What was the single most important tip or piece of advice you received as you progressed from intermediate to advanced?

[crgildart]

Getting a single most important tip on skiing is like getting a hot stock tip and playing it without doing your homework; it usually doesn't end well.

It's only an "important tip" of you benefit from it and how much determines how important it was..

 

[NoScoped]

Thanks for all of the really helpful replies. Was great to get some feedback while on the mountain. When I got out there I really wanted to focus on fundamentals. At the end of last season, I realized I've developed some not-so-great habits since I'm largely self-taught. I tend to backseat quite a bit. Wanted to focus on 4 things yesterday:

1. Getting my weight on the downhill ski
2. Squishing the bug and keeping my hands forward
3. Completing my turns and edge angle
4. Skiing the slow line fast

Quickly realized that the first two were plenty to keep me busy (but tried to focus on the third as well). Feeling better but still need a lot of work, obviously. Towards the end of the day I started to incorporate "completing" my turns. I found aiming for a specific spot on the side of the slope helped a lot.

It could be lack of angulation. When you are going fast, there a lot of centrifugal force you can lean against, letting you get big angles. When you are going slow, banking your whole body to get big angles would make you tip over. You need to kink your body so your lower body is angled but the mass in your upper body is still over the skis.

At slow speed there's a need to angulate the upper body to stay balanced over the skis. Counter balancing. At low speed must be patient to allow the skis to start turning with just the small amount of edge. It's easy to become impatient and twist the skis or fall out of balance.

Absolutely. Think I subconsciously knew this but didn't fully realize it until I read your replies. Once I started to keep my COM over my skis, and angled my shins upslope, I was able to catch a much better edge on some of my slower turns. Still lots of practice needed but (think) I'm getting the hang of it. Or at least realize what I need to do.

If you're trying to make every turn with a locked-in edge (i.e., clean railroad tracks all the way through), that's probably not a useful goal. Arguably you can't really make those turns at low speed (unless you're talking about "shallow s" tracks on a very gentle slope). The fact that there is a skidding component in your low speed turns is not a flaw. It does not, all by itself, mean you're not committing to the turn.

Was great reading this yesterday. Was absolutely getting discouraged. Especially on some of my steeper runs when smearing seemed inevitable—at least for me. Am no way proficient enough to complete my turns or ski the slow line completely fast on some of those steeper slopes. On more casual runs (with a bit of speed), have no problem railroad tracking. And it seemed like there was a slightly less smearing on my slower turns by the end of the day.

go video?

Snagged some video here. Not my best run since I was a bit worried about dropping my phone. As a result, wasn't as focused on the fundamentals I was practicing (i.e., weight on the outside ski and squishing the bug) but this is what I've got. For most of the day I was trying to do deeper turns that felt more "complete" and felt like I didn't have a lot of those in this video. Oh well. Edit: I'M BAD AT INSTRUCTIONS (see below).

Slightly unrelated question to the previous points...when "squishing the bug" and keeping pressure on my shins, should that be on both shins? Or primarily the shin of the downhill ski?

I'm absolutely going to be getting lessons at some point this season. Especially for off-piste stuff. Feel like I'm pretty comfortable on groomers but I'm an absolutely mess on anything that's not groomed.

 

[Tony S]

Snagged some video here.

Dude. Josh meant video OF you, not video BY you (of your shadow). You need a friend to help. And then don't post it unless you have thick skin.

 

[NoScoped]

Dude. Josh meant video OF you, not video BY you (of your shadow). You need a friend to help. And then don't post it unless you have thick skin.

Hah! Was a bit unsure but figured since I told him I was solo, this was a better option than a selfie. Was thinking my shadow/tips could provide some clues. Story of my life. Oh well...take your best shots. Skin is thick, thankfully.

 

[Prosper]

Slightly unrelated question to the previous points...when "squishing the bug" and keeping pressure on my shins, should that be on both shins? Or primarily the shin of the downhill ski?

I always understood squishing the bug to be what instructors told 5 and 6 year old skiers to do when they step into their bindings. There’s lots of info posted on keeping shin-boot tongue pressure. Since I’m not an instructor, I’ll leave it for the professionals to answer your question.

 

[Marker]

From my mogul coach - Go nighttime frog hunting using your poles. Shine the flashlight with one hand then stab with the other.

Yeah, I've really been trying to work on my pole plants to time my turns and smooth things out. I get the stab part, but what do you mean by shining the flashlight? That sounds like a pretty dramatic swing of the other hand.

 

[LiquidFeet]

Hah! Was a bit unsure but figured since I told him I was solo, this was a better option than a selfie. Was thinking my shadow/tips could provide some clues. Story of my life. Oh well...take your best shots. Skin is thick, thankfully.

You need a friend to hold the camera while standing on the side of the trail. You ski down from above, keep skiing past the friend, and keep going down the hill. Your friend's task is to keep all of you and your skis in the frame from the top of the trail to the bottom of the trail. Have the friend hold the camera sideways, to capture a "landscape" horizontal video of you. Repeat this request over and over, as people are used to holding cell phones upright and habit can take over.

Since you mention skiing backseat some, be sure to get your friend to keep videoing you as you ski past. We can see the extent of your backseating when looking at you and your skis from the side, as you ski by, but not so much from in front or from behind. Note: you need to ski far enough away from this videographer for them to fit your skis and your whole body in the picture as you ski by. Don't ski close to them or they will not be able to fit the skis or your head in the video.

No one can comment on your skiing from a POV video. Do not take a selfie either; it's worthless for analysis of your skiing since it doesn't snow your whole body and your skis.

 

[LiquidFeet]

....Was absolutely getting discouraged. Especially on some of my steeper runs when smearing seemed inevitable—at least for me. Am no way proficient enough to complete my turns or ski the slow line completely fast on some of those steeper slopes. On more casual runs (with a bit of speed), have no problem railroad tracking. And it seemed like there was a slightly less smearing on my slower turns by the end of the day.....

There's carving, quality smearing, and dysfunctional smearing. The first two are good. The third is not.

Unless you grew up a kid in a race program with multiple days of training every week for years, you're probably not going to be carving steep groomers with tails following tips any time soon (read: it takes years). If you do manage to get a carve going on a winched groomer labelled with a black diamond or two, you'll be out of control and dangerous to yourself and others. Let go of the goal of carving every turn everywhere. It's impractical, not just for you but for everyone except the real experts with a lifetime of strong technical skiing.

Your goal when you take lessons is to learn how to make the good kind of smeared turns. Those turns will give you the right kind of speed control on those steep groomers once you can do them well. There may be multiple movement patterns needing to be embedded in your repertoire in order to get those turns going, so it may take more than one lesson. You'll also be learning to feel the bad smeared turns when you do them, so you can push the reset button.

By all means continue to do the railroad tracks on the flats. Those turns can be divine. Just be sure to avoid hitting the slow movers in front of you. Pass them with a lot of space in case they swerve into your line. Important safety rule on the slopes: it's your responsibility to avoid the slow ones in front of you, not their responsibility to avoid getting in your way. They do not even know you're approaching. So be careful out there and have a ton of fun building your skills.

 

[Josh Matta]

so first off all I laughed so hard watching the video reply, not because its bad or anything but because...yeah I wanted video of you.

Ill be complete honest you cna actually do limit MA from a POV perspective and I can tell you not awful because the camera is actually steady, and you can even see angulation in your shadow. but to see anything further we need 3rd person video and as other have said hold that phone horizontal.

 

[Guy in Shorts]

Yeah, I've really been trying to work on my pole plants to time my turns and smooth things out. I get the stab part, but what do you mean by shining the flashlight? That sounds like a pretty dramatic swing of the other hand.

In straight line attacking as soon as you stab your pole plant your hand will rotate becoming the flashlight showing where to stab your next pole plant. Back in the 80's my buddy would say "keep your blazing six shooters out front "to enforce this same idea.

 

[Josh Matta]

why would you want your poles to point out at 90 degree angle before planting? it sounds excessive? Also lighter touches seem to do less harm



and I really do not belong in the same convo


I would say erik has the most arm motion out of those video and even his is sub dued compared to most air quotes"advanced" skiers

I look at our poles as how we salt our food. The right amount makes food so much better, but the too much and the food is ruined. So many more people mess up their skiing from weirdexcessive pole/arm movements.

Do you have video of an elite/expert skier doing what you are saying?

 

[geepers]

Deb Armstrong seems to talk a lot of sense in this one.


1. Arms and upper body by themselves do not put us into balance but uncontrolled they can take us out of balance.
2. Pole plants come out of our wrists, not our shoulders, not our elbows.

 

[Guy in Shorts]

Do you have video of an elite/expert skier doing what you are saying?

Reilly in video#2 has it down pat. With his black gloves the top of the poles are the flashlight beams. As his hand flexes forward you see the flashlight pointing out the next pole plant spot. Easiest to see in the slow mo at :15.

 

[Josh Matta]

objectively why does that matter?

 

[Erik Timmerman]

Do you have video of an elite/expert skier doing what you are saying?

Nate does that. I'd say he's an expert. Not that it is necessary. I think what Guy in Shorts is saying is a good drill, but just a bit extreme for every day skiing.

 

[PisteOff]

Dude. Josh meant video OF you, not video BY you (of your shadow). You need a friend to help. And then don't post it unless you have thick skin.

Like 9mm thick skin...…. I'll wait here.......

 

[Guy in Shorts]

Objective of keeping upper body square and quiet as I bulldozer my way down. Worked on these pole plants today even with very few bumps. Less flashlight without the moguls yet still works fine.

 

[Josh Matta]

is my body not quiet?

Honestly I am failing to see this.

This remind ofthing like hold a shopping cart. and other useless info.

 

[Tony S]

is my body not quiet?

Is your mouth part of your body?

 

[Tony S]

is my body not quiet?

It is Devo!