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!

Hanish

Hanish had significant stance problems – unable to hold the turning ski on edge and stand solidly on the supporting leg. We worked on the following…

• Dynamics
• Feet (front of heel, shin – anterior tibilais contracting when flexing)
• Subtaler (rocking the foot on edge)
• Adductors (holding tension)
• Skating stance
• Skating timing (down up – same as inverted pendulum of the dynamics)
• Pivoting
• Wide track skiing using dynamics

Hanish’s problems were stemming from years of skidding to brake while standing on two skis – pushing the tails out while sitting back – a legacy from snowploughs. To review the dynamics, pivot and feet work that we did just read Avni’s posts because the same procedures were used.

Hanish’s boots were correctly aligned and he could stand in a good skating posture so there was nothing really to stop changes being made. Realising all of that I decided that the best approach would be to get Hanish off the “two footed“ stance and using a very wide track stance – wide enough to force the inside /uphill leg to bend – so it could be used to extend and push the body downhill – thus simplifying the dynamics. In a very wide stance the centre of mass is uphill of one ski and downhill of the other – so you can operate the legs independently. This was the breakthrough solution for Hanish’s blockage and he was able to pressure the outside ski and make smooth stable turns with no pushing out of the tails.

Pete

Watching all four skiers carefully at the start of our session it was very clear that there was no active use of Dynamics – across the board! All four were unstable and each skier was in a personal battle against themselves just trying to ski down our green training slope. From that moment it was obvious that we would have to begin with working on Dynamics. The afternoon was divided into two main sections – Dynamics and Pivoting.

There was really no time for detailed personal feedback – this was going to be a genuine crash course in the fundamentals of skiing. At the top of this page there is are tabs with all the details for Dynamics and Pivot – with demonstrations of the pivoting and explanations of dynamics – including the exercises and progressions we used. However I will give a basic list of the subjects we touched upon.

• Dynamics – Centre of Mass into the turn
• Dynamics – building pressure during the turn (Something Hayley struggled with a little)
• Dynamics – coming up out of the turn
• Dynamics – Down/Up timing
• Dynamics – no poles used
• Feet – standing on the front of the heel below the ankle joint
• Feet – flexing – hip and knee when on the heel – anterior tibialis (shin) contracting to secure the ankle and prevent ankle and foot collapse
• Feet – rocking the foot from the subtaler joint – between the heel and ankle. Rocking onto the inside of the foot – not the outside.
• Feet – activating the adductors – pulling the knee inwards laterally – but securely and to a limited degree
• Feet – pulling inwards with the leg against my ski pole to ensure the correct sensation (had a big effect for Zoe to stop her pushing outwards)
• Feet  – Foot/Adductors/Centre of Mass – all pulling inwards (string pulling ball inwards away from a straight line)
• Skating – Down/ Up timing
• Skating – transition to skiing by adding dynamics
• Skating – propulsion on flats by “falling forward” and using gravity
• Skating – both feet rocked onto their inside edges – both sets of adductor leg muscles employed
• Side Slipping – sideways, pressure on the top edge of the uphill ski – but lower edge of the uphill foot
• Pivot – from uphill ski moving sideways , uphill edge of uphill ski, lower (inside) edge of foot – with pole support to dose the dynamics appropriately
• Pivot – from lower ski – uphill edge of ski, uphill (inside) edge of foot (Only Zoe managed this – impressively!)

We covered a great deal of material in a very short time – but with impressive results and finishing with a non-stop descent from the summit of the Bellevarde down the OK and then down the (Black) race piste into La Daille.

Avni Day 4

Today was more about applying technique than learning a lot of new details. We had one short warm up run before launching straight into action with “Feet Forward” tehcnique…

Feet Forward

When using dynamics the way to sharply tighten the turn radius is to push the outside ski forwards during the turn. Static exercises are used to cultivate the appropriate action and feeling. When this is carried out on skis there is no visibly perceivable difference to the turn other than it is much tighter – due to the ski being rendered more active.

The static exercise makes it clear that it is linked to a skating action with the leg swinging forwards and around with no twisting being involved.  This is also the first step in learning to dissociate upper and lower body activity and prevent unwanted body and hip rotation.

Shaping the Turn – Early Pressure

Avni was rushing the starts of her turns – especially on steeper terrain, so I explained that the first half of the turn should take longer and be more progressive than the second half. There was also a tendency to stem – but hard to be clear about which ski was stemming. Avni’s knee was a bit sore too so I chose to try to sort out all of this with one thing – early pressure on the uphill edge of the uphill ski during the completion of the existing turn! When turning on steeper terrain the uphill (inside leg) during the end phase of the turn is bent much more than the downhill leg – especially if the skis are held slightly more apart than usual. This flex of the leg can then be put to use by pushing up to finish off the up movement out of the turn – making it impossible to stem that ski and ensuring a full commitment to that ski and progressive start to the turn. This made Avni’s skiing much smoother and more secure. Practice is needed – but she is doing really well soldiering through her cold and lack of sleep!

Holly

Crash course in skiing fundamentals – as much as can be crammed into 3 hours with 5 students and icy pistes!

Dynamics

Our crash course was mainly centred on dynamics – all a rapid input of my standard teaching process for teaching how to not be in balance. There is a tab at the top of the page for “Dynamics” which provides a comprehensive coverage of this teaching.

Feet/Adductors

We rapidly covered the use of the feet and stance on the front of the heels – bending at the hip and knee with the shin (anterior tibialis) contracting to strengthen the ankle. From there we worked on rocking the feet onto their inside edges with the subtaler joints – and activating the adductor muscles on the interior of the legs. This is to give a proper support for the dynamics. Chris still had a strong urge to twist his foot and ski into the turn so we later took a rapid look at pivoting to show how inappropriate and unnecessary the twisting is.

End of Turn Dynamics

Work was done on the use of dynamics to complete the turn – taking the body out and over the downhill ski and changing the support foot as the body passes through the perpendicular.

Skating Timing

Timing from skating as well as the “inverse pendulum” was integrated and there was considerable success within the group for feeling this pressure cycle.

Foot Forwards

For Chris’s benefit to stop him picking up speed when turning on steeper slopes I explained how when using dynamics the turn radius is controlled by a combination of the dynamics and pushing the outside foot forwards throughout the turn. This was demonstrated without the skis on. Chris felt the difference – but there was no time for the appropriate exercises to be used to develop this. On steeper ground the dynamics has to be more pronounced and the foot pushed forwards strongly.

Pivot

There is another tab at the top of the blog for “Pivot”.

Altogether we went through the main aspects of skiing fundamentals in a great rush but with interesting and worthwhile results. My main aim was to inspire a better way of thinking of skiing altogether and show the direction for future progress and potential.