Avni was struggling with a bit of a cold/fever so we took it relatively easy – but she was bright and cheerful as usual and managed to make a lot of progress again.
We did a warm up run to get back into things as she hadn’t skied yesterday afternoon. Then we worked on side slipping – which Avni was far more comfortable with when her left leg was the downhill one. The main objective here was to learn to also use the uphill ski with its uphill edge while remaining on the downhill edge of the foot inside the ski boot. This is mainly preparation for pivoting.
Following the side slipping Avni used the uphill edge of the uphill ski to complete turns – finishing coming up and out of the turn using that leg and hence narrowing her stance considerably – as we had worked on during the pivoting. The far more comfortable and natural stance can be seen on the video along with Avni’s first successful pivots.
Pivoting is about the skis moving sideways and although the centre of mass pulls the ski into the turn support from the pole plant is needed to prevent the body just falling down the hill and flipping the ski onto the downhill edge too soon. Later on dynamics and pivoting can be blended providing a wide range of possibilities.
Avni with Mont Blanc in the background – Italian side.
Good group with a wide variation of technique but all with a common spirit and great attitude.
The transceiver check found one not switched on and then we went down “Mattis” off piste to check everyone out for planning the itinerary. Basically, Mattis is safe and comes out after a relatively short descent onto a piste. The snow was packed and breakable but everyone handled it well and there would only be improved conditions higher up on the North facing slopes.
Altogether we covered Mattis, then off-piste from the top of the Laisinant chair to the Signal, then the Grand Vallon and then Col Pers. The slopes were practically empty and conditions were even better than expected. Great company and great skiing!
After our warm up run Avni immediately had a pertinent question regarding the technique she is learning. The question was about how long to stay on the outside/downhill ski at the end of the turn. This couldn’t have given me a clearer signal that she was ready to move on. Yesterday we only dealt with dynamics regarding how to enter as turn and sustain it – but I deliberately never explained how to complete the turn at this stage. Today would be mainly about “End of Turn Dynamics”.
End of Turn Dynamics
When a motorbike completes a turn it comes back up to the vertical. On a slope, when skiing the skier comes back up beyond the vertical to the perpendicular (to the slope) and so is already falling into the next turn – thus linking the turns. You stay on the downhill ski until your body passes over it and the skis go flat on the snow as they cross the hill – an unstainable position but already providing the dynamics to feed your centre of mass into the next turn. The timing for the turn is characterised by the centre of mass going down towards the snow from the start of the turn and coming back up towards the end.
Skating Timing
Skating involves a down/up action of the leg and body – and in fact a turn on skis is a form of skate action but taken in an arc. I demonstrated the exercise where I skated down the hill and when there was some speed started to replace the stepping with dynamics from topping over in-between the skis – eventually eliminating the step and skiing parallel – but without ever stopping skating with the legs. Avni understood what she was observing and was able to integrate a stronger leg action into her own dynamics and use the correct timing.
Rhythm and Stability
Avni was tending to kill the rhythm by traversing between the turns instead of using the lifting power of the ski during the turn to lift her up and out of the turn. I explained that the “line” of the turn is intended to provide the slowing during skiing – you don’t need to brake or traverse to lose speed. The video shows Avni working on her rhythm and ensuring the skis are still turning when coming up from the outside ski. Rhythm generates stability and ski racing is specifically about setting poles to create rhythm and then break rhythm – set to strict international rules.
Knee Pain
The right ski was tending to stem at the start of the turns – meaning the adductors were not being used. This leaves the leg insecure and was causing some pain towards the inside of Avni’s knee. Just correcting this by making an earlier and more conscious effort to role the foot on its inside edge managed to remove the pain – when Avni remembered to do it! The shimming/canting of the boots to improve grip might be contributing to this issue due to being unaccustomed to the skis being more reactive.
Pivoting
Pivoting was introduced with an assisted exercise and some sideslipping exercises. It’s important to begin developing pivoting skills as soon as possible because they can take time and you need to chip away at it progressively. The tab at the top of the blog takes you to a full explanation of the pivot and demonstrations… “Pivot”. The purpose of the pivot is to have a turn where there is no forward sliding of the skis and dynamics are restrained by the use of the ski pole – slowing the body falling down the hill. The skis slide sideways and are always on a set of uphill edges and thus acting as brakes. You would use this to ski a narrow steep chute and keep the speed fully under control.
Avni had one run to warm up and get used to sliding after a 2 year break from skiing. It usually takes a couple of hours to really tune in again but we didn’t have that luxury. However, by the end of the first descent Avni was looking more relaxed and I’d had the opportunity to observe her movement patterns properly.
The video shows Avni before starting to make changes – one exercise on dynamics - and then skiing towards the end of the session.
Preparation
Watching and listening to Avni made it clear that her understanding and execution conformed pretty much exactly to classic ski instruction doctrine. “Pressuring the ski” meant placing the body over that ski, almost painful pressure on the shins involved flexing the ankles and knees, “facing downhill” resulted in unwanted whole body rotation and/or stemming, the up/down and pole plant turn configuration was harsh and unstable. No wonder Avni didn’t have the confidence to go fast – I’d feel pretty much the same doing all of that! The ski boots were clearly not suitable because she had no grip even standing still – but she wasn’t aware of this being an issue. The feet weren’t being used either – something critical even at a basic level.
Had I been applying standard ski instruction all of those things would be identified as caused by the skier and I’d set about “correcting the problems being caused” – when in reality they are all caused by the teaching – every single one of them!
It was from listening to Avni that made me decide to begin the lesson with Dynamics.
Whole body rotation – (when trying to face downhill) Stemming as right ski tail skids out (largely due to feet/legs)
Standard ski instruction teaches people to be in “balance” keeping their weight between their feet or skis. “Pressuring” the ski in this scenario means moving the body centre (centre of mass COM) over that ski – left ski means move the body to the left. In physics this is “statics” and it’s only one of two different ways to “pressure” but unfortunately it’s the wrong one and I knew from her skiing and verifying with questions that this is what Avni was doing.
The other way to “pressure” your left foot or ski is to use it to accelerate your body to the right – with all the emphasis on ACCELERATE. This is Newton’s second law F=Ma (force equals mass times acceleration) and the force at the foot is generated by accelerating the (COM) mass away from it – which in this case is towards the inside of a turn.
During the explanation we carried out static exercises with Avni leaning and pushing against me – then on to progressively building this into turns when moving.
The skis work the same way as a bike – you fall over and the bike changes shape and cuts a new trajectory in front of your COM and lifts you back up – but you MUST fall over for this to happen and you MUST have some speed. Skiing is absolutely not about balance – it is about dynamics.
Within a short time Avni was linking turns and remarking how it was much smoother, easier on the legs and no pole plant was required – all correct observations. She also realised we weren’t even trying to face downhill – which – as on a bike – is not appropriate. Later on we will employ such things – including pole use – but nothing like the way they are learned in conventional instruction. Just watch all the ex racer French instructors follow their skis – when skiing with clients – never “facing downhill”!
Pole Use / Timing
The skier is like an inverted pendulum – as is a motorbike going around a corner – tilting over and down into the turn and coming back up at the end. Stability is generated naturally with this down/up timing and skis are manufactured to work specifically with this – and have been so since the late 1960s. When using dynamics like this there is simply no need for a pole plant as you are up high between the turns – not crouched down stabbing the pole into the ground! The stability and feedback come from the skis and legs doing the job properly!
Boots/Feet/Adductors
I have a special way of rapidly checking ski boot alignment and skier morphology – something that took years of experimentation but eventually came to me in a moment of insight. We used this indoors and could see that Avni’s boots were significantly under-edged which made it hard for her to grip well and then mover her centre of mass from a good support. We will need to address this in the morning before the next session.
We worked on how to use the muscles and bone structure on the feet, and legs. First of all it was clear that Avni was flexing her ankle when bending and collapsing her weight onto the front of the ski boot – which means that her leg was not supporting her properly. This is initially overcome by standing on the front of the heel beneath the ankle joint and maintaining the stance there when flexing – causing the anterior tibialis (outside muscle front of shin) to contract and stabilise the ankle and foot. Bending is now at the hip and knee instead of the ankle and knee.
Standing on the heel the subtaler joint – between the ankle and heel - can be used to rock the foot onto its inside edge. This won’t happen if the ankle collapses and the foot collapses. Rocking onto the inside edge of the foot causes the leg to pull inwards slightly laterally and activates the adductor muscles on the inside of the leg – securing the knee.
Bringing it all together
Rock the foot
Engage the adductors
Move the Centre of Mass
Sideslipping
When sideslipping keep both feet rocked onto their inside edges. The uphill ski will remain on its uphill edge despite the weight going onto the lower edge (inside edge) of the foot – it’s the ski boot shaft that provides the lateral stability to permit this – hence good alignment is required.
Early commitment to the new turning ski
Similar to the sideslip use the uphill edge of the uphill ski to stand early on the uphill ski to “push " yourself into the dynamics for the new turn. This completely prevents any tendency to stem or hesitate with dynamics and gives a solid turning platform. You don’t have to change onto the inside edge of the new turning ski to be able to initiate a turn!
Video
By the end of the session the visual impression for any onlooker is that the skiing is much smoother and secure, no harsh up/down/pole issues and snatching the turns, no real stemming or significant body rotation. Very good progress for one session!
Derin’s first ever off-piste experience! The crashes are all a perfectly normal part of it. Her use of dynamics – seen when inclining in carving – is what enables her to cope without any previous experience. The deep snow causes the “lifting up” power of the ski to be amplified so even more motion of the centre of mass to the inside of the turn is required – this takes experience to adjust correctly.
Close up of the snow shows how the fractal nature makes it indistinguishable from mountains.
No photography today. The conditions – snow and weather combined were probably slightly overwhelming for any 10 year old. All good experience though.
First of all we were tricked by the Lanches chair on the Grande Motte. It was warm and sunny at the bottom – but the top was freezing, in the shade, really high winds and humidity. We skied a little then I deliberately went off the side of the piste onto a very steep wall of deep snow – without warning Derin. This is to get her used to the wild and deep snow. There was no risk involved but getting Derin to work her way down it – sidestepping and slipping – was a learning experience for her – and hopefully allowing her to see new potential ways of “playing” in the snow.
Regarding skiing in the off piste this was not the day to introduce it to Derin as that requires very light powder for it to go well. The snow was very heavy and compact making it difficult for even very experienced skiers to turn efficiently. Consequently we were forced indoors twice to warm up and dry off (using the hand drier machines in the toilets) during this session.
We tried the Tichot lift with a view to working our way around to Le Lac – but were blasted frozen on the chair. Then – after abandoning that objective we tried the Fresse and with the wind behind us on the chair it was all good until trying to ski back down – frozen again!
In the end we stayed at the Bollin and Derin grudgingly accepted to do some technical exercises – but the cold is not very tolerant of that either. Eventually we were in the café warming up again and I was being educated on “Five nights at Freddy’s”.
Altogether we worked on hand carriage, angulation, pressuring the front of the boot and front of the ski – but only for a brief periods. Hopefully tomorrow brings a better day – though I’m already considering heading down to Les Brevieres to escape winds and cold at altitude. The snow should be good down there now.
Today was another non-stop trip to Le Fornet but we managed a little bit more technical work along the way. Due to the constraint of trying to cover terrain and the limited time with a “half day” the coaching side of things becomes much more pressured – but Derin still responds very positively. We worked on both improving carving and control on the steeps. There wasn’t much time for explanations so it was “on the go” coaching – some of which was filmed…
Carving
Steeps
Short Swings
Derin standing in a sentry post constructed by Napoleon Bonaparte – they are spaced about 100 metres apart and were used for sending messages across the Alps by shouting…
The South side of Mont Blanc in all it’s dramatic glory. At the foot of this side was the Italian Celtic “Bear” clan – the Aosta valley having a long Celtic tradition and standing stone circles still present on the hilltop border with France. The Centre of the Celtic world was actually in Ankara.
Today Derin skied her first black run – an icy Face de Bellevarde. She managed without any difficulty. I’d been concerned that on the ice her tendency to rotate the body might cause problems – but either she adapted to the challenge or the work on angulation with the pelvis that we did yesterday helped.
We managed to use the “up and over” chair to Le Fornet and then came back over to Solaise on it – skiing non stop down the “L” and taking the bus back to the centre to ascend the Face on the return journey. Derin did start the session today with her usual request to ski on the Bollin – but I successfully deflected that!
The video is of Derin’s first linked carved turns with no skidding in the turn transitions or initiations. Now that she has a proper feel for this she will be able to develop it much further. Getting to this point is the hardest part for most people. Carving is the basis for racing. Speed is no longer controlled by skidding to any degree – the skis are completely locked on edge and it’s the line and trajectory taken that control speed.
We worked on arm carriage (Elbows out and thumbs turned in) and used skating on the flats.
Pivoting from the uphill ski was practised and the link between this and short turns explained in more detail. Derin needs to pull her skis closer together – bringing the uphill ski down to meet the lower ski before initiating a turn – and getting on the uphill edge (of the uphill ski) to pressure it before moving the body downhill. The effectiveness of this development in technique also depends on how well the skier can angulate. There’s a lot of work to be done… Derin doesn’t like working on technique and says “Can we just ski normally!”. Well “normal” right now might be appealing but I think we have to change that idea of “normal” slightly…
Work and play today! Derin actually allowed me to train her in technique – in exchange for a little bit of playtime in the snow! In reality she didn’t have much choice – it’s time to strengthen her technique and move forwards.
We worked on four specific areas:
Arm carriage
Skating
Pelvic Awareness
Angulation
Arm Carriage
Derin skis with her elbows close in by her sides and fists (thumbs) turned outwards . We need the exact opposite. Although we did drills (as in the video) this is really a postural issue and it will be more profoundly dealt with through developing awareness of the roll of the pelvis.
Skating
I explained to Derin that efficient propulsion in skating mainly comes from falling forwards. This is not only an exercise for getting the legs working and developing a feel of appropriate timing in skiing – it is specifically at the moment to help Derin move away from her tendency to lean on the backs of the ski boots.
Pelvic Awareness
Much more can be found written about this from the menu tab at the top of this page on “ChiSkiing”. The aim here is to become aware of the pelvis and separate out its movement and actions from the rest of the body. Derin has never really thought about her pelvis and tends to move everything else along with the pelvis. In skiing the goal is to counter rotate the pelvis against the direction of turning – so as the skis come around the turn the pelvis doesn’t. This slightly twists the spine in a favourable direction – tightening the abdomen and activating the involuntary postural muscles.
Angulation
Correct hip angulation commences with pelvic awareness. When side slipping Derin tends to push her bottom downhill and lose all angulation – instead of moving her head and shoulders downhill and the bottom uphill. Working from the pelvis we started to correct this today.
Today was all about getting Alp onto some far longer suitable runs that would provide far more opportunity for feedback and repetition. There was a minor battle with the lift company due to the only suitable lift immediately braking down and wasting about 50 minutes of our time – leaving us freezing in minus 16°C and needing to go indoors to warm up. Eventually we got going and managed to include two complete runs of the Fresse piste. Alp was only assisted on the short but overly steep start for about 150 metres – then he skied the rest by himself – half a kilometre of altitude.
There’s nothing to report today about “technique” – it was a management day but very critical for development and progress. Alp did extremely well – picking his own path in front of me when I was filming. His exclamation at the end probably sums it up best “It was my best day ever – in my whole life!” I’m sure there will be many more “best days”!
The Grande Motte glacier to the left and the Grande Casse to the right.
