What are your cues for good skiing?

[Steve]

Round turns. @Roundturns

 

[Tony Storaro]

When it feels like jumping on trampoline. Higher and higher. And very quiet. The quieter-the better.

 

[Skitechniek]

I'm surprised nobody has mentioned the outside ski yet. That is mine, merely standing on the outside ski. I like simple cues. The simpler, the better.

 

[Kneale Brownson]

Bob Barnes would talk about his concept of "nothing" turns -- i.e., at the transition / neutral point, if you have to "do" something to start your turns, then whatever you had to do to start the turn should have been started a while back.

On the too-rare occassions I get to do nothing , skiing feels effortless.

Bob's got my number. If I'm skiing relaxedly, it's smooth and easy.

 

[Doug Briggs]

He didn't specify whether hoots were a cue that he was skiing well or having difficulties. Maybe both.

It's always been for good. When I wreck hard, it's usually crickets from the lift. My friends on the other hand...

 

[Coach13]

Maybe this is much more of a simple answer than what you’re looking for, but for me it’s when I can ski without my legs getting tired. That’s how I know when I’m on my game, not forcing things, finishing turns etc and letting gravity do it’s thing.

 

[HardDaysNight]

I'm surprised nobody has mentioned the outside ski yet. That is mine, merely standing on the outside ski. I like simple cues. The simpler, the better.

I agree 100%. When the going gets tough, the tough stand on the outside ski!

 

[Chris V.]

I'm surprised nobody has mentioned the outside ski yet. That is mine, merely standing on the outside ski. I like simple cues. The simpler, the better.

To bring the discussion back to the starting point--my inquiry concerns cues, rather than prescriptions to be followed. Cues are means by which we get information back into the brain concerning how we are doing. Something received through the senses. So a cue could be an instructor hollering at us. It could be going back and looking at our tracks. It could be hearing the sound our skis are making.

"Stand on the outside ski" would be a prescription. A good one, sure. A cue to tell us how successful we are at it might be, what forces do we feel on the soles of our feet? Or, can we pick up the inside ski and not quickly fall to the inside?

Here's another one, especially applicable to short turns. If I can focus my gaze down the hill and not have to swivel my head left and right, and not see the landscape tipping to and fro, it's a sign I'm having some success with angulation and upper-lower body separation. (Having an artificial horizon in that situation would help. Maybe CARV is working on that.)

What else?

 

[Jamt]

Jamt, Although my season is over (and a great season is was) I spent some time during my last days playing around with your "Accelerate up or down always" and I wanted to make sure I was in sync with how you define the statement. This is a relationship of my COM to Gravity statement yes? It is not a feet to Gravity statement as I am trying to get my feet out and away from my COM. Focusing on moving my COM "to ground" definitely improved my edging process and provided a much more stable and dynamic environment . Having said that, key to moving to ground was the active shortening of my inside leg.

To that end and to the question posed by Chris, My main internal cues are inside leg shortening and resultant pressure management through the arch of the outside foot (not pressure on the cuff of the boot).

Am I off base here?

That is definitely part of it, but in general not enough in and of itself. If it works for you, great because that's what its all about right?

 

[Jamt]

I'm surprised nobody has mentioned the outside ski yet. That is mine, merely standing on the outside ski. I like simple cues. The simpler, the better.

I think I did in post #2.
What I mean with "balance on the outside at will" is that you should be able to balance on the outside, but also give some room for special situations where it might be appropriate to use the inside ski a bit more

 

[Skitechniek]

I think I did in post #2.
What I mean with "balance on the outside at will" is that you should be able to balance on the outside, but also give some room for special situations where it might be appropriate to use the inside ski a bit more

Completely missed it, my bad!

 

[newboots]

Intermediate skier here. The cue I have recognized is noticing: noticing that I have kept my upper body still without concentrating on it, or noticing that I’m skiing fast (for me) without panic on a trail that previously scared me (earlier the same day).

 

[François Pugh]

My cue to good arc-2-arc carving is tracks and speed. Tracks don't lie. When I look down at my tracks from the chair lift, recalling how fast I was moving when those tracks were made and notice how small the radii and how clean and perfectly shaped the tracks (both of them) are, I know that was a well-executed run.

In moguls, it's more like not noticing my flaws an finding a rhythm but, my carving is better than my mogul skiing by far.

 

[LiquidFeet]

There are internal "cues" and external "cues." External cues are clear and aren't subject to self-deception, but an external cue that relates to whatever you're working on is not always available. Internal cues (sensations) are subject to self-deception, but they are easy to access and are naturally attached to joy and bliss, so they matter more if one is skiing for fun, not for money or medals.

When in NE hard snow bumps or bumped up NE trees, my internal cues for "good skiing" are:
--staying on my chosen line
--skiing with smooth flow and rhythm
--feeling my feet-skis partnering up equally with the bumps to shape my turns
--maintaining a constant speed and tempo
--skiing at a speed that prompts exhilaration
(I don't have any external cues for good bumps or tree skiing.)

When on a groomer making non arc-to-arc turns, my internal cues for "good skiing" are:
--staying on my chosen line
--skiing with smooth flow and rhythm
--feeling my feet-skis partnering up equally with the snow to shape my turns
--maintaining a constant speed and tempo
--skiing at a speed that prompts exhilaration
External cues would be video (or hoots from the lift).

When on a groomer making arc-to-arc turns, my internal cues are the same.
External cues would be thin tracks, video (or hoots).

Disclaimer: hoots are rare.

 

[slowrider]

When I turn shape the carve.

 

[Doug Briggs]

Both skis pointed in the same general direction and working in harmony with each other. It's a hoot!

 

[Noodler]

My #1 external cue is dragging my pants cuffs on the snow in high edge angle turns. Beyond that, I would agree that feeling in balance through every phase of the turn and maintaining solid edge grip throughout the arc are what I'm looking for. When those are all clicking, then I'm just trying to cleanly carve the tightest radius turns the skis will give me.

 

[Mike King]

It feels effortless. And there is a feeling of floating through edge change.

 

[James]

That is pure Barnes. Infuriating and amusing and on-point the same time.

Must be a Maine thing.
His delivery is very Mainish.

 

[Tony S]

All Turns, All Terrain

• Strong feeling of being ahead of the skis, "piloting the plane" with assurance, at initiation.
• Both hands visible all the time.
• Pleasant surprise that the exact turn I imagined at transition time is coming to fruition.
• Same feeling of weightless confidence ("flying") and "slowed time" that others have described.
• Childlike sense of wanting to seek out and ski over stuff, knowing that it will work out. "What's that over there!?"
• Sustained rhythm (but with plenty of rubato allowed and encouraged if terrain dictates). A few turns with a beat is one thing. But putting together dozens of turns over an entire pitch at a consistent pace feels so good.

Arc-to-Arc Carving

• Inside hand presses visibly straight down the fall line as turn develops and skis cross under.
• A very small natural-feeling forearm movement at the moment of maximum angulation allows knuckles to brush snow. (This is an occasional sanity check, not a habit. If doing this puts me in the back seat, that's a negative cue, probably indicating insufficient counter and over-weighted inside ski.)
• "Knowing" that edge grip is simply not an issue, even on very hard snow.
• "Pressing the gas pedal" with the ball of my outside foot as the ski bends and resistance increases, which counter-intuitively tightens the arc satisfyingly.
• Feeling the pressure move along the length of my foot near the end of the turn (ball -> arch).
• Stance feels "too wide" in the belly of the turn. (I tend to have feet too close.)

Moguls

• Pole plants consistently past the crests of the bumps. (Thanks, James.)
• Skiing slower than I could (and therefore better) because each turn is so delicious, happening at its appointed time, not before or after. (When you dance, the band doesn't usually change the tempo as the dance progresses, right? Yet how many of us speed up as we ski a bump pitch?)
• Feet making "barstool" pivots, hips and torso still square, on demand, as quickly as needed, but only if needed.
• Seeing two turns ahead.
• In challenging deep, steep, choppy, nasty bumps, I ski better when I keep my line "high," not falling into the troughs except where the transitions in and out are gradual rather than abrupt. I think of it as "following the AT". (That's "Appalachian Trail," for you westerners.) Imagine looking at the line of the trail on a relief map.
• Realization that speed control is happening through all phases of the turn, even while skis are pointed straight down the fall line! (I especially notice this on blue pitches in softer snow, when I am skiing on or close to a zipper line.)
• Feeling "heavy" and swoopy on the back slopes, light in the troughs. (Strong compression in the troughs is a negative cue indicating my speed control is happening too late in the turn.)
• Being able to mix up line choice and tactics at will. E.g., going from the "AT" line to a super-swoopy "just under the rim of the toilet bowl" every-other-bump line. (Josh and KG have worked with me on this one.)

Steeps

• Leading down the fall line with my head at the end of transition. Feeling engagement of the shovels immediately. Sensing that skis are parallel with the angle of the slope, or even tips heavy by a little. First half of what others have described as "round turns," probably.
• Concentrating effectively on single-phase initiation. (An initiation where I pre-position my skis for the new turn at the end of the old one, with a sequential or even subtly stepped move, is a negative cue. This is a really ingrained bad habit with me.)
• Slow, unhurried exit from the fall line, brushing all the way through the turn. (Rushed pivot with lack of motion along the ski's length at the bottom of the turn is a negative cue.) Second half of what others have described as "round turns," probably.
• Watching others flail. Okay, I'm not proud of this. But when I'm standing at the top of a pitch with low confidence, what often happens is that I watch two or three people go down ahead of me and immediately my attitude changes to "Oh, for Pete's sake, I may suck but I can damn well do better than THAT!" And then I do. Apologies in advance, buffer friends.