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Game for a laugh... video of me skiing

 Poster: A snowHead
Poster: A snowHead
Wear The Fox Hat - for a little while I thought there was a huge degradation in your skiing - until I realised I was watching the videos back to front....

...so, from a man with such fine judgement at this hour of the night...

A huge improvement and you should be well chuffed. Nice, reasonably consistent turn radius and 90% of what you need is already there. snowHead

I'd suggest two things.

Picking up rob@rar's point about "progressive" - I think it would help you to just be more progressive throughout the whole turn as there's a fair amount of "park and ride" going on. The bottom line is that your body movements stop just before halfway around the turn. Our trainer had us doing a great exercise last season - when your body movements stop then it's time for the next turn.

I'd echo Spyderman's comment on flexion - especially at the hips where there's near zero movement. IMHO progressively flexing your hips will help your dynamic balance and make you look a heck of a lot more dynamic.

As David Murdoch will attest, my skiing is completely without fault - otherwise I'd post a video.

Must go, my trousers appear to be on fire...
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 Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
comprex, ahhh, yep, got it this time. Very subtle and a little more evident RHS than LHS.

PhillipStanton, next time you're out?
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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?
Two things stand out for me with your skiing. One is you are a little in the back seat so try standing taller thus bringing your hips forward and bend at the waist. A good exercise for this is when making a turn lift the tail of the uphill ski so only the tip is on the snow. The second is little to no seperation in your turns. Your whole body turns as one so try to get the feet to turn first. Hope this is of some help.
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Pole plant, welcome to snowHead A question: which ski are you calling the "uphill" - is it the one on the inside of the turn, or outside? At what point in the turn do I lift the tail?
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 Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
Wear The Fox Hat, Uphill is the inside ski.

Pole plant, Welcome to snowHeads snowHead
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You'll need to Register first of course.
Spyderman, I thought so, but wanted it confirmed - before the fall line the "uphill" ski is downhill of the "downhill" ski, which can be confusing!
Lifting the tail is a good exercise, and similar to the infamous "phantom move" (TM) that involves lifting and tipping the inside ski to start the turn, then holding it through the turn.
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 Then you can post your own questions or snow reports...
Then you can post your own questions or snow reports...
Hey WTFH. I have a habit of being unable to follow complicated explanations online so I focus on simple stuff that even I would be able to understand and apply.

With that in mind, I'd say: focus on the upper body. Your legs and feet seem to know what they're doing (great improvement from 2003, btw). As others have said, the separation between upper and lower body should be more dynamic and the upper body should be facing more aggressively downhill and be more forward.

Perhaps, the next time someone videos you, try to do shorter turns and see if the upper body remains in the fall line. This might also help with faster edge to edge transition.

(I am qualified to leave comments not by virtue of being an instructor (you know I'm not) but by having posted recently videos of my own skiing. If I'm wrong technically, I hope an instructor tells me so I can learn more.)
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 After all it is free Go on u know u want to!
After all it is free Go on u know u want to!
Wear The Fox Hat, here is my 2 penneth.. agreed with the other comments regarding a lack of angulation, touch narrow stance causing some balance upsets, park and riding and some back seat skiing.

Big improvement on tightening up your skiing and you ski well, close/at BASI L1 standard on medium radius i would say. To improve I think you need to think less about inputs and more about outputs. Your skiing looks as though you are very concerned about body management and posture and because of this you make "pretty" turns instead of actively steering the skis.

I wouldnt prescribe yet more drills, I think you most likely have a good set of drills from the list on the other thread (i would echo the tail raise on the inner ski though) but rather challenging yourself with more difficult terrain and doing ACTIVE short radius turns, hard, fast, aggressive and with pole plants. You may very well be doing this but it would be interesting to see your perfromance in short turns on video.

Another thing to try is to isolate movements to see what their effect is on you steering. on the easy type of terrain on the first half of the second video try to turn using only one steering element at a time. See if you can make turns using ONLY edging for instance and do not add or subtract any pressure. Or try to turn by feeling exactly the same amount of pressure underfoot while turning. lastly during slower speed turns see if you can make turns purely by rotating the legs in the hip joint with no edges engaged and consistent pressure.

Once you can "feel" this in the OUTPUT of your skiing it makes it easier to do drills that work on the inputs of body movement, posture, balance etc....

this is a bit "soft" but you need to be less concerned about "demonstrating" turns to the camera and instead ripping up the mountain by steering where you want to go. Toofy Grin
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You'll get to see more forums and be part of the best ski club on the net.
Wear The Fox Hat, you are seriously brave! Well done you for asking and fantastic for everyone to reply so generously (and politely!) [I have no video of myself skiing, but if I did, I'd rather stick pins in my eyes than post it on 'tinternet. Shocked ]
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 Ski the Net with snowHeads
Ski the Net with snowHeads
horizon,
Quote:
As others have said, the separation between upper and lower body should be more dynamic and the upper body should be facing more aggressively downhill and be more forward.

What was meant regarding separation was the ability to angulate the upper body in relation to the legs. In medium and long radius turns it is preferable to keep the shoulders square to the direction of travel, not square to the hill. The shoulder will face more down the hill in short radius turns, because of the speed of movements required and the higher steering angles used in short radius turns.
Ideally the angle of the upper body should be parrallel to the shins. The lack of flexion and extension is particularly relavant to the ankle and hip.
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snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
David Murdoch wrote:
PhillipStanton, next time you're out?

Indeed. Weekend of 23rd.
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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.
WTFH,

I'm not going to add to what's been said (some good suggestions and plenty to be thinking about) except to say:

1. looking much better than I remember from other vids you've posted (EPIC camp?)

2. angulation - does it FEEL like you're angulating much. I suspect it does. You'd be amazed how much more you could angulate. Just keep trying to drop that hip in further. When you fall over, you've gone too far! I think you'll find you can go along way before that happens.

Cheers,

J
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 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
PhillipStanton, Feb or Mar? If it's a week on Sat we're in CHX. If Mar - maybe Puzzled
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 You know it makes sense.
You know it makes sense.
Angulation - Think of it as sitting your hip down on to a low bar stool next to you on the uphill side or pinching the flesh between your hip bone and ribs on the downhill side.


Last edited by You know it makes sense. on Thu 14-02-08 18:21; edited 1 time in total
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 Otherwise you'll just go on seeing the one name:
Otherwise you'll just go on seeing the one name:
Angulation
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 Poster: A snowHead
Poster: A snowHead
Angulation - think of it as pinching the love handles from the inside.
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 Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
David Murdoch - a week on Saturday Sad
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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?
PhillipStanton, darn.
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