by jbotti » Mon Feb 13, 2023 10:25 am
What great timing for this post. I just finished skiing the past this past week for a few days with Walter Edberg (PMTS black level coach) and another PMTS student who also skis at my home mountain. Walter only made a few comments to me about my skiing, but one was to remind me to allow pressure to come to me in the stance leg versus creating pressure by pushing against the ski. The difference in arcs when doing the first versus the latter is truly mind boggling. And on my right side (right stance leg, initiating a turn to the left) I will occasionally push against and the tension in the leg limits tipping action of the stance leg no matter how deep I tip the non stance ski. Which means that I have lower edge angles in the high C and the arc is not going to be as tight as it could be and I am losing any shot for speed control on anything that is steep.
I spent the last week really focusing on this (maintaining flex in my stance leg in the high C, and letting pressure build and come to me, and damn, it really is amazing how much it will tighten the arc (when combined with free foot pull back and aggressive LTE tipping progressively through the arc).
I agree that this move is subtle and difficult, because mentally it can feel like we need to extend that stance leg to get pressure. But it really does just the opposite.
When one reads this section of Harald's blog, it becomes very obvious why he gets so upset when he hears Doug Lewis and others talking about racers needing to get "early pressure" on the World Cup. Its directly opposite of how Harald and the best racers ski!
Balance: Essential in skiing and in life!