What you learned at Taos ski week (or any other recent lessons)?

[Noodler]

Yes. But on skis the range of motion needed to unweight a ski is very small

The RoM required scales with the turn's edge angles. You can unweight without much movement if you're skiing "over your skis" without big angles, but if you step it up and make turns with larger offset and bigger angles, it's going to take more effort to fully get off the old outside/stance ski.

 

[Andy Mink]

@Sanity I did the cuff alignment when I got the boots but will check again.

May be I’m confusing the muscles and it’s psoas or illiacus that I’m feeling. The feeling is in the groin near hip joint rather than down in inner thigh.

Did you do a lot of pole pushing? Skating? I had an issue last year or a couple of years ago in that same area. I'm not really sure what muscle it was but the only thing I recall doing more than before was poleing and skating. Don't even remember why but it bugged me for a couple of weeks, like a pulled muscle. The only time it really bother me was when I poled again.

 

[Seldomski]

Tips from recent lessons:

You still aren't forward enough! Rx: Think about driving hip forward through the turn.... and see next tip (get taller)
You still aren't tall enough! Rx: Stand up at start of every turn. Like... seriously... exaggerated.
You aren't moving your legs as much as you think you are. Rx: Exaggerate up/down. If it feels like a lot, it may be barely enough.
Softer pole plants. Rx: Hold poles at angle to make them shorter and less stabby.
Commit weight to left footers earlier (right footers are better). Rx: More one ski skiing on left foot.

Edging order should be: feet/ankles, knees, then hips. Ankles/feet allow gradual and fine application, rest of the chain is crude by comparison. Rx: RR tracks with feet/ankles only. As angles get bigger, add the knees, then hips. When skiing, think about moving/tipping feet first. Don't tip knee first.
Start flattening ski as you leave apex to flow into next turn. Max angles are at apex or just barely after, and angles need to be decreasing immediately after.

Bump tactic: In really weird or big bumps, aim more for the middle of the bump to turn, or slip/drift to the middle of the bump instead of the tops. You can chop them up into smaller bumps this way and find new lines.

 

[Tony S]

Rx: Hold poles at angle to make them shorter and less stabby

Was this to compensate for poles that are too long for you?

 

[Keys2Ski]

I was a week behind your schedule. Skiing with some divas.
last time in Taos ( 3 yrs ago) was my first time taking group lessons in moguls and trees ( this was 10 days after the inbounds avalanche that took two lives) . I had Derek and he was a hoot. His biggest suggestion was for me to look farther down the hill.
this year I did a private ski week with two other ladies with dano. What a huge difference in taking a private. Dano notice my a frame right away. Worked on getting the legs/knees farther apart ( I grew up on straight skis). By mid week we skied the peak. It was a blast. Snow was soft and forgiving and the steepness was not so much of an issue because we lapped several steep mogul runs before heading up. I wanted to do the peak again the next day, but Dano’s report was “ it’s a boilermaker “. Umm no thanks !! Can’t wait to go back and maybe hike the ridge. I think I need to start that process now because I live at sea level.
glad you all had fun

 

[Lvovsky /Pasha/Pavel]

Did you do a lot of pole pushing? Skating? I had an issue last year or a couple of years ago in that same area. I'm not really sure what muscle it was but the only thing I recall doing more than before was poleing and skating. Don't even remember why but it bugged me for a couple of weeks, like a pulled muscle. The only time it really bother me was when I poled again.

Nothing supper unusual but there was some skating to get to Hunzinker at Taos. It’s not necessary bugging as if I’m in pain. Just some awareness of new muscles. And curiosity about the source.

 

[Seldomski]

Was this to compensate for poles that are too long for you?

Feedback was to soften pole touches. My poles are probably a bit on the long side... maybe... depends on the terrain. The fix was something I improvised and it has helped a bit on groomers.

My poles are 125cm and I am 185cm tall.

 

[Noodler]

Tips from recent lessons:

You still aren't forward enough! Rx: Think about driving hip forward through the turn.... and see next tip (get taller)
You still aren't tall enough! Rx: Stand up at start of every turn. Like... seriously... exaggerated.
You aren't moving your legs as much as you think you are. Rx: Exaggerate up/down. If it feels like a lot, it may be barely enough.
Softer pole plants. Rx: Hold poles at angle to make them shorter and less stabby.
Commit weight to left footers earlier (right footers are better). Rx: More one ski skiing on left foot.

Edging order should be: feet/ankles, knees, then hips. Ankles/feet allow gradual and fine application, rest of the chain is crude by comparison. Rx: RR tracks with feet/ankles only. As angles get bigger, add the knees, then hips. When skiing, think about moving/tipping feet first. Don't tip knee first.
Start flattening ski as you leave apex to flow into next turn. Max angles are at apex or just barely after, and angles need to be decreasing immediately after.

Bump tactic: In really weird or big bumps, aim more for the middle of the bump to turn, or slip/drift to the middle of the bump instead of the tops. You can chop them up into smaller bumps this way and find new lines.

I'm not following why you were told to "stand up" and yet were also told to start edging with your feet/ankles. It's fairly easy to test that a "long leg" does not permit much of a tipping angle when initiated by the feet/ankles. You need a degree of knee flexion so that the feet can actually be effective in driving tipping angles. So being tall at the start of the turn ensures that you'll never be able to get higher angles early in the turn (unless you push your upper body into the turn and incline first, but you were told to build the turn, edging order, from the snow up by using the feet, knees, then the hips). The advice seems to be in conflict with itself.

 

[Seldomski]

I'm not following why you were told to "stand up" and yet were also told to start edging with your feet/ankles. It's fairly easy to test that a "long leg" does not permit much of a tipping angle when initiated by the feet/ankles. You need a degree of knee flexion so that the feet can actually be effective in driving tipping angles. So being tall at the start of the turn ensures that you'll never be able to get higher angles early in the turn (unless you push your upper body into the turn and incline first, but you were told to build the turn, edging order, from the snow up by using the feet, knees, then the hips). The advice seems to be in conflict with itself.

Well these are things all relative to where I am at now and lacks fidelity for anyone else to make sense of it. I agree that the laundry list there is in conflict and frankly almost useless to anyone else reading it that is not me . I hesitated initially to even post it for that reason. And this is actually a list from 7 lessons with 5 different instructors during a 9 calendar day period from two different ski schools (LOL).

DISCLAIMER: Do not attempt without careful supervision and trained medical staff on hand.

 

[tromano]

The RoM required scales with the turn's edge angles. You can unweight without much movement if you're skiing "over your skis" without big angles, but if you step it up and make turns with larger offset and bigger angles, it's going to take more effort to fully get off the old outside/stance ski.

Where does this movement fit with skiing? When do you shrug the hip? And which hip?

 

[Lvovsky /Pasha/Pavel]

@Seldomski very interesting, thank you!

can you please elaborate more on “not tall enough” part? When does one need to be tall on skis?

edit: oops… i see @Noodler already asked the same question

 

[Lvovsky /Pasha/Pavel]

Where does this movement fit with skiing? When do you shrug the hip? And which hip?

When you initiate the release. It takes a tiny hip move upwards to unweight one ski and, therefore, shift the weight to another ski.

 

[Lvovsky /Pasha/Pavel]

The RoM required scales with the turn's edge angles. You can unweight without much movement if you're skiing "over your skis" without big angles, but if you step it up and make turns with larger offset and bigger angles, it's going to take more effort to fully get off the old outside/stance ski.

Agree.

The ‘tip’ about hip shug aimed at introducing us to a different part of our body to think about during transition or, at least, that was my take away.

 

[Noodler]

Where does this movement fit with skiing? When do you shrug the hip? And which hip?

I use hip shrug (aka hip lift) as the movement used on the inside hip to help level the pelvis to aid in counterbalancing.

 

[Lvovsky /Pasha/Pavel]

@Noodler to clarify: are you saying that at high edge angle the hip lift is larger? Or do we engage legs to create larger RoM?

 

[Noodler]

@Noodler to clarify: are you saying that at high edge angle the hip lift is larger? Or do we engage legs to create larger RoM?

There's some confusion here, so I'll try to clear it up.

Let's leave the "hip shrug" as the release initiation move that you were taught in Taos. I think what you're stating is that what this movement does is release the stance ski of the old turn. If that's so, then it's transferring balance from the BTE of the outside ski to the LTE of the inside ski. Let me know if that's how you understand it.

Hip lift on the other hand is a movement to help level the pelvis and "fight" upper body inclination from happening too early in the turn. Counterbalancing helps provide better balance over the stance/outside ski in a turn and having the pelvis level to the slope is a target position.

That all said, maybe your question still needs an answer?

 

[tromano]

When you initiate the release. It takes a tiny hip move upwards to unweight one ski and, therefore, shift the weight to another ski.

Maybe I should just go play with this a bit on a green run this weekend.

 

[tromano]

I use hip shrug (aka hip lift) as the movement used on the inside hip to help level the pelvis to aid in counterbalancing.

This makes more sense to me to maintain balance on the outside ski with high edge angles.

 

[Lvovsky /Pasha/Pavel]

@Noodler I get it now! Thanks! When I’ll get to higher angles, I’ll ask about legs again.

 

[tromano]

There's some confusion here, so I'll try to clear it up.

Let's leave the "hip shrug" as the release initiation move that you were taught in Taos. I think what you're stating is that what this movement does is release the stance ski of the old turn. If that's so, then it's transferring balance from the BTE of the outside ski to the LTE of the inside ski. Let me know if that's how you understand it.

Hip lift on the other hand is a movement to help level the pelvis and "fight" upper body inclination from happening too early in the turn. Counterbalancing helps provide better balance over the stance/outside ski in a turn and having the pelvis level to the slope is a target position.

That all said, maybe your question still needs an answer?

I could see where if your using a hip lift in the belly of a turn, a shrug back at transition might help to return to neutral with the hips.

This conceptually is starting to make sense now.