Changing turn radius

[Guest]

I have been reading and watching the ?Skier 1 and 2 books and videos, but I still don?t quite understand something. How do you actually change the shape of a turn? (I know steering isn?t the answer.) For instance, what different movements are used for a long turn vs. a short turn? What action makes the skis turn a shorter radius turn? Thanks.

[jclayton]

I think two things make a turn shorter ;

1. quicker entry i.e. aggressive relaxing of the old stance ski

2. more tipping of the new free foot and retracting/lifting it more

2. follows 1.

The opposite for longer turns , slow entry , gentle tipping of free foot .

Also do you mean changing shape while in mid turn or from turn to turn . Once a short aggressive turn is started It would be hard to lengthen it but a longer turn can be shortened by more free foot retraction ( lifting towards the knee ) to get the effect of cranking over to finish aggressively .

[Guest]

The overview answer is that any of the movements we use to ski with can be varied in terms of timing, intensity, rate, and duration to affect their blend with each other which inturn effects the path of the body, and the path of the skis (by varying input to their technology).

Just a couple specific examples:
Increasing intensity with a quicker rate of tipping will expose more sidecut and reverse camber potential to shorten the radius of a turn.

Reducing the intensity, slowing the rate of tipping and shorting the duration so as to starting releasing sooner will reduce sidecut exposure allowing the skis to dissapate their reverse camber and lengthen a turns radius.

Striving to experiment, with awareness of casue and effect, can lead to discovery of options to make the skis go where you want to go and avoid the common habit of park-n-ride with few options except going only where their fixed engagment takes you.