 Poster: A snowHead
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Hi,
I've been lurking a while and seen a few people put up videos of themselves skiing. I wondered if anybody would be kind enough to do the same for me. As a bit of a background, have skied probably 8 weeks in total, but only before the last two weeks did I realise I need lessons and have begun each of these weeks with a 2 hour lesson.
In the lesson at the beginning of my recent trip, I was told I was jutting out my hips and that was causing me to skid. I was given some exercises like javelin turns and also pointing out my pole and drawing an arc as I turned to try and get my body straightening up to allowing me to get on my edges more. I'm not sure if that makes sense!
Anyway, here are a couple of videos. They are both quite short so hope you can get something from them. My wife was filming me, but it was her first week skiing so she couldn't really follow me with the camera (don't worry, I spent lots of time helping her, and not just getting her to film me!).
https://vimeo.com/90780708
https://vimeo.com/90785369
Many thanks for any tips!
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Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
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Hi, I am by no means an instructor (and there are many on here who are), so take my advice with a grain of salt. One thing I noticed in both vids is that you are not doing any pole plants...Is there a reason for this?
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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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I'm not an instructor either. One thing that struck me is that you are sometimes "in the back seat" (e.g. in the opening shot and 0.22 of the first video and at 0.25 in the second).
Yes, the javlin turns and the "drawing an arc" exercise make sense; as I understand it they are about encouraging angulation (and getting the weight on the outside foot) rather than inclination. But I might be quite wrong - don't worry, some qualified commentators will probably be along soon. 
You and your wife might both enjoy a "coaching week" where you could get instruction at your different levels. A couple of individual lessons is better than nothing but most of us need a lot more than that to keep bad habits at bay!
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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 foundation to work from. Just a few comments:
I'd like to see you do different kinds of turns (some short radius, some long radius) to see if you are able to change the blend of how you steer your turns.
You make a positive extension movement at the start of the turn, which is good, but you then sometimes rush the turn around the fall line by twisting your skis quite quickly. Try to make your turns more rounded so the skis don't suddenly change direction at a faster rate at some point in the turn.
At those speeds you are using more angulation than is necessary, and you are doing so by dumping your hip in to the centre of the turn and twisting it (the hips are pointing more to the outside [open] of the turn than is necessary given the speeds and forces that you are generating in those turns). Stand a bit more relaxed and just focussed on being really well balanced on the outside ski (can you pick up the inside ski, for example?) and your body should instinctively find the correct alignment and stance. This, hopefully, will deal with you standing on your heels more than you need to, especially towards the ends of turns.
As Lilledonmarco said, no pole plants. They are not essential for medium and long radius turns (although they will help), but for different kinds of turn on different kinds of terrain the pole plant will become significantly more important. Spend some time getting used to using a pole plant so it becomes automatic. This might need a change to your very wide arm carriage, which is likely to make well timed pole plants more difficult than
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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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Thanks all.
Pole plants - I decided not to pole plant as I found that it was one more thing to think about when I wanted to focus on the other things I'd been taught in the lesson. In fact, I thought about leaving the poles behind altogether, but realised I might need them for poling at points. My wide arms were about trying to keep my body more upright, I don't normally ski like that - should've mentioned that.
Angulation - I'm not sure I understand what you mean by my 'hips pointing more to the outside of the turn'. I did try lifting my inside ski at times, but I always skidded my turn which I imagine points to something very fundamental I'm doing wrong. And I definitely noticed that I was going onto my heels at the end of the turn.
I think a coaching week would be a good idea to try and sort things out. A lesson at the beginning was great, but didn't really help as the week progressed and I was probably getting into more bad habits!
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| tomneumark wrote: |
| Angulation - I'm not sure I understand what you mean by my 'hips pointing more to the outside of the turn'. |
Quick demo:
1. Stand up
2. Push your hip sideways to the left a little, but keep it facing the same direction. Now pick up your left leg. Can you balance on your right leg?
Compare with:
1. Stand up
2. Push your hip sideways to the left a little AND twist your hips so the left hip goes forwards and the right hip goes backwards. Can you pick up your left leg?
The twisting of your hips, if excessive, will transfer your weight on to your left leg, which in this demo would be your inside ski. If you transfer too much weight to your inside ski your outside ski won't work as efficiently as it should, which might account for:
| tomneumark wrote: |
| I did try lifting my inside ski at times, but I always skidded my turn which I imagine points to something very fundamental I'm doing wrong. And I definitely noticed that I was going onto my heels at the end of the turn. |
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| tomneumark wrote: |
| Pole plants - I decided not to pole plant as I found that it was one more thing to think about when I wanted to focus on the other things I'd been taught in the lesson. |
Don't try to think about too many things; one thought is plenty.
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rob@rar - yes, I see what you mean. So I guess I need to continue doing the javelin turns/inside ski off the ground much more. Anything I should be concentrating on when turning with the inside ski off the ground to prevent the outside ski skidding? Or do bodies usually work these things out naturally?
Thanks for your (and others) help. It's really appreciated
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