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Feedback on carving for a beginner

LiquidFeet

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You are on the right track, and as others have said, your skiing is impressive for a 2nd season skier. Congrats!. But being backseat is indeed holding you back. So I'm going to address that first. You said:

Tried to focus on bringing pressure to the shins but couldn't do it every time -- its hard to concentrate on downhill leg and shin pressure at the same time. Still look backseat in the video footage but maybe better than before.

1. In order to bring pressure to the shins, concentrate on keeping your ankles bent forward - keep them dorsiflexed. You probably won't be able to concentrate on anything else but this because most people can only work on one thing at a time. So practice on green terrain, which will offer less speed to distract your attention from your ankles.

I grabbed these two images from the internet. The first shows what you focus on- inside the boot lift your forefoot up to contact the ceiling of the boot. This creates dorsiflexiong.
View attachment 200163
And here's your goal: get the angle of your ankle "closed," aka dorsiflexed, like so:
View attachment 200162
Your shin will tilt forward inside the boot when you ski this way. That tilt will produce shin-tongue contact. Keep the ankles constantly dorsiflexed. This will be a challenge. Your goal is to make it habitual, so you can do it without thought. Practice, practice, practice. Practice on empty green terrain where the distractions are limited. When you forget and notice that you lost your focus, congratulate yourself for recognizing this and bring the focus back to dorsiflexing.
View attachment 200164
2. As you are getting successful at keeping your ankles dorsiflexed, also work on lifting your hips up and forward. Do this by opening your knees. The farther forward you get your hips, the more shin-tongue "pressure" you'll feel, and the more weight you will be directing to the shovels of your skis. How much you lift your hips determines how much weight you put over the shovels. Once your dorsiflexion is in muscle memory, you can then learn to manipulate how much shovel pressure you want to have by deciding how much to lift your hips up and forward. More up and forward, more shovel pressure.
--Look at the shin tilt for these two skiers below. The man's shins are vertical, not tilted forward, because he is not dorsiflexing. This forces his hips and torso back, so his weight is concentrated over the backs of the skis. He's in the back seat. His quads are getting exhausted. Not good.
--The woman's shins are tilted forward. She is dorsiflexing. Her hips are up, not sitting back, and her quads are not getting exhausted. She is definitely not in the back seat. That's your goal. The key is dorsiflexion, with hips up.
View attachment 200165
3. One more thing. Notice how the woman's upper body tilt matches the shin tilt? This is good. Aim for that, once you're dealing with lifting those hips up and forward. It will feel much more natural to get your bent elbows forward of your jacket's side-seam, and keep your hands forward as hers are. That will get your arms in a good position and help your balance, even if you are just holding onto your poles. Those arms weight something too, so their weight has an impact on how much weight is hovering over the fronts of your skis.

4. I have not addressed skiing from outside ski to outside ski, nor how to develop higher edge angles. Nor have I mentioned how to make clean arc-to-arc carves. These can be worked on after you solve the back seat issue.
There is an alternative way to get out of the back seat. My previous post talked about dorsiflexing and moving hips up and forward. The two approaches are pretty much two sides of the same coin. This second approach works better with some people than the other approach.

Instead of directly dorsiflexing and lifting hips up and forward, pull the feet back. Pull both feet back, and keep them back as you ski. Holding the feet back relative to the hips above forces the ankles to dorsiflex, tilts the shins forward, which in turn creates shin-tongue contact, and aligns the hips forward of the feet so they hover over the fronts of the skis and weight them down. Controlling how much pressure you direct toward the shovels will still rely on how far forward you position the hips.

Below is an image that shows how to pull the feet back. It happens mostly at the knees. This demo requires the instructor to stand on one leg to show the hinging at the knee on the other leg, but in reality you need to pull them both back together to get out of the back seat. The farther back you pull the feet, the more the upper thigh tilts and the higher the hips go. I have a better slo-mo video somewhere that does a better job of showing the pull-back motion I am talking about, but can't find it.
Direct Parallel 1 eVideo
Again, my comments are directed at getting out of the back seat. Since people can't pay attention to two things at once, eliminating back seat skiing can come first. Once you are no longer consistently back you will be so much better balanced, much more confident in your ski control at speed, and you will no longer be getting so exhausted. You will be primed to learn how to manage your outside ski pressure and how to initiate turns in such a way that you can get higher edge angles.
 
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Rich_Ease_3051

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7. Doing this on a steeper run is a very challenging transition for me -- even in a slushy environment. Of course I need to get the basics down, but it feels like something major is holding me back... perhaps courage? Or being backseat is rearing its head.

Could it be fear of speed on steeper runs that's holding you back? Terminal velocity is obviously faster on a steep run vs flatish run or gentler slope, but only up to a point. Once you reach that terminal velocity, you stop accelerating. If you're comfortable with the terminal velocity of a run, you can wash off some of the speed with straightening, or making the skis flat for lack of a better word, from a carved or edged position. But you have to first be comfortable with the peak/max terminal velocity first.

13:30 minute mark discusses some of this. See if it helps you understand/cope with speed.

 
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Sherman89

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A lot of good ideas for you to ponder, I do notice you turn better to the right than the left. In the left turn you fall back into the back seat with weight on the inside ski and upper body banking trying to build edge angles where as the right turn has good upper/lower body separation compared to the left turn and if you look at your tracks the right turn track has a outside ski deeper trench than the left turn track which verifies my observations. As others have said your fatigue is a result of your back seat position and the quads are burning especially in the left turn. As liquidfeet has advised get the hips forward with ankle flexion, when you do your quads will stop burning. Keep up the good work as progress is being made. What ski area were you videoed---your video camera man did a good job.
 
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wildest_comfortable

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1. It is hard/impossible to actively weight the outer leg. Much easier to think of getting weight OFF the inside leg.

This is interesting... So the camber bends without pressing your foot outwards? I need to rethink this because I originally didn't have much pressure and now I'm pushing a lot (which is what is exhausting me) but maybe I have the mechanics wrong. Thanks for the thoughtful response.

Wildest, the thing that stands out in your latest video is a lack of foot tipping. Look up video demonstrations of this, and if possible get a lesson focused on it. A major application of this movement is knee angulation, so find video showing what that looks like. Improved foot tipping will bring major improvements, both in your transition into the new turn (removing pivoting and upper body rotation), and in turn completion (removing leaning into the turn). We could talk all day about those latter points, but the first thing you need to master is foot tipping, because that is what will give you the tools to develop alternative movement patterns.
Thanks Chris -- haven't heard that feedback yet. Will take a look at what this means. I do feel very unstable when I start tipping with the ankle as opposed starting at the middle part of my body but perhaps I need to get an instructor to see if I'm doing it right in person.

To everyone else, awesome feedback! Really appreciate it. Really need to work on the backseat thing starting next season then. Feels like its at the top of the priority list.

Since this is a ski review forum as well, I give my two cents on the current ski: 2023 Kastle DX85 (mens). Grabbed these demos for super cheap at Jackson Hole and they have been a revelation coming from the Ripsticks. Far more confidence inspiring and super stable. Been going through spring snow piles at speed without much feedback or chatter for the past three days. Wish I had picked up something a bit skinnier to focus on learning the frontside but I guess that will be the next ski.

What ski area were you videoed---your video camera man did a good job.
Okemo was the last day of the weekend. Nice groomers and well pitched. Felt fairly disappointed in Killington (1st time -- obviously spring skiing is different and a lot of the mountain was too slushed out and moguled) but Okemo had much nicer terrain available (South slope trees had a lot of coverage) and longer groomers that didn't funnel back to the base. Nice intermediate pitch as well so its easier to focus on technique and not worry about ice as in the case of some of the double black north facing pitches at K.
 

Scruffy

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. Felt fairly disappointed in Killington (1st time --
Mark your own words for future reference. This attitude will change as you get better. When that day comes, you'll say generally disappointed in Okemo, rather ski Killington :beercheer:
 
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wildest_comfortable

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Mark your own words for future reference. This attitude will change as you get better. When that day comes, you'll say generally disappointed in Okemo, rather ski Killington :beercheer:
Oh I agree with you that Killington has far better variety of terrain and I can see how enjoyable it would be under different circumstances i.e. in February with good snow.

Cascade was too icy, catwalk was fun but not something I'd do for the whole day. Skyelark and Bittersweet got way too busy and skied off, rime/east fall were too short and under a slow lift. Bear mountain was far too slushy after 11am. Highline was pretty fun for a few runs but again, got too slushy to enjoy.

Okemo had no icy trails, variety of pitches and longer groomers that were not busy/skied off and the Double Down tree are was a load of fun.

Comparing the 2 days between the two resorts, I enjoyed Okemo more this weekend but yeah its probably more of a groomer oriented easier mountain. Not an overall assessment! It was my first time at Stratton, Okemo, and Killington this weekend so it was fun to explore all three (not so much Stratton due to wind holds and frozen rain).
 

James

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I enjoyed Okemo more this weekend
Saturday was mostly winter for most of the day with exceptions. Completely different to Sunday. That few people on a weekend is also way outside the norm. Though not so much for April.

An important note-
You go right through this intersection on Sapphire without looking for the traffic from uphill on Route 103. (From left) Normally, that’s very busy, and because of the trees, you can’t see that early and it’s a good idea to shut it down before. Regardless, looking is mandatory at intersections. Don’t get into bad habits.
F30CE888-47AF-45D7-BC4A-9D4BE3A32067.jpeg
 

KingGrump

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Not necessarily but my intention was to practice wider turns and do drills -- hard to do that with uneven snow.

Shudda called ahead and reserve the snow condition of your choice.

On a more serious note. Spring slush will improve your skiing if you let it. Good feed back for rounder turns.
Bumps will improve your balance. Bump skiing starts on the groomer. The bumps will point out any imbalance on your skiing. A good feedback loop.

BTW, focus on the function not the form.
 

LiquidFeet

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This is interesting... So the camber bends without pressing your foot outwards? I need to rethink this because I originally didn't have much pressure and now I'm pushing a lot (which is what is exhausting me) but maybe I have the mechanics wrong.
The pressure underfoot pressure doesn't come from pushing on the ski. Do not push. Just say no to that urge.

Instead, bend/shorten your soon-to-be inside leg to start the turn (the downhill leg at the end of the old turn), then allow the soon-to-be outside leg (uphill leg) to lengthen to keep that foot on the snow. Keep your torso upright as you flex that new inside leg and extend that new outside leg.

Your skis will tip onto new edges because you have one leg long and the other leg short. Your lower legs will tilt and that will tilt the skis up onto edge. The tilted skis will bend and turn to point downhill. The turn will be starting.

This upright torso gives you angulation, and the angulation directs your body weight, along with the developing forces of the turn, to the outside ski. This is where the underfoot pressure comes from. No need to push. Pushing on your outside ski generates only momentary pressure, and it tends to break your outside ski loose from its hold on the snow.

As the skis turn and move downhill along a circular path, you'll feel "centrifugal force." Or more accurately, you'll feel centripetal force building underfoot. Because you kept your torso upright, that building pressure will accumulate mostly under the outside foot and ski. This is where the outside ski pressure comes from. No need to push.

For higher edge angles, shorten that new inside leg more. MORE. Your legs will tilt more, and your edge angle will increase. Outside ski pressure and amount of edge angle are closely related. Do not lean in. This defeats the process of directing pressure to the outside ski.

So... shorten the new inside leg, allow the new outside leg in turn to lengthen, and keep your torso upright. This will take care of underfoot pressure for the outside ski. Shorten the inside leg more for higher edge angles.
 
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François Pugh

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It's Newton's second law. You trying to push forward pushes you back. Even trying to push with the front of your skis can do it.
What worked well for me, IIRC, was a combination of trying to close my ankles (even though my feet and ankles were as if cast in 20 MPa concrete due to ultra stiff boots, the trying must have triggered sympathetic muscles or something) and pulling my feet behind me as I tipped my skis so that their edges would cut my turns.
I know it's hard to do three things at once, but if you can walk and chew gum at the same time, you can do two. Just keep trying to add one more. Like the button song.
 

James

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You’re kind of in this position-

59A635E4-94E1-42AA-8E09-8393C4D266A4.jpeg

(Photo From quote below)
Just with flexed knees and tilted forward more.

472C7C7B-2806-43DF-B22C-EDF2969A2EED.jpeg

This is you at Okemo on Sapphire. Anterior pelvic tilt and hollow back. Are you doing this when you are “pushing”?

One more, then maybe I'll quit. Here's a skier with anterior pelvic tilt.
Another way of saying this is arched lower back; same thing.
We do NOT want to be doing this while skiing, no matter how high our skill level.
pt11.jpg
 

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