 Poster: A snowHead
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foxtrotzulu,
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More speed might help. Definitely try the suggestion of chasing someone a little faster down the slope.
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I did try being the camera person, in fact from the half decent footage I obtained of the other skier I don't think I made a bad fist of the job and, therefore, must have made a reasonable job of the skiing on that occasion. What I think it did was to make me keep my head up and looking forward and down the hill more, which meant that I was less preoccupied with what I was actually skiing on.
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Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
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NB. Many thanks for all the kind comments re: my outfit, and apparent weight loss 
The story behind the outfit, is that historically I have always commented about the impracticality of white outfits when I have seen them on-slope. They often look terrific, but I swore blind that I would never get one as I could see them getting filthy the moment I sat on a grubby chair lift, poma or they got rubbed against sun cream (occupational hazard of skiing in the sun as we all know!). Also, my err....body size has historically meant that mens jackets were often the only way forwards  However, I have dropped some weight lately and I saw this offer for 95% off ski jackets, OK, it's only a cheaper brand, but I knew that it would be warm in VT and I wouldn't want a warm jacket there so I thought 'well can I go wrong for £14!!' If it gets filthy after a week for £14 its almost disposable!! I actually also got the matching lime green sallies (£5 - same sale!!), but they weren't quite so comfy just yet (they will be  ). Then I was rummaging in the loft and what fell out? Those white sallies!! I got them from a SH who had bought them new and not used them, but when I got them they didn't fit me. I had always intended to ebay them, but had forgotten I even had them. So they literally rolled out of the loft at my feet and I thought, 'try 'em on'. They are a perfect fit and work soooo well with the jacket, that I thought 'what the hell, I'm spring skiing, I'll wear 'em' 
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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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Btw how does a woodentop ski?
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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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Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
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OK, I can't fix everything in one hit, so I've decided that what I want to fix first is that fishtail in the back of the skis. I didn't know I was doing it, I can't feel myself doing it, and it looks completely amateurish ('dorky' isn't actually a bad description). I must really work on getting that weight onto what will be the outside ski earlier.
Last edited by Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do. on Tue 14-05-13 15:33; edited 1 time in total
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You'll need to Register first of course.
You'll need to Register first of course.
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Megamum, I'm pretty sure ios will have some nice one legged drills at one of their workshops which will help massively.....
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Megamum, I wouldn't have thought you were old enough to remember the Woodentops! I'd quite forgotten they had servants!!
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kitenski, I actually surprised myself at how good I was on one ski when we did the lessons at the EoSB. I'm certainly no expert, but I did better than I expected I would. We did basic ski off the floor, running the tip along the ground, and lifting the uphill ski and aiming the knee down the hill which had the effect of crossing the tip of the in the air ski across the ski that was still on the ground - that felt a little disconcerting as it took a bigger effort to return the foot to the ground and I needed to allow a fraction more time to complete that.
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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.
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After watching the video, a couple of things you could try....
1. Lay completely off of BZK for a good while, empty your head and just go ski. I've seen you ski better than this on earlier vids & far more relaxed, I suspect you have taken on board far too much from other threads that don't even apply to "your" skiing and are now rigid with thoughts...paralysis by analysis!
2. Don't analyse videos of yourself clearly skiing for the camera, you're trying to do everything perfect in your own mind and as a consequence are looking completely static, better to look at videos where you are not so aware of the camera being on you, I think you'll see a better representation of your "actual" skiing!
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gatecrasher,
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...paralysis by analysis!
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Brilliant!
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snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
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Ski more miles, don't think too hard about the technical aspects, think of skiing as a means to get from A to B
Have fun
Challenge yourself occasionally, the stuff that seemed hard then becomes easier, for instance I enjoy doing steep moguls, despite my incompetence, because when I go back onto pisted runs, everything is so much easier.
If I was skiing for a week, Day one, have fun find your ski legs, Day two, have a 2/3 hour lesson, Day three have fun, but include some of the stuff from the lesson to consolidate, Day four have fun or lesson PM or lesson AM Day 5, Day 6 put into practice all stuff from previous days
My point is, there may be too much information coming through in 10 hours of lessons for you to put into practice without scrambling your brains.
It might also be worth considering trying different instructors until you find one that is on your wavelength, the lessons should be an enjoyable part of the holiday.
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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.
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Pedantica, can't claim it as mine, happens big time to golfer's too!
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Your upper body is rotating too much. Hells Bells advice was spot on. You need to keep your upper body facing downhill at all times, even as you traverse, to be better set for the next turn. You should be able to see both hands in front of you as well. Your hands don't have to be at an exaggerated height, they just need to be in your field of vision. Some instructors have students pretend they're carrying a lunch tray. Keeping the hands up and in front, and keeping your upper body faced downhill should allow you to go into the next turn more easily and confidently.
It's fine to traverse to keep your speed down if you don't want to go faster, but you need to engage and carve your skis more. This would be most easily accomplished by standing on the outer ski a little harder and consciously working to keep the ski carving on the snow. You can bring the skis across the fall line as you do now, in effect finishing your turns, but carving throughout. In this way you will develop the confidence to control your speed without feeling that you have to slide your turns, which is what you're doing now. You are disengaging and slipping your skis on purpose because you are a good skier and you know this works for you. You can do the same thing while carving by finishing your turns across the hill instead of finishing downhill.
Hope that helps. Every year, when I start the season again, I'll notice things seem off. I go through a check list which includes 1) body facing downhill, 2) hands in front, etc.... It helps no matter your level.
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You know it makes sense.
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You need to keep your upper body facing downhill at all times
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Hmm.... cue some input from the instructors on here.
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Otherwise you'll just go on seeing the one name:
Otherwise you'll just go on seeing the one name:
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| Jack wrote: |
| Your upper body is rotating too much. Hells Bells advice was spot on. You need to keep your upper body facing downhill at all times, even as you traverse, to be better set for the next turn. |
No, that's not right.
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Poster: A snowHead
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| Jack wrote: |
| It's fine to traverse to keep your speed down if you don't want to go faster, but you need to engage and carve your skis more. This would be most easily accomplished by standing on the outer ski a little harder and consciously working to keep the ski carving on the snow. You can bring the skis across the fall line as you do now, in effect finishing your turns, but carving throughout. In this way you will develop the confidence to control your speed without feeling that you have to slide your turns, which is what you're doing now. You are disengaging and slipping your skis on purpose because you are a good skier and you know this works for you. You can do the same thing while carving by finishing your turns across the hill instead of finishing downhill. |
So your advice to help control speed for a skier who is a little nervous about speed is to carve her turns more? Really?
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Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
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# 1
Rest my case!
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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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Jack, so your advising a nervous skier to carve throughtout??? that will massively increase her speed and wont help at all.
as to body facing downhill all the time, that was the case many years ago on 203cm straight skis but is no longer done day to day. i'd only do it on a very narrow off piste couloir.....
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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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Megamum seems to be quite a good skier. It was my thought that the confidence that would come from carving and finishing carved turns to control speed would take her to that next level that she wants. The good thing about skiing is that there's no one way to do it nor one way to improve. Varied advice can help...or be confusing! I will defer and leave you be as the expert here.
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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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| Megamum wrote: |
| OK, I can't fix everything in one hit, so I've decided that what I want to fix first is that fishtail in the back of the skis. I didn't know I was doing it, I can't feel myself doing it, and it looks completely amateurish ('dorky' isn't actually a bad description). I must really work on getting that weight onto what will be the outside ski earlier. |
You should really let the instructor make that decision for you. What did the instructors on the EoSB suggest that you focus on?
Asking for technique advice on snowheads is a waste of time. Yes there is some good advice but it is mixed with the bad and even the best advice is still open to misinterpretation.
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You'll need to Register first of course.
You'll need to Register first of course.
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So it is OK these days NOT to face down the hill the whole time?? Then why do we still do the exercise where we carry the poles across the backs of our wrists (and on one leg if you have an instructor that thinks you are making too easy work of it  ). I've been asked to do it several times. I did it once on a red in Les Arcs along with little short turns almost stopping with edges in on every one (we were doing techniques for skiing down the little bits of snow left on the edge of an otherwise polished hard piste), and also this last holiday in VT where it done rather more conventionally - although in VT I fancy that it was to encourage our shoulders to be at the same angle as the slope.
I have also found some more video currently being mangled by Vimeo. This is better I think, I still knew the camera was in operation, but we were on a day trip to Les Menuires and its taken a couple of days before the first one. The snow conditions are different - it was damn hard in places first thing in the morning. It's on a couple of different slopes, I am sure I am faster, and the turns are definitely better linked with less traverse. In one place its a tad steeper and it's clear that I am skidding purposefully to deal with the slope in a couple of places, also, that dreadful fish tail is still in evidence. TBH I'm pleased I've seen the video of that as I really didn't realise I did it. I'm no beginner now and by now I shouldn't be doing that and I def. want to deal with it - I might go and see our mates at HH in the summer - they might have a drill I can work on. However, on the whole I'm happier with this second lot of video - it still has many shots, but I think I look more comfortable. - Vimeo is at 58% at the moment and will have to queue before it converts (I'm a tight wad and haven't paid LOL), but it will be done later on this evening.
Last edited by You'll need to Register first of course. on Tue 14-05-13 19:27; edited 1 time in total
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Elston, Greg said I should continue doing more of what I was doing, continue working on getting the weight onto what will be the outside skis as early as possible, and believe that I can ski as, quote 'I was a good skier' unquote. From what rob@rar, put above the weight on the outside ski early should help with that fishtail, so the advice from Greg doesn't seem mutually exclusive to my 'want'.
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| Megamum wrote: |
| So it is OK these days NOT to face down the hill the whole time?? |
Like many things in skiing, the answer to that question is "it depends".
There are times when keeping your upper body very stable and following your line of momentum down the fall line will help to raise your performance (mainly performance short radius turns). There are other times when keeping your upper body square to your skis and following the path that you take down the mountain will be the best way to stay biomechanically efficient (long radius turns). The days when the only instruction was "chest to the valley" are (should be) long gone.
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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.
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| Megamum wrote: |
| From what rob@rar, put above the weight on the outside ski early should help with that fishtail, so the advice from Greg doesn't seem mutually exclusive to my 'want'. |
Yes. It's probably best to use the term "plough" or "stem" rather than fishtail. If someone asked me in a lesson for the best way to get rid of a fishtail I think I'd probably recommend feeding it to the cat.
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| Jack wrote: |
| Megamum seems to be quite a good skier. It was my thought that the confidence that would come from carving and finishing carved turns to control speed would take her to that next level that she wants. The good thing about skiing is that there's no one way to do it nor one way to improve. Varied advice can help...or be confusing! I will defer and leave you be as the expert here. |
If you carve your turns you go fast, stupidly fast if you carve on some of the terrain in the video in the OP. Going fast is not what Megamum needs right now.
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snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
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rob@rar, thank you, that is very clear. When I first started to take lessons in Switzerland, it was still chest to the valley so I have experienced lessons where that has been encouraged in the past though, as you say, not recently.
OK, a 'stem' it is then, to my mind it is a juvenile error and one that I thought (hoped!) I had moved beyond, it means I am still not doing a proper parallel turn and I had hoped that I was.
Last edited by snowHeads are a friendly bunch. on Tue 14-05-13 19:36; edited 1 time in total
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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.
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Megamum, balancing poles on wrist doesn't make your upper body face downhill...
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| rob@rar wrote: |
| Jack wrote: |
| Your upper body is rotating too much. Hells Bells advice was spot on. You need to keep your upper body facing downhill at all times, even as you traverse, to be better set for the next turn. |
No, that's not right. |
Jack I never said her upper body was rotating too much. And as I said I am not an instructor. When I did the signpost arms exercise with Easiski it was not for upper body rotation (although it does stop you facing uphill) but to adjust weight on the skis at the initiation of the turn.
Last edited by 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  on Tue 14-05-13 19:40; edited 1 time in total
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You know it makes sense.
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| kitenski wrote: |
Jack, so your advising a nervous skier to carve throughtout??? that will massively increase her speed and wont help at all.
as to body facing downhill all the time, that was the case many years ago on 203cm straight skis but is no longer done day to day. i'd only do it on a very narrow off piste couloir..... |
that my son is why you are practising your bumps.
re the myriad advice pam w's is probably most on point. Get some E or whatever stimulant makes your sort of white people dance. Put some music on that would get you on the dancefloor at a wedding. Find an unthreatening slope and just MOVE.
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Otherwise you'll just go on seeing the one name:
Otherwise you'll just go on seeing the one name:
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kitenski, I think you are right, but that only started to dawn on me during the VT lessons when I started to realise that it did have a lot to do with shoulders and not leaning into the hill. I think it would be good with exercises if instructors said, 'right, lets do this because it will encourage X,Y Z' some do and some don't. Greg actually asked us to think about what the poles exercise had done in the format that we did it this time, but I've certainly done versions of it where it hasn't been explained.
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Poster: A snowHead
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| fatbob wrote: |
| Get some E or whatever stimulant makes your sort of white people dance. |
I'm reluctant to advocate the use of stimulants of any kind, so advice on the slope might be "follow me, and don't suck".
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Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
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Hells Bells, please briefly explain 'signpost arms' exercise - I am assuming it is something to with pointing in the direction you want to travel with one arm or the other, not that I necessarily want to do the exercise without an instructor, but I just wondered what it involved.
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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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fatbob, +everything. Skiing is supposed to be fun.
Last edited by Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see? on Tue 14-05-13 19:54; edited 1 time in total
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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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| Megamum wrote: |
| Elston, Greg said I should continue doing more of what I was doing, continue working on getting the weight onto what will be the outside skis as early as possible, and believe that I can ski as, quote 'I was a good skier' unquote. From what rob@rar, put above the weight on the outside ski early should help with that fishtail, so the advice from Greg doesn't seem mutually exclusive to my 'want'. |
Exactly, forget the fishtail and focus on what Greg said. You want to focus on the biggest and most important pieces of the puzzle and the cosmetics will sort themselves out. Keep it simple and focus on the fundamentals.
| Megamum wrote: |
| why do we still do the exercise where we carry the poles across the backs of our wrists? |
To keep your hands level and in front of your body. If you drop either, or both, of your hands the poles will fall off your wrists.
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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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You'll need to Register first of course.
You'll need to Register first of course.
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Ah, so it's a separation drill, not a pole plant drill! Thanks for the link.
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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.
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| gatecrasher wrote: |
After watching the video, a couple of things you could try....
1. Lay completely off of BZK for a good while, empty your head and just go ski. I've seen you ski better than this on earlier vids & far more relaxed, I suspect you have taken on board far too much from other threads that don't even apply to "your" skiing and are now rigid with thoughts...paralysis by analysis!
2. Don't analyse videos of yourself clearly skiing for the camera, you're trying to do everything perfect in your own mind and as a consequence are looking completely static, better to look at videos where you are not so aware of the camera being on you, I think you'll see a better representation of your "actual" skiing! |
This. Stop thinking, just do. Relax, have fun - whether that's a couple of drinks, music, whatever. Try and get some movement in there, a bit of of dynamism and athleticism - you seem to be just standing on the skis trying whilst trying to work out the theory. Keep turning, rather than maintaining those long traverses.
And tell the camera dude to STFU.
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FAQ
