MA request fo

[Mike King]

Your inside foot is getting in front of the outside foot as well. Probably as a result of the upper body rotation. Think about tipping the lower legs to establish the edge, not pushing the outside ski to do so.

Mike

 

[dj61]

As I see it, a lot of your issues are related to your iside foot. You do not pull it back far enough. Sometimes even push it forward. Pulling your foot back is not the same as flexing your inside leg.

 

[geepers]

Luckily the first choice of antibiotics took care of the pneumonia, but took a while to get the "energy" back. So a bit of a compromised winter holiday

Entered my first GS-race ever just after. Went OK, no huge mistakes other the feeling of skiing too cautiously. Ended up ~16% behind the winner. Had a second race last week, ~17% behind the winner. Flat light and ruts in the first round made it difficult for me to commit. Felt better in second round when the lamps had more impact. But no improvement to last year according to the clock. I think the clock is a bit wrong and that I'm at least more consistent in not looking like a total clutz And the feedback from the coaches has been positive...

The last GS-video of the season. Somewhat same same as before.


My focus for the last week of training will be to be more brave in the top part of the steep section. Stop sliding sideways and start committing. I think I can ski a good bit faster if I just dare to do so...

Hi smear, if you don't mind I badly need the MA practice. So, at the risk of being MA-ed on my MA....

Caveat: I know didley about running gates so I'm going to describe what I see as if you were doing some free turns on the groomer:

What I see:
In this turn (early in 1st run) we can see your weight balance exactly - the inside ski is in the air so you are 100% on the outside ski. The outside ski grips until your inside ski is placed back on the snow at which point the outside ski starts to lose grip.

Is weight predominantly to the outside - not so clear here. And, it's hard to tell due to image quality, but suspect that outside ski is losing edge angle.

A fraction later, same turn. What is clear is how far forward you are wrt the outside ski.

Same for turns the other direction. Note the divergence in the ski directions in the later frame.

What I would say if on snow:
Nice runs. There's a lot to like - upper/lower body separation, upper body quiet, more upright, getting good angles. Let's see if we can get more performance from that outside ski. Do you feel that lose of grip on the outside below the fall line? (If answer was "no" to that I'd ask you to ski it again and take note of it.) If "yes", then on to drills/adjustments for better fore/aft balance on that outside ski such as:

• Javelin turns - hard to execute if not in the middle of the outside ski
• Improved inside foot placement to reduce that tip lead - see the JFB lesson on foot placement https://vimeo.com/ondemand/howtoskiepisodes/253005184 About $5. (An internal cue I find useful is to retain shin contact with the boot tongue on the inside ski.)
• With those in mind, a slightly later start to the transfer of weight to what will be the new outside ski. I understand you are running gates but I'm thinking that transfer shouldn't come at the expense of grip on what is still the outside ski. May be different if the fore/aft balance is improved.

Anyway, enough of my barely informed commentary. Hope there's something in there that helps. It's interesting watching your racing develop.

To any instructors out there please MA my MA.

 

[Smear]

Do you feel that lose of grip on the outside below the fall line? (If answer was "no" to that I'd ask you to ski it again and take note of it.) If "yes", then on to drills/adjustments for better fore/aft balance on that outside ski such as:

• Javelin turns - hard to execute if not in the middle of the outside ski
• Improved inside foot placement to reduce that tip lead - see the JFB lesson on foot placement https://vimeo.com/ondemand/howtoskiepisodes/253005184 About $5. (An internal cue I find useful is to retain shin contact with the boot tongue on the inside ski.)
• With those in mind, a slightly later start to the transfer of weight to what will be the new outside ski. I understand you are running gates but I'm thinking that transfer shouldn't come at the expense of grip on what is still the outside ski. May be different if the fore/aft balance is improved.

Anyway, enough of my barely informed commentary. Hope there's something in there that helps. It's interesting watching your racing develop.

To any instructors out there please MA my MA.

Thanks for your MA. Feel free to practice MAing on me anytime.

Don't remember that exact turn, but I think you are on to something. I tend to get very far forward on the outside ski toward the end of the turns and the inside ski gets to far forward. Too far back on the inside leg and too far forward on the outside. And it pops up in many kinds of situations. Tried telemark skiing for the first time in 10 years yesterday in some very slushy conditions. Worked fine in shallow turns not going far across the fall line, but got into trouble when trying to complete the turns more. When the heel is not fixed, being very forward on the outside leg make you eat snow head first. But at least the inside was pulled back....



What I see is that I loose counter and hip angulation early before the transition. I square up, loose hip angulation (like 0:13 or 0:23), transfer weight to the inside ski and then extend of the inside leg. Instead of holding/increasing the counter and hip angulation further and then flex the outside which then still would have weight.

Have tried to delay the weight transfer to force myself to stay angulated and countered longer in the end of the turns. Feel that it's working while freeskiing but obviously not able to take that into the gates yet. And I need video of myself outside of the gates to confirm that I'm doing what I think I'm doing...

Pretty good at javelin turns. Been doing a lot of those but feel I don't get transfer to real turns.Thanks for the tip on the JFB lesson. I will get that. I actually like his ramblings. Should probably get hip discipline 1 and 2 as well.

 

[geepers]

Thanks for your MA. Feel free to practice MAing on me anytime.

Don't remember that exact turn, but I think you are on to something. I tend to get very far forward on the outside ski toward the end of the turns and the inside ski gets to far forward. Too far back on the inside leg and too far forward on the outside. And it pops up in many kinds of situations. Tried telemark skiing for the first time in 10 years yesterday in some very slushy conditions. Worked fine in shallow turns not going far across the fall line, but got into trouble when trying to complete the turns more. When the heel is not fixed, being very forward on the outside leg make you eat snow head first. But at least the inside was pulled back....



What I see is that I loose counter and hip angulation early before the transition. I square up, loose hip angulation (like 0:13 or 0:23), transfer weight to the inside ski and then extend of the inside leg. Instead of holding/increasing the counter and hip angulation further and then flex the outside which then still would have weight.

Have tried to delay the weight transfer to force myself to stay angulated and countered longer in the end of the turns. Feel that it's working while freeskiing but obviously not able to take that into the gates yet. And I need video of myself outside of the gates to confirm that I'm doing what I think I'm doing...

Pretty good at javelin turns. Been doing a lot of those but feel I don't get transfer to real turns.Thanks for the tip on the JFB lesson. I will get that. I actually like his ramblings. Should probably get hip discipline 1 and 2 as well.

When you do javelins, where on your outside foot do you feel you are mostly balanced - ball of the toe or heel or along the whole foot? And same question for doing normal turns?

I know @razie and @Mike King mentioned rotation. I have a different take - from your turns in the vid (and the images above) it looks to me like you have enough separation and angulation through the fall line but then the outside ski loses grip and takes a path that's rather different to what the rest of your body is set up for. I suspect that fixing the balance issue by keeping that outside ski underneath you in the fore/aft plane will see improvement all round. (Then again, if I was a gambling person I'd probably put $10 on Razie and Mike being right... Regardless, I think the fore/aft issue should be the 1st thing to work on.)

Interestingly I found the spring skiing in the last week of my northern season (back in Oz now) to be very helpful for fore/aft balance work in turns. As the snow changes from icy to slushy with the day's warming we need to take special care to keep that outside ski under us. The extra drag of the loaded outside ski in the turn will punish being even slightly forward.

 

[Smear]

I know @razie and @Mike King mentioned rotation. I have a different take - from your turns in the vid (and the images above) it looks to me like you have enough separation and angulation through the fall line but then the outside ski loses grip and takes a path that's rather different to what the rest of your body is set up for. I suspect that fixing the balance issue by keeping that outside ski underneath you in the fore/aft plane will see improvement all round. (Then again, if I was a gambling person I'd probably put $10 on Razie and Mike being right... Regardless, I think the fore/aft issue should be the 1st thing to work on.)

Thanks for a refreshing perspective. I've been thinking lack of angulation as the cause of the outside ski slipping, but of course beeing too far forward on a "jammed" outside will also cause that. And it does make it difficult to do anything else but extend the inside to get "out". And the whole system will rotate when the tail slips out. Hmmm..... Very similar to MA1 a year ago (in SLish version) even in the flat part that felt reasonably good.....

Many people could use more counter and angulation in the second half of the turn, but very few look like they are monomarking (or reversamarking) on alpine skis. Agree that the excessive tip lead is what stick out the most in the flat parts. And if I'm ever going to be able to carve the steep part then there can be no outside ski slipping at the end of the turns.

Will try to use "minimize tip lead" as main focus on training tonight and see what happens.

Only 4 weeks left of resort season. Envious on you having the season ahead downunder.

 

[geepers]

The good news (IMO) is that it only requires a relatively small change. Just move your balance on the outside ski back closer to the heel.

Try some wider turns at less than full throttle speed (to give yourself plenty of time) on a smooth blue groomer (so not being knocked around by the surface) and find out how far back you can go. If you get to leaning on the back of the boot then that's too far. (Just stay safe.)

I'm willing to bet that at some point you'll find that the tails of your skis will grip and that you'll find that you won't have to think very much about holding that inside foot back. It will be there underneath you.

Yep...2 hemispheres to play in....don't know if that's a blessing or a curse.

 

[Mike King]

I'll agree with @geepers that you should play with fore/aft balance. I'd like you to find the tail of the ski. I do not believe you are ever "aft;" you are crushing the front of the boot so hard in most of the turn that it is impossible for the ski to hold below the apex of the turn. Might you play with opening the ankles from the apex of the turn to edge change to see if you can feel the inside edge of the outside ski bite on the tail of the ski? Try playing with how far forward you can get from edge change to apex and how far aft from apex to edge change. Not that that's what you want to do in your normal skiing, but let's see if you can actually find the tail of the ski.

There's a big issue in the DIRT of your movements. You extend off of the inside ski from apex to edge change -- there's virtually no extension of the outside ski from edge change to apex. This move is almost exactly out of timing cycle -- you should be flexing the outside ski from apex to edge change, and extending from edge change to apex. In addition, you start driving the new inside hip forward in the finish of the turn. You seem to think you need angulation from the top of the turn -- but the angulation is really from apex, or slightly before, to the finish of the turn. This is a significant contributor to the inside foot skating far forward -- you are creating counter by turning the pelvis on top of the femurs, rather than allowing it to arise as a result of turning the femurs under the pelvis.

Mike

 

[LiquidFeet]

@Smear, below are some stills from one of your transitions. I watched the videos in slo-mo. Your transitions look pretty consistent.

You start your turns by standing up and back, then dropping your whole body into the turn as a unit. If you want to ski faster in the gates, you need to know that standing tall between turns is slow. Staying low between turns is faster, because it allows you to get the skis up on edge quicker. Standing tall means you have to wait for the whole body to drop sufficiently to get the skis on edge, and that takes time.

Your skis do not grip the snow and bend early enough in the turn to take you around the gate cleanly. Your skidding scrubs speed. The speed-scrubbing skid you get as you pass the gate is due to dropping your whole body into the turn to get your edges. If you want to fix that, you need to tilt your lower legs to edge the skis without tilting your upper body, and you need to do that as you start the turn, in the transition. That will give you the angulation you need to improve grip with your outside ski, and minimize unwanted skidding.

Enact these two changes, and other things will come online naturally.

 

[geepers]

@Smear, below are some stills from one of your transitions. I watched the videos in slo-mo. Your transitions look pretty consistent.

You start your turns by standing up and back, then dropping your whole body into the turn as a unit. If you want to ski faster in the gates, you need to know that standing tall between turns is slow. Staying low between turns is faster, because it allows you to get the skis up on edge quicker. Standing tall means you have to wait for the whole body to drop sufficiently to get the skis on edge, and that takes time.

Your skis do not grip the snow and bend early enough in the turn to take you around the gate cleanly. Your skidding scrubs speed. The speed-scrubbing skid you get as you pass the gate is due to dropping your whole body into the turn to get your edges. If you want to fix that, you need to tilt your lower legs to edge the skis without tilting your upper body, and you need to do that as you start the turn, in the transition. That will give you the angulation you need to improve grip with your outside ski, and minimize unwanted skidding.

Enact these two changes, and other things will come online naturally.
View attachment 70294

Good points. And I'd agree with about everything although I'm doubtful that the OP is aft (as per comment 2nd pic above). If so it's a fleeting instant - that old outside foot is going from behind before transition to very in front just after.

Given that the CSIA Tech Ref points are an ordered guide to ski improvement and that balance is #1 I would have gone with getting the OP into the middle of the outside ski as the 1st priority. (Also, got pinged for something very similar in my Teach assess for L3 in March so perhaps I'm a little over-focused...)

Thinking laterally, there may be a way to address two issues - need to be in the middle of the ski and need angulation in the ankles/knees above the fall line - at once...

45 degree shins:
Stand stationary, body square to the skis. 90 degrees is perpendicular to the skis left or right. Draw a line in the snow at 45 degrees to the skis. Now, without twisting the skis, turn legs in hip sockets and roll skis on edge with the ankles so that both knees go towards that 45 degree line. Should feel the sides of the boots rather than the front. Practice in rail road track turns and then take that same movement and feel into the skiing.​

The aim is to convert the forward pushing into the boot to a more of a lateral movement of the lower body. Being less forward at the top means staying in the middle of the ski through the turn. And with angles from the lower legs the skis will be on edge earlier (giving platform angle!) without early inclination of the upper body. Then, as the forces build up in the turn, there will be plenty of room to incline and get good performance out of the skis.

This doesn't do much to address the issue with extending the new outside leg whilst not lifting the CoM however my suggestion would be to prioritise it as:
1. Middle of the outside ski
2. Early angles with the lower body
3. Lateral outside leg extension

Look forward to some feedback from @Smear

 

[Mike King]

Good points. And I'd agree with about everything although I'm doubtful that the OP is aft (as per comment 2nd pic above). If so it's a fleeting instant - that old outside foot is going from behind before transition to very in front just after.

Given that the CSIA Tech Ref points are an ordered guide to ski improvement and that balance is #1 I would have gone with getting the OP into the middle of the outside ski as the 1st priority. (Also, got pinged for something very similar in my Teach assess for L3 in March so perhaps I'm a little over-focused...)

Thinking laterally, there may be a way to address two issues - need to be in the middle of the ski and need angulation in the ankles/knees above the fall line - at once...

45 degree shins:
Stand stationary, body square to the skis. 90 degrees is perpendicular to the skis left or right. Draw a line in the snow at 45 degrees to the skis. Now, without twisting the skis, turn legs in hip sockets and roll skis on edge with the ankles so that both knees go towards that 45 degree line. Should feel the sides of the boots rather than the front. Practice in rail road track turns and then take that same movement and feel into the skiing.​

The aim is to convert the forward pushing into the boot to a more of a lateral movement of the lower body. Being less forward at the top means staying in the middle of the ski through the turn. And with angles from the lower legs the skis will be on edge earlier (giving platform angle!) without early inclination of the upper body. Then, as the forces build up in the turn, there will be plenty of room to incline and get good performance out of the skis.

This doesn't do much to address the issue with extending the new outside leg whilst not lifting the CoM however my suggestion would be to prioritise it as:
1. Middle of the outside ski
2. Early angles with the lower body
3. Lateral outside leg extension

Look forward to some feedback from @Smear

Fine, but you are missing the DIRT. Particularly the timing.

If he starts to flex to release before edge change and extends the outside leg after edge change, he will move aft on the ski from apex to edge change, and move forward from edge change to the apex. That should put him in a more centered position on the ski, as long as he gets away from crushing the front of the boot.

Mike

 

[geepers]

Fine, but you are missing the DIRT. Particularly the timing.

If he starts to flex to release before edge change and extends the outside leg after edge change, he will move aft on the ski from apex to edge change, and move forward from edge change to the apex. That should put him in a more centered position on the ski, as long as he gets away from crushing the front of the boot.

Mike

It's a priority thing. We could ask @Smear to start start skiing just like Marcel but that may not happen before the end of this season.

Suggesting something specific to work on immediately. If you were on snow with him right now what's the #1 thing you'd suggest for his next run?

 

[LiquidFeet]

You didn't ask, but I'd have him start flexing to release, while keeping torso upright.
To that I'd add whatever might help him get a clean turn entries, and we'd be working exclusively outside the gates.
Probably some outside-ski-to-outside-ski turns, with inside ski lifted.
Also some railroad track turns on low pitch terrain to see how ankle-tipping feels.
Then work ankle-tipping into leg flexing.
Target tipping above the fall line is a great one.

In the gates would come next season.
It's going to take time to learn to do a flexion turn and it needs to be learned outside the course.

 

[Mike King]

I'd work on flex to release. If we can use the flex to get him toward the tail of the ski in the finish of the turn, the extension will put him toward the tip. And as long as he gets away from crushing the front of the boot, he'll be in the center of the ski. He will also get the other part of what he's looking for -- the ski holding in the finish of the turn.

Mike

 

[LiquidFeet]

I don't think being in the center, being aft, or begin forward at a particular point in the turn is the primary issue. Those are consequences of other things.
Standing tall between turns while opening the ankles definitely puts him aft at that point in the turn, but that aftness is not a cause of lack of outside ski grip.
It's the extension combined with the whole body tilt that @Smear needs to replace. It destroys his ability to balance on the outside ski, and that in turn scrubs speed and eliminates precision line control.

On the other hand, for a quick fix - in the gates - during what's left of this season, moving the outside foot forward at the end of the turn might help Smear minimize that skid, and I think that's what Mike is suggesting.

Mike, comments?

 

[geepers]

Agree with @LiquidFeet that it be better to do further development outside the gates. Use gate runs for testing (and fun) but suspect it is hard to focus on new movement patterns when a gate is looming.

I would have thought fixing the too far forward is a priority - that old outside ski being so far behind into transition has to be affecting the transition itself. That foot has to travel quite a distance.

(Liquidfeet, from your posts I'm not sure you agree that OP is too forward throughout the turn. It seems @Mike King thinks so. I certainly think that's the case and that it will be hard to get that outside ski to grip below the fall line unless OP is much better balanced, regardless of platform angle.)

I didn't see flex to release as being the #1 issue. There seem to be numerous examples where people are getting good ski performance with more or less amounts of vertical movement of the CoM. As we discussed in this thread (popping in the turn) the JAM skiers do a pretty good job.

BTW I'm not advocating against flex to release and certainly not advocating a vertical move of the CoM. Just priority.

I like liquidfeet's order of drills:

• outside-ski-to-outside-ski turns, with inside ski lifted.
• Also some railroad track turns on low pitch terrain to see how ankle-tipping feels.
• Then work ankle-tipping into leg flexing.
• Target tipping above the fall line is a great one.

At some point I'd add inside to outside turns. The reason being is that the outside ski would be in the right place (under the CoM in the fore/aft plane) when it is placed back on the snow so there's an immediate feel of being in the middle of the ski. I've not seen anyone put the outside ski back down aft of the CoM.

@Smear, apologies if this is starting to feel like a dissection. So far this has been a good learning exercise for me. Even on snow seldom get a chance to ask working instructors the details of their thought processes. It would be very neat to do this exercise in real time and see the effect on a student's skiing.

 

[Mike King]

@LiquidFeet, I think what you are seeing as open ankles is directly related to both the method of edge change (extension of the old inside leg) and the excess tip lead. Because he lets the inside ski skate forward into the finish of the turn (in my view because of turning the pelvis over the femurs, e.g. counter-rotating), the old inside ankle is relatively open (plantar flexed) in the finish of the turn (the old outside ankle is still crushing the boot). He then uses a push off of the inside foot in the finish of the turn to change edges, but because the foot is in front of him, for an instant he is aft -- but the rapid forward move and dorsiflexion of his outside ankle moves him way forward on the ski.

@geepers, this is why I think the first order of business is to fix his edge change. His fore/aft issues are related to it. Hence, he needs to learn how to change edges by flexing the old outside leg from apex to edge change, and extending the new outside leg from edge change to apex. He should also focus on tipping the lower leg as part of that process.

I suspect that the more efficient method of changing his edges will help sort his rotational alignment issues, but if not, those need to be next on the agenda.

Mike

 

[LiquidFeet]

@Smear we're talking about you. Want to join in?

Here's another way of working on your times in the gates. It might be effective in producing good changes in your racing.

Can you do tuck turns? No, I'm not suggesting tucking the course. But tuck turns incorporate many of the things your skiing needs to get you better timing in those gates. Practicing tuck turns out of the gates, modifying them from low to high, then higher, can give you a way of making turns in the gates that deletes the up move and the big skid at turn apex.

Practice tuck turns on low pitch terrain, outside the gates, with the following things in mind. Then take the low, high, and higher tuck turns you've been practicing into the gates. This will give you a consistently low body, with hands together out front, probably no pole plant, and you'll be using ankle-tipping to start your turns. Hold onto as many of these factors as you can as you negotiate the gates, then go back to practicing outside the gates to renew your tuck skills. Assuming the course flattens out at the bottom, by all means lower yourself back into the low tuck there.

--Tuck turns require you to stay low between turns.
--Tuck turns rely on ankle-tipping to put skis on edges.
--For bigger edge angles, the ankle-tipping becomes knee wagging.
--Tuck turns rely on foot and leg movements to create the turns.
--Tuck turns require you to close your ankles to keep yourself centered over your skis (OR you are courting ACL damage).
--Tuck turns that carry you laterally across the course will need some counter.
--Tuck turns, both low and high, are aerodynamically faster than standing up tall between turns.
--Tuck turns produce clean arcs.

Tuck turns with deliberate, exaggerated counter produced by rotating the upper body over the skis.
Discover how effective this is in generating higher edge angles:
Tuck turns without that deliberate counter. These vary from low to high tucks.
Note the shin angle stays continuously tilted forward as the legs come up from the skis. Coach's comments are good:

 

[LiquidFeet]

....
@Smear, apologies if this is starting to feel like a dissection. So far this has been a good learning exercise for me. Even on snow seldom get a chance to ask working instructors the details of their thought processes. It would be very neat to do this exercise in real time and see the effect on a student's skiing.

In the interest of giving more to those who are interested in how working instructors/coaches think, how about Razie's take on all this? @razie, comments? You've been absent in this last bout of advice. Got thoughts?

 

[Smear]

Wow, thanks for all of the feedback.

I think what we see with the too far forward on outside leg and UP issues, is that I've made myself very dependent of using lots of outside knee angulation toward the very end of the turns. Both to keep the line and to set up a more divergent path of skis and COM at the end to get relatively fast into the next turn, despite of the UP transition.

I get past the gate and see I need more direction change. From a too wide stance I crank the outside knee in. The outside ski slows down. I get more forward on it, the ski slow down even more and I get even more forward on it. Sometimes it ends in a skid, sometimes not. Being forward on the ski helps turning to a point. Slowing the ski down helps getting fast into the next turn. So it's not totally dysfunctional ;-)

So pass gate, crank-crank-crank-jammed-UP and over. Then too light for too long to engage early in the next turn, and too tall legs to tip efficiently. Then repeat with late pressure in next turn as well.

From the forward and jammed position on the outside leg, with lots of tip lead, flexing to release is not a option. And late weight transfer is not an option, need to get off the jammed leg that got left behind.



Mikaelas way of "cranking" at the end of the turns is very different. She "cranks" by putting in an extra bit of counter and upper body angulation at the very end of the turns. This probably at the same time as she start untipping the outside ski, reducing and eventually reversing knee angulation. This helps develop counter even more.


So what I think I need:
-more upper body angulation and counter in the second half of the turn to support skiing with higher edge angles in a better way. Will reduce the need of bottom turn knee cranking.
-narrower stance sideways, less A-frame, more inside tipping
-more top of the of the turn lower leg tipping. More flexed leg will help here. Also more confidence will help. I think I often hesitate with upper turn lower leg tipping without reason in fear of getting too close to the gate or in fear of the ruts ahead. But I typically end up not touching the gates and carving through ruts often works better than skidding....Skiing more gates has helped here, less worse than I used to be. Curious to see how a similar run without gates or ruts would look like in terms of this.

-less tip lead.

I agree with @geepers that the lowest hanging fruit here that can be addressed during running gates is the last one. Some of that tip lead is just lack of attention that can probably be improved with minimal tension and focus. When getting less spread out, there is less need for UP to get back on track. Tried that on mondays training. It was a slushy day and tried on warmup outside of the gates to pull the inside foot back from start to finish of the turns and keep sideways stance collected as well. I like that focus in slushy conditions. Felt like it

During the first runs in the gates I tried keeping a hard focus on inside pullback. Well that didn't work. Even in the easier parts I got too stiff and ended up being late. Tried with pullback with a more "soft" focus. Like doing what I normally do but kept an extra eye on avoiding tip lead. Worked better but then unsure how much change really happened... Would need video for that. After the training I tried pushing the outside foot a bit forward, flexing and untipping it. Trying couple those three into on an end of the turn move. Felt like that had potential. But difficult conditions in tracked out mush that was starting to refreeze. Felt similar to the feeling of trying to to inside-out-turns without going-up-and-over a long outside leg.

When you do javelins, where on your outside foot do you feel you are mostly balanced - ball of the toe or heel or along the whole foot? And same question for doing normal turns?

When doing javelins I feel a bit aft and static compared to normal turns. The turns get very wide, especially on GS skis that are 15 cm longer than me. Feel better on shorter more sidecut skis. I have trouble with skidded javelins, so trouble with shaping.

Not a bad idea to do some drills in gates now, like dragging your outside pole.

cheers

Oppps, got so absorbed with tip lead that I forgot about that one. Last GS training yesterday so poledragging in gates will have to wait until next year. But will try more poledragging while freeskiing.