drills to improve edge releases

[AmyPJ]

Don't laugh, but my stem step turn goes away on steeper terrain.

 

[Bruce]

@Bruce they are great drills, but I find TFR and OFR very hard to do without coaching and qualified feedback. It is much too easy to do them wrong, defeating their original purpose... And self-coaching those is quite hard if one does not have the entire background there...

Totally agree. There's no way to do this first time unless by accident ... after which it was practically impossible to repeat that accident.

 

[Noodler]

When skiing and drilling, make sure you don't stop when the skis are flat on snow - start flattening and un-tipping the ski off the old edges right through skis flat and continue tipping on the new edges (without twisting or pivoting the skis).

FIFY

 

[Tlri]

Double the number of releases as your normal run.

 

[karlo]

my problem now is fixing my muscle memory.

Perhaps. But that doesn’t change the appropriateness of what @James wrote. When coming to a standing position on a floor, how much muscle memory does that take? Getting oneself to stand in a sloped slippery floor takes more than muscle memory.

 

[karlo]

Double the number of releases as your normal run.

Very cool.

A couple weeks ago, I saw Dan Egan do something similar. Three edges and three releases in a turn, but different focus than Plake. No pivoting, just carving, simply carving with more or less edge angle. Pure versatility and agility. My first interpretation of what I saw was more like what Plake is doing, edge, unedged pivot, edge. I shared with Dan that that didn’t feel like what he was doing, my pivoting. I got Dan’s stock answer, “don’t do that.” and off he went to the next topic. Beautiful answer.

 

[Dudeabides]

Two things come to mind-

Make sure you have a sufficiently countered position between your upper and lower body (i.e. your shoulders/hips are facing somewhat down the hill and your skis are pointing across it). If you finish your turn with your upper body facing the same direction as your skis, it becomes more difficult to flatten your downhill ski- the downhill leg/hip will get in the way of your core moving across the skis and down the hill. ...There is a lot in there, let me know if you want clarification on anything.

Try flexing your legs (making them shorter) to enter the turn. Be patient, and try not to extend your legs until you have engaged your new set of edges.

 

[Brock Tice]

1. side slip drills
2. Steep bumps. Your tails will tell you really fast if you're releasing properly. Focus on moving your body downhill, dive into the turns.

 

[François Pugh]

In my annual check-up ski lesson, my instructor pointed out that I'm not always releasing my old downhill edge effectively at the end of my turns. We worked out some strategies for getting a better release, the one that really seems to work for me is visualizing rolling my downhill foot down the hill by pulling the arch of my foot away from the snow. And then of course following this with pointing the inside knee/pinky edge into the turn.

So that's all well and good, but I'm having a hard time getting this movement to be automatic. Especially if I get a bit nervous due to steepness or snow conditions, I hang on to that old edge for too long and screw up my transition.

Does anyone have any suggested drills or other things I can do to cement this movement pattern?

Just stop worrying and go down !

 

[Chris Geib]

Spot on and you have to get to neutral before edge change even if it’s just for a brief second. I learned this as an extension from slide slipping. Go from standing across the hill facing skier’s left with the skis edged to flattening the skis, standing up, allowing the ski tips to find the fall line and then edging the skis into a single right turn. Repeat in the opposte direction. It helps me practice both edging and release. After I do these I work on linking turns. When I move a little steeper I do the same yet I try to be more conscious of line and turn shape to control speed. May sound silly but I do these pretty much each time I’m on the mountain if just for a bit.

Btw-I know I’m no instructor so I will apologize up front it this isn’t clearly or appropriately stated from an instruction standpoint.

Hi Coach,

Do you employ the same rise to release between turns as a default? Or is this just a drill? Can
/do you release without rising? Can/do you release while sinking? In other words, is rising and releasing a required pattern to turn or are flexing/extending and edging able to be dialed in each ndependant of the other?

 

[Chris Geib]

The rotary is very subtle. Don't forget your skis are at different levels as one is uphill.
We've had discussions on epic about this. I used to not believe it. Then we had someone video himself sideslipping and tips going downhill. Unbeknownst to him he was supplying rotary. You could see it. Someone posted Bode teaching it and you could see the rotary.
Falling leaf is another where misconceptions abound. Fore makes the tips go down, aft the tails. Try the pure sideslipping experiment.

I'm not sure how useful the info is other than getting a better sense of what happens.



Glad you posted that. For practicing release, sure.
How do the tips go downhill there? Answer: A blocking pole plant behind the feet supplies the rotary force. I'm not sure why they get offended when you point out that maneuver is the very visual definition of a blocking pole plant, but they do.
Coach13 take note.

I thought this was settled, practice falling leaf by moving forward to cause tips to slip and that is why you move forward to engage tips at the start of a turn.

For the other, remember when your parents clarified for you: Because I said so...

 

[Coach13]

Hi Coach,

Do you employ the same rise to release between turns as a default? Or is this just a drill? Can
/do you release without rising? Can/do you release while sinking? In other words, is rising and releasing a required pattern to turn or are flexing/extending and edging able to be dialed in each ndependant of the other?

Just a drill Chris. I can release while turning by simply relaxing the old outside leg. No rising necessary.

 

[James]

I thought this was settled, practice falling leaf by moving forward to cause tips to slip and that is why you move forward to engage tips at the start of a turn.

For the other, remember when your parents clarified for you: Because I said so...

Yes we settled that rotation is the cause!
In falling leaf usually the tails are umm... pointing downhill! You could lean on the tips buttering the front and still go backwards.

You can watch these guys attempting to use fore/aft movements after the demonstrater goes. Notice the second light blue guy gets the tips to go down while leaning back! then moves forward.

We were fed a pack misconceptions when learning the falling leaf drill. Seems to make sense- move forward towards tips and tips go down, move aft tails go down. Plus it's the whole forward is good, aft has you going backward for god's sake.

No one ever covered center mount skis though!

These guys are painfully trying to use fore/aft movements after the demonstrator does it as an afterthought. I mean his tips already pointed downhill- let's move forward now. There's no cause/effect.

Moving aft as your ski tails move down is natural for an advanced skier. (After they've learned it.) You're moving with the direction of motion.

 

[Josh Matta]

Sp lost about this arguement between James and Chris. James you might have found the worse demo of falling leafs on the web.





There is for sure for and aft in a good falling leaf...there doesnt have to be, but being on your tongues while going backwards usually leads diverging tails.

 

[Fuller]

Just stop worrying and go down !

That's what Thelma said to Louise...

 

[T-Square]

You might try some pivot slips. If the downhill ski is not released you can’t do them. Both skis have to be released at the same time. You can then make them a bit more "edgier" to develop them into a short radius turn.

 

[Marcus Carvey]

For anyone coming across this in the future, here's a summary of the various suggestions, sans esoteric debates about rotary movements:

- sideslip to edge set, over and over.
- traverse balanced on downhill edge, modulate edge angle and observe
- garlands
- power release, tuck turns, rollerblade turns AKA railroad tracks
- falling leaf
- pivot slips

Thanks everyone for your suggestions. I spent some time on some of these this weekend, good stuff.