I’m not an instructor, but I agree with others in that you are not fwd enough. For me, to correct that, it’s as simple as moving your hands and arms. They are too low and too far back. Raise them so you see your hands in your peripheral vision.
Hello,
New here, and looking forward to getting to know people on here. Have learned to ski from about 7 years old using wedge techniques and now finally revisiting skiing since moving back to the midwest. Been going almost every weekday and taking advantage of weekly specials at local hills. I am in good shape with good ankle mobility from exercises that emphasize it. Also have taken a lesson but did not get as much out of it as I would have hoped to. It wasn't the instructor, but just not a good match for the level of instruction I was seeking, I guess. I have posted some videos below in hopes for some assistance before I start spending too much money on lift tickets repeating the same bad habits. To me, I look much different in my mind than I actually am on video so its hard to have mental triggers to fix things that feel ok to me (until I see the video of course).
Some recent improvements:
Ive narrowed my stance a little, and this has helped initially get the skis tipped faster and to help even the edge angles.
I have developed better feel for the skis more fluidly crossing under me rather than trying to swing my center of mass over the skis.
Shoulders more rounded and lower stance (attempting to flex on release).
First things that stand out:
1. A frame when I turn right (left leg downhill leg). My right leg in the gym is for sure my dominant leg when it comes to balance doing single leg exercises...and putting on socks (lol).
2. Associated diverging skis when turning right (left leg downhill leg).
3. Looks like I need to pull my inside leg back? Seems like on the video I have it wayyyy too far out in front of my hips.
Another thing to note is that I can't tip my skis much more than in the video. When I do my stance just widens out and I go into more of a wedge.
1. Can I not tip the skis more because the inside is too far forward??
2. How would or should I go about inside leg activity? (There is so much from Deb Armstrong, Tom, Effectiveskiing, etc. that sometimes it is counterproductive and honestly overwhelming!).
Some of this in the video is in midwest rutted mashed potatoes with ice underneath. Any help much appreciated!!! Thank you!
Sorry for some bad vid quality
Well, this isn't true. When you tip the ski, you bend it into an arc because of the sidecut (the center is narrower than the tip and tail; tipping the ski while standing on it causes the center to deflect) -- if the ski is moving forward, it will turn. Depending on how aft on the ski you are standing, tipping the ski may have little arc resulting. Further, the tail of the ski usually has less of a side cut than the tip, so pressuring the tail and tipping the ski usually results is less of an arc and less turn than standing in the center of the ski.Said earlier by others. The tipped ski will not turn unless the front tip is pressured. So if you tip the ski and just accelerate without turning, it means you are aft. You are just riding the rail of a straight edge. You need to get forward to bend the front edge of the ski to have the ski start turning. This is why you are throwing your skis around. They won't turn you when you ski aft like you are.
To get forward, stand up as tall as you can on the skis. Then, pull your toes up. This will settle you against the front of the boot. Your hips and butt need to be well ahead of your heels.
Try doing some traverses as tall as you can stand and really exaggerate being as forward as you can. Perhaps even with your knees straight or just barely bent. You should get some lessons to work on this (being forward) in real time. Barring that, do some video of skiing in what you think "too far forward" means. Then back off from that position just an inch or two and you'll be close to the right spot.
Liquid,@JDT,
Nice start.
Your turn entries are a little wobbly as the skis try to establish their groove. This is easily fixable.
Does it feel to you like you are gently "stomping" on the new outside ski to "pressure" it? It looks like this is what you are doing. Are you focusing exclusively on getting early pressure on the new outside ski to start the turn? This "pressuring" effort is unnecessary, and leads to a loss of turn smoothness. There's some general wobble and jerkiness you'll be happy to see gone when you figure out how to eliminate it.
Try to focus on initiating the turn by tipping the new inside ski from the foot up while shortening that new inside leg. Do nothing with the new outside ski or leg while tipping and flexing the new inside. Just wait for the outside to do its thing. See what happens. It will perform for you if your focus is strong on inside ski management. You don't need to add or put pressure on that outside ski. It will develop on its own.
This inside focus (tip and flex) should get the new inside ski edged instead of allowing it to lag behind the edging of the outside ski.
Also, slide that new inside foot back as you initiate the turn. It's getting out ahead of you every time. You don't need tips side-by-side, but you do need that inside ski to stay back as far as you can hold it. This slide-back of that new inside foot gets that inside tip to bite from the get-go.
I guess another question I have is:
How is the inside ski supposed to make the same shape as the outside ski if there is less weight on it and therefore less bend in the ski. The only other option possible would be to add steering to the inside ski to help it through the turn. A fear I have is that the inside will want to go straight on edge while the outside comes around, and tips will cross mid arc.
It's your lack of strong focus on the inside ski.Ok I'll focus on that for inside leg? I did notice it shuffles out too. Would you say its more because of this shuffle, or my stance width, why my inside edge angle seems to not develop the same way?
It's your lack of strong focus on the inside ski.
You are getting excellent advice above. Pay attention to what geepers, Francois, and Mike say.
Plus, focus exclusively for a bit on tipping and flexing and holding back the inside foot/leg/ski. Serious intense focus on the inside is called for in order to bring that ski online. Not half-hearted focus while you pay more attention to the outside. Multitasking won't get the inside ski under control and functioning as it should. You have to give it priority at first. Otherwise it's only going to partly play its role in the turn.
Get the inside ski eager to do your bidding by training your mind to pay single-minded attention to it. Later, when inside ski management becomes embedded in muscle memory, you can shift your focus elsewhere
@JDT, nice start. What I'd like to see you accomplish is to use a much narrower stance. Your stance in the most recent video is wider than your hips and the result is that your skis are nowhere near similar edge angles -- the inside ski is being pressured more than ideal and is attempting to run into the outside ski because it has less edge angle than the outside ski.
It's good that you have some feelings of the outside ski engaging and starting to push back against you. Those feelings are what you need to seek.
I'd suggest that you start to do some disciplined work on getting committed to the outside ski. First activity might be to do 3 runs of nothing but stork turns. A stork turn has you lifting the tail of the inside ski while pulling it back to attempt to bend the front of that ski. You will need to rely on the outside ski to turn you through the turn. Initially, you might try to lift the inside ski at the fall line; as you gain proficiency, try to raise the ski earlier and earlier in the turn. For extra credit, lift the tail of the new outside ski before you change edges.
The pullback of the lifted inside ski helps to develop and maintain your athletic stance, a key component of skiing.
Give it a try, send video, and let us know what you find from doing the drill. Does it help you to find balance on the outside ski? Do you find that the inside ski is no longer a prop? And do you find that your arc is more carved from initiation to finish?
Mike
Hey Mike
I do have weight almost everything on my outside ski. I’ve actually been doing many of these MS hip hike drills on flatter terrain.
I am also able to lift the inside leg and am actively pulling up my leg as the arc progresses. While shortening the leg does allow a little more edge on that outside ski, it gets to a point where I can’t get much past say 25-30 degrees or so on that outside ski. Are there any drills you may have in mind to help keep shins parallel? My next step will be to get a 9” or 12” loop band to strap around my legs…and really focus on tilting that inside ski in first.
The feeling I feel when I turn is that:
Weight is off the inside ski
Tip the outside ski (and inside a little bit)
The first thing I see is my stance start to widen even though pressure is still over my outside.
Of course looking at the video, all of the associated symptoms of my lack of inside leg discipline seem to be culminating: A frame, slight hip dumping on steeper terrain, etc. I feel like I go more into this stance instead of a true parallel shin carve