What Should I Work on Next?

[Hamid S]

Hi,
I'm a new member to this forum and quite impressed with the wealth of knowledge & experience.
I started skiing about 30 years ago, but it has been infrequent with some breaks in between.
I've had only two lessons throughout the way, 1st as a beginner and the second one as a low intermediate.

My own perception of my skiing level is that of an advanced intermediate.
I didn't even know any of the commonly used terminology on this site until I started reading through some of the threads here over the last week.

As my first post I asked a couple of questions on another thread which was pretty much ignored. That may have been due to the silliness of what I was asking, which may have also given the impression that I was some king of troll.

To remedy that, I am posting the only short video clip I have which was taken on my wife's iPhone (please excuse the poor quality).

On macro level, what should I work on next?

TIA

 

[Fuller]

My first thought is that your skiing is good enough that nothing jumps out at me from my 500 yard point of view. The terrain is easy but you have an appropriate stance, nice rhythm in your turn choices, you seem to be initiating turns with your skis and not your upper body. I think some closer video where you are are pressed a bit more would be helpful.

Thanks for sharing, I always learn a lot from other people's journeys.

 

[Josh Matta]

getting a camera man to hold the phone horizontal so I can actually see you ski

 

[Mike King]

The video is not the best to perform movement analysis from, but here's what I see. You don't make progressive movements -- they are all at once and then you "park and ride" to the next turn. Instead, think about how you can always be moving -- contenting to flex and extend through the whole turn.

Another item that might help is to widen your stance a bit. A very narrow stance limits the degree to which you can access the rotary movements of the legs and can limit your ability to separate the upper and lower body. So try opening your stance so that your feet are about as far apart as your pelvis.

And try to get us some better video.

Mike

 

[Chris V.]

Damn, very nice for having had so little formal training. I would say work on strengthening the idea of transition by flexion, keeping continuous down force on the skis following transition, and avoiding any sudden foot rotation.

 

[Hamid S]

My first thought is that your skiing is good enough that nothing jumps out at me from my 500 yard point of view. The terrain is easy but you have an appropriate stance, nice rhythm in your turn choices, you seem to be initiating turns with your skis and not your upper body. I think some closer video where you are are pressed a bit more would be helpful.

Thanks for sharing, I always learn a lot from other people's journeys.

Thank you for the encouragement and I will try to get better video on my future ski outings.

 

[Hamid S]

getting a camera man to hold the phone horizontal so I can actually see you ski

No arguments there, the video quality is very poor.
As I said above, will try to get better video in the near future.

 

[Hamid S]

The video is not the best to perform movement analysis from, but here's what I see. You don't make progressive movements -- they are all at once and then you "park and ride" to the next turn. Instead, think about how you can always be moving -- contenting to flex and extend through the whole turn.

Another item that might help is to widen your stance a bit. A very narrow stance limits the degree to which you can access the rotary movements of the legs and can limit your ability to separate the upper and lower body. So try opening your stance so that your feet are about as far apart as your pelvis.

And try to get us some better video.

Mike

Mike,
I agree with every suggestion you made.
I've been reading & watching on this site and will try to make some adjustments on my next outing and see how quickly I can adapt.

 

[Hamid S]

Damn, very nice for having had so little formal training. I would say work on strengthening the idea of transition by flexion, keeping continuous down force on the skis following transition, and avoiding any sudden foot rotation.

Chris,
Thank you for your very interesting suggestion.
If I understand your point correctly, I should flex my knees & ankles more as I leave the apex of the turn and move toward the transition, which will also help with the weight transfer and tipping the skis onto their flats because I would be unloading the skis as I start to extend from that flexion.
If so, I think more angulation and countering at the apex will help me with generating a little more momentum to help with the flexion going into the transition point. Does that sound right?

 

[Doug Briggs]

Do you have an 'I want to do this?' goal? Like perfect carves? Handling steep terrain? ???

 

[Hamid S]

Do you have an 'I want to do this?' goal? Like perfect carves? Handling steep terrain? ???

Doug,
I like to be able to carve nicely but connecting short radius turns effortlessly on all groomed trails is more intriguing to me.
I say effortlessly because I'm 59 and get a kick out of staying on the mountain 9 to 4, so beating myself up less harshly would certainly score higher points with me.
Ironically, when I was in my 20s and 30s, I had the toughness & stamina to hang out on steep, bumpy terrain but my skiing sucked.
Now that I am starting to develop more finesse, my body doesn't take too well to skiing bumps.
If I'm ever able to ski more efficiently, I might actually try to venture off of groomed trails for grins.

 

[Doug Briggs]

Actually carving short radius turns is tiring. Brushed turns, like in your video, are much more sustainable for a bell to bell experience. I'm 61 and when I go out on the groomers I will arc some carves for the thrill and feel of it, but in order to keep going all day, I need to allow my turns skid just a touch. Otherwise I'm worn out after a few runs. I tend to make my carved turns race-like, in that I am looking for acceleration at each turn. It's tiring.

 

[Hamid S]

Actually carving short radius turns is tiring. Brushed turns, like in your video, are much more sustainable for a bell to bell experience. I'm 61 and when I go out on the groomers I will arc some carves for the thrill and feel of it, but in order to keep going all day, I need to allow my turns skid just a touch. Otherwise I'm worn out after a few runs. I tend to make my carved turns race-like, in that I am looking for acceleration at each turn. It's tiring.

Yes, yes and yes to everything you said.
With little to no formal training, I have skied the way I do without really knowing why. (That's about to change by being on this site.)
What you said about my brushed-turn skiing style is probably a byproduct of, at least to some extent, my desire to ski bell to bell.

As far as high speed carving, I wasn't implying that it was less tiring. What I really meant to say is that I would rather ski by connecting short turns in order to prolong the time it take to ski back down to the chair line.
At my home resort here in SoCal, it takes me about 15 to 30 minutes to go thru the lift line and back to the top of a short mountain. If I start carving down the mountain at higher rates of speed, I'll be back in the lift line in under two minutes. I can stretch that to 5-6 minutes, possibly 7-8 if I take a couple of rest stops, if I ski as shown in the video.

However, I will be doing some carving drills in the future in order to practice some of the techniques that I've been reading about here or watching on YouTube.

 

[Chris V.]

Chris,
Thank you for your very interesting suggestion. If I understand your point correctly, I should flex my knees & ankles more as I leave the apex of the turn and move toward the transition, which will also help with the weight transfer and tipping the skis onto their flats because I would be unloading the skis as I start to extend from that flexion. If so, I think more angulation and countering at the apex will help me with generating a little more momentum to help with the flexion going into the transition point. Does that sound right?

All valid. There's more than one style for creating the transition, and not all will agree. But if you want to work on transition by flexion, you want to create the release by further flexing all joints at the end of the old turn, both legs but especially the old outside leg. The head doesn't pop up. This will promote weight transfer and start a "crossunder" move. Accentuate this by actively tipping both feet over into the new turn--not foot rotation. It's easier to demonstrate than to describe, and generally getting a lesson will be more effective than trying to put into effect ideas you read on the Internet.

 

[Plai]

I think @Chris V might be referring to something also termed flexing through transition in this thread with video. In another video it's called softening.

 

[trailtrimmer]

Ever do a nastar or open to public race? If you want to force yourself to learn how to carve harder, it's a great way to get started.

 

[Chris V.]

I think @Chris V might be referring to something also termed flexing through transition in this thread with video. In another video it's called softening.

Good, but I'd like to point out that in some of the demos in the second video, Darren Turner is still popping up a bit, so he's not quite there for the transition style we're discussing. Not that it's bad skiing or anything.

 

[Mike King]

All valid. There's more than one style for creating the transition, and not all will agree. But if you want to work on transition by flexion, you want to create the release by further flexing all joints at the end of the old turn, both legs but especially the old outside leg. The head doesn't pop up. This will promote weight transfer and start a "crossunder" move. Accentuate this by actively tipping both feet over into the new turn--not foot rotation. It's easier to demonstrate than to describe, and generally getting a lesson will be more effective than trying to put into effect ideas you read on the Internet.

It's not necessary, and probably is not productive, to attempt to further flex the already flexed inside leg. Rather, the key move is to flex the outside leg that is becoming the new inside leg. If you are attempting to get as great of angles as possible, then there will be no room to flex the inside leg further...

Mike

 

[Plai]

Good, but I'd like to point out that in some of the demos in the second video, Darren Turner is still popping up a bit, so he's not quite there for the transition style we're discussing. Not that it's bad skiing or anything.

@Chris V. That might be true in the demos. What I really like is his ability to explain the concept. A couple of things come to mind wrt demos: 1) the demos are done slowly, so that might have contributed to an unintended bobble, and 2) this is meant for persons learning the technique, and they (like me) are probably unlikely to notice the small error. FWIW... Darren's video still has value to me.