by John Mason » Sun Apr 18, 2004 9:39 pm
For me the first release is just a learning release
The 2nd release - super phantom - is actually my harder release because I'm not patient enough with it so I try to turn that outside ski anyway. (that's pretty bad isn't it!) I can do it now ok, but now I kinda look at it as the release to work through to not stem turns.
The 3rd release or weighted release is so overlapped to the 2nd release that as your LTE edge momment shrinks and you do more of controlled collapse of your stance foot rather than "lift it", the 2nd release becomes the weighted release. For me, anyway, I'm finding the weighted release is the easiest to perform.
For me, the term "lift" meant actually lift the stance foot up. Not only did this shift my weight, but I would be on my LTE too long and tend to traverse my transitions rather than flowing down the hill. I actually like collapse better. Your weight still shifts, the skis stay on the snow and it is a more active way to release your turn.
My own personal view is that the SP release unless carefully coached has potential to get people into trouble. I taught my brother in law to ski about 2 weeks ago. He was doing pretty good on blues by the end of the morning and was doing turns by edging. We kinda just skipped the SP. He did not have a wedge since we skipped that too. There was no stem entry for him to unlearn. Had I taught him the detail of the SP I believe it would have held him back.
In my case, I had a big stem entry to unlearn so the SP was more useful and probably required for me.
The best phrase I have heard for the weighted release is the phrase, "pretend your leg is pnematic and let the air bleed out of it like a baloon going flat". With this mental picture in the weighted release, you are not lifting the stance leg, but doing an active controlled relaxation of the stance leg to do the release. Depending on "how fast" you let the air out you can create whatever speed of release you need for the arc of the turn you are carving.
Also, in some types of terrain the weighted release is your better choice since you can keep weight on both legs (but as you said you don't have powder out east).
The reason to continue the Super Phantom even after one has the Weighted Release down is that it's great to have a turn where you really do want the weight on purely one ski. One ski balance makes for a better carve and also is better on hard or icy conditions as you'll get more bite with the weight on just one ski. Just make sure the "lift" of the stance ski occurs early so that your CM continues down the hill and over the skis smoothly. In other words, to expand on where the SP can mess people up some (I was one), you switch to the LTE of the current inside ski while it's still the inside and uphill ski. If you do it late you'll stop your CM from moving down the hill and change this move to a "step up" the hill. You don't want to do that.
In my own experience with the SP, I found I got a bit messed up because its taught off a LTE traverse. When used in an actual turn, you don't want any traverse. The move to the LTE is done while that edge is on the snow anyway and your body is still up the hill from the skis as your completing your prior turn. LTE takes the weight as you lift and tip the stance leg to create the lateral tipping that creates the new turn. Do the LTE late after you have already lifted and tipped and you will find yourself stepping up the hill.
But the SP is a fun way to release that creates a great one ski turn. Weighted release will normally have some weight on both skis. Once both are learned, there is really not much difference at all except for the weight distribution. It's the same move - get the weight off the stance foot while tipping that same stance foot to create the release that also generates the lateral tipping that creates the engagement for the new turn.
HH is working on a new book. I hope if we can share some personal problems we had working through stuff he can hone some of the external cues and add a more comprehensive list of common problems people self coaching PMTS might get themselves into.
My other problem I had to work through which I had gotten myself into was indirectly caused because the pole plant comes pretty late in the normal PMTS training. I understand why since you don't want to bury a student with stuff all at once. But, even without the pole plant, there is such a tendancy for new students of PMTS and is also is a common skier mistake by whatever teaching method which is to "throw the shoulder" to create the turn. Since PMTS focuses on the feet, the upper body comes in later in the training. In my case, and I have early videos that show me doing this, even though I'm doing the moves pretty well with my feet, I'm overpowering them with upper body rotation and actually creating my turns this flawed way. Anything that a new student can do to be aware of this early on without having to resort to pole planting to fix it the better. One thing I used with my brother in law in his lesson was to have him drag the ski tips and keep them on the snow. This forces one to focus on the feet and prevents the typical throwing the shoulder into the new turn that new students often make. (if you really want to get aggressive with this move, then you can hold the poles upside down then grab them beneath their baskets then turn them back to the snow - this will absolutly stop the shoulder rotation and allow the student the feel of edging to do turns).
Bascially, from my experience, introducing some from of upper body discipline with an external cue very early on in PMTS would help the self coached reader of PMTS books proceed better in my opinion. I didn't get my upper body flaw under control till I went to a blue camp in December when the excellent PMTS coaches all saw what I was doing wrong and worked with me to settle my upper body.
I'm still very new to this all, I'm just sharing my current understanding and personal experience. I'd be curious to know other people's experience with the SP and if they had some trouble with it like I did.