I'd like to take this idea of the release one step further...........'cause it covers a few areas such as that raised by JimR and also an issue that we haven't canvassed much in detail and that's the concept of the "continuum of tipping"....tip,tip tip, tip ,tip ,tip ,tip ,tip, tip..........throughtout the whole of the turn....and not just at the begining.
I just finished reading an article by HH viz "Releasing : Methods to Start a Turn" ( June 03 ).
http://www.pmts.org/lib/libteach7.htm
( BTW.... there is some other good stuff at this website viz.
http://www.pmts.org eg
http://www.pmts.org/lib/libteach6.htm ).
I digress....Anyway back to HH's article ( "Releasing : Methods to Start a Turn" ) one of the points I took from this article is that without a "good" release, the rest of the turn is compromised and in fact without the continuous tipping, the energy in the ski is lost so the beginning of the next turn requires more muscle energy to make it happen......not very efficient and very tiring.
For me there is so much going on at the end of a turn that if I can "Use the Force" stored in the energy of the ski to assist me into the next turn, then so much the better......and its much more fun too.
Here's a "cut & paste" of the section of that article that impressed me......and apologies for its length............( if you don't want to read it, just "page down")............
Quote begins : "Fortunately, even an incorrect phantom move yields positive results. Where do skiers go wrong with this release, and what can they do to improve their performance?
If we read again the description of the phantom move, we see that the tilting action of the foot does not cease once the foot is lightened. The tipping action with the free foot should continue through the whole turn. To convey this, we often say, ?Start tipping at the beginning, tip more toward the middle of the turn and tip the free foot most at the end of the turn?. This continuous tipping action is important ? it sets you up for a series of quality turns. When the inside ski is tilted toward its little-toe edge at the end of a turn, weight and balance can be transferred to it while it is tilted on its little-toe edge. This is the parallel beginning; the end of one turn creates the desired beginning of the next turn, avoiding the stem and making a smooth series of linked turns.
Many skiers lift or lighten the downhill ski to begin the turn. As soon as the turn begins, they cease any action with the free foot. Let?s discuss what happens when the tipping of the free foot is weak or nonexistent through a turn.
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In absence of tipping the free foot, which tilts the skis and pulls the body into the new turn, the skier must do something else to make the skis turn. The focus necessarily shifts to the outside ski, and rotation and skidding are often the result. Many skiers will ask, ?How will the rotation and skidding occur if the skier is trying to edge the outside ski?? Well, if the free foot stops tipping it remains relatively flat to the slope. If the outside leg and foot are trying to edge that ski, they will do so without creating a significant body angle to the slope. Actively edging the outside ski doesn?t move the body inside the arc of the turn ? it creates only ?knee angulation?. As the knee tilts inward, the thigh rotates with it, tending to twist the ski.
If the skier continues this outside ski dominance through the end of the turn and then attempts a phantom move, the lightening and tilting will transfer weight onto the new downhill ski, but this ski will be flat on the snow rather than tilted toward its little-toe edge. This is not a parallel turn ? the skis are not at the same edge angle, and they will likely splay apart into a stem. The lack of continuous tipping effort with the inside foot is why many skiers do not achieve a clean parallel transition between turns.
If, instead, the inside ski is tipped toward its little-toe edge at the finish of the turn, we get the transfer onto that edge and the clean parallel transition we discussed above. The skis match each other?s edge angle at transition and throughout the turn. With more tilting efforts of the inside foot, skiers would experience a good release. As skiers develop more awareness of tilting the inside ski, they ski with higher edge angles, more control, and rounder turns...... End of Quote.
...........OK...Phew, I appreciate the above cut & paste was long ...possibly too long but , for me it says it all so neatly..........
My summation of the above is that, to get the release going correctly you need the continous tipping to put the ski ( read : energy stored inside the ski ) into a position whereby it can launch you into the next turn.......its kinda like a controlled slingshot effect........
OK so back to JimR's point, in his post to Tommy's thread "Speed control on "pure" carving ?", concerning/about where the energy is "going" where a skier is headed downhill and across the hill......
Where's the residual energy "hiding"/being stored ....answer.....
IMHO, into the ski itself.....as the ski bends into the bottom of the turn in soaks up the energy generated from the pull of gravity, the trick is to Release the energy in the turn before you head downhill again....if that makes sense.
How do you store the energy in the ski?
Also, IMHO, my guess is that its controlling my Fore/Aft balance via the pulling the hips under the body and staying centred over my ski boots
Anyway, there's my bit about why I concentrate on getting the Release right and why I focus on my Continuous tipping............'cause those 2 simple things make the fun happen for me.
Where'd I find out about this.....at my Harb Camp......not the books or the articles.....sure the ideas are in those but it was only at the Camp that I was shown How to do it and how to do it Properly.
So that's it for me on Releasing......a great lead-in thread for me ....thanks jbotti.....
.......and for those patient enough to read all of the above.......apologies to you that I couldn't make it shorter but I'm not a fast thinker, nor a pithy thinker....more of a tortoise.....
Bluey