My brain fries a bit trying to follow that - and I'm sitting in an arm chair mentally switching from foot to foot. Time for bed, I think!!
Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
Love him or hate him, Harb can ski.
This imv is an interesting stop-motion video, which demonstrates his take on developing high edge angles. There are an awful lot of similarities to what is promoted by other prominent skiers atm, like Tom Gellie eg. Foot tipping; Parallel shins; Shortening the the old outside leg; toppling inwards; remaining flexed through transition; balancing on the outside ski; tightening the end of the turn for extra power and control.
Life's too short to watch a 20+ minute video, but a quick look doesn't impress me much. In many of the bits I saw (of what was supposed to be good) the skier is sitting back, not clean-carving and making massive upweighting transitional movements, essentially doing a carvy-ish short turn followed by a quick traverse then an uplift into the next turn. Not what I'd be aspiring to or teaching.
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You'll get to see more forums and be part of the best ski club on the net.
Whilst I couldn’t comment on your teaching methods, @Chaletbeauroc, naturally, I recall having “hand dragging” lessons, quite a few years ago with a BASI Instructor trainer. I do remember that the movement required to touch the snow with the uphill hand was accompanied with a slightly more back seat position, during part of the turn, than one might otherwise experience.
Ski the Net with snowHeads
Ski the Net with snowHeads
@Cacciatore, Yes, I recall hand dragging as well, more as an exercise in seeing how much angulation you can get, but to focus on it like that as if it's a desired outcome in itself is kinda missing the point a bit, IMO. TBF the video does state that it's an exercise, but I find that people sometimes fail to recognise that an exercise to get the feel of something is quite often not how you want to ski most of the time, and I'd suggest that this would fall into that category. Most important is that this demo is not a good example of carving.
snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
Chaletbeauroc wrote:
@Cacciatore, Yes, I recall hand dragging as well, more as an exercise in seeing how much angulation you can get, but to focus on it like that as if it's a desired outcome in itself is kinda missing the point a bit, IMO. TBF the video does state that it's an exercise, but I find that people sometimes fail to recognise that an exercise to get the feel of something is quite often not how you want to ski most of the time, and I'd suggest that this would fall into that category. Most important is that this demo is not a good example of carving.
Agreed…it’s a bit like doing Javelin turns. A great exercise but one wouldn’t exactly ski all day in that manner….although I suspect someone will come along shortly to say that they often do…
And love to help out and answer questions and of course, read each other's snow reports.
And love to help out and answer questions and of course, read each other's snow reports.
So if you're just off somewhere snowy come back and post a snow report of your own and we'll all love you very much
So if you're just off somewhere snowy come back and post a snow report of your own and we'll all love you very much
Great Podcast by Tom Gellie, with Deb Armstrong. She has a great, no-nonsense way of explaining effective skiing. It is a long, but very interesting listen.
I had an epiphany this winter, courtesy of Husky Dave to give him his due, and that was to actually have the middle transition bit where you have the weight evenly distributed across all points of both feet before initiating the next turn. He called it 4-8-4, where the numbers represent the number of 'corners' of the feet that are engaged with the snow. Paradoxically, it gave me the feeling of having far more time to flow through the turns. Unfortunately, the following day was our last and a complete whiteout but it was fun while it lasted.
The reason for bringing this up is that the video seems to explain how to get to the centred position without explivcitly saying that you should. I had a quick search for vids that looked at this inbetween stage and couldn't see anything obvious. In fact more common were videos suggesting you start to transition before completing the previous turn. While the two ideas aren't necessarily contradictory, the ideas in this video are far more helpful for me, thank you for posting it.
Otherwise you'll just go on seeing the one name:
Otherwise you'll just go on seeing the one name:
@Riccardo, Thank you.
I throw a lot of mud at the wall and hope some of it sticks.
Apropo of nothing in particular - Re The last (long) video I posted - Deb Armstrong said something I thought was both inciteful and helpful - "The Inside Leg/Knee is like the General and the Outside Leg is like the Army that does all the heavy lifting".
I am becoming more and more convinced of just how important the role of the Inside Leg actually is.....which is a huge change from the ideas being taught in the 70s/80s.
Just been watching this on YouTube. Came in to some criticism on here, but he makes a good point early on in the video about decent carving skiing getting blocked by angulation and not enough inclination, and that's definitely something I feel I fall in to, and as a result only just passed my longs on my L3 tech.
So, i'm going to give this exercise a go tomorrow up on the glacier, assuming conditions/weather allow it.
Will report back.
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
A long one, i'm halway through watching currently.
Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?
Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?
@swskier, I too am making my way through this video, which I find fascinating and enlightening....so thank you for posting.
It seems to me that it is a detailed breakdown of "A Short Swing adapted for the 21 Century" eg. Creating a Platform; Strong Pole Plant; Unweighting; Strong Leg Steering.
I wonder how many of us can do that very technical Hockey Stop demonstrated on the Video...which as they say, is a million miles away from what we all use to stop at the side of the slope or at a lift.
I found the explanation of Separation particularly interesting - where (demonstrated on a Hockey Stop) the hips follow the skis to some extent, while the Head, Shoulders and Pole Plant are down the hill. Trying to force your hips to always face down the hill (more like we did on straight skis), puts you in a biomechanically weak position.
@Old Fartbag, it's given me some good ideas to help Mrs swskier improve, I can see a lot of her in some of their demo videos.
It was also clear from the lying on the back exercise some of her weaknesses, particularly around her left leg/ankle, but good to see it, and help improve it.
Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
@swskier,
Quote:
Will report back.
Well... anything to report?
I am particularly interested as I first came across Tom Gellie's you tube vids during the first lockdown and the deep dive technical stuff that he does really chimes with me (it is the way I learn best). On top of that I love the way he skis. So much so that I have subscribed to his website and also signed up to the online academy that he runs.
So far over the past month I have tried to watch a couple of vids a day plus do some of his pre-season conditioning. Getting through few vids but must be several hundred all told and averaging 30 mins+ each.
I am very interested in technical aspects of skiing and have been lucky to have a lot of very good instructors over the years but even so am regularly coming across stuff that I have either never seen before or if I have I realise that Tom has a very different slant on it or I think I have something totally nailed but find out I have been doing it wrong for years
One good example are stork turns which I have done for more years than I care to remember and thought I was pretty good at until I watched Tom demonstrate and explain how to do them and I realise that in effect I have been cheating them a bit.
So this season is going to be a bit of a mission to relearn how to ski the Tom way and see how far down that road I can go (not very far at my age I suspect) and whether his academy system yields big dividends.
@snowheid, conditions were tricky to do them in, and have been every time i've skied since, fresh soft snow, which isn't ideal for this drill as it gets chopped up.
I was able to start making some progress with it, but found it tricky not to end up putting a load of weight on the inside ski. Which is exactly what I did on my final try, and not totally sure what happened but it felt like the inside ski/boot got caught up in amongst the fresh snow and bucked me over the top and I sort of flipped and landed on a mixture of my head and shoulder. Had a bit of a headache (small concussion i guess) and rotator cuff on my right shoulder is still a bit sore, so all in all, not the most successful
Then you can post your own questions or snow reports...
Then you can post your own questions or snow reports...
Came across this video yesterday which is interesting, and quite different to what a lot of people have probably been taught
don't entirely agree with this guy. What matters is what the centre of mass is doing rather than the hips, and yes moving the feet to adjust the centre of mass is probably the best way to do it but the feet are ultimately regulated by the hips which are the power-house of skiing even though in a video it looks like the hips are not moving much, the muscles of the legs and to some extent the core will act on the hips to regulate the centre of mass which should move forward at the start of the turn to engage the tip and then progressively move back to engage the tail at the end of the turn.
Ski the Net with snowHeads
Ski the Net with snowHeads
swskier wrote:
@snowheid, conditions were tricky to do them in, and have been every time i've skied since, fresh soft snow, which isn't ideal for this drill as it gets chopped up.
I was able to start making some progress with it, but found it tricky not to end up putting a load of weight on the inside ski. Which is exactly what I did on my final try, and not totally sure what happened but it felt like the inside ski/boot got caught up in amongst the fresh snow and bucked me over the top and I sort of flipped and landed on a mixture of my head and shoulder. Had a bit of a headache (small concussion i guess) and rotator cuff on my right shoulder is still a bit sore, so all in all, not the most successful
I am almost sorry I asked you to relive that experience now Hope everything is healing ok.
I am sure you will find a nice green run with perfectly pisted snow to nail it on later this season
snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
snowheid wrote:
swskier wrote:
@snowheid, conditions were tricky to do them in, and have been every time i've skied since, fresh soft snow, which isn't ideal for this drill as it gets chopped up.
I was able to start making some progress with it, but found it tricky not to end up putting a load of weight on the inside ski. Which is exactly what I did on my final try, and not totally sure what happened but it felt like the inside ski/boot got caught up in amongst the fresh snow and bucked me over the top and I sort of flipped and landed on a mixture of my head and shoulder. Had a bit of a headache (small concussion i guess) and rotator cuff on my right shoulder is still a bit sore, so all in all, not the most successful
I am almost sorry I asked you to relive that experience now Hope everything is healing ok.
I am sure you will find a nice green run with perfectly pisted snow to nail it on later this season
I'm in no real pain, I can just feel the shoulder a bit with certain movements. Hoping when i'm next back on the slopes which will be the first weekend of December, the pistes should have firmed up a bit, and i'll be able to give it another go and see how it feels.
And love to help out and answer questions and of course, read each other's snow reports.
And love to help out and answer questions and of course, read each other's snow reports.
Wonderfully Geeky podcast on Ski Poles - length, use, swing-weight, position, materials etc.
What did come out of the video, is that if you are trying to get big angles when skiing, or ski a lot of moguls - the chances are that your Poles are probably too long to be ideal. It looks like adjustable poles are the way to go, as the length should ideally change with what you are trying to do - if you care about such things!
Other than getting my own well-fitted boots, the single biggest equipment related improvement in my skiing was switching from 115 to 105 poles. (I’m 5’5”).
Apart from no longer feeling as though they were going to “trip me up” when carving, they force me to commit early to the new edges when doing shorter turns.
Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?
Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?
I'm sure we're all subscribers to Dear Debs uTube channel already, but she's on form here, de-bunking the old 'tea-tray' drill - on easy terrain at least...
Ted Ligety on improving edge angle while carving. Pretty much just using Javelin turns and J turns, driving the inside knee and getting the weight on the outside ski. They make it look so easy!
Here are two on carving from Joshua Duncan-Smith. The second one on dynamic carving has a drill I've never come across before called the sit down hockey stop. I don't how effective it is for us mere mortals but I'll give his drills a try on my next trip.
@olderscot, I was watching this second video just yesterday. I'll give the drill a try Friday afternoon when I next ski.
Then you can post your own questions or snow reports...
Then you can post your own questions or snow reports...
@swskier, Looks to me like you may want to be wearing old, tatty ski pants doing that drill
After all it is free
After all it is free
@snowheid, mine are wrecked and i've been meaning to buy new ones all season anyway!
You'll get to see more forums and be part of the best ski club on the net.
You'll get to see more forums and be part of the best ski club on the net.
@olderscot, I'm a big fan of the way JDS not only explains what he is doing, but why he is going it....so thank you for posting.....Only I wish it had been before I went a week ago.
I was trying to introduce more Inclination into my skiing....which felt good when I got the timing right...but didn't look like the skiing in the video!
I think the 2 drills highlighted in the second clip might have helped. I too have never seen the seated hockey stop, which looks interesting (as long as there is nobody behind who would be surprised by the manoeuvre and rear end you...Oooh Err, Missus). I can also see how using the White Pass Turn in the first part of the turn would help promote Inclination.
Ski the Net with snowHeads
Ski the Net with snowHeads
Old Fartbag wrote:
@olderscot, I'm a big fan of the way JDS not only explains what he is doing, but why he is going it....so thank you for posting.....Only I wish it had been before I went a week ago.
I was trying to introduce more Inclination into my skiing....which felt good when I got the timing right...but didn't look like the skiing in the video!
I think the 2 drills highlighted in the second clip might have helped. I too have never seen the seated hockey stop, which looks interesting (as long as there is nobody behind who would be surprised by the manoeuvre and rear end you...Oooh Err, Missus). I can also see how using the White Pass Turn in the first part of the turn would help promote Inclination.
Inclination is a big focus for me as well at the moment, I also need to get bigger edge angles and get my hip lower to the ground. Hopefully the sitting down hockey stop might help promote that.
I very much get set with my angulation and ride through the turn, rather than inclining and progressively building up the angulation and edge angle.
FAQ
Poster: A snowHead
Hope everything is healing ok.
