Yeah, I try to get the tip to anchor into the snow, I think of it as biting into the snow. By doing this, I'm getting the ski into a reverse camber. It does two things, gets my edge engaged to control my turn, more left/right or straight into face of the bump. The other, is at the face of the bump, the reverse camber acts as a spring to absorb the forces and used to control the speed. When you augment this with absorption (flexing the knee and hip), its another degree of freedom one can use to control their decent.
I find that letting the tips go flat, I have less control of where my turns are going and can't use the spring action as effectively.
I will say the few times I have (recently) done this correctly, it is weird how slow you can go with the skis pointed mostly downhill. The braking you get from the front of the edged ski is good stuff. It was hard for me mentally to point them like that and hope for the best, but it worked out. I had to point them down but also be looking at the right location for turning. It's complicated! I have not done this in anything really steep yet - just on blue moguls. Best to play with it on shallower terrain with smaller moguls then slowly go to bigger and steeper stuff.
Bobby seems to be going downhill slower than Deb, but his skis are still pointed mostly downhill. He's sliding quite a bit more on those moguls than Deb and also throwing in the occasional edge set to really slow down. It's different ski performance. If you point your skis like Bobby but travel with that edge instead of sliding down the fall line buttering the moguls, you will go much faster and look more like Deb. Bobby's feet are not really going the direction the skis are pointed. There's a lot of sliding and braking is happening. Conversely, Deb lets the ski hook up a bit more and it shoots across the slope. She is getting more of the carving performance out of the ski, tip to tail working the skis. I don't think Bobby is working the ski that way - so he is able to keep his body in a narrower corridor with a more direct line.
The very best of the former competitive bump skiers now instructing are able to detune their style--making it turnier--to be able to demo and teach something mere mortals can aspire to. Heck, some of them detune it in their own skiing, since they're no longer riding on 19 year old knees!
I have seen some of these former competitive bumpers, now in their 50s, skiing moguls and they still keep it really tight. When does 'old' start for a former Olympian though?
Watching them come down, the helmet and shoulders don't displace side to side at all. Maybe move 1 helmet diameter, if that. They can still rip down fast if they want to but keep it tight and less jarring at slower speeds too.
And yes, they can also ski them more 'boring' to demo. But I don't recall them mentioning that their knees couldn't handle the direct line anymore. Maybe skiing it a bit slower down the fall line, but still looking pretty much the same (awesome to my eyes).
