Haluk’s Farewell to the 2019 Season…

Season’s changes – (before today’s modification…)

• no comment – this was filmed just to show how good it was in Tignes at the end of April.

Billy, Patrick, Lilly, Holly 4

Carving

Introduction to “carving”. The skis run along their edges – as if locked to a railway line – no sideways drifting. The exercises started with traversing from a very shallow gradient with the goal being to hold the skis on edge and let them turn you up the hill to stop.

• Stand on inside edges of feet
• Stand on the uphill edges of the skis
• Move the body (CoM) uphill to insure the uphill ski is on its uphill edge
• At low speed the two edges act as a platform of support
• Two solid lines must be left in the snow – with a slight arc uphill

On very flat ground we then repeated the same from pointing straight downhill – then continued with very shallow turns attempting to have the skis carve all the time. Patrick struggled to keep the skis from skidding as he rushed the starts of his turns – a legacy from his “two footed” skiing and pushing the tails outwards. Patrick was encouraged to widen his stance and be patient at the start of each turn. Lilly was skidding initially but soon managed clean carving for most of her turns. Billy was amazingly quick to understand and is perhaps the fastest to learn carving that I’ve ever seen.

Group photo on the carving piste with Mont Blanc in the background…

Holly following Hunt on a green slope – then directly onto a black slope… (That’s called “trust”!)

Impressive bank of cloud in the Val d’Isère valley…

Slalom

Forget the times today – big ruts are not ideal for attempting to bring carving into slalom for the first time. Higher speed from carving is almost guaranteed to launch you straight out of the course and into the banks of snow building up outside the ruts. The course also appeared significantly slower today. In reality accurate comparisons can only be made “on the day”.  The training predictably started out with crashes – but the boys did extremely well to bring this under control, constantly adapting and becoming more stable.

Lilly

Lilly was working on developing a strong and confident impulse with the uphill leg to push the CoM into the new turn – but not only moving laterally to the skis but forward over the fronts of the skis and downhill at the start of the turns – so as to avoid being left back on the tails of the skis as they turn downhill. The aim is to anticipate the change in slope pitch (from the horizontal traverse) and the acceleration. In the video she is starting to use the fronts of the skis and is parallel even on the steeps due to successfully moving her body instead of stemming the uphill ski. 

Billy

Billy was taking a relatively slow line today (turning high on the rise line) to try to contain the speed of the carve and avoid tangling with the ruts below the gates. (I didn’t tell them that this form of line is longer and so quite slow!) Billy’s fall was mostly just bad luck (before he changed his line) – this time he wasn’t on the backs of his skis – the carving seems to have provided clearer feedback for him to be more centred. The only way to have prevented the fall (other than changing the line) was to have committed even more forcefully to the outside ski – the same thing that Lilly was working on. The line Billy had taken on this early run (and fall) was “late” due to his carving speed.  Billy’s dynamic range is starting to get interesting with the extra grip and support from carving allowing him to incline much more than before. 

Patrick

Patrick’s fall actually started at the same rut that took out Billy – and for the same reason! Patrick however stayed up until losing control at the next gate. More commitment  to the outside ski would have prevented the problem at both gates. Patrick was also later working on turning high on the rise line but what’s more important is that he managed to start to get his feet apart when necessary and start to use independent leg action. Perhaps the rough course conditions were exactly what was necessary to encourage this change to take place.

Billy, Patrick, Lilly 3

Mont Blanc today – 4810m altitude

Video

• Working on pivoting skills
• Lilly’s first black run descent
• Fastest Slalom runs
• Patrick 31.39 seconds
• Billy 31.68 seconds
• Lilly 48.82 seconds
• Billy’s spectacular crash – caused by being too far back on the skis and against the backs of the ski boots.

Today we had to begin work on “Pivoting”. The program was initiated by skating with both feet on their inside edges, then side slipping with both feet on their inside edges but both skis on their uphill edges (separating the uphill foot edge from the ski edge) – then we launched into full pivots.

The complete teaching procedure is presented here: “Pivot”  and is also reached by a tab at the top of this page.

Although the pivot is a special skill in its own right it also has a critical role in developing slalom and for skiing on steeps.

• Pulling the uphill ski front “inwards” using the adductor muscles (inside of upper leg – taught so it was felt) – to make the ski follow the CoM
• Learning that it’s not which edge the ski is on that counts – it’s which edge the foot is on that counts
• Stop trying to get on the inside edge of the uphill ski to start a turn – unless there is a clear and safe opportunity to accelerate

Lilly later used the turn initiation from the uphill edge of her uphill ski on the steeps to enable good parallel skiing – though she struggled a bit to hold this together in the race course – understandably. Lilly did incredibly well for her level of skiing – taking a deliberately slow line but on a very steep slope.

Billy was taught how to push against the magic wall from the uphill edge of his uphill ski – while remaining on the inside (downhill) edge of his foot – thus getting earlier pressure and grip from the turning ski. He was being taught this to try to provide the pressure beneath his support foot early and use the resultant postural reflexes this induces to get him to stand more centred over his feet instead of hard against the backs of his boots (which caused his earlier fall – and lack of turning power on the steep sections). When on the backs of the skis they go straight – they don’t turn!

Rise Line

Billy’s big improvement came when he understood the “Rise Line”. Until this point Billy was aiming straight for the gate and leaving the turning too late – causing him to actually turn lower and lower beneath the gates until all his speed was blown off. What you do is visualise a line from the gate in front going straight up the hill and you aim to cross this line as high up as you can – instead of aiming at the gate. Then you start the turn as you cross this line – which brings you back just under the gate itself instead of way downhill from the gate.

Patrick never quite managed to sort this out – but I don’t think he really understood it – at least with regards to putting it into practise. He seemed a bit tired today and apparently he didn’t sleep much last night. Regardless he did still have the fastest time overall quite early in the session.

Tignes glacier – early morning

The Bellevarde summit – early morning

Billy, Patrick 2

Everyone today is working on extending “Dynamic Range”.

• The skier has only one job – to fall over
• The ski has only one job – to lift the skier back up.

Patrick got his time down another 5 seconds to 32.07 and Billy down to 33.4

Skating

We worked briefly on skating on the flat:

• Diverging the skis
• Rocking the feet onto their inside edges
• Falling forwards and accelerating with gravity
• Lifting the legs up from behind when falling forwards
• avoiding using the legs for direct propulsion

Later we skated directly downhill and then introduced dynamics – converting the skating into skiing – but without the legs stopping their skating action.

Timing

The skating “down /up” timing of the legs corresponds to the down/up timing of dynamics – the toppling over into a turn and coming back up out of it. This is like a motorbike going down into a turn and back up out of it. We worked a little on this and due to his independent leg action (wider stance) billy was very good at this from the start. Patrick needs some attention in this direction due to his “two footedness”. Currently however Patrick is managing better dynamics due to his close stance – but unless he gets the legs working independently this will eventually become limiting.

Side Slipping

Increasing the awareness of the feet, ski edges and control of the skis through the motion of the CoM (Centre of Mass) we worked on side slipping on the steep sections.

• Both feet are held close together below the skier
• Both feet are rocked onto their inside edges inside the ski boots
• Both skis are on their uphill edges
• The uphill ski is on its uphill edge but the foot is on its downhill edge
• This is the first experience of feeling the independence of ski edge from foot edge.

The skis simply don’t flatten due to the lateral stiffness of the ski boot shafts running up the lower legs – allowing the edging effects

• Move the CoM downhill slightly to slip downhill
• Move the CoM uphill to stop
• Move the CoM slightly forwards to slip diagonally forwards
• Move the CoM slightly backwards to slip diagonally backwards

The motion of the centre of mass and control this provides resembles a “joystick” control.

Slalom

Billy: good work on the dynamics – falling due to drifting too much sideways in the ruts – but generally the weight is too far back and the fronts of the skis are not gripping and turning – leading to body rotation and being spun around.

Patrick: also very good work on the dynamics – sideways drift of the skis also causing falls. Less rotation than Billy but a “two footed” version of the same problems. We will work on changing this tomorrow for both of you.

Both are reaching the speed that their technical level will allow – hence the difficulty staying on line and the falls. This is all positive and part of the feedback process that exposes the need to make changes – and highlights the most appropriate things to work on at any particular stage of development.

Lilly, skiing strongly parallel, working on dynamic range, good centred stance – and nice smile!

Jules, Amelia, Ellie, Mia, Matilda, Jemima

Dense fog everywhere. Other than when filming that seemed to pose few constraints.

Continuing our “What do you want to be when you grow up” theme:

Matilda – Scientist and skier (or ballet dancer)

Mia – Scientist and skier

Jemima - “Don’t know” (However when asked what she liked doing most in the world the answer was “Skiing!” This was modified by one of her peers who said “Skiing in front of everybody else”.)

The slushy snow was a bit slow for the lightest group members so when we passed the slalom course I decided to do our technical training early today. Training involved a few runs in the slalom, some pivots with some feedback from me and some improved short swings.

Meanwhile, Jules was adding sugar to his drinks in preparation of Escape #3 – which was successfully foiled this time. Perhaps it wasn’t so urgent today because he was let off the reigns to come along with me and Ellie for a proper ski, right up to 2704m altitude and on the first ever red run for both of them. Unfortunately the dense fog meant they would be deprived of the phenomenal view from the ridge between the Meribel and Val Thorens valleys. It’s easy to forget that this was also the first week ever of skiing for Ellie – just because she’s bigger doesn’t make it any easier. The red runs were of course handled by both with consummate ease.

The only technical advice necessary on the steeps was to bring the uphill ski down close to the lower ski to facilitate a pivot at the start start of the turns – to make the starts both highly effective and quick. This prevents the uphill ski getting jammed on its inside edge at the start of the turn and turning into an accelerator pedal straight downhill.

Matilda Unleashed

Matilda joined our advanced team for the afternoon (Mia and Jemima retiring for the day early) and I was a little bit worried that it might not work because only a few days earlier she was struggling just to “stand up” on the nursery slopes. Well, her excellent appearance in the slalom and with her exercises was no deception – she had assimilated everything. After testing her out on a narrow blue – same as Jules did yesterday – she looked very capable after all. This time Matilda joined us going up to 2704m altitude and we did the entire descent into Meribel twice. She was even skiing over vertical drop-offs at least her own height and not only staying upright but really enjoying it.

Amelia led for some short video shoots. Poor Amelia has been a bit neglected this week because all the attention has gone to the complete beginners – though she has learned all the same things as they have and changed her skiing. Amelia really needs personal feedback – to improve posture and get off the backs of her boots, develop angulation and other skills. Those were subjects that the rest of the group were not ready for so there was no time to go into them during the week. In general – with correct biomechanics and physics – most “faults” vanish – so given the constraint of the varied group the focus had to be on transmitting this universal information to everyone.

Jules, Ellie, Matilda, Mia, Jemima, Amelie

First ever blue piste for the little ones – in dense fog. The huge advantage of this is that everybody stayed very close together in a line and with Jemima on form shouting at everyone who didn’t conform to her expectations we had our own built in foghorn. Everyone coped easily with the long route to the next lift which would lead to much higher, steeper and longer blue runs. I decided to go ahead with the challenge of the steeper runs while everyone was fresh.  Our only incident was when several skiers had snow stick to the wax on their skis half way down a steep section. Fortunately it didn’t take long to spot the problem and clean the skis.

While descending later on in slush Mia and Jemima tended to “plough” – but when they were told to keep the skis closer together they automatically achieved correct use of the feet and dynamics. This is because the uphill ski was allowed to stay on its uphill edge and was easy to “pull inwards” (downhill) into the new turn. This is mostly an unconscious blending of pivoting and dynamics. Having learned the two skills separately the blend happens spontaneously just by avoiding a wide, defensive stance. (When the uphill ski is held down close to the lower ski it is on its uphill edge – when spread out uphill it is on its inside edge). All I have to say to the girls though is “put your skis close together” – and immediately they are skiing parallel and with good dynamics even in slush and bumps. 

Cloud Breathing

The nose is the breathing organ – but all the children were breathing through the mouth. While in the cloud, breathing in and out through the nose lets you smell and feel the humid air differently. The slight restriction in breathing this causes increases blood CO2 – which in turn controls tissue oxygenation – giving more oxygen to your brain, heart and muscles. The greatest advantage however is that Jemima had to be silent when cloud breathing. Usually two seconds after setting off it was evident that the cloud breathing had already stopped!

Short Swings

We had a brief practise at pivoting, with Mia receiving a quick lesson having missed it yesterday and there was impressive progress all round (Mia also did some foot work indoors at the chalet in the morning). Tomorrow I’ll film the pivoting again to show the improvements. Today however it was to lead into Short Swings. The Short Swing is really a pivot but executed partially in mid air. Everything is the same but instead of pushing the body downhill against the ski pole you literally jump. (It gets more complicated but I’m keeping it simple here). The current goal is to give a method of getting around quickly when on something very steep and narrow. The exercise also enhances all the muscular coordination and movements we have been working on – but makes the legs more active and mobile.

Later, we also used bumps for pivoting the fronts of the skis downhill, making great use of otherwise challenging terrain and conditions. The children were all enjoying the bumps and slush due entirely to the fundamental techniques they have learned being suitable for all conditions.

Slalom

The slalom was filmed from behind to show how dynamics were being used to produce good parallel skiing. Not bad for day 5 beginners! Nobody was “pushing out” the skis, stemming or getting any major movements wrong. Magic foot, Magic Pull (front of ski), Magic Wall…. all the way!

Jules successfully escapes

Impressively, Jules managed to escape this time (only 2nd attempt) – completely unseen. Just as Amelia, Ellie and I were about to leave the top of the Plattier’s lift area at high altitude in dense fog out pops little Jules from a telecabine – having navigated the lift system by himself and not wanting to stop skiing. Luckily I’d stopped to clean Amelia’s goggles or we would have been off already without him. Meanwhile his distraught mum thought he had wandered off somewhere in town far below and didn’t even imagine he had somehow bypassed everyone and followed us up the mountain. While she must have felt horrified I felt overjoyed to have him safe by me. I called his dad immediately to let him know we had him at the top of the mountain.

Until now I’d only seen Jules a bit out of control when skiing slowly with the girls and thought this might be a long, slow descent. However I immediately put Jules to the test with our short turns on a steep and narrow run that serves as a boarder cross type circuit – and he was rock solid and on my tail the whole way. The entire descent was at a good speed and Jules skied like a seasoned skier – fully in control – even over big slushy bumps and in good rhythm – leaving the stronger girls way behind. Jules definitely has the right aptitude and his frightening escape turned out to have an incredibly positive outcome.

The new rule is “Never take a lift when there is nobody you know to accompany you. Just wait at the bottom if you are lost.”  Also – all the children should have a note with telephone numbers and residence written on it.

Jules, Amelia, Ellie, Matilda, Jemima

What do you want to be when you grow up…

Jules –    Skier (policeman or fireman are too dangerous according to Jules)

Amelia – Author or Scientist (my advice – do both together!)

Ellie –     Actor or Singer

Wet and Dry Humour

Amelia says my humour is “bad” because she can’t tell when I’m joking. I explained that it is “dry” humour and that in contrast her humour – which comes from her joke book - might probably be called “wet” humour. So we agreed that I’m bad and Amelia is wet.

Poles for Petites

Time for the little ones to have their poles, because they are all skiing quite confidently without them. However the poles aren’t just for pushing along the flats; they serve a specific purpose which would be immediately introduced. No it’s not the mindless “pole plant” at the end of a turn. All would be revealed by learning the “pivot”.  The challenge would be in teaching a group of children something that in reality is formidably technical – without losing them completely along the way. Even the bigger children would be learning this from scratch.

Pivoting (Magic Pull)

Full details of “pivot” teaching are found here: “Pivot” (Tab also at the top of the blog page)

Dynamics requires forward speed (like a bicycle) and the ski works by providing lifting power as your centre of mass falls over – and there is no use of the ski poles. In contrast Pivoting is about travelling completely sideways – no forward speed at all – and using the pole solidly downhill from the body to prevent the centre of mass from falling. In both cases the centre of mass operates the skis and drives the entire system but the two mechanisms are completely different: Dynamics – support from the skis and Pivot – support from the poles.

Once the separate skills are learned then they can be blended together in degrees.

The pole planting seen here on video is completely spontaneous after being only physically assisted through one single pivot to feel what it is like – and free practice for a few individual pivots.

The main purpose of teaching this so early is to enable “fall line” skiing – the ability to turn tightly in a narrow couloir – without long traverses across the hill. The trick is in making the skier aware that there is no need to start the turns on the inside edge of the uphill ski – so that the uphill ski can slip into the turn (on its uphill edge) by the leg pulling the front of the ski inwards following the centre of mass. The skier must stand on the outside (uphill) edge of the (uphill) ski while being aware of standing on the inside (downhill) edge of the foot. Jules needed a bit of clarification here but still got the idea.

We initially worked on an exercise by lifting a ski and pulling the front against a pole planted in the ground between the two ski tips. When pulling the inside edge of the ski against the pole you look at that ski tail to see if it is twisted outwards or if it falls inwards bringing the heels together. If the ski tail twists outwards the skier is trying torque the ski and using the wrong muscles so this must immediately be corrected to learn the correct muscular sensations. Pulling the tip inwards is the opposite from “stemming” or “plough” where the tail is pushed outwards. It is counter intuitive and needs to be learned – using the opposite muscle coordination from stemming.

The Magic Wall uses the Magic Foot and now also the Magic Pull – all of this directed inwards to the centre of the turn.

Jules, Amelia, Ellie, Mia, Matilda, Jemima

Magic Wall

Today everyone skied in a disciplined manner down to the slalom area. The aim today was to remain in this area for a while to begin more serious work on ski technique – sorry, wrong terminology there – …work on magic!

How do you explain to a child that when you are standing upright you are really an “open, dissipative, feedback driven disequilibrium system” – and NOT in balance? Well I demonstrated that quickly with my two ski poles – but better ask them what they saw because I either write a book on it or we just agree to call it magic for the moment.

The “Magic Wall” was taught quite simply – the full breakdown of the procedure is found at this link “Dynamics” (Also tab at the top of the blog for the fixed “Dynamics” page) The goal was to get the children to move the centre of mass much more into each turn and use to slalom to encourage that. The invisible “Magic Wall” is what they trust and lean/push hard against – it NEVER lets them down – as long as they believe in it.

Magic Foot

The Magic Foot is the one that holds you against the Magic Wall. This means standing on the front of the heel beneath the ankle joint, then rocking the foot onto its inside edge (using the subtaler joint – between the ankle and heel).

Both the Magic Wall and Foot brought visible changes in everyone.

Great photo of Jules with the Magic Wall and Magic Foot

The Great Escape of Jules

Towards the end of the day Jules made his solo escape – straight down the main slope towards the bottom of the mountain – bypassing the slalom area lift system and heading straight into town. He almost got away with it but as I plunged down an off piste wall to go after him he somersaulted and his great escape was over – all that remained now was to walk all the way back up the hill because we could not continue down without the others.

Now Jules the escapee took full blame for this misadventure – but is that really what happened? No – not really. He had inside help!!!  …Instead of following my instructions to stop and wait with me until Jules was beside us – Matilda and Mia headed off on their own towards the button lift. They didn’t respond to my calls so I set off after them to stop them. When I caught them I turned around to find Jules – and there he was on his break for freedom! Now I had to think quickly and abandon everyone up the hill and get Jules to return him to the fold. The real masterminds were in fact Matilda and Mia.

Firmer rules and security are going to be implemented from here on in. 

Perhaps Jules was more suspected because he had almost fallen off the roof of the grotto already today.

Jules, Jemima, Mia, Matilda Ellie, Amelie

Everyone making great progress – but all with one thing in common – the need to move the centre of mass much, much more. That is – move the body inside the turn much more and to avoid all pushing outwards of the ski and leg or any rotations of the body or leg to attempt to turn the ski. I think tomorrow we can begin technical work…

Here’s an example of real use of the centre of mass.

Interesting note here – I photographed the ingredients of the commercial children’s sun cream: Counted 39 ingredients – most of them chemicals that are incomprehensible. I’m using for myself nothing but healthy or natural ingredients: Raspberry seed oil, Wheatgerm oil, Shea butter, organic beeswax, zinc oxide powder, peppermint essential oil. Overall SPF around 30 – add more zinc and go white for glaciers! SPF 30 means only 1/30th of light gets through.



Out of interest I looked up – just three chemicals ‘Bis-Ethylhexyloxyphenol Methoxyphenyl Triazine’ was the first…

“In Europe, Bis-Ethylhexyloxyphenol Methoxyphenyl Triazine is an approved UV filter, which means that this ingredient can be added to sunscreen products that are designed to protect the skin from the sun. In Europe, sunscreen products are considered cosmetic products. In the United States, sunscreen products are Over-the-Counter (OTC) drugs and only certain ingredients have been approved by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for use in these products.

In assessing sunscreen active ingredients, the FDA reviews both safety and efficacy. The safety and efficacy of Bis-Ethylhexyloxyphenol Methoxyphenyl Triazine has not yet been reviewed for sunscreen use by the FDA and it cannot be used in sunscreen drug products in the United States. For cosmetics and personal care products in the United States, Bis-Ethylhexyloxyphenol Methoxyphenyl Triazine can be used as a UV light absorber. In this case, the ingredient serves to protect the product from deterioration by absorbing UV light.”

Proplyparaben was the second – turns out to be an estrogen mimicking compound.

The third was - Benzyl benzoate – which  “has low acute toxicity in laboratory animals. It is rapidly hydrolyzed to benzoic acid and benzyl alcohol. Benzyl alcohol is subsequently metabolized to benzoic acid. ... Benzyl benzoate can be a skin irritant when used as a topical scabicide.”

Jules, Ellie, Jemima, Matilda, Mia, Amelia

Day One Skiing

Beginner’s exercises found here:  http://skiinstruction.blogspot.com/p/beginners.html

Alex, Michael Day 2

Another shaky start to the day from Alex – but this time the side slip was managed unaided. The lack of confidence however was clear so we needed to get a proper breakthrough today.

Video

The video shows:

• Good use of dynamics – with control over body rotation
• Individual pivots
• Dynamics incorporating angulation – counter rotating the pelvis

Conscious Skiing

Skiing is really about connecting with your own body and through that then connecting with the environment – and it’s a pretty special environment in the snow and high mountains. The movements we have been working on all interconnect and become self-reinforcing and focussing internally – inside the body – literally centres the mind. Yes – this leads to overall control of the centre of mass – and great skiing. Unfortunately all of this quality quickly evaporates when skiing with friends and attention is drawn towards group dynamics and needs. Do everything possible to keep your focus targeted. Skiing is an individual experience – between you and the mountain and you within yourself.

Dynamics Revision

Today’s session began by looking to see where everyone was technically. Alex had slipped back a bit but Michael was more or less where he ended up the day before. My attention had to fall on Alex for the moment. After a bit of revision of the issues to focus on – mostly around committing-to/standing on the new outside leg Alex was back to where he had previously left off.

Dynamic Range

Both skiers had a glaring lack of dynamic range so I explained “The Magic Wall” and how you cannot fall with dynamics – the ski getting exponentially more powerful as you increase the dynamic range. Competent increase in dynamic range is proportionate to the increase in security and stability.

Both managed to increase dynamic range a little – but what appeared to be holding them back the most at this stage was that both were using whole body rotation (Alex the most) to force the body around into the turns and hence lose organisation of the foot and leg support and control of the outside ski.

Control of Rotation

Just clarification and awareness of the rotation issue was enough to bring Alex the breakthrough he really needed to free up his skiing. Swapping the forced rotation with a conscious use of the legs – foot/adductors/centre of mass – and realising that this absolutely had to happen BEFORE the body was turned by the skis (instead of by twisting the body ahead of the skis) – Alex was able to feel secure enough to increase his speed and get better feedback (stronger forces) and stability.

Michael was rotating with his right side at the start of his turns to the left – but he was not quite managing to correct this so I decided to introduce another aspect of dynamics.

End of Turn Dynamics (Dynamics Part 2)

Sometimes the emotionally driven “rotation” issue can be eliminated by learning to complete the turn using a “neutral” phase between turns. This is when the downhill ski is used to support the skier coming up out of the turn at the turn completion – all the way until the skis are flat on the snow – travelling across the slope – the skier perpendicular to the mountain. The skier feels like he is falling over the front of the downhill ski into the void! It’s scary – but fun – because it always works. The skier’s mass has crossed over the vertical into the perpendicular so there is an unstoppable flow into the next turn – hence no need for body rotation!

Pivot

We only had a couple of shots at pivoting today – but this was backed up with a fair few steep side slips earlier on. The definite improvement is visible in the video. Both skiers still do not have the reflex to do this when needed though – they revert to snowploughs! Work at it!

Hip Angulation (ChiSkiing)

The main reason for brining this subject in towards the end of the session was to warn against the health dangers of “facing downhill” without properly understanding what this means. In skiing terms this is really called “hip angulation” but it is more complex than it first appears. This property being completely absent in both skiers it was also obvious that if the teaching was successful then it could also dramatically improve the control of rotation.

Notes on “ChiSkiing” (Tab at top of blog page also)

Hip angulation can be seen here – the angle specifically at the hip joint.

First of all I asked Michael to “face downhill” while standing stationary across the slope. He turned his shoulders. Asking him to put out his hands in front I placed a ski pole for him to hold across his hands and then put some weight on this so he had to pull up. What this does is put pressure on the feet – through the body – and all he could feel was the lower back instantly hurting. We then repeated this but by only turning the pelvis to face downhill and when the pressure was applied there was no back pain – only a reflex contraction of the abdomen to protect the back. The point is that If the shoulders are turned – twisting the spine from the top down the downhill (weight bearing) hip ends up in front of the ribs and posture collapses – endangering the back when pressure builds up. When instead the pelvis is turned it pulls the hip backwards away from the front ribs and then pressure under the foot activates the contraction of the abdomen to protect the spine.

The pelvis is effectively “counter rotated” during the turn – which is a strong antidote to body rotation.

Simplifying this – it’s all one leg! Foot, adductors, hip(pull back),  centre of mass.

Both Alex and Michael looked stronger immediately when skiing with this addition so it was the right time to introduce it. The last part of the video today is with this included.

Skating Rhythm

Our very last pitch was an opportunity to demonstrate how the down/up timing of the “inverted pendulum” action of dynamics is complimented by the down/up skating action of the legs – making the legs more functional and the skiing stronger by adding muscular impulses.

We stood facing downhill – skating directly down the fall line – with a little speed you can then “fall inwards” by adding dynamics – then the skis arc and soon don’t need to be stepped – the skating morphs in skiing – but the legs keep on working and maintaining the skating action and rhythm. Michael found this effective and strong because he is a skater – but Alex successfully connected with it too.

Alex, Michael Day 1

The steep entrance to the Vert training slope was very challenging for Alex at this stage – perhaps partly due to the icy surface. Side stepping and side slipping down took a fair bit of attention and time – but every moment was useful and constructive. Michael was clearly far more comfortable and experienced so that allowed me to take care of Alex properly. When arriving at the training slope I decided to start completely from scratch – using the unique beginner’s teaching methods that I’ve developed over the past 23 years. Not only would this give Alex the best chance of rapid success but it was probably also the best option for Michael, beginning again with a clean slate and discovering exercises that would provide clarity and deeper understanding.
Most of the teaching process is shown in graphic detail here: Beginners  (There is a tab at the top of the blog for this too)

Video

The video was taken after most of today’s work. Michael is skiing very parallel and Alex is growing in confidence. Alex is still pushing the ski tail outwards at the very start of turns on steeper ground – especially the left ski – and often twisting the ski into the turn. However in general he skis with a good degree of successful dynamics. There is no “perfection” in skiing and just improving aspects by degrees has an overall impact. Skiing is “holistic” in the sense that you can remove parts but the whole will still function.

Beginning

There were a few specific things added to the “beginners” exercises that are worth mentioning here. When skating on the flat we used gravity/falling forwards for propulsion. Both feet were rolled onto their inside edges for gripping with the ski edges. I explained that this was a sensation that had to be maintained with the feet and legs all the time – with the skis parallel. The skating helps to get the legs active, mobile (instead of rigid) and to make the sensation of the feet on their inside edges very clear. This would be used in developing further skills later on.

Alex had to become aware of his tendency to stare at the ground and lose perspective of his speed – but he did a good job of overcoming this.

Dynamics

We used my standard teaching progression for dynamics. There is a tab at the top of the blog named “Dynamics” which takes you to a fixed describing the teaching and principles behind it.

The most important point to remember is that “You have one job; to fall over. The ski has one job; to lift you back up”.

Feet

• Stand on the front of the heel – directly below the ankle joint

• When flexing use the hip and knee – the ankle stiffens reflexively if weight is kept on the heel

• Shin muscle “anterior tibialis” tenses up – ankle only bends to around 12° – same rake as the boot shaft

• Shin touches the front of the boot

• Use the subtalar joint beneath the ankle to rock the foot onto its inside edge

• Forefoot turned outwards – away from the turn

• Feel this activating the adductor muscles – inside of upper leg

• Feel the knee pull laterally inwards but stop at its limit (instead of wobbly and twisting inwards as happens when the ankle collapses)

Turning - In this order: Foot / Adductors / Centre of Mass – this is what you say to yourself when moving the centre of mass into a turn. The outside leg is all you have to be concerned with. Meanwhile both feet actually remain on their inside edges all the time.

The ski boot alignment and size were checked and static exercises carried out with one boot off. This is important because you cannot see what’s going on inside a boot and you cannot feel the function of the joints clearly either.

Centripetal Force

The turning ski drives you “inwards”, away from a straight line. This why it is called a “centripetal” force. With the strong stance on the outside ski and by rocking the foot on its inside edge (forefoot turned outwards) and holding the adductors taught – driving the centre of mass inwards – you develop the turn. Everything “pulls” inwards. In the “beginners” exercises we principally learn to propel the Centre of Mass inwards with skating steps – instead of pushing the ski tails outwards.

Don’t push the ski out

The skis are always trying to flatten – which is how the actually lift you up if you work properly with them. If the ski tails are pushed outwards then the leg twists and this causes the foot to flip onto its outside edge and the ski to flatten – losing almost all functionality.  In addition the wrong muscles are used – on the outside of the leg – pushing out instead of pulling in.

Perpendicularity

Your basic stance on skis should not be “leaning forwards”. Just stand on the horizontal across a hill and feel what it’s like to be “vertical to gravity”. This should be the same feeling when sliding straight downhill – the body perpendicular to the slope now. In mechanics the component of gravity pulling you into the ground is perpendicular to the ground – the other component pulls you downhill.

We did some straight running while working on perpendicularity, using skating steps into turns and then just the motion of the centre of mass.

Side Slipping

Keeping both feet close together vertically beneath the body and both feet on their inside edges the aim was to sideslip down a steep incline – using the motion of the centre of mass to both slip, stop or go diagonally forwards or diagonally backwards. Michael noticed correctly that the Centre of Mass become like a Joystick control. This of course fully applies to skiing in general – not just side slipping. The side slipping would take us onto “Pivoting” – where in its pure form there is no forward motion of the skis and the ski pole is used to control the centre of mass because there is no real lifting up effect of the ski.

Pivot

Standard progression was used here. There is a detailed page with full demonstrations accessed from the tab at the top of the page: “Pivot”

You have to work on this diligently – but only in small chunks at a time as it can be frustrating.

Combing Dynamics and Pivot

The reason for working on the Pivot at this early stage was to get across the message that it’s absolutely not necessary to get the outside ski onto its inside edge to turn – and eventually to see that all that’s important is being on the inside edge of the foot. The ski will turn from either edge – following the centre of mass.

Avoiding Rushing The Turns (With Dynamics)

Alex had a tendency to anxiously rush the starts of the turns on steeper terrain. Once the "acceleration” phase of the turn is accepted and that this is not a thing to fear – the second half of the turn bringing speed under control – then it’s easy to avoid that impulse to rush the starts. Good skiers avoid forcing the ski around to get it downhill and skid  to brake – instead controlling speed just through the overall line and change of direction. Alex was able to feel how he could obtain better control with this change.

 

Independent Leg Action

I wanted to make the starts of the dynamic turns more solid and effective for both Alex and Michael so we did an exercise of turning with a very wide stance. The uphill leg is bent as a turn is being completed when the stance is very wide so you use it to force the body – by extending that leg – both out of the existing turn and strongly into the new turn. This gives a powerful and stable grip at the start of the new turn and ensures competent dynamics.

Anthony, Suzanne, Olivia

Anthony and Suzanne had not skied at all this year so far and only had a few weeks of experience altogether – so there was a short warm up and some time allocated to get used to sliding again. This is useful time for me to spend observing also. Despite having a clear overall goal to aim for, each individual may have their own ongoing issues to be accounted for within the teaching approach. Both skiers were a little bit rigid and on the backs of the ski boots – something very normal for inexperienced skiers, mainly as they are unconsciously keeping the body vertical to gravity. Learning any new skill requires time, even with accurate information. It takes time to build awareness and separate out body parts – even individual muscle actions. The main goal today was to make sure correct basic mechanics, biomechanics and concepts were put in place – a prerequisite to any real development.

The video clips show Before / After learning basic Dynamics.

Dynamics

Anthony and Suzanne received my standard teaching progression for dynamics. It takes time to assimilate and iron out any confusion that might arise when learning this. There is a tab at the top of the blog named “Dynamics” which takes you to a fixed describing the teaching and principles behind it.

The most important point to remember is that “You have one job; to fall over. The ski has one job; to lift you back up”.

Dynamic Range is the goal in skiing – increasing how much you can move your centre of mass. In contrast “balance” is simply a HUGE MISTAKE. You feel “stability” derived from organising accelerations – not from “balance”. 

Feet

• Stand on the front of the heel – directly below the ankle joint
• When flexing use the hip and knee – the ankle stiffens reflexively if weight is kept on the heel
• Shin muscle “anterior tibialis” tenses up – ankle only bends to around 12° – same rake as the boot shaft
• Shin touches the front of the boot
• Use the subtalar joint beneath the ankle to rock the foot onto its inside edge
• Forefoot turned outwards – away from the turn
• Feel this activating the adductor muscles – inside of upper leg
• Feel the knee pull laterally inwards but stop at its limit (instead of wobbly and twisting inwards as happens when the ankle collapses)

Turning - In this order: Foot / Adductors / Centre of Mass – this is what you say to yourself when moving the centre of mass into a turn. The outside leg is all you have to be concerned with. Meanwhile both feet actually remain on their inside edges all the time – feeling like squeezing a tennis ball between the legs.

The main issue is to ensure that the ankle does not collapse and leave the boot holding you up instead of your leg. Instability generated by this issue contributes to the skier ending up being thrown to the back of the boots again – compounding problems. Creating a solid stance from the foot upwards, then using this as the support for good dynamics – provides the basis for accurate feedback and auto-correction to develop naturally.

Centripetal Force

The turning ski drives you “inwards”, away from a straight line. This why it is called a “centripetal” force. With the strong stance on the outside ski and by rocking the foot on its inside edge (forefoot turned outwards) and holding the adductors taught – driving the centre of mass inwards – you develop the turn. Everything “pulls” inwards. 

In the final part of the turn you still hold the foot and leg the same way but you allow the ski to lift you up – effectively taking you out of the turn as it keeps on turning but your body doesn’t! We didn’t have time to get into the dynamics for finishing a turn – but teaching the “pivot” would later help to sidestep any issues that might have developed. In the future it is however critical to learn how to exploit the dynamics to finish the turn.

Don’t push the ski out

The skis are always trying to flatten – which is how the actually lift you up if you work properly with them. When stuck on the backs of the boots then the skis can manage often to flatten (without lifting you) and so flatten the foot and twist the heel outwards. This was happening a bit with Olivia on both sides and with Suzanne on her left leg. With Suzanne it was happening more at the turn initiation and with Olivia it was near the end of the turns. Fight to get the entire turn with the foot rocked onto its inside edge and the forefoot twisted outwards.

Perpendicularity

Your basic stance on skis should not be “leaning forwards”. Just stand on the horizontal across a hill and feel what it’s like to be “vertical to gravity”. This should be the same feeling when sliding straight downhill – the body perpendicular to the slope now. In mechanics the component of gravity pulling you into the ground is perpendicular to the ground – the other component pulls you downhill.

When you begin a turn you launch the centre of mass downhill so that as the skis come around from the horizontal traverse you find yourself perpendicular and sliding downhill. Often there is a small “forwards” projection too – anticipating the acceleration – so you launch the body into the turn with dynamics and a slight forward projection. This is actually how skilful it is staying off the backs of the ski boots!  Work on this and experience will accumulate. Only experience will provide you with the ability to get this right in all situations.

Timing

The timing for the turn is “down into the turn” and “up out of the turn” – exactly like a motorbike going through a corner.  There is no need for pole use here. Follow the skis and don’t complicate matters by trying to “face downhill” – unless done correctly that can be dangerous for the lower back.

Anthony – holding your hands down low by your sides is what gives you the “bent over” appearance. Just imagine you have a hula-hoop in front of you and you are holding the outside rims – “goalkeeper” or “ready” position. Keep the hands up at this height – but some work is needed on your posture too. Protect yourself meanwhile by avoiding trying to “face downhill”. Just move laterally to the skis for dynamics. 

Pivot

Standard progression was used here. There is a detailed page with full demonstrations accessed from the tab at the top of the page: “Pivot”

Everyone understood this well and started to feel the effect. You have to work on this diligently – but only in small chunks at a time as it can be frustrating.

The main reason for brining this into the picture is to remove the dogma that obliges people to try to always start their turns on the “inside edge “. The only important thing is how we move and control the Centre of Mass! (for the moment this smooths out the turn transitions without being full experts with dynamics)

Skating

Skating is fundamental to skiing – providing timing and muscular impulses compatible with the “inverted pendulum “ of the motorbike cornering. We had a moment on the flats where we did a little bit of skating – diverging the skis and rocking both the feet on their inside edges. This is the same sensation that I was referring to earlier when I wrote that both feet  remain on their inside edges all the time when skiing!

The trick when skating on the flat is to fall forward - using gravity – and just lift the legs from behind and step/place them underneath the body. Propulsion then comes from gravity itself. Anthony and Suzanne struggled here – showing that work in the direction would be a valuable asset.

Rhythm

Racing is all about “rhythm” and “breaking rhythm”. Courses are set to strict regulations regarding both – in slalom 6 turns max of the same rhythm and 3 turns min – with various pole configurations for breaking rhythm. Our idea of rhythm today was just to show how dynamics generates flow and continuity between turns – when you avoid killing the energy by sticking a traverse between each turn.

Andrew - Sarah

Crash course in the real fundamentals of skiing. Good weather – pistes a little bit icy but OK. Andrew and Sarah have different amounts of previous experience and different issues to address but due to time constraints there would be minimal opportunity for individual feedback. The goal was to give a broad and comprehensive picture of the building bocks of skiing skill – to impart a different “way of thinking” about skiing that will enable unimpeded learning in the future – and good protection from injury. 

The video consists of “before (without dynamics)” and “after (with dynamics)” parallel skiing, pivoting and “foot forwards” technique exercises.

Outline of stuff we covered…

• Dynamics – controlling direction with the centre of mass

• Feet – pressure front of heel – below ankle joint

• Bending – ankle stiffens – anterior tibialis (shin muscle) tension – shin touches front of boot – bend at knee and hip – not ankle

• Subtalar joint – rocking the foot on its inside edge – boot/shaft keeping sole from flattening and enabling constant edging of the foot

• Alignment – boots must be accurately aligned (shaft of boot adapted to leg)

• Adductor muscles activated when rocking foot on inside edge – limits motion of knee inwards

• Foot, adductors – centre of mass (global movement) In that order – outside leg of the turn

• Both legs constantly using adductors  - always on inside edges of the feet – only one leg usually “active”

• Perpendicularity – no “leaning forwards” – the goal is perpendicularity to the slope (or horizontal traverse)

• Line – good skiers use the “line” they take to control speed – poorer skiers push their skis outwards to the side to get them below to skid and then brake

• Pivoting – separating edge of foot from edge of ski – skis always on uphill edges – “fall line skiing”

• Pole – used to support centre of mass – only in pivoting

• Side Slipping – skis close together – inside edges of feet  - uphill edges of skis – moving Centre of Mass to control slip

• Independence of the legs – strong / early push of the Centre of Mass into the new turn with the uphill leg (no need to change edge before the push initiates)

• Centrifugal force – illusion! Pull everything inwards – foot, adductors, centre of mass – “pulling the string”…

• Foot Forward technique – to control turn radius on steeps while using dynamics – push forwards for increased grip and rapid turns

• Upper / Lower body separation – static exercise allowing the femur to rotate in the hip joint and avoid the body rotating

• Timing - Down / Up – explanation of how the skier moves like an inverted pendulum – down into a turn and back up out (motorcycle)

• End of Turn Dynamics – for Sarah – project the body over the front of the downhill ski to exit the turn and enter the next one (links to perpendicularity as it changes from traverse to slope) Gets you off the backs of the boots! Stand up more!

Dynamics and Pivoting

Both developments were carried out following my standard methods which can be studied in detail from the fixed tabs/pages at the top of the blog.

Andrew found the dynamics made skiing less hard work – which is correct. There was a rapid improvement which was also continued when learning to pivot removed the tyranny of the “inside edge” (snowplough legacy). His biggest change was probably due to the work on the feet giving a secure foundation and removing all the fore/aft confusion. When the stance is solid then reflexes kick in automatically, removing uncertainty and confusion.

Initially Andrew had the greater problems so he was the main focus of my attention – and that worked. Meanwhile Sarah was doing fine but was also heading for a crash because her underlying issues hadn’t really been receiving enough attention. This always happens when there are a few people together with different things going on – priority goes to where there is the most struggling. Looking back at the video I can see that Sarah was very stiff in her legs at the start – with almost no movement. The body was tilted forward at the hips – but the legs were against the backs of the ski boots, stiffening the legs. Sarah really needed more time and individual work on this – but did really well regardless. From this point onwards however there’s no point focussing on “correction”. It’s best just to persist with dynamics, pivoting and all the details. Reflexes will start to take over naturally and direct the body.

Caroline Session 2

Warm up / Revision / Mindfulness

Our warm up run over into Val d’Isère was used to focus on yesterday’s dynamics and work with the feet and adductor muscles. When you are focused on the global motion and the action of the parts of the body then you ingrain those actions, progressively moulding them into skills. This conscious activity also steadily increases awareness but more importantly it centres the mind and pushes aside distractions and anxieties.

When the pressure cycle and movement pattern are correct then reflexes function to stabilise and centre the body – so many apparent difficulties just vanish and higher levels of performance are automatically realised. We will look at how pressure under the feet activates reflexes later – but also at how the body has to be aligned correctly for this to happen.

The video shows

• Turn completion dynamics
• Side Slip
• Pivot
• Dynamics with facing the pelvis facing downhill (angulation)

Perpendicularity

When you stand on flat, level ground in ski boots and on skis you can feel quite relaxed. You feel gravity and you stand vertically, with the body slightly flexed. When on a slope and sliding you need to stand perpendicular to the slope and this achieves exactly the same feeling – part of the gravity converting into an acceleration. The component of force coming up through the snow (under your feet) is also perpendicular to the slope and is called the “Normal “ force. The point is that you are oriented to the perpendicular – not to the vertical now – but the feeling is the same and you do not “lean forwards” – it feels “Normal”.

The “lean forwards” mantra comes from trying to correct people who slide on a slope and insist of keeping their body vertical – but it’s a misleading instruction.

We do use fore/aft adjustments for various functions – but those are “additional “ actions – not fundamental basics.

Dynamics – Turn Completion

The turn dynamics consist of  three parts – we began by learning how to accelerate into a turn and next we look at how to complete a turn. Completing the turn requires the body travelling across the hill being lifted up  and so “out” of the turn – all the way beyond vertical and into the perpendicular until the skis are flat on the snow pointing across the hill – and this is called “Neutral”. We did a few static – assisted – exercises to communicate the feeling and then Caroline was able to achieve this in her dynamics – linking the turns more fluidly and hence improving her stance.

Dynamics – Developing the Turn

Towards the end of the session Caroline was struggling a little on a steeper and bumpy/icy slope. The main problem at this stage was that we had not yet worked on “developing” the turn and the fact that in the second half of a turn the forces on the ski are much greater so it lifts you up and takes over. Awareness of this issue (and experience) teaches you to drive the body harder inside the turn as it progresses and hold it until you actually need to start to come out of the turn and complete it. The rest of the dynamics have to be in place before this issue becomes evident.

Side Slip

Due to years of snowplough or stemming Caroline finds travelling sideways a bit too alien – so it needs practice. The uphill leg needs to be brought down close to the lower leg and although the uphill ski is on its outer edge that foot must be on its inner edge. The downhill foot is also on its inner edge but this corresponds to the inner edge of this ski. Both feet are on inner edges – but both skis are on uphill edges.

The slipping is controlled only by moving the centre of mass. (Likewise pivoting is only controlled by moving the centre of mass – assisted with support from the planted ski pole!)

Pivot

Use the “Pivot” tab at the top of the page to see the demonstrations and full explanations. Caroline managed this very well for a first attempt. Practice this in small chunks only.

Later when we were skiing to the Tovière lift and using foot forwards technique and the pelvis on steeper ground I saw Caroline blending the pivot with her dynamics turns – specifically because (from pivoting a few times) she was now aware that it doesn’t matter what edge of the ski you are on to start your turns!

Angulation (pelvis)

Use the “ChiSkiing” tab at the top of the page for detailed discussion.

The key here is that you do NOT turn your shoulders to face downhill because the ski will bring your lower hip around in front of your rib cage and deactivate your postural reflexes – making the spine totally vulnerable to disk damage. We did the “loading “ test with Caroline trying to lift me up while facing her shoulders downhill and feeling the strain on her lower back. The test was repeated with only the pelvis (belly button) turned to face downhill (effectively  turning the base of the spine counter clockwise to the direction of the turn and opposite to the previous situation with the shoulders facing downhill). This time the lower abdomen contracted (by reflex) and the distributed the load – protecting the spine. The loaded hip should always be behind the the rib cage and never in front.

Starting movement from the body centre – near the pelvis – aligns the femur – and leg – in the same way that we had until now been doing starting from the foot and working upwards.  So – right side of body (turning left) – pass through neutral (dynamics – skis flat) pulling right hip backwards, pulling adductors inwards, roll the foot onto the inside edge at the subtalar joint – maintain this for the entire left turn.

In the video clip the use of the pelvis makes Caroline’s turn transitions more lively. In the future this should be developed into effective “hip angulation” allowing very efficient upper/lower body separation.

Caroline Dynamics (session 1)

Fairly miserable weather day on the mountain with restricted lift operations and overcrowding on the few areas that were open – but in revenge, despite making things harder, it’s a useful time to work on technique in preparation for making most of the good days ahead.

While deciding which direction to go and then later on the chairlift I interrogated Caroline about her skiing – collecting useful information and having a pretty clear idea of what was going on even before the skis hit the snow. The first short video clip is where I watched Caroline on suitable terrain, before deciding where to step in and begin work on technique…

Caroline explained that she was nervous on steeper terrain, especially when the passages are narrow. The fact that she was already tackling reds and blacks made it clear – without need for explanation – that the “nervousness” was due to lack of control through technical skill issues. Asking Caroline to explain her technique to me told me all I needed to know – every aspect being classic ski school training (which incidentally she correctly understood and diligently applied). From the video a trained eye will see that there is no intentional use of “dynamics”, vertical timing is up/down during the turns. There is stemming to push the skis out (plough) and there is poor control at the level of the feet, boots and with fore-aft movements. Nothing there can be “corrected” – the changes have to be at a very fundamental level so we started with the introduction of “Dynamics”. Meanwhile Caroline’s basic stance was strong and there was good control over her movements in general so there were no personal idiosyncrasies to distract and delay progress.

Dynamics

The top of the blog page has fixed “tabs” that lead to pages where my standard explanations and exercises are presented. In this case I suggest going to the “Dynamics” tab because we followed this protocol accurately. Caroline doesn’t have a science background but was perfectly able to follow the logic describing the difference between statics and dynamics – and later on to understand why there are serious misunderstandings of this subject and how it affects something like ski instruction.

Dynamics is the use of “disequilibrium “ or “accelerations” “Your job is to fall over and the ski’s job is to lift you back up.”

When you fall over laterally on a forward travelling ski it immediately deforms, changes shape and cuts under your new trajectory to lift you back up. The ski is designed to “over respond” and lift you more strongly than you can actually fall – which eventually makes you realise that you literally cannot fall and your “dynamics range” is your real limitation as a skier – and not your ability to stay upright “in balance”!

Feet

Very shortly after starting with dynamics we were blocked a bit by large queues so we went indoors to look at the use of the feet and ski boots. While inside I checked the boot alignment and it was good. It helps enormously that Caroline does Pilates and clearly has a good body awareness – so when I asked to sit with the pelvis in a certain position it was done without the normal confusion I see in people!

Caroline demonstrated her current way of bending the legs – with one boot off – and predictably the weight came forwards on the foot and the ankle collapsed and the knee flopped inwards – all very dangerous but hidden inside a ski boot due to its strength. I’ll just recap the outline of the changes we made as an aide memoire.

• Weight on the front of the heel
• Flex at the hip and knee
• Engage (by reflex) the anterior tibialis to stiffen the ankle
• Ankle stops bending at 12° – shin against front of boot – legs giving the support not the boots!
• Roll the foot onto its inside edge using the subtaler joint (between ankle and heel)
• Forefoot turns out – away from the turn
• Adductor muscles engaged

Bringing this all together – the outside leg in the turn does all of the above and you can think of just “one leg” – foot, adductor, Centre of Mass – all pulling inwards during the turn. We discussed how “Centrifugal Force” is a Fictional Force (hyperlinked) and how previously Caroline had been taught to react to this fictional force by moving everything outwards in a turn instead of helping real “centripetal” (inward) forces by pulling inwards with everything and generating a solid and secure platform – with pushes you inwards away from a straight line.

Timing

The timing is now related to that of an upside down pendulum – down at the start of the turn and up at the end – like a motorbike turning on a flat track. There is no need to use ski poles and no need to use their straps either. For the moment the simplest way to progress is to follow the skis – like you follow the line of a bicycle – instead of trying to face the body downhill. The toppling /dynamics is lateral to the direction of travel.

Skating

Caroline had a quick lesson on skating – falling forwards and using the feet and adductor muscles to grip the skis on edge. This helps to begin to relate many of the aspects of skiing to skating in general.

Feet Forwards

Linked to skating is “feet forwards” technique which Caroline was shown at this stage to enable her to tighten her turns on steeper terrain when using dynamics. This is actually how turn radius in controlled in dynamic skiing (racing). Dynamics are consciously increased and matched with a rapid push forwards of the outside foot – all the leg rotation taking place in the hip joint and the foot remaining constantly rocked outwards.

The next video clip is with dynamics and then showing the “feet forwards”  static exercise in the ski boots.

Dynamics are now visible in Caroline’s movements and she reports  smoother turning and less “fighting “ her turns – which is less tiring in general. Speed should be controlled by the “line” of the turn and not by sudden braking later on in the turn. Having the correct dynamics and timing make the pressure cycle on the ski produce grip and control through the whole turn. The stiffened ankle support allows more natural centering over the skis and the postural reflexes are controlled by appropriate reflexes stimulated from the pressure under the feet. (making it easier to ski in poor visibility!)

Conscious Skiing

When your actions actually make sense – then your senses reward you with appropriate feedback. You can then focus successfully internally and the exercise resembles a moving meditation – always revealing new aspects and new levels of awareness. Visualisation also becomes spontaneous and natural. Furthermore – because you only actually see what you understand you penetrate a realm where you can actually see many things that other people can’t see at all.

Col Pers–Alistair

Just a little input regarding dynamics – separating the inside of the foot from the outside of the ski – using the inside ski to complete the “up” move though the end of the turn then continue extending (COM) down into the next turn – early pressure – always inside of the foot! Alistair’s skiing is certainly looking better than previous years – but every time I turned my head with the GoPro he stopped turning!

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Avni Day 5

Avni bravely surfaced today despite her continuing flu – with fever and all. Regardless of the adverse situation and my promise to take it really easy – we went into hardcore teaching and she skied stronger and faster than ever before – all Avni’s fault of course! She did say to me that she didn’t think she could learn anything new today but I didn’t seem to hear it.

In the video Avni is smoothly riding the outside ski from the start of the turn – instead of snatching it around and braking…

ChiSkiing

The only really new thing we did today was to begin work on upper/lower body separation – or “angluation”. We didn’t go into great depth but it is time for Avni to begin to develop awareness of this major issue.  First thing was to demonstrate how destructive the “face the body down the hill” instruction really is – twisting the base of the spine from the chest down in a manner that brings the weight bearing hip in front of the rib cage. When this unfortunate contortion occurs all the postural reflexes are disactivated and the lower back is rendered extremely vulnerable. When the weight bearing leg is loaded up the hip must be moved in the opposite direction – pulled back relative to the chest and in this case the turn. This is the “Chi” alignment – an action consciously carried out originating from the core – the “centre”. The pelvis only is organised to face downhill – not the chest or shoulders – twisting the spine slightly from the pelvis upwards in a counter rotation to the direction of the turn. Indoors we carried out static loading tests so that Avni could feel the difference when the reflexes kicked in and contracted the lower abdomen spontaneously to protect the back (generating a hydraulic sac to distribute load over the whole cross sectional area of the body instead of just though the spinal column)

Wide Track Dynamics (Independent Leg Action)

We used some wide track dynamics (bent leg extending from uphill) to help Avni re-discover early and solid pressure in her turns – this having worked extremely well for Hanish yesterday. With Avni it was more just awareness of the need to avoid snatching the start of the turn that did the job in the end.

Marni, Stephan

Most people would be happy to ski like Marni and Stephan were skiing before we changed anything and an untrained eye would be unable to detect that there were fundamental issues lurking underneath. It’s easy to suggest that the feelings of lack of control they experienced were just symptomatic of corrections and improvements being needed – but I knew for certain that major changes were required. Again, to the untrained eye , those changes would not be obvious – but to the skiers the feelings are dramatic!

We began with Dynamics and this took a while to assimilate – longer than expected. I was a little worried at this point that we might run into difficulties but it was just a slow start. We went through Dynamics with the “Magic Wall” and managed to get the basic principle across.

• Dynamics (Into the turn – standard exercises – see the “Dynamics”  tab at the top of the page)
• Dynamics (completing the turn building up pressure instead of giving in to it – controlling speed with “line” instead of braking)
• Feet (on the front of the heel – shin/anterior tibialis – bending at the knee and hip and not the ankle)
• Feet (subtaler joint – rocking the foot onto the inside edge)
• Feet (both feet being kept on inside edges – no rolling onto the little toe!!!)
• Feet (adductor muscles held tight)
• Dynamics (Completion of turn coming over the downhill ski)
• Timing (inverted pendulum – down into the turn and back up out of it)
• Your job is to fall over – ski’s job is to bring you back up – dynamics range – out of balance – feedback driven disequilibrium system
• Timing – from skating (exercise – skating straight downhill and then introducing dynamics to transition into skiing)
• Wide Track Parallel – very wide stance – uphill leg bent and used to extend and push the Centre of Mass downhill – independent leg action
• Pivot (pulling in – never pushing out – see the “Pivot” tab at the top of the page)
• Boot Alignment (Stephan’s boots were significantly under edged – and despite finding a hexagonal key it was not possible to fully correct)

On our final run down the mountain at the end Marni’s focus on her movements was being intermittently overpowered by her apprehension. I suspect just another period of working on easy terrain and consolidating the fundamentals would be enough to strengthen confidence beyond those current issues. Confidence simply comes from competence!