Improve Your Skiing: Flex to Connect

Disconnected Skiing

Traditional ski technique has always used a large “up” extension movement to unweight the ski, so the ski can be steered or pushed to an edge. With this method the ski edge doesn’t engage until the skis are away from the body. The skis are disconnected from the snow.

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When in Doubt, Use the Super Phantom

This week I skied with a skier who was close to parallel, but not ready for off-piste skiing. The key to the next level in skiing is transition, transition, transition. It is easy to see when skiers are not yet ready for all-mountain skiing by watching their transition. You can follow them closely and view the skis at the beginning of transition. Although it maybe obvious to the viewer that the first movement of the transition is a separation of the skis, beginning with the old free or inside ski foot, unfortunately the skier is rarely aware of this behavior.

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Phantom Move as per PMTS

Some will say skiing is all physics, but the description of forces, the way they act and what forces we use (external vs. internal) change when the skier uses different movements, timing, speed, position of balance, ski bend or ski skid. In these different situations, therefore, we must be very careful to establish context, and not make blanket or universal statements about the effects of the Phantom Move or try to prove a point by relating everything to the one science. In every stage of skier development we may see a different set of external demands and internal responses.

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Releasing: Methods to Start a Turn (2/2)

The Weighted Release - Releasing without Lightening

Modern skiing with shaped skis is very different from what we were doing fifteen years ago. Much of the credit for facilitating effective changes can be attributed to PMTS Direct Parallel. Unfortunately, efficient use of the inside foot, ski and edge are still largely misunderstood by those who have not yet educated themselves completely in PMTS techniques.

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Releasing: Methods to Start a Turn (1/2)

The Phantom Move

From the onset, my initiative to write ski articles and books came from my desire to make sense of skiing movements and terminology. I saw too many complicated words and concepts bantered about in discussions of skiing technique. In many ways, elaborate terminology opens up the opportunity for misinterpretation rather then developing clarity and easy understanding. In discussing PMTS Direct Parallel technique, we often describe actions. For example: changing edges finishes one turn and begins the next turn. In the process of changing edges we release the edges, change balance and re-engage the edges. This simple description of the transition between turns can be summarized as “RTE” - release, transfer and engage.

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Improve Your Skiing: Dealing with Fear and Apprehension

Fear can be very debilitating to a skier. It can lock up the legs and make them stiff or it can make the legs rubbery and unresponsive. There are many tactics and methods to deal with this phenomenon. In this article I will address some of these issues and demonstrate a few options on how to control fear.

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