Story time. Not sure how this fits in with the discussion as it has progressed. Here goes anyway, because... well, just because.
Once upon a time I took a three-day-race-clinic at Stratton in December. Yes, that one, Tony.
At the end of day three, 4:00ish, I found myself at some Stratton summit with a loooong way down the hill to the lodge. I wasn't alone. Another clinic member was with me. We found the clinic boring, so we had been playing hooky since lunch, just skiing around and talking technique.
His legs were tired. My legs were tired. We talked about how far it was from where we stood to the lodge. It was a warm day, and we had mashed potatoes to deal with all the way home. We discussed tactical ways to limit our muscle stress getting down there. It was a big deal, getting down this hill, given how tired we were.
He chose to make carved turns with looooong radii. We both knew that was going to hurt. I watched as he went down, having to handle major G-forces at each apex. He made it safely, I found out later, but his quads were seriously called on to perform. I did not trust mine to perform as well as his. I was ten years his senior. And, you know, with less body muscle.
I told him I was going to violate a PSIA dictate (this was some time ago) and make very short radius turns using inclination first, before angulation, to shorten the turns. He and I knew this was verboten. I tried to talk him into trying this, but he declined.
So after he took off and I watched him for a while. He was carving well from left side of wide trail to right side of trail but I was imagining his quad pain.
I started my very different path down the hill. I did very short radius turns straight down the fall line, in a very narrow corridor. This was in heavy gloppy mashed potatoes, remember. I motored each turn by...
a. flexing the new inside leg to release the old turn.
b. throwing my new outside arm, with notable speed and force, up UP UPPP high, to help incline my whole body into the new turn.
c. Then, after getting my edges on high angles at the top of the turn, using that arm action combined with my flex-to-release, I angulated. Why? To direct pressure to the outside ski through the bottom of the turn.
d. Short turn followed short turn, thusly performed. Arm thrown upward, body inclined into new turn to edge skis fast, angulation following, new turn afterwards.
e. It was a long way down. But... my quads did not quiver... I did not tire. It took me much longer to get to the lodge than my friend. These turns were slow. I was seriously energized when I got there. He was exhausted.
f. Nice discovery.