Day 3 on the snow and I really like my new Elan's. I figured a short turner would probably be best for finding my way with PMTS movements. I spent most of Saturday on slow stepping movements across the fall line and working the Inside free foot heel to my stance foot in a brushing movement as displayed in Video ACBE#1. I pretty much stayed on the bunny hill all day working on that, edge releases and working on the Phantom move. Today I wanted to ski a little more than yesterday so I really focused on Lifting my inside foot off the snow and pulling it back while tipping it to the little toe edge, all while subtly keeping my inside hand leading the turn and counter balancing, all done extremely slowly down some moderate than steeper pitched trails. I was getting some great angles by tipping that I had never experienced before, some that made me almost uncomfortable. I used to think in the past, I had been creating some decent angles. Wake up call!!
Snow cover was fantastic today with no ice anywhere so I could really focus. This weekend, I decided to take the approach as if I had never skied before. My buddies were a little impatient with me in the morning, but saw that I was making nice round turns by the afternoon with little or no skidding, Inside foot leading every movement, pulled back with some minimal counter balancing and very committed to working on these movements. Working every movement from the foot up, instead of from the hip or knee down. This is a new sensation for me, but by the end of the weekend I felt like I could feel it when I was doing it, but more importantly I felt it more when I was not. Counter rotating is something I was taught from day one of my skiing, so I am not so focused on that since I feel that I pretty much do it naturally.
Skiing in Tighter stance is requiring much more focus than I Initially thought it would as well. I will say that keeping your pole baskets in front of your ankles is a great tip and it kept my mind off of where my hands were. Also slowing skiing down a couple of steep faces today, inside foot pulled back and inside ski tail off the snow, & baskets in front of ankles put me in a very solid position with absolute great balance and my skis were not getting in front of me at all. Great speed control with no edge setting required at the bottom of the turn at all to slow down. Turns were very calm and smooth and I actually felt more relaxed while skiing than usual today. Almost like I was doing less, and making nicer turns, if that makes sense.I feel like I still have to unlearn a lot movements I have been doing over the years, but I am having fun with this and will keep working on the movements in ACBE#1 till I feel they come more naturally and then move on to ACBE#2. This is great fun, and I will try to shoot some video before the month end.