ChuckT wrote:I did notice the "up" move from a lot of Mammoth skiers and found out incidentally that it's part of the teaching. We stopped on Dave's Run close to a uniformed instructor and two skiers. He showed them how to release and turn by transfering weight to the uphill ski and extend. His demo actually looked very smooth. My son was impressed and immediately asked "why not?" when I told him not to push off like that. I couldn't think of a simple way to explain to the kid
Here's why any kind of extension in transition is undesirable.
1) Extension kills tipping. You can't tip well while you are pushing off the ski so during the time you are extending, you have very little control over the ski. This might matter if you need to turn NOW.
2) Extension kills grip. If you get in the habit of pushing off your edges, you will never be effective on hard snow because you will always be pushing your ski loose at the top of the turn.
3) Extension at pushes you out of balance. Forces to balance against are limited at the top of the turn. Trying to extend into the turn will usually result in one of two things. Experienced skiers will sense the impending balance problem and immediately steer the skis into the fall line to avoid it. The other option is to lean in, which (if you don't end up on your hip) will usually result in your balance being on the inside ski. Either way, you end up accelerating into the fall line way before you are ready and you will be late with whatever attempt you make to control the turn from there. That will probably lead to a late, hard edge set to control speed. Late hit skiing can work on soft snow, but it's not a good choice for ice. Only people who don't know any better think the bottom third of the arc is the "control phase".
4) What goes up must come down. If your ability to change edges is based on extension, at some point you have to flex in order to be ready for the next edge change. If you get long to change edges, then you have to get short somewhere else in the turn. Unfortunately, flexion is a release move, so if you flex in the middle of the arc (which is what most extenders do), you end up weakening your grip. That ends up putting you in a vicious cycle. The energy you would otherwise use to release is disappated by the premature flexion, which means that you are going to get no help to move into the next turn which means that you will instinctively extend and the cycle repeats.
5) Extension takes effort! Flex to release involves giving in--both to the forces of the turn and to gravity. In a proper turn, extension happens as you move inside the turn and forces build. You use the extended, strong leg to resist the forces and then you get a free ride to the new edges when you quit resisting. If you extend to change edges, you get no chance to rest. You extend to get on your new edges, but then you have continue fighting for grip. At no point do you get to relax!
6) Elite skiers don't extend in transition. When "gurus" start pointing out extension or "up movements" in elite skiers, what they are really seeing is not enough flexion. In very high energy turns, if you don't flex quickly enough and hard enough, the turn forces will pull you upright. Although they can point to some leg lengthening, what they are seiing is not extension in the sense that there is no pushing against the ski happening.
7) Elite skiers don't extend in transition. In the rare cases where you see elite skiers hopping a turn, it is almost always done with aggressive retraction (sucking up the legs), rather than pushing off them.
Extension in transition sucks. Only hacks use it. Don't be a hack. What you want to be able to do is use flexion to release the old turn and allow you to move to your new edges in balance. Use the top third of the arc to get established on the edge, get forward, and be ready to ramp up the tipping and gripping movements to generate whatever kind of turn shape you are looking for in the middle third of the arc. This will allow you to precisely control your direction and speed. This is the difference that PMTS offers. Only elite skiers have the ability to ski with absolute control and precision. PMTS movements will lead to that level of skiing. TTS movements will not.