by kirtland » Thu Nov 26, 2009 12:50 am
Harald ,
I think there is an element to this, which is not being mentioned. One thing about your skiing in your demos, is that it is rarely passive, you make almost all your turns using your whole ski. My Austrian friend, the late Gene Landsman, when he would be trying to teach this, would say," you should go back to the store and get some of your money back, if you're not going to use the whole ski." You definetely always get your moneys worth out of the ski.
Although I've never seen you address it well or thoroughly, other than saying you SLICE, you work through the whole ski, as all good skiers do. So your stance ski although it is pulled back underneath you at the beginning of the turn, it is moving forward through the turn, helping to project you into the next turn. The way you put this video together is great and it demonstrates it well, by stopping at the different frames.
In Frame 1 your stance ski has the foot well back behind the knee and hip.
In Frame 2 your foot is advancing slightly
In frame 3 it shows the release and how your foot is projected ahead by the energy stored in the ski. It can be seen that you have worked through the ski and have used the tail of the ski, because for just an instant the tip of the ski is projected up. It shows how you moved your foot forward under your hip and through the kinetic chain it is bringing your hip forward, it also shows how you have been pulling your free foot back through the turn, so that when you release ,it begins to come back under you a little more. As a consequence your hips are beginning to come square to the skis although your torso is facing towards the fall line.
In Frame 4 It shows how your new stance foot is continuing to come back under you more and your new free foot is wanting to advance slightly, but you are controlling it, getting it back under neath you, it still either slightly ahead of your hip or underneath it. I would say you are now square to the skis (it's hard to tell from this angle).
In Frame 5 It shows your hips beginning to be countered to your skis ,although your upper torso is still facing more down the fall line.
In Frame 6 Hips and torso are both countered .
So although this series shows your upper torso generally facing down the fall line. What is happening down at your feet is affecting the kinetic chain only up to your hips, so that your hips square up and counter before your torso does. I think the way you move your stance ski through the turn has a profound affect on this.
I think this is the only movement in skiing that you haven't addressed and explained well. But neither has anybody else. It's just that all really good skiers know how to SLICE as you call it.
Kirtland