I just attended a two day PSIA clinic at Vail Spring Fling. The clinic topic was
Teaching Contemporary SkiingIn a nut shell, this is what was presented to me:
Wider stance fallacy - at least hip width. When I asked "why?" The response was "to get higher edge angles." There was a perceived limitation due to my close stance BUT everyone in the group perked up about me getting the highest angles of anyone. Led by the examiner (lets use "Sal" as a name) there was confusion about vertical/horizontal separation, no one had ever been shown the difference. Lowering the hips (to get higher angles) by retracting the inside leg was a very fuzzy topic and knee to boot at some point in the turn was a revelation to most in the group, Sal included. The hip width mandate also had misconceptions. Sal said a plumb line from the hips (I nailed Sal down to the Iliac crest location) was the determining factor for stance width. Admittedly better than shoulder width but still too wide. I stated that the extension of the head of the femur (at ball joint with pelvis) is well inside of the boney iliac crest and maybe that should be a reference point. No reply . . . blinded and silenced by a whiff of science, the belief system was under scrutiny.
Getting forward- Sal used extension of the inside (new outside) ski to release and projection of the upper body (a leaning leap of faith) to move forward at the hips; to recenter and regroup with the the skis (during the shaping phase?). When I introduced bending the stance leg and tipping to release, using momentum, pulling both feet back to get forward, the concept of relaxing the inside leg to lower the hips and inside free foot management . . . the roof blew off of the clinic.
Push against the ski to pressure it- As a result of the extension to release focus, Sal had people pushing themselves out of balance in high C and they were guaranteed a loss of balance on the outside ski by "pushing against it" during the "shaping phase" of the turn. It was a mess!
All of this plus . . . steering the legs and a drill that actually produced rotation. Sal talked about "facing down the hill" but no movements or drills to "face down the hill" were given. In all demos Sal squared up at the end of the turn.
This clinic (given at the premier PSIA resort) was so far inferior to the Tech Camp I attended (conducted by Harald and Diana) that there is literally no way to look at both in the same light. The two are not even in the same era, as marked by the advent of modern shaped skis.There was nothing contemporary, modern or relevant to a balanced SL turn given in this clinic. What was presented was the same material I heard at PSIA clinics before the dawn of shaped skis- for that matter before the arrival of TOMBA!
PSIA never really changed, as a result many adjustments that were made to the methodology/mechanics, like "widen your stance" were misguided and counter productive.
To Sal's credit- new and contrary concepts were added to the clinic discussion and no PSIA dogma was forced on the group.
Look at the two skiers below. PMTS will produce one and PSIA will produce the other, guess which is which.