 Poster: A snowHead
|
So - following on from the 'Can you tell how good someone is ? ... threads. I don't think anyone here other than GrahamN has seen me ski.
So what should I do to get better ? 
|
|
|
|
|
|
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
|
ski, at a guess:
1. lessons.
2. get mileage in, not in lessons.
3. variety is the spice of life - try new terrain/conditions.
(for anything more than those generalisations, I'd need to read all your posts - so, I'll do you a deal - I'll read all yours, you read all mine, and then report back...  )
|
|
|
|
|
|
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?
|
ski, Orange ski boots is a good start.
If you're not keen on changing your ski boots try to make your transition from one turn to another as smooth and progressive as possible; don't snap at your turns 
|
|
|
|
|
|
You need to Login to know who's really who.
You need to Login to know who's really who.
|
1. Git chore weight forward more, and keep it there.
2. Angulate more, but concentrate on keeping upper body vertical.
3. Get onto the new edge earlier.
4. Be constantly varying the turn radius. No "park and ride".
Close? 
|
|
|
|
|
|
Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
|
|
I suspect that there are very few people who would not improve by being fitter.
|
|
|
|
|
|
You'll need to Register first of course.
You'll need to Register first of course.
|
T Bar, Even when one is "as fit as a butchers pup"  ?
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
| rob@rar.org.uk wrote: |
ski, Orange ski boots is a good start.
If you're not keen on changing your ski boots... |
... paint them!
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
LARGEZOOKEEPER,
I said few not no-one. Ive never seen a butchers pup ski but I saw a dog last year going downhill a damn sight faster than me. 
|
|
|
|
|
|
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.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
ski, I also mean variety of resort - if you tend to stick to France, try Italy or Austria. If you tend to stick to Canada, try Europe, etc...
|
|
|
|
|
|
snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
|
ski
Turn - but not too quickly and not too slowly.
Stand forward, but not too far forward. And not too far back. Just so. Consider the need to adjust where you're stood as you move around the turn.
Stay mindful of everything you're doing - stay relaxed at all times. ("In the event of sudden cabin de-pressurisation masks like this will fall from the ceiling. Take the mask and breathe normally.")
Don't let the desire to improve ruin the enjoyment - and don't let the enjoyment ruin your desire to improve.
Know which bits of your body are supposed to stay still - and which bits of your body need to always be moving.
Have your legs wider or narrower depending on conditions.
...and when you know all that - could you tell me please?
|
|
|
|
|
|
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.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
You know it makes sense.
|
Wear sunscreen 
|
|
|
|
|
|
Otherwise you'll just go on seeing the one name:
Otherwise you'll just go on seeing the one name:
|
Balanced - stay balanced over sweet spot in ski for most of the time and return there when you have moved
HANDS - keep 'em in periphereal vision all the time
Poles - keep the tips moving ALWAYS... when you plant one the other starts its journey
Ski into and out of counter - not COUNTERED...
edges - Progressive edging... no slamming and holding... always be increasing or decreasing edge angle never static
Don't be lazy with inside foot - make sure you use it...
Steering - be able to add or decrease as needed from 0 to 100%
Get that outside shoulder forward at turn initiation!! (sorry one of my problems atm along with the counter thingy!)
Keep the hips correctly aligned so the inside leg does not creep forward in turn....
thats a few off my list - will any of them do?
|
|
|
|
|
|
Poster: A snowHead
|
|
|
|
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
|
|
|
|
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?
|
|
ski, Head make great skis (well, great for me) - I have a pair!
|
|
|
|
|
|
You need to Login to know who's really who.
You need to Login to know who's really who.
|
|
|
|
Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
|
|
|
|
You'll need to Register first of course.
You'll need to Register first of course.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Wear The Fox Hat,
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Ski with people who are rubbish. They make you look better.
|
|
|
|
|
|
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.
|
|
|
|
|
|
I'd say the most important thing you can do to improve is to ski outside of your comfort zone. You can ski every day for an entire season and not improve if you don't push yourself.
Now for the more technical bit. Skiing is all about getting the right weight distribution, using your *legs* to turn and not your upper body, and finally timing your compression and extension correctly.
1.) Your weight should be perfectly centred. When you stand on your ski you should feel the whole of the base of your foot in contact with you boot with the same pressure on the heal as the toe. If you lean to far back you won;t feel your toes on the boot, too far forward etc.... Imagine there is a line perpedicular to the center of your ski - you should have as much of your body behind that imaginary line as in front of it. Knees slightly in front, back bottom behind, shoulders in front. If you want to find out if you are correctly balanced then ski with your boot *completely* undone. The stiffness of a boot is only there to help you correct mistakes. If you ski with the correct balance you should be able to carve a red run with the boot undone. It's a leap of faith, but it can show you very quickly how you need to tune your stance.
2.) You should be using your leg muscles to turn - physically directing the ski by twisting and pointing it where you want it to go. If you use your upper body you are unbalanced. It might work for you but when you ski more and more challenging slopes it will start to hamper your ability to improve. The best way to learn this is to ski with one ski. Find a nice beginners slope and try to ski down with one ski. If you use your upper body you *will* fall over. The only way to turn when you have one ski is to use your legs. It's pretty difficult for the first couple of attempts but it is amazing how quickly you will pick it up.
3.) The timing of your compression and extension through the lifecycle of a turn is the final part to the puzzle. When you want to initiate a turn stand tall (the steeper the slope the faster and more exagerated this needs to be). This de-weights your ski making it easier for you to turn (see 2!). When you pass the fall line (skis straight down hill) and start to come out of the turn, you should feel yourself being compressed into the ski. Fight against it, pushing your skis hard into the snow. Initially it the compressive force will win, making you more and more compressed, but as you start to exit the turn your legs will start to win, and you can extend out of the turn. This action keeps the maximum force passing though your edge into the snow, allowing you to hold that edge and create a perfect carve. Practice practice, practice, and when you get it right you will be able to hold an edge and carve in very icy conditions.
|
|
|
|
|
|
snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
|
snow_gibbon, welcome aboard!
Interesting. I'm not sure I agree. Skis turn because they want to. Forcing a skis results in skidding=inefficiency.
Have I misunderstood your points?? It sounds as though you are describing skiing as practised pre-(somewhere around) 1998? Up-un-weighting is hardly (sadly) required on modern shaped skis?
|
|
|
|
|
|
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.
|
|
|
|
|
|
LOL. No, I'm not an old school skiier, but the suggestion has put a smile on my face! Thank you!
The extent to which a ski can turn itself is goverend by its geometery. The flex of the ski can vary the turn radius to an extent, but if you need to get a turn with a radius of say 5m out of a 17m ski you it is just not possible to let the ski make the turn. You need to steer that ski. Obviously if you are tearing down a nice groomer then it is indeed possible to let you ski carry you though the turns.
Skidding=inefficency. I'm not suggesting you skid around all your turns - I can't imagine anything more ugly! The turning of the ski should be very controlled throughout the initiation of the turn - you can still achieve your perfect railway lines. As a side note, have you noticed the recent trend of slalom skiers to *skid* some turns? As it turns out, in some cases this can be the fastest way around the pole!
Weighting - it is required to a much lesser extent on modern skis. However it is still important. The more demanding the slope the more important this is. If you want to cruise the blues/reds then you can get away with very little extension. Increase the pitch to the extent where you need to make rapid turns you will need to utilise this technique if you are going to remain in control.
|
|
|
|
|
|
You know it makes sense.
|
|
I want to see him/her do a retraction/extension turn initiated by standing tall...
|
|
|
|
|
|
Otherwise you'll just go on seeing the one name:
Otherwise you'll just go on seeing the one name:
|
snow_gibbon, he he
Always a pleasure, never a chore.
I must admit I never feel as though I am steering my skis, but then a lot of what I do is somewhat unconscious. Yes, a skis geometry influences its behaviour, but my paltry (for a one time physicist) understanding is that simply adding more weight, adds more flex, reduces radius? A ski with a long radius side cut just needs to be bent more to do a short radius turn?
I have no idea what (I can hear the audience groaning now as I come out with it again...) "radius" my all time fave 7SKs (1989) had but I could carve short radius turns on blue ice on them.
Hmm maybe we are simply talking at cross purposes?
|
|
|
|
|
|
Poster: A snowHead
|
David Murdoch,
i get harassed by the austrians every time I ski with one.... because I am an "edge addict" (blame instructor at canyone for that one he says edges are my cocaine).... so they assume i cannot steer.... we always have this discussion... you just have to have a short turn that is not pure carve in order to have a REALLY short turn... or in my Italians words (after I did some "short turns" for him - like slalom sized we would call them) "You do those turns up there(pointing to top of mountains in Switzerland direction) and YOU DIE" .... I can do a more steered turn - because my regular instructor insisted I be able to.... and taught me....
My guess as you said is that the steering is not obvious to you - because you do it unconsciously to shape the turns as you desire it to be...
|
|
|
|
|
|
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
|
| David Murdoch wrote: |
| ...but my paltry (for a one time physicist) understanding is that simply adding more weight, adds more flex, reduces radius? |
Yes and no.
Yes - more pressure (flex), applied in the right way, will give tighter radius.
As will moving your weight aft at the end of the turn (heresy!!!!!!).
No - as little tiger says, there's a limit to how much doing so will work and at some point you've got to steer, rather than just roll over the edges.
| snow_gibbon wrote: |
| As a side note, have you noticed the recent trend of slalom skiers to *skid* some turns? As it turns out, in some cases this can be the fastest way around the pole! |
Again, yes and no.
If you look at this you'll see something else in action. The skier is using the rebound energy from the last turn to get some air so that he can rotate in the air and place his edges to reduce the effective turn radius of skis.
And he's skidding a bit.
On the extension / retraction point...
- you can initiate a turn via extension (standing tall) - snow_gibbon's point
- you can initate a turn by moving your hips across the skis - David Murdoch's point
- you can initiate a turn using retraction - little tiger's point
None of these is "wrong" or "right" as a general point. Each of them will initiate the turn. The only question is when each of them is "more or less appropriate" to the situation you find yourself in...
|
|
|
|
|
|
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?
|
Hmm. Reading all this confirms my view that the best thing you can do is find a good instructor who will work out what works best for you.
I used to ski with what I thought was even weighting between ball ad heel of foot. Thanks to easiski, I now ski with weighing that feels like somewhere near the balls of my feet. The result is faster turns, and far more confidence on really steep terrain.
Now, I am not saying you should do this. What I do believe is that the only way to get things right is to actually work with a good instructor so that you find out your own physical experience of good (or as good as you are going to get) skiing.
|
|
|
|
|
|
You need to Login to know who's really who.
You need to Login to know who's really who.
|
Completely agree achilles.
The problem, of course, is that one instructor will tell you one thing and another will tell you the complete opposite.
I've been told by Warren Smith to ski with weight on balls of my feet; by my instructor in Morzine to be weighted between the ball and the heel and by a race coach in Canada to initiate with the weight on the ball of the foot and "pop" the weight onto the heel at the end of the turn...
What I've finally realised is that they're all right. It just depends on the circumstances...
...for example, we all "know" that we shouldn't let ourselves get into the backseat - but then you look at frame 6 of this photo and then you look at this photo and you realise that circumstances are everything.
|
|
|
|
|
|
Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
|
|
and.............relax
|
|
|
|
|
|
You'll need to Register first of course.
You'll need to Register first of course.
|
Ignoring all the BS written above, take erica's advice. Oh, and LAUGH.
If you're not laughing or smiling, then there's no point.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Hi Folks,
This is the script taken from part of chapter 14 of my film out on DVD:
'How To Survive Your First Ski Holiday'
This is one of the sections that can aply to all skiers
Recently I discovered for myself a way of thinking that reduces the
sensation of being on a slope and at the same time improves weight
placement, which improves control, therefore increasing confidence.
Whilst I was skiing steep off piste In low visibility, I began to feel that I was no longer on
a slope at all, but I was skiing along a flat surface, being pushed along by an
invisible motor or magical force. What happened was that I lost all visual
reference to the vertical. My brain had been fooled into seeing the slope as
a flat surface, over which I was moving horizontally, by a process of optical
illusion combined with my balance being tricked by my forward movement.
Later on I tried to see if ld deliberately replicate this sensation and
to my delight I found that I could. I quickly found myself more confident
on very steep slopes and skiing powder and rough chopped up snow better
than I ever have done. I haven't heard other instructors talk about this
technique, so I don't know if anyone else does it, but I would recommend
that everyone tries it for themselves.
So when you ski at moderate speed, look no further than about twenty feet,
or about two turns in front of you. Try to block out all the detail of objects
like trees and buildings that are in your peripheral vision, that give
reference to the vertical. Just concentrate on the empty piste or
instructor in front of you. Try to find the sensation that you're on a flat
surface and you're being pushed along by this invisible hand. This will place
you 90 degrees to the snow. Just as when you're standing on snow on a flat
surface, you're 90 degrees, so when you're on the slope, you're still 90
degrees to the surface. Here I'm standing in the correct ski position on
level ground, with my body 90 degree to the snow with my weight on my
toes. And when you look at this picture of Brigitte, you can see that she's
also 90 degrees to the snow, but when I revel the hidden background, you
can see from the pylon that she's not on flat snow, but is, in fact, skiing
down a gentle red run. It's the camera that's not level. If we re-frame the
shot, you can now see the slope, and most importantly, you can see that
she's not leaning forward of backwards, but is maintaining that all-
important 90 degrees to the snow. Here you can see the steepness of slope
we're on, but as we set off, I tilt the camera, which gives the impression of
the piste being flat. And it's this same illusion that the skier's looking for.
Now I admit that this is quite a complicated technique to explain,
and some people get it, and some people
don't, but whether you're a beginner or an expert, give it a try, I mean it
might be just the thing for you.
Regards to everyone
Andrew Day  www.skiday.co.uk
Andrew Day (Austrian qualified instructor) www.skiday.co.uk
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
FAQ
Thanks ! Not sure about the Solly's they are waaay out of my price range 
), it's in my interest to screw you up as much as possible 