PSIA and Racing

[skijim13]

Has anyone seen the new article in the 32 degrees written about the simliar skills used by racers and ski instructors? They still believe that they both use similar skills but the blending of their five key moves are different and also the DIRT (duration, intensity, rate, and timming) is different. My favorite message in the article is that "racers start releasing their edges right after the fall line, while ski instructors stay in the turn past that and finsh their turns by not releasing early". I know that having too long of a travere in your turn bleeds out the energy in your turn which causes the skier to need to push themselves into the new turn. I have been working on starting my release right after my tips are past the apex.

[DougD]

"racers start releasing their edges right after the fall line..."

I'm not a racer, but this statement seems wrong. For a racer, releasing all turns at the same point (whether early or late) would be losing tactics - especially in SL or GS.

The optimal point for beginning the release depends on the line you want to ski. When free skiing your line is your own, so you can release all your turns early, or late, or wherever you choose. In a course however, the optimal line is determined by the position of the next gate. In a flush, one does indeed get on and off the edges as early as possible. If the next gate is set across the hill, the optimal release point will be later.

It follows that racers must develop their technique so that they can release their edges at any point in the turn. Racers don't use a one-size-fits all release, they develop complete technique to support complete tactics. The original statement would be more correct if it stated, "racers sometimes start releasing their edges right after the fall line."

That said, your personal plan to learn to release earlier/quicker makes sense. Holding on and releasing later is what we all learn to start. That's what instructors teach the public for safety and speed control. But when the hill demands an earlier release, as often happens in the bumps for example, the ability to balance and release at any point in the turn would be a sign of a more complete skier.

Correction by real racers and qualified PMTSers is welcomed.

[h.harb]

Please post a link to the article, or it's not worth making comments. However racers do not release their turns at the falline, that is already far off the mark.

[skijim13]

Could not find a link online, the article is in the Fall PSIA 2015 32 degrees publication

[skifastDDS]

It's online here, but you have to be a subscriber to access the full publication. Perhaps Jim could screenshot the article in question as a PSIA subscriber [to the publication ]

http://content.yudu.com/A3wvft/32DegreesFall2015/

[skijim13]

Not sure if we allowed to copy a publication from another site and post it here. I have a PDF form that I can email to anyone that wants it just message me.

Jim