Increasing ski separation at bottom of turn.

[mdf]

I think this is about to scale for two 13-meter radius circles. Obviously an oversimplification, but ...

 

[Kneale Brownson]

Err, quite possibly, let's say yes.



Not sure what direction 'closing' refers to here - I am strongly modulating at the ankle?

Closing the knee means flexing. If you are flexing BOTH the ankle and knee of the outside leg for turn shaping, you may be more in the back seat than you realize, leading to the outside ski diverge mentioned earlier. If you are moving the COM more inside to get the edging your losing from closing the knee joint, you may be overweighting/edging the inside ski, adding to the diverging.

 

[Doug Briggs]

Make some turns for me Doug! I have to fly out in the morning

Turns taken.

 

[Doug Briggs]

Our skis don't, or at least shouldn't turn with the same radius in a given turn. The inside ski has to track inside of the outside ski thus making a slightly smaller radius turn.

Thanks @Kneale Brownson for elucidating the mechanics that lead to divergence.

 

[mdf]

I agree Doug, but now that we are in the details I realize I don't know how that happens. If I am outside ski dominant, the inside ski is going to be bent less and want to have a larger rather than smaller radius.

 

[Doug Briggs]

I agree Doug, but now that we are in the details I realize I don't know how that happens. If I am outside ski dominant, the inside ski is going to be bent less and want to have a larger rather than smaller radius.

The inside ski may not bend and carve a radius smaller than the outside ski, but it will travel over an arc that has a smaller radius than the outside ski travels. The inside ski will skid a bit if it isn't carving, but your inside foot traces an arc with a smaller radius than the outside ski. It just has to; unless you are doing ballet tricks.

Try this: shuffle your feet through a few 'turns' on a flat snow covered surface. One foot will trace an arc inside the other. On the next turn the other foot will trace an arc inside the other. Both feet are traveling in arcs, one concentric to the other, of different radii. Now try to shuffle arcs of identical radii, if you can. One foot will collide or cross in front or behind the other. This as you can imagine is undesirable while skiing. ;-)

When skiing, your feet travel on arcs of different radii just like when you are shuffling. It doesn't matter that the inside ski doesn't carve a smaller radius. Your mind and body realize that if they let it follow an arc of a longer radius, the inside ski will cross the outside ski with dire consequences. So your mind and body prevent it from travelling a longer radius arc and the inside ski skids or carves, but doesn't cross the outside ski.