 Poster: A snowHead
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@Old Fartbag, haha I could be accused of the same, sometimes 
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Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
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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?
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Thanks, chaps.
I have never, ever, been accused of over-thinking anything... Honest...  But it is my way, and it occasionally works. Clearly doing nothing and not thinking about it isn't working either. I prefer to call it insightful analysis 
@Old Fartbag, thanks for all the input. A lot of that is not new to me (nor the YT vids) and the Warren Smith stuff got found and practiced/used several years ago (and still is), which is partially when I think my skiing improved somewhat.
I think, however, that whilst my technique could improve in every area, there is something very specific going on with me in terms not so much of getting weight forward (though there is always the ideal boot angle issue, if I had the ultimate choice to make it such) but of keeping it there throughout a complete turn without losing it at the completion/initiation phase. Whether ultimately that's about changing stance per se or changing some subtle bit of anatomy's position/movement or just somehow keeping the forward drive going when I 'unweight' (naughty word! ) or soften or whatever I do when ending one turn and commencing another, I am very much aware that it's there and it's just becoming quite a fundamental issue as my skiing (hopefully) improves. I can do one-legged drills, etc, reasonably OK (with caution and care...), but putting it back together again with 2 legs and so on, something just goes wrong.
In practicing things at home over the last few days I am finding that it's getting better, so I will keep the digits crossed and keep an awareness of it until something works. Increased awareness of what's going on re feet and pressure and weight and things also seems to be helping.
Sadly, I think I must conclude that years of various body misuse/abuse, poor posture and 1000 other activities which aren't skiing have not left me with a body whose skeleton so easily takes all the strain off its muscles - not, at least in a position which puts my weight exactly where I'd like it for ski purposes (great for other things...). Sometimes it needs retraining or adapting from one common activity to another (which I wish to make a lot more common) or into a new and better postition. (Perhaps, of course, why I have the problem and struggle to get weight back, if something somewhere's too tight or otherwise not physically great and always pulling me backwards - which it often feels like.)
Interestingly, when I feel that I'm getting it right, the feet pullback thing almost seems to be happening all by itself. Always been quite a 'hopper' and jump turner - or 'flapper, to quote Mr Harb in an earlier YT vid on this post - so it makes sense now.
I agree that you can't practice all aspects of skiing and turns in the dry, but there's a lot which you can do to 'analyse' what your body's doing, how it moves, where the weight's going, how it changes with different footwear, angles etc. I bring home from the indoor dome certain things which I know hae gone wrong and then I try to work out why - because I'm not working them out on that stupidly-short run there! You can also do a lot of visualisation to try and embed the right thing into your brain and body.
TBH, I'm not sure that the short, busy, noisy, crudded-up, slushy snowdome is doing me huge favours in solving my issues, and I'm looking forward to the coming season when I can actually get out there and put down a decent long run and just relax and feel what's going on.
@under a new name, Waitrose???? Morrisons, Tescos and Aldi for me, I'm afraid, Sir. Is that where I'm going wrong???
Cheers for now, all
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You need to Login to know who's really who.
You need to Login to know who's really who.
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Good luck with it all....and let us know if you find that Eureka moment during your next holiday.
Maybe it's like golf....just when you think you've figured it all out, something appears out of nowhere to eff it all up!!
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Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
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An update, as requested, having finally got out on real snow in my new boots on my new AM skis 
After a bit of playing around at home - and, yes, for me it really does help and work - I realised what I was doing wrong and what I needed to do differently, and once it clicked with an 'ah ha!' moment, it's been fine (although I have been skiing on hardpack and icier stuff rather than moguls or soft or crud - but managing steeps and speed quite easily).
I took out heel lifts from my boots and that helped me get the right position and to weight and drive my boots much more easily and to get my body and weighting in a much more natural and helpful position.
Then it was really someting akin to what the Warren Smith video on loading the ski (as above, courtesy of @Old Fartbag ) shows; keeping/moving the pelvis front much more forward as I shift pressure from one ski to the other (I realised that I was kind of standing and therefore leaning backwards a bit) and then making sure that hands and arms are forward and that I'm getting the ankles and hips working more and feeling the weight both on the balls/little toes and more centrally through the arches. It's changed my stance somewhat, feels like I'm sticking my bum right out (but apparently not) but certainly works 
So, fingers crossed, that's another positive step forward.
Thanks, all, for the suggestions and assists.
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That all sounds encouraging.
In my case, if it's not feeling quite right in Longer GS type turns, it's often because my new outside arm doesn't follow the new outside ski around the turn. This is touched on by Darren Turner's video on "Skiing Stacked" (near the end of the previous page).
When I get the timing right, I seem to "Flow" better round the turn, with more ease, stability and comfort at speed.
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FAQ
