One perception that needs to be developed in skiing regards the correct frame of reference at which the ski is operating. From the skier's point of view the ski is skidding outwards in a non-carved turn. From the ski's point of view the ski is actually being deflected inwards for a straight line at any point in the turn. As long as we pin our perception to the skier's view we get it wrong! Context is everything! With Newton's gravity we see any thrown ball travel through the air in a parabolic curve - but this is not the correct context. If we go off an Olympic ski jump and while we are travelling through the air we then throw the ball, it will move away from us in a dead straight line - exactly as perceived in outer-space. The person standing on the ground sees you and the ball go in different parabolas. Einstein's frame of reference is the correct one - that is - the straight line. When we observe the ski's behaviour from the correct frame of reference we can see what to do with it - pull inwards - work inwards - never outwards.

Mutual Exclusion Principle

The main difference in levels between skiers is that lower levels displace their feet - outwards in the turn, and higher levels displace their CM. The two are mutually exclusive - you can do one or the other. Displacing the feet towards the outside to the turn causes a loss of support. This can have a drastic effect on ice!

First Feedback

After a few attempts at dynamics Eilidh was slightly twisting her body into the turn. I pointed out that if she was on a bicycle she wouldn't do that - and that here is was equally inappropriate. In fact such twisting actually forces the CM back out of the centre of the turn.

Dynamics Demonstration

This is where I demonstrate dynamics with high speed medium radius carved turns - simply to help drum in the message clearly that it's the body that has to move. I want this to be seen and to be clearly visible though exaggeration. Now that Eilidh is aware of the issue she will be able to see it.

Dynamics in the plough

For the steeper slopes it was practical for Eilidh to retain her snowplough and simply incorporate dynamics as much as she could. Certain elements of the plough would be naturally and unconsciously positively modified simply by trying to move the body in the correct direction. Eilidh would need more time on very gentle terrain to accustom her body and reflexes to the correct accelerations and coordination. I pointed out that she might make mistakes with the dynamics due to moving too slowly or twisting the body - so she should keep an eye open for those potential errors.

No Limits

I explained that there is no limit to how proactive you can be with dynamics. On a bicycle there is a limit determined by the grip of the tyre rubber on the road. On skis the opposite happens as the ski bites more as edge angle increases and in fact the limiting factor is with just how far the skier can actually manage to fall over. Most people can only manage to "fall over" to about 20° maximum before the ski will not permit them to go further. The very best and most athletic skiers can get right down on the ground and will still recover. Bode Miller managed this in a World Cup downhill in Val d'Isère when he had his shoulder on the ground and was on the outside edge of his inside ski - at probably about 80mph - but still didn't lose it - and came right back up.

Dynamic Range

The skier's goal has to be to increase the dynamic range - to try to "fall over" more against an exponentially increasing resistance from the ski to falling over. Most people are trying to do the opposite - trying hard NOT to fall over. A complete shift in perception is necessary here.

Exercise two: sideslipping

Going sideways is a major aspect of skiing and the more comfortable someone is with this the better their skiing will be. We worked on sideslipping and the basic skills involved. first thing is to be aware of the placement of the feet - the uphill ski must be down close by the lower ski. If this uphill ski is allowed to separate and be left uphill then it will switch to it's lower edge and jam on this edge stopping the slipping action. Placement of the feet/skis is critical in sideslipping. This later leads to an understanding of why for some forms of skiing it is necessary to keep the feet quite close together.

Movement is primarily controlled with moving the CM. A very slight movement downhill is all that is required to slide and back into the hill to stop. To slide forwards (diagonally) a slight forward motin of the CM can be introduced and back to go backwards. This develops edge/feet/ski awareness and CM control.

Mountain Bike Hairpin Turns

When we turn on a bicycle most of the time we are unconscious of how the CM controls the turn, but when we negotiate a steep hairpin on a mountain-bike we have to consciously throw the bike over first then our own body - or we won't make it. Practically every turn on skis is the equivalent of this - so we need to be very proactive with dynamics - not reactive, just waiting for feedback from the skis to give us confidence. We have to dominate the process.

Building the support from the feet up

Eilidh clearly didn't have a strong base of support for her new dynamics to work. She was not aware of what to do with the feet and legs in order to stand strongly while moving the CM. To introduce this idea we attempted to do pivot turns from the uphill ski using the adductor muscles in the inside of the leg. I didn't expect her to be able to do this (but you never know) but I wanted her to start to think about the adductor muscles on the inside of the legs and to start to use them. This wouldn't be easy because it is the complete opposite of pushing the ski outwards - but we had to start somewhere. I demonstrated the pivot turn from the top edge of the top ski (as opposed to the bottom edge of the top ski used in the plough) and let Eilidh see how incredibly easily and quickly I could turn. This demonstration was intended to change her understanding of skiing - to put an idea into her head. She made a pretty good attempt at it first time round, managing the turn initiation well but not quite completing it. 

I explain that I'm not "twisting" the ski - but pulling the front down slightly just to get it to slide. This is a development directly from the side-slip. The muscle pattern is the exact opposite from the plough - pulling inwards not pushing outwards. 

Adductors

Leaving the pivot behind after a few attempts I asked Eilidh to just return to the dynamics but to try to include a pull inwards with the adductor muscles.

Heel Support and the Subtalar joint

We move indoors for a relaxing drink and then to remove the boots and work on the feet. The basis of a good support comes primarily from the feet and at this stage not a great deal of awareness is necessary of the feet to get a result. I had Eilidh stand with her right boot off and with the weight distributed over her whole foot. When asked to bend the ankle would collapse. The foot with the boot still on showed how the boot would compensate for this collapse and hide the issue. It is a basic error to allow the boot to take over the support from the leg. Eilidh saw how standing with the weight on the heel caused the ankle to go strong and the anterior tibialis muscle to tighten in the outside of the shin. Instead of the ankle bending and collapsing now the body was forced to keep the ankle strong and to bend at the knees and the hips. 

From the heels it was demonstrated how the subtalar joint below the ankle could be used to rock the foot from edge to edge. With weight on the whole foot this became impossible and only the knee moved around creating a twisting action and having the exact opposite effect on the foot. I mentioned that I myself don't ski on the heels and there are other ways of achieving the same effects - but to begin with this is by far the easiest way to learn. This would also protect the knee (particularly the anterior cruciate ligament) from injury as it helped to restrict twisting movements the knee. This rocking of the subtalar joint connects up to the adductor muscles and so the support can be felt up through the entire leg - on the inside of the leg. With this support the skier can achieve good dynamics. Unfortunately any tendency to twist, steer or push out the ski will destroy this in practise. I didn't take time to show at this stage how this stance specifically relates to ski boots and how to feel the "bounce" of the front of the boot correctly. Lower level boots tend not to function correctly anyway so she might not have had the right feedback from the equipment anyway.

On returning to the slope we just added the heel stance and the adductors to the dynamics in shallow parallel turns so that Eilidh could feel the added support. I pointed out that even rocking the feet moves the centre of mass in the appropriate direction. Rock the feet onto the left edges and the CM moves to the left - both of which help you turn to the left.

Eilidh making progress on the first lesson

Exercise three: Dynamics Part Two

When a motorbike goes into a turn it drops down towards the turn centre, but to come back out of the turn it has to rise back up. This is the source or reference for "timing" in skiing. Dynamics therefore has two aspects - getting into a turn and then getting back up out of it. With a motorbike it's relatively simple because the vertical is perpendicular to the ground on a flat and level road, but in skiing, which is always on a slope, the vertical is not the same as the perpendicular. There is a break in symmetry here which complicates things - but also it's what makes skiing interesting. The turn is completed when the skier is perpendicular - not when "vertical" to gravity. This means that linking turns becomes a dynamic process using both gravity and the power of the ski bringing the skier up - (plus added muscle power from skating if required).  The truly interesting part is that instead of stopping the turn when the skier is "vertical", the skier has to actively accept "falling" due to gravity to come out to the perpendicular while still standing on the lower ski. This requires some anticipation for the following turn - so it also requires some experience to execute confidently. We worked on this second part of the dynamics for a while. I demonstrated how the turns are linked together in this manner showing how I'd stay on the  lower ski as my body started to topple out from the hill. I also explained that whether we were at the end of a turn or in a traverse it was essentially the same thing. The traverse is "vertical" and we need to get out and up to perpendicular before even thinking of starting the next turn. Continuing over into the next turn would facilitate a switch of support foot as resistance from  underneath the lower ski disappeared. Because the skis job is to bring the skier up - it will always try to get to the perpendicular. In fact it's because of this that the skier must fight with the adductor muscles and the subtalar joints and the CM towards the turn centre until it is really necessary to come out of the turn . The ski will try to pull each part of the body "out" starting from the feet upwards - but the skier should try to make sure that it's the CM being affected and not something lower down. Most skiers do not adapt to the changing geometry of the turn neither by holding their body far enough into the turn centre as forces build - nor by allowing their body to come out to the perpendicular when required at the very end of the turn.

Free Float

We need another shift in perception of gravity to perceive the "perpendicular" correctly. When sliding down a hill you do not feel "gravity" pulling you and that's because it isn't actually a force - it's a geometrical effect. When we stand on flat ground all we feel is the elastic force of the ground pushing upwards. On a slope - when sliding - we only feel a reduced percentage of that elastic force - that which is pushing up perpendicularly but depending on the angle will be a proportionally reduced percentage of the maximum force we felt when standing on the flat. If we had a slope of 90° then there would be no resistance underneath us and apart from the wind we would feel absolutely nothing - exactly as in outer space. We have entered into a new world with sliding - and we have to learn to accept and relate to this world. Our normal world requires us to reference ourselves to “vertical” all the time and this is something the skier needs to change. When children are learning they often have a lot of trouble with this and they very stubbornly keep their bodies bolt upright and vertical all the time.

Exercise four: skating (one leg)

After our afternoon break we got together for the final hour of the day to try to consolidate or move things on a little bit more. The only new thing we added was through a few skating exercises. I wanted Eilidh to understand that skiing is a “one legged” activity. Even though both legs are nearly always in contact on the ground – at the level of the hips the body must be firmly planted on one leg or the other. This is because that hip joint acts as a fulcrum through which the whole upper- body pivots freely from the lower body. If there is undue pressure on the other leg then this can’t happen and problems occur. When people push the skis outwards then they end up on two legs and their support falls apart.

I wanted Eilidh to skate across the hill stepping completely and strongly up onto the top edge of the uphill ski on each stride. This is nothing to do with “weight transfer” it is about an internal switch from one leg to the other within the body and learning to feel it in an exaggerated situation. Eilidh couldn’t yet cope with that but managed to just step uphill in the traverse. The idea was then – when totally committed to the uphill leg and standing up on it with the lower ski slightly of the ground as a result – to fall into the new turn downhill and remain standing on that leg. Unfortunately this confused Eilidh because it was so similar to moving the CM towards the outside of the turn. This is actually a preparatory move and happens before the turn. We discussed this later to remove the confusion. The idea was to get Eilidh standing much more strongly on one leg to execute more effective dynamics.

Royal Navy at Tignes

Today Tignes hosted the first of several days of Royal Navy championships. I was enlisted by Tignes to spend the day helping control the race course as part of my "duty" to the resort - but to be quite honest I'd have done it for free. I've always been a great fan of the British military which is second to none in the world and think that they do a thankless task for which they are not fully appreciated. It's just great to be able to share something like this with them and to be able to help out however insignificantly.

The Emperor's New Clothes - Part 1

Search anywhere on the internet or pick up any book or manual on ski instruction and you will find that "balance" is at the heart of the teaching philosophy and core of the actual instructions. In most skiing countries in the world the national authorities examine their instructors on their "balance" and score them accordingly. Everyone struts around as if they know what they are doing and they all agree with each other unanimously. I'm sure that you will probably also be quite comfortable with this situation as you have heard the term "balance" all of your life used in the context of physical activity.

When Hans Christian Andersen wrote "The Emperor's New Clothes" he must have taken the idea from watching those ski instructors. It is hard to find a more clear cut case of collective denial, pretentiousness, social hypocrisy and deep failure of education anywhere on the planet.

There was a time when I too would have been standing in front of the King telling him how wonderful his new non-existent clothes were. That continued until one day I found myself being just like the little boy who  eventually shouts out that the King is not wearing anything at all. I actually met that King in person. He is French. Well he might not have been true royalty, but he did claim to be the most famous engineer in the world. His qualifications included two degrees and a business with over 500 employees. Very difficult to tell him that he wasn't wearing any clothes - but he wasn't!

It all started many years ago with a failed attempt to write creatively on the subject of the "balance paradox". This is the apparent paradox concerning the fact that when we walk (or ski for that matter) we perceive ourselves to be in balance all the time, but we cannot take a single step without literally falling forwards. Two pages of written drivel later and I knew enough to know that I didn't have a clue as to what so-called balance really was. Most people would probably just leave it there, but I couldn't. How could I NOT understand something so apparently basic that everyone else claimed to understand it. At school Physics was my best subject despite being a very reluctant student and I came 2nd in the final year with Maths being almost as good. Sure, I absolutely hated Physics at university - but that's because it interfered with  useful drinking  time and the infinite interest in girls. At least I'd discovered how to define infinity. Accepting that I wasn't completely stupid there had to be a problem with the concept of balance itself - so I set about a journey that unexpectedly led to several years of investigation to fully resolve the issue - culminating in a  historic confrontation with the King himself.

To begin with I bought a very thick and heavy book on physics. This is not a really good place to start - unless you are planning to throw it off the leaning tower of Pisa and compare it with a lighter book to see which one hits the ground first. Even after that it would be very hard to spot any relevance. Physics books are pretty dry and discouraging at the best of times - though they are sturdy and useful for stacking up magazines against on the book shelve. The biggest part of the puzzle would eventually be answered directly from this book - however the time wasn't quite right. The rest of the re-education process revolved around a small library of reading that involved over 50 current popular science books. Even that still didn't do the trick - it came down to the internet finally to get to the bottom of it all. I hope the first successful new religion of the 21st century involves worshipping the internet; it really does resemble a giant collective intelligence despite most of it being devoted to pornography. 

I still remember the first book that I delved into on the quest to resolve the balance paradox; it was called "Fuzzy Thinking" by Bart Kosko and was about "fuzzy logic". Don't you just really hate traffic lights - waiting at a red light when there is no one coming through the green, but unable to do anything about it? Well the Japanese have had Fuzzy Logic learning algorithms working in their traffic control systems for a whole generation now. The traffic control learns and gets smarter - that's right, it doesn't stay in balance - it's dynamic and changing. The "fuzziness" just means that there are lots of small rules collected together to define a model - rather than one big classic over-simplification (linearisation). The greater the "fuzziness" the more accurate the model of the complex system. It's great stuff and gives a lot of insight as to how things work (including humans) but doesn't explain the balance paradox.

Book two was "Out of Control" by Kevin Kelly. This book is designed to shatter paradigms and that's what it does."Watt took the volcanic fury of expanding steam and tamed it with information. His flyball governor is undiluted informational control, one of the first non-biological circuits." Well obviously this "balancing" malarkey involved some form of informational control, some feedback, but that still didn't hit the sweet spot.

Gradually I built up a library of books on chaos theory, self-organisation, information theory and loads of other stuff that was all relevant and useful for developing teaching strategies - but nothing there which directly explained the balance paradox. Yes it became clear that the upright human body, walking or skiing, was a "feedback driven disequilibrium system" exhibiting "emergent holistic" behaviour and learning though "self-organisation". This could easily cover what was really happening with the body and explain why there was no "balance" involved but it still didn't explain why our entire culture had messed up with the physics and developed the balance paradox, or  why it used contradictory terms such as "dynamic balance" in both sport and medicine.

The basic physics itself was relatively clear because at the root of everything lay Newton's second law of motion. This is where that really big heavy book came in handy eventually - because it explained the law clearly in terms of  "the Mechanics of Disequilibrium" in other words - the opposite of equilibrium or "balance". It was clear from the outset that by putting the details of "informational control" and "feedback" aside for the moment the basic underlying action was all dependent on this law. Newton's second law simply states that any unbalanced force upon an object will cause it to accelerate. This is often written as F=MA or Force = Mass x Acceleration. Something seriously interesting and useful in teaching immediately springs forth from this law - and that is that Force and "Accelerating Mass" are equal and thus interchangeable. Thinking about this brings some startling insights into how we move and what we teach about movement. This gives a great basis upon which to develop simple and relevant instruction. I'll get around to some practical examples later on, but in the meantime I'll proceed with the story.

Several years after that ill fated and aborted article on the balance paradox I had all the bits and pieces in place to show that there was no paradox - just a failure of understanding. Something however was still missing. How was it possible to meet the self-proclaimed King of engineering and for him to tell me that "The entire universe is in balance" and that my theories were all wrong? I could see that he had no clothes on, but he was absolutely determined to convince himself otherwise and to intimidate everyone else around him into agreement.

Haluk and Korkut skiing Col Pers

Haluk and Korkut skiing Col Pers

Views from Col Pers on the same descent.

Tora and Mel

Tora and Mel each had a few hours experience of snowploughing at an indoor slope in the UK. The goal was to impart the basics of the correct mechanics of skiing in only a couple of sessions so that they could continue to work on them and progress on their own. Those mechanics involved accelerating the Centre of Mass in the correct way to control a turn and standing strongly on one leg to permit this.

View from the Solaise (Thu 13th morn)

Morning One

Exercise one: herring bone step

Diverging skis, feeling the inside of the feet against the boots and pulling inwards with the legs to get the skis on edge.

Walking uphill maintaining the divergence to prevent any backward slipping.

Exercise two: learning to skate

Neither Tora nor Mel were skaters so they had to be rapidly taught the basics of skating. On level terrain I had Tora diverge her skis and put her poles aside. I stood in front of her holding my poles across in front of my body and asked her to grab the poles and push me along. She had to lean forwards and seek purchase with the ski and feet edges to push me. This is the basis of the skating action. Repeating the same action without me in front causes a slight "falling" forwards and an acceleration - thus skating. Both Tora and Mel succeeded at this straight away - but with Mel feeling this more effectively. Tora didn't manage to slide forwards when skating but Mel did.

Exercise three: skating around in a gentle turn

Displacing the body (Centre of Mass) CM in the desired direction of the turn by stepping it in that direction. Both managed this effectively on very gentle terrain as an alternative way to change direction compared to snowplough. I pointed out that this is how people actually turn on cross country skis or even on ice skates when they want to keep their speed up. (except they might cross their legs with the ice skates). 

It was made clear at this early stage that control of speed should come from a change of direction - by using the so called "line" - instead of a breaking action as found in a snowplough. Any turn when finished properly by turning up the hill far enough will bring the skier to a complete stop.

Exercise four: traversing with diverging skis

Staying on the two top edges and using the top ski as a brake. We traversed down from the top of the beginner's slope - which is actually quite steep. I pointed out that to avoid the steepness we effectively cut the slope up by traversing across instead of skiing down the steep parts. Both Tora and Mel did a great job of crossing while maintaining diverging skis - using the top ski as a brake and with both skis on their top edges. I demonstrated that if the top ski was placed into a snowplough it would be pointing downhill directly and could simply not be of any use during a traverse - plus it could cause the skier to shoot off downhill if it received any weight.

Exercise five: turning on the spot by diverging the skis uphill.
While standing still on the hill it was sometimes necessary to turn around. To avoid making a snowplough facing downhill to get around I suggested the opposite, to diverge the skis facing the body uphill whilst making small steps to get the skis around eventually and face across the hill in the opposite direction.

Exercise six: skating turns on a moderate gradient with small accelerations
This basically was just a natural progression of all that had gone before but requiring that each skier handled the small accelerations caused by the gradient and moved a little more responsively with the legs. Unfortunately this was as far as we got because both Tora and Mel started to reach their limits here after doing extremely well up to this point. We should really have spent more time to get to this stage and to allow the body to adapt to accelerations and sliding a little better - but our objective was to try to get there in only two lessons. We didn't really get any further than this due to extensive individual feedback and assistance being required. Mel's body was over-reacting reflexively to accelerations so she was in need of more time to adapt. This was particularly evident when she tried to turn to the left and found herself just sitting down or freezing up and falling over backwards. I explained how the body over-reacts to try to keep itself vertical when we are not used to sliding. Gradually Mel got on top of this. She was much happier with this approach to skiing than with the snowplough.  

Tora reacted differently and her problem was that she started to confuse the coordination of the skate with the snowplough. Instead of stepping inwards through a turn with the skis diverging she began to step outwards (CM) with the skis converging (despite always making one correct step at the initiation of each turn) Despite Tora's great progress at the beginning she ended up feeling confused and the impulse to "plough" began to take over her body each time there was an acceleration. I explained that this  difficulty was  due to a combination of issues that complicate learning. First of all she had already been trained to "push out" into a plough and had the muscle memory. Secondly this was a "defensive" position so it conferred a false but definite sense of security. Thirdly this pushing out also conferred a "twisting" of the feet and in particular the outside ski - in the direction that it needed to eventually go - giving another false sense of security. Fourthly it acted as a brake - and crutch - perhaps not really assisting but more inhibiting progress. Fifthly, this muscle coordination was the exact opposite to that really required for skiing - which - as in skating - was the "pulling inwards" with the adductor muscles.

Learning involves awareness of both intentional and unintentional movements. The difficulty experienced by Tora was due to awareness and perception. We effectively need to "learn how to learn" when it comes to something somewhat challenging such as skiing. Part of this process involves kinaesthetic awareness - awareness of the body and its movements - making those movements conscious.Tora had no idea that she was moving in the way opposite to that which she intended - she simply couldn't perceive this at this early stage. Even with direct feedback from me that issue could not be changed. This caused Tora a great deal of frustration and concern that she would not succeed with this approach and she decided to abandon for the following day. In contrast Mel was really inspired by her own achievements and felt much better than when constrained by the snowplough.

Avalanche flag on the Solaise indicating risk 3 to 4 on a scale of 5 for off-piste.

Morning Two

Despite Tora's misgivings I persuaded her to continue with the second day and guaranteed her a result - being prepared to adapt the teaching methods accordingly, though maintaining the correct basis of dynamics with complete integrity.

Exercise seven: feet rolling
Morning number two started with a gentle descent on a very shallow gradient. We exploited this slope to work on something new. I asked both skiers to roll their feet to the left so that one foot would be on its inside edge and the other on its outside. From this position the CM would also mover slightly left and the skis would be placed slightly on their left edges. With a little forward motion the skis would gently turn them to the left. The same applies of course with rolling to the right. Both skiers managed almost perfect parallel turns down the hill without even realising that they were doing it. Val d'Isère unfortunately has almost no gradient like this for beginners to practise on and several hours of doing this alone would be ideal at this stage.

Exercise eight: snowplough with CM towards the inside of the turn
With Tora being much more at ease with the snowplough at this stage I decided to make use of the plough in a more intelligent and constructive manner than it is usually taught. Ideally it should be taught much more systematically than I did here and quite a few corners were cut to speed things up, but that did not have a direct consequence in this case - at least for Tora.

Facing across the hill in a plough the weight is naturally on the downhill leg. The aim here is that the weight remains on whichever leg is downhill. During the turn whichever leg is downhill at the start will be uphill at the end - the change taking place as the skis cross the fall-line with the skier facing downhill. Making sure the weight is always on the downhill ski ensures that there is always a brake! The plough is a braking manoeuvre - nothing else and this should always be respected. This means that at the start of the turn the weight is NOT placed on the "outside" ski - which would require an inappropriate motion of the CM towards the outside of the turn. I asked again that the feet be rolled slightly in the direction of the upcoming turn (downhill) - moving the CM slightly downhill - away from the outside ski, over the lower ski and towards the centre of the turn. The lower ski was used like a brake and with a slight pushing of the ski tip downhill it was able to feed the skier into the turn without any acceleration. The CM was now moving in the correct direction - towards the turn centre. When the skis crossed the fall-line the weight would naturally come onto the outside ski and it would complete the turn due to the feet still being rolled into the turn and the body still being held in towards the turn centre. In fact it was the geometry of the mountain that brought about the change in which ski was being weighted. Here it is important to distinguish between what the skier is doing and what "happens to" the skier - "cause and effect". The skier moves towards the inside of the turn, which slightly flattens the inside (dowwnhill) ski and causes a controlled drift into a turn with the weight on that ski. The mountain geometry causes a change in pressure from one ski to another.
It was emphasised that is was extremely important to adjust for the geometry of the mountain as the skis passed the fall line. The ski is trying to bring the skier up and effectively out of a turn and so during the turn completion - when ski edge angle increases due to coming across the hill - a greater effort has to be made to move the body down and in towards the centre of the turn. The comparison was thus made with "traditional" snowplough where the skier is told to stand directly "hanging out" over the "outside ski" and the ridiculousness of this was made apparent.

Failure to move far enough towards the turn centre contributes to the skier getting the inside ski "caught" on its inside edge (especially the tail) during the second half of the turn.

Exercise nine: stepping inwards in a plough
While in the plough and with the CM over the inside ski I asked the skiers to make small steps with the inside ski while turning, just slightly stepping it in towards the turn centre. This slightly resembles skating, but simply removes the support of the inside ski allowing the skier to fall a little more to the inside of the turn.

Exercise ten: standing up
Tora was tending to twist her body into the turn and thus cause her body to fall towards the outside of the turn and get her inside ski caught up. To prevent the twisting we worked on "standing strongly". I stood uphill from tora and asked her to use her shoulder to push against me as if she was trying to push as hard as possible against a wall. The pressure would then go hard against one of her legs. If pushing to the left it would be the right leg. I pointed out that when turning to the left this is what she should feel on that leg - it had to be very strong. Tora understood that straight away and it gave her a good stance and stopped the CM from swingling outwards during the turn and stopped the inside ski from catching.

I also pointed out here that asking someone to "balance" on a ski would cause them to move the CM over the ski. Balance on the left leg means "move the CM to the left". We have to do the direct opposite to ski - and the "wall" to push against is eventually replaced by accelerations (Force and Acceleration of Mass are interchangeable in physics)

Exercise eleven: increasing dynamics
Once Tora was standing correctly the next exercise was to increase those accelerations. Basically the the plough was narrowed and the skiers were asked to move more actively towards the centre of the new turns. The analogy of a bicycle was used to reinforce the mental picture of moving from side to side of the direction of travel and the skis responding like a bike - cutting under the new trajectory to bring the person back up (thus generating a turn).
Tora managed to experience this correctly but by this time Mel, who hated the ploughs was suffering dramatically with a metatarsal arch problem cutting circulation to her toes. She had no hope of being able to achieve anything and it was very disappointing for her (and for me!).

Exercise twelve: proactive dynamics
I explained that dynamics was not a "reactive" or "passive" phenomenon. What dynamics meant was that you had to actually try to make yourself fall over to one side or another with a powerful action. This means that you don't wait until there is feedback or support from the ski. It's a real mental shift and totally counter intuitive. Ski instructors literally "believe" in balance and balancing but it is a complete mistake. They are even examined on their "balance" professionally by other fools who are even more qualified in their stupidity. We have to get over this nonsense and see that the correct goals are different and elsewhere. The skier's job is to "fall over" and the ski's job is to "bring the skier back up". The interaction between the two makes a turn.
We only had a few minutes to work on this so not surprisingly it was a step too far for Tora who didn't manage to move her body when travelling faster. Surprisingly, despite her agony Mel did manage it quite well.


Conclusion

Tora will build up to Proactive Dynamics using the plough - with the CM always active in the right direction. Mel will probably get there better though skating if she can handle the accelerations. Tora was clearly at an acceptable level that would allow her to progress more on her own and with the correct mechanics. Mel would need to sort out the foot problem and then have a bit of extra coaching to catch up.

Mel's Catch Up!
Mel managed to successfully work her way through the commercial labyrinth of shops and services and find someone who understood her foot problem and provided a metatarsal arch support. When that was taken care off she called me up and I offered to give her a booster session the following morning. Tora was apparently happy now to continue on her own as was originally planned.

Exercise thirteen: snowplough on the outside edges of the feet
Mel had seriously struggled with the snowplough two days earlier but with her foot pain issues it was impossible to resolve much - this also being compounded by the dramatic differences between her and Tora in terms of technique requirements. Keeping in mind her struggle with the plough I decided to use my standard approach to teaching the plough and attempt to eliminate the problems rather than just abandon the plough altogether. For this reason I asked Mel to stand on the outside edges of her feet, with the knees pointing slightly outwards and the adductor muscles completely relaxed. The width of the plough itself combined with the rigid (laterally stiff) boot running up the leg - would contrive to keep the skis both on their inside edges despite standing on the outside edges of the feet. We began by straight running down the steeper part of the slope to test this out and sure enough Mel was able to do this - controlling her speed by changing the width of the plough and she felt much more comfortable.

Exercise fourteen: turning with the little toe
Standing on the outside edges of the feet I demonstrated that all that was required to make a turn was a subtle turning of the (inside) foot - led by the little toe. This is not a "twisting" as such it's more of a push towards the inside of the turn - feeding the ski into the turn. This corresponds to an earlier exercise that we did feeding ourselves into a turn using the lower (inside) ski as a brake. All that was required to turn in either direction was this guidance from the little toe. This works because the subtle action flattens the ski very slightly and allows it to slip into a turn.

Exercise fifteen: little toe and inside of the heel of the other foot
With both feet on their outside edges (the feet not the skis - the skis are on their inside edges - inside in this case relative to the body not the turn) there is not much grip with the outside ski of the turn. To correct for this lack of grip the foot on the outside ski has to be taken gently off its outside edge and rolled slightly inwards - especially on the inside of the heel. This means that if turning to the right, the little toe of the right foot pushes to the right and the right foot is on it's outside edge, but the left foot now rolls onto the inside of its heel.
Mel reported that she had more control - which was the objective of the exercise. I also wanted her to become aware that both feet were doing different things at the same time.

Exercise sixteen: pushing the foot forwards
Now that more grip was established the next thing to add was was a push forwards of the outside ski in the turn - the one gripping with the heel on its inside edge.  Mel reported that she was turning more rapidly - which is the correct effect of the push forwards - which is a mechanism for altering turn radius. The push forwards makes the turn active instead of passively waiting for things to happen - it pushes the ski across the trajectory of the skier and thus makes the uplifting effect of the ski - hence the turning - more active. Mel also remarked that this push forwards of the foot created a down/up motion. This hadn't been mentioned by me so it was excellent that she spotted it and confirmation for me that she was doing it correctly.

Exercise seventeen: push forwards with up/down motion
Making use of Mel's observation on the down/up motion we incorporated it directly as the aim of the next exercise. The point was the the pushing forwards from the start of the turn would cause the skier to sink down slightly, enabling the body to stay better down and in towards the centre of the turn, then the turn would be completed with a natural standing up - bringing the body up and out of the turn ready to commence the next one. This is actually part of a skating action and timing and is very natural - but not everyone catches on to it as easily as Mel did.
I explained that the timing of the "down/up" motion of the legs corresponds with the body tilting over "down" into a turn and "up" back out of the turn - like a motorbike. This timing links the dynamics of a turn with skating or just basic use of the legs.


Exercise eighteen: narrowing the plough and adding speed
When the gradient was a bit lower we started to reduce the braking effect of the plough and keep the same actions of the legs in a narrower plough at higher speed - thus allowing dynamics to creep back into the equation. I pointed out to Mel that the feet would now start to feel like they were both simply being rolled in one direction - left to go left - and right to go right  - exactly like an exercise we had attempted a few days previously.

Exercise nineteen: heel rolling and ankle support
Indoors for a break, we removed the boots to look at the feet and how to best use them in ski boots. First of all we established the effects of standing on the whole foot and collapsing at the ankle - which is very weak. I pointed out that a boot can hide this weakness by supporting the leg - but that it is not meant to do this - it is a mistake if it is used for support - the skier must always stand up. Placing the weight on the heels and bending at the hips and knees causes the ankle to go strong and the anterior tibialis to (muscle on the outside of the shin) to tense up. This strong ankle is desirable in skiing. In addition, when standing on the heels the ankle can be rocked - left and right and the feet can go from edge to edge. It's easy to see how this relates to the skis. Mel then tried this "foot rocking" with the weight over the whole of the feet and found that it didn't work - only the knees moved around. Standing on the heels is a great solution for Mel particularly with her metatarsal issues at the moment. This does not put the body weight too far back because it is not the same as leaning on the back of the ski boots.

Exercise twenty: recreating the arches of the foot
I showed Mel how to generate and correct the natural arches of the foot by activating the dormant muscles in the feet (there are 38 of them!) For most of my own skiing I generate those arches and hold the muscles strongly so that I'm supported up on the ball of my foot (not squashing down on it) - but this requires years of training of the feet muscles and was only to demonstrate the issues to Mel and to show her that a podiatric support for the foot is only an aid and not a solution.

Exercise twenty one: pivoting from the top ski
Mel had an attempt at pivoting from the top ski but I didn't really think this would work at such short notice. It was worth a try though. I did want Mel to understand that a turn does not always need to start on the inside edge of a ski as in a snowplough - there are other options.

Exercise twenty two: parallel running with slight dynamics
Now that Mel's basic support from the feet legs and dynamics was in place it was time to attempt to add a bit more acceleration and to run with the skis parallel. This worked fine until it became a bit steeper and faster and beyond Mel's current speed tolerance threshold.

Exercise twenty three: parallel running with proactive dynamics
I pointed out that the real issue now was that Mel had to take more of a chance with the dynamics and "try to fall over" to the side. This meant being more proactive with it instead of tentatively waiting for feedback. It's a leap of faith to some extent when you have no experience. I explained that this would actually generate MORE stability not less. In a nutshell - it worked.

Conclusion
Mel has a true feel for natural movement and has a lot of potential. I hope that she can continue to have the opportunity to develop along those lines.

Korkut - Hip Hop

For two days we had skied in challenging conditions including sun crust, wind pack, rutted (hardened) snow and most of it on steep terrain. There was a fair amount of deep snow but always somewhat dense and variable in texture so concentration could never be relaxed. During those two days we never discussed technique because the aim was to ski and enjoy it. Korkut's strength got him through but not without his back hurting considerably and his muscles becoming very tired. On day three we had very poor visibility and so took the opportunity for some coaching. Haluk translated into Turkish for me to ensure that everything was understood properly. My aim was to try to develop more freedom around the hips for Korkut - but through completely changing his perception of skiing.

Unfortunately the head-cam didn't function correctly during the more visually interesting exercises of the pivot - so there are no video clips to accompany this feedback.


PART ONE (Inside Edge Turn Initiation)

Exercise one: carved traverse on two edges

The point of this exercise is to cut two clean lines across the slope. When this is achieved correctly there is an acr made and the skier ends up turning uphill. When someone does this for the first time they usually allow the ski to come off its edge slightly so that they track in a straight line as in a "normal" traverse. People are not necessarily aware of the feeling of a ski literally "locking on" to the edges and dictating a different trajectory. The ski is also trying to flatten (by design) so it is necessary to combat this. The feet need to be both held with pressure on their uphill edges. (one inside edge and one outside). Ideally work should be don indoors first so that there is an awareness of the feet and how to use them properly - how to make the ankle joint strong and how to relate this to the boots - but here there was not enough time for all of that. Ultimately I did not expect great results but the aim was to sow a few seeds and to encourage Korkut to become aware of other possibilities in his skiing.

Initially Korkut could not hold an edge correctly but he quickly caught on. His first attempts however caused him to attempt to grip by twisting his knees and feet into the hill - which is not only ineffective but dangerous to the knees. This was expected because Korkut was obviously in the habit of twisting/steering his skis though a torque applied at the feet. It was demonstrated to him how to use the adductor muscles instead to hold the lower ski on edge - with the knee coming inwards slightly but with no weakness or twisting involved - purely a lateral movement of the femur. The uphill leg was pulled outwards by the abductors (laterally) but with no force required - only to maintain a symmetry and thus place the CM (Centre of Mass) between the two skis for stability at very low speed.

Exercise two: carved arc from the fall line

The "traverse" is begun with the skis pointed more and more downhill until they are pointed directly downhill and the skier can handle the extra pressure on the skis from the increased accelerations (both increase in speed and change of direction) without the skis coming off their edges. Korkut coped with this part OK.

Exercise three: static edge changing

Standing still across the hill the skier is required to use the ski poles for support so that he can switch from standing on the two uphill edges to the two downhill edges. While this is done the body must remain "neutral" facing forwards - or even counter rotate to face slightly uphill as the skis move over onto the downhill edges. This is an exercise! This is not a definitive way of skiing. Korkut has been previously taught to always face downhill so he found this very strange and it initially posed a few problems. He tried to force his body to face downhill and get his skis on their lower edges by twisting his knees downhill. This is precisely the purpose of the exercise - to avoid this sort of twisting act. Korkut was corrected on this but was not able in the very short period of time available to translate this fully into his actual skiing.

Exercise four: shallow linked carved arcs

Very shallow gradients were used to link very shallow turns (hardly turning out of the fall line) with edge changes and holding on the the edge lock from start to end. Korkut was unable to go from edge lock to edge lock and as soon as there was a little speed the skis would go sideways. That is a completely normal scenario for someone with a strong rotational (twisting/steering in this case) way of skiing.

Exercise five: following skis - squared stance

Leaving the actual carving aside it has to be pointed out to Korkut that if he looked at any professional - or ex racer of a high standard on the mountain - when skiing in a relaxed manner with medium to long radius turns he would be following his skis across the hill and not facing downhill. The "downhill facing" is in direct anticipation of a following turn and when this is not immediate then it is not only irrelevant but obstructive. Korkut's normal solution was to always execute very short turns! He quickly caught on to the idea though and managed to simply follow the skis. Following the skis has certain advantages in certain situations. If you are travelling across rough or bumpy terrain then with both knees in front of the body you can efficiently absorb the obstacles. It also permits relaxation when required and the use of simple inclination - in a similar manner - laterally - and without confusion - as on a bicycle, where you fall slightly to one side to make a turn. Effective DYNAMICS are best initially taught with a squared stance. Skiers who have developed a strong discipline of "facing downhill" nearly always rush the start of a turn by pushing the skis outwards and away from the body in order to get them underneath the downhill facing body. This was exactly the case with Korkut.

Korkut had one strong advantage and that is that he had a very good sense of timing. that may be because I'd shown him dynamics several years earlier when heliskiing in Turkey and he'd discussed it to some extent with Haluk. This meant that he would come down into the turn (like a motorbike does) and come back up out of the turn. This tends to limit the damage done by the "twisting/steering" action instead of amplifying it when an up un-weighting is used to initiate a turn as taught by many ski schools today.

Exercise six: Following skis but staying on the downhill ski though to neutral (perpendicular)

Staying longer on the downhill ski - right through until the body is in "neutral" - that is, perpendicular to the mountain in the turn transition, seriously helps with reducing a "push out" of the skis at the initiation of the following turn. Now that Korkut was following the skis he could also attempt this exercise.

Exercise seven: Skating into a carve - U/L body separation

Knowing that Korkut could skate along strongly on the flat and had good timing (which is also related to skating) prompted me to return briefly to carving and to show that the the skating action - hard on and edge - is related to the carving of a turning skis. The straight "skating" stride is simply replaced by an arcing one due to the ski design. Korkut was able to some degree to initiate a turn holding onto an edge in this manner. I then explained that upper/lower (U/L) body separation (facing downhill) in carving was to actually be encouraged especially in shorter turns when a strong anticipation of the following turn was required. This U/L separation can actually be directly related to the racing situation. When a recreational skier looks down a steep icy slalom course he either consciously or unconsciously prepares to brake and control his speed in the course. The experienced and elite or professional level racer does the opposite - he/she tries to skate and accelerate to the maximum down practically any slope. Skating forwards translates into "side to side" motion on skis - but the skier must face forwards. Korkut actually attempted this, but could not prevent the skis from twisting at the turn initiation.
It was emphasised that the CM had to be driven into the centre of the turn and the edges of the skis held firm by holding an inward oriented pressure against them. Everything had to work towards the turn centre and every effort made to avoid any form of "pushing out" or twisting. The body should only come out from the turn centre when the change of direction was completed and a new turn or traverse anticipated.

At this point we left the carving behind and had a hot chocolate. But not before Haluk had his way and had me leading in a practically invisible off-piste descent through a cloud. To make matters worse, Haluk had his heliski skis on and was not used to them so he almost took me out twice on the way down!

PART TWO (Outside Edge Turn Initiation)

Exercise eight: side-slip

I knew that Korkut was very confident in side-slipping because he had managed to do so in a very steep couloir on day one. The couloir was steep enough to give me problems with my parabolic shaped Zag skis in that they wouldn't grip properly under the feet - only at the tips and tails. I had however been worried about Korkut and certainly didn't want him to attempt to turn because he had almost no angulation and risked accelerating out of control on a turn in such steepness. 

The sideslipping was done with the adductors (lower leg) pulling inwards and the body facing downhill bringing the centre of mass (CM) over the lower ski. To slip the idea was to maintain the tension with the adductors and only use a motion of the CM out over the lower ski to release the edge and grip. Edge control would be coming from the CM and it would be mainly with the lower ski - top edge - though some pressure on the upper ski - top edge was natural too.

Korkut has some difficulty with this because he wanted to control the slip by flattening the ski with a pushing out of the knee. My intention was to change Korkut's muscle movement patterns so that he would always pull inwards and not push outwards.

Exercise nine: one ski skiing

The sidesliping was introduced as a prelude to working on pivoting. Prior to working on pivoting it was interesting to observe the edge/CM control used in one ski skiing. Korkut was quite competent at using his CM - much better than Haluk! - but had very little awareness of edge control or the choices available to him.

Exercise ten: top ski pivot

We started work on pivoting on the top ski and Haluk was good at this - but seriously over rotating - though I remained focussed on Korkut, helping him to understand the process. The most important part being that the feet remain below the body on the mountain at all times. It's this geometry that dictates which ski edge will be used for turning. The CM controls the turn, moving slightly forwards and slightly downhill - from vertically above the feet (or top ski in this case) to somewhere between vertical and perpendicular - but preferably closer to vertical. The adductors were obliged to be engaged throughout the turn - pulling inwards and even assisting the swing of the ski in a lateral manner.

Exercise eleven: pole grip

Korkut was holding his poles loosely by the straps so I asked him to remove the straps and hold the grips correctly between the two middle fingers and the thumb with a strong grip. It was demonstrated how a strongly weighted pole plant could act as a blocking device to pivot around and a support at the same time.

Exercise twelve: bottom ski pivot

Pivoting on the bottom ski is just an extension of the side-slip really but it can be a bit unnerving.  The bottom ski pivot requires a very good use of the pole for blocking and support and helps to make the use of the CM become more obvious. To achieve this pivot you are on the bottom ski and top edge. To remain on this edge as long as possible once again it is necessary to hold the leg inward tightly with the adductors or the ski will flatten and change edge too early. This fact makes it very clear that it's the CM which controls the turn and not the adductors themselves because this set of adductors is on the leg normally opposing this turn direction.

Exercise thirteen: swap ski pivot

This has been described in sever posts now and here as elsewhere it was used to exaggerate the placement of the CM to towards the turn centre and the very strong use of the pole.

Exercise fourteen: linked short radius pivots

Moving into short radius turns caused Korkut to immediately revert to pushing the skis outwards with a twisting/steering action. The muscle memory he has built up over many years forcing him to to the opposite from his will.

Exercise fifteen: skis off - angulation/rotation, CM control though turn completion

Once again this exercise is already well documented in this blog. The main point was to show how the CM must be driven into the turn centre right up until the turn is over and how hard it is to correctly compensate for the change in geometry relative to gravity. Most people get this seriously wrong and that's why they get spat out of turns and end up spinning out of slalom courses. The drive down into the centre mus increase drastically just before the end of the turn where it then rapidly rises out of the turn to finish. The inability to do this is also linked to hip rotation derived form pushing the skis out a attempting to steer them with a twist. This is also behind the lack of hip angulation when Korkut was side-slipping and turning on the steep - and the stiffness in his hips in general. (All of that happening despite his determined effort to "face downhill". As long as this caused him to "push out" it was completely self-defeating.)

Exercise sixteen: CM control for ski loading in carved turns

This was just a demonstration to show how the same CM control in carved turns permits a powerful loading up of the ski and directional change in carving. In both cases very good U/L is required with the emphasis in carving being on one legged skating and in pivoting a forward push of the skis. this doesn't feel like skating in the pivot because the ski is not on its inside edge.

Exercise seventeen: hip relaxation (off piste)

Once again this exercise is well documented elsewhere. This time Haluk stood above Korkut off-piste and attempted to catch Korkut's weight as he totally relaxed his hip joints - but I think that his 94kg of bone and muscle were a bit more than Haluk bargained for. 

CONCLUSION

After the instruction which lasted only a couple of hours Korkut bravely attempted to apply his learning whilst being dragged all over the place off-piste in extremely poor visibility. Needless to say there were not many obvious changes visible under those circumstances. Slightly worrying was Korkut's innocent question after completion of the lesson "Why all this pulling in, and why can't I just push the skis out?". Well, I'm sure this is a classic indicator of "awareness level" and justifies the decision to push Korkut's thinking in a completely different direction. In time the seeds sown will grow and bear fruit. I made sure that Korkut knew that the pushing out led to the locking up of the hip joint and all the technical problems that had left him physically exhausted and caused him to fall over several times.

Victoria and the "Fracture in the Fabric of the Spacetime Continuum"

Victoria did a few intensive coaching sessions with me last year and was very successful, but this year felt the need to revise and perhaps keep up the momentum of her progression.

Prior to the session I asked if there was anything that might have presented a problem or concern in her skiing since last year and after a bit of reflection she mentioned that she had a lot of trouble trying to ski on one ski - and that this was odd because she has a good sense of balance. This issue then gave me a very good point of focus for the session even though there might not appear to be any great importance to it on the surface. I described the issue as being a bit like in "Doctor Who" when a small crack in a wall actually turns out to be a crack in the fabric of spacetime itself which has to potential to engulf the entire universe. Although this issue didn't appear to signal anything significant in Victoria's skiing I suspected the Doctor Who analogy might be quite accurate. I didn't mention that I feel the term "sense of balance" is misleading, because in skiing we need to try to fall over - so the issue actually had nothing to do with "balance". It was an issue of awareness, particularly of the use of ski edges but also of the motion of the Centre of Mass.

Assessment of Victoria's skiing for development

Main strengths - Rhythm, Speed Control, Dynamics, Pole Use - A good strong skier with good coordination.

Main areas to develop - Edge Awareness, Turn Initiation/ Completion, Vertical Motion, Rotation (Eliminate),

Victoria demonstrated her current difficulty of skiing on one ski.

After a brief warm up we went straight into the appropriate exercises. My aim was to help Victoria to ski properly on one ski as soon as possible.

Exercise one: Side Slipping

Side slipping was done here with the slip being initiated by moving the CM (Centre of Mass) downhill just slightly - enough to reduce the edging so that the skis would slide. This was partly to show the connection between the CM and basic edge control.  Although skis can be flattened by use of the legs alone - that is really more of a "fine tuning" than a basic action.

Exercise two:  pivot from top leg

The main difficulty with skiing on one ski is that people jam the ski on its edge too soon. People are trained from day one to think that a ski has to be on its inside edge (inside of the turn in this case as there is only one ski) to be able to turn and this is simply not true. Pivoting from the uphill edge of the uphill ski makes it clear that a ski has another option - and one that will be shown to be much more appropriate for single ski skiing.

The turn is initiated by moving the CM slightly downhill and also forwards so the the ski front is pushed downhill. There is also a  tension maintained in the adductor muscles - sometimes pulling the ski sideways into the turn - swinging the front down. This is NOT a twisting or steering action.

Exercise three: Pushing ski against a pole

Standing with skis parallel across the hill, lift the top ski about 5cm from the snow. Place a pole in the ground downhill of the tip of the ski and right next to it. The skier pulls against the pole with the ski edge and if the ski's tail moves outwards then there is an unwelcome twisting action . If the tail drops inwards this shows that only the adductors were being used to attempt to swing the ski. Victoria was in the middle which showed that she hadn't previously identified the correct muscular action of the adductors - thus also explaining some to the turn initiation problems in her free skiing - with the turn start being rushed and as sudden late build up of pressure resulting - because the ski was allowed to be pushed outwards slightly instead of being pulled inwards.

Exercise four: skis off

When skiers execute short turns they usually over-rotate the upper body, partly because they don't adjust for the geometry of the mountain as the skis come rapidly around.Through the short turn the body must sink down with the centre of mass being almost driven back up the hill - or the extra forces from the resistance of the ground to gravity will cause the skier to exit the turn too soon. This is most easily corrected with the skis off - but I'll not try to describe all of that here - it's just a reminder for Victoria.

Exercise five: pivot from bottom ski

Pivoting on the downhill ski. This is obviously a necessary skill for skiing on one ski. What becomes clear is that the CM must allowed to move more downhill than usual but the ski must not be allowed to flatten onto its downhill edge. The idea is to keep the ski on its uphill edge as long as possible - until it points down the fall line where an edge change is unavoidable.

Exercise six: strong pole use (including grip)

Victoria's poles were held in a weak grip with all the support coming from the straps. I asked her to remove the straps from the wrists so as to be forced to hold the grips. The best way to hold a ski pole handle is to grip tightly with the thumb and  second and third fingers - leaving the index finger and pinky loose so that the pole can swing freely with a slight motion of the wrist. There should be very little actual arm movement involved in pole use.

With a pivot from a stationary position the pole needs to be planted downhill and behind the feet. The body's weight is then moved over onto the pole - placing the CM somewhere between Vertical and Perpendicular relative to the feet. The feet however must remain below the CM so that the skis stay on their uphill edges.

When the pivot begins the pole provides a form of fulcrum - blocking the rear from sliding downhill abut permitting the fronts of the skis to slip down - taking the skier into a turn

Exercise seven: Starting on bottom ski then pivoting on top ski

This is just a trick to really get the CM more actively into the future turn (but still uphill of the feet - relative to the perpendicular). When the lower ski is lifted and pressure placed on the uphill one there is a great deal of load put on the ski pole. This is also a good way to get the message across about how strongly the pole has to be used sometimes for pivoted turns - and why in fall -line skiing such as in moguls pole planting is often critical for success.

Exercise eight: short radius pivots with independent legs

Very short radius turns were introduced to provide a practical use for the pivot - and to show how it can be done on either or both skis. Victoria was struggling with the hips rotating into the tight short turn - which is normal when learning this so instead of having the standard top leg coming around to be the bottom leg, we stood facing downhill, feet apart and kept both feet at the same level on the hill - just across from each other on the horizontal. Each ski/leg would have to rotate independently. This exercise takes a bit of work to get right but it's a very useful exercise and helps to prevent hip rotation and to free up the hip joints in general.

Exercise nine: skiing on one leg successfully

Exercise ten: pivots using bumps/terrain

We made use of the terrain to initiate pivoted turns when the skis were crossing moguls. Once the entire fronts of the skis were airborne than swinging the skis downhill became easy. This way the pivot adapts to terrain. It's interesting to note here that the "swing weight" of a ski in nowadays never mentioned in magazine reviews although it used to be a key purchase consideration in skis several years ago.

Exercise eleven: short swings

Short swings are as name suggests - a short swing of the skis into a turn - but from a jump. The skis are not "steered" or twisted with any torque though the feet - they are pulled "inwards to the turn. This is the key factor in keeping the hips loose and in stopping hip rotation. We worked on the jumping so that a fill leg extension was used - even pushing on the back of the boots to straighten the legs. When jumping in this manner the CM goes up properly in the air and the straightened legs then flex on landing to make the landing smooth and absorb the impact. Victoria was well coordinated in this exercise. In the air the skis are only sung a small amount and the rest of the turn is smoothly executed on the snow.

Exercise twelve: short swings edge to edge

Edge to edge short swings require a strong edge set and no skidding at all. There is no turn made on the snow. It is an exercise in jump, swing, land and rebound. The body has to be well positioned and pole used for support but it is a great edge control exercise. One purpose of this was to get Victoria's legs more active and to enhance as the initial video showed them to be a bit static. This (leg use) is all about controlling the CM as discussed above - especially lowering down enough to keep it inside the turn towards the end - until required to come back up out of the turn.

Observation:  full carving turns

With Victoria now skiing on one ski we moved on to address other aspects of edge control. Relatively short carved turns exposed the fact that the skis were washing out though the beginning of the turn instead of locking on in a carve from the start. As opposed to pivoted turns, carved turns DO use the inside edge to initiate the new turn - so they are the complete opposite end of the spectrum. Edge control and awareness cannot be complete without being on top of this aspect.

Exercise thirteen: countered carved turn initiation/following skis for easy edge change

It transpired that part of Victoria's edging problems were due to an inappropriate belief that it was always necessary to "face downhill". This is that main reason why weak turn initiation develops - because the "facing downhill" can cause the skis to be pushed outwards, the hips to lock and rotation to set in. (all visible in Victoria's skiing to some degree) In this case it was completely preventing a carved turn initiation. We worked for a moment on "following" the skis  and remaining square to their direction of travel so that the body would face across the hill at the end of the turn and a simple falling to the side would initiate the new turn. This tends to make the turn radius longer but guarantees a proper carved turn. When terrain is very uneven it also guarantees that the legs can soak up all the bumps - where as upper/lower body separation can make the skier unstable in such conditions. Following the skis is usually thus determined by terrain. Taking this further we actually "countered" the body to the new turn, rotating it to face slightly uphill.

Exercise fourteen: skating and dropping CM into turn

Here is was shown that facing downhill when carving is done so that the skier is actually skating downhill (in curved strides - which become arcs). When skating the body is projected from a solid grip and the feet are pushed forwards. Facing downhill in carved turns serves this same purpose. The same applies to any rounded "inside edge" turns.

Exercise fifteen: Relaxing the hip joints

Most people are strongly conditioned in skiing to "resist" at the hips. Years of training to push the skis out, twist or steer all contribute to this. The legs become locked at the hips with all the muscles fighting against each other. Correct selective muscle use requires real relaxation in a completely tangible manner. The reason we bend though the start of a turn is to get the CM down into the turn. The faster and easier that happens the better in most cases - and that is achieved by totally "letting go" - dropping like a stone with complete relaxation of all the muscles at the hip joints  - then catching again when the body has dropped and tensing the appropriate muscles. To prepare for this by exercise I stand behind the skier on the uphill side and get her to drop as if to slump into a chair with me catching and taking the load before telling her to stand up again. This trains the body to feel the correct relaxation in the hips.

Exercise sixteen: off piste with pivot

We attempted to apply the pivot in some gnarly off-piste snow but it was a little bit too difficult for a first attempt in such terrain.

Conclusion
Victoria perhaps found the lesson very informative and successful, but for me the interesting aspect lies elsewhere. Most of the material covered had already been covered almost a year ago and perhaps in more depth and over more time. So what was different this time? The difference was in Victoria's awareness. She was able to accurately interpret and perceive things that didn't sink in the previous time  - because she hadn't been ready for them on that earlier occasion. The fascinating thing is that no matter how many years a skier skis and develops this awareness can continue to grow and perception continue to alter. If anything a skier's level can be defined by her awareness. Victoria's awareness had certainly moved on and so she made the lesson successful.