I'm still in Europe, Zillertal, doing some filming for my new DVD and rock climbing. Google "Zillertal rock climbing", awesome.
Harald,
I always thought of CA and counteracting rotation. Therefore, I thought about it as something that is done during the transition between turns -- as the skis are edged, counter-action begins. Now, this can occur in two different ways -- the skier can allow the counteraction to occur by allowing the skis to turn independently of the upper body and not following/staying square, or the skier can actively force counteraction.
In your demo, to me, it appears that you've allowed the counteraction; it does not look forced. But you say that it's strong CA, which sounds active to me...
In the demo, were you actively counteracting or allowing counteraction to occur?
Bige thanks for bringing this up. We need to dig into this topic and really expose the issues.
I'd like point out and make distinctions about CA that many skiers have yet to be introduced to, one is that PMTS CA, is not C rotation or "skiing into counter". Let's take C rotation first, this is a much maligned movement that can kick the skis to the side before the falline. PSIA started using this term to describe a movement they taught back in the sixties, after a period of time they realized that it was a movement that caused a tail skid. This was just about the time when Warren Witherall criticized ski instructors as skiing like posers because they skidded turns, where racers carved their turns. (The 1970s version of carving, which to this day is still much more difficult to achieve than modern day carving)
So PSIA, in their infinite wisdom started telling everyone that C rotation was bad and that skiing square was in. Counter rotation, if used correctly, is not bad, it's in fact fantastic and very strong, but only if you begin and know how to tip the skis onto an edge first. Then CR can be hugely effective at high speed, powerful, quick, retraction, flexing, type transitions. Racers have to use this all the time. It just turns out ski instructors couldn't figure out that if you CR first, without tipping, it produces a skid. So they got rid of the (their) problem by avoiding the whole issue, by changing their approach and telling all their instructors to ski square and teach square. PSIA is "filled with holes" like this example, in their system. That's why PSIA minded instructors who write a lot like BB, have to write 100s of pages to justify what they teach, without coming up with any logical useable methods. It's a "looks good on paper instructional system", not a practical applicable system that achieves expert skiers (in my opinion of course).
Skiing square is just not possible, because you end up rotating. THE BODY IS NOT MADE TO DEAL WITH THE ROTATIONAL FORCES OF A SKI, "ARCING", WITH A SQUARE HIP. THE HIP IS IN A PRECARIOUS POSITION AND HAS NO CONTROLLING MUSCLES when IT IS HELD SQUARE. Skiing square requires a rotation beginning, ever so slight, if done perfectly, so square is really skiing with rotation. I know few skiers who can ski square except for in a contrived demo formate.
Amazingly enough, they have yet to figure this out. They don't get tipping, they don't teach it, (they may talk about it and possibly have introduced the word, but they don't know how it fits.) so they try to avoid their problems by skiing square. As a result they have very low performance turns. They all go slow and they all look the same, like golf carts. quote WW.
Skiing into counter is also a joke. WC racers can do it, few others can. Another thing that instructors and coaches don't realize is that if you don't know how to CA well, you will never learn how to ski into a counter. Skiing into to a counter requires a much high degree of Counter Acting understanding.
Do you think skiers rotate on purpose? No, they rotate because they don't know how to CA. PMTS CA is CR without the tail push, so it can be a very subtle or very strong movement depending on the range of the dynamics.
So back to the original question, do I use active countering (hips) in all TFRs? Yes, without question, just because it looks easy and I disguise it to look controlled and subtle, it's there and it's powerful.
CA is misrepresented, misunderstood and underutilized in both teaching and coaching. Few Coaches see what's good about it and they don't see or know what to do for a racer when it's not used. Who in all the literature about skiing describes CA properly? No one.