- Joined
- Aug 24, 2017
- Posts
- 364
Hi folks,
Last week I posted some videos of my wife and I skiing off-piste in a few inches of powder. I asked for some feedback about our technique, and the comments were really interesting and helpful (link to older thread: https://www.skitalk.com/threads/videos-off-piste-skiing-to-critique.22690/). In those video, I was skiing with touring boots, touring bindings, and 95 mm touring skis, not super-light, but touring gear. I thought it might be fun to compare those videos to some videos on piste.
Here are some videos of me making short (for me!) turns on piste, with slightly different radius and speed. I'm using downhill boots, bindings, and skis (Stockli Laser SLs...great skis!). These are sort of "slaved" turns. I can't carve turns at such short radius, but I am curious about how a slarved short turn of this kind could become a short carved turn with more skill.
What are my goals? One of the things I took from the last thread was the importance of fundamentals, so that's what I'd like to focus on. Basic things like fore-aft balance, upper and lower body movements, arm position, pole use (or misuse!). I don't have a specific goal in mind, for example, skiing bumps, or anything like that. I just want to get the basics in place, so that I can apply them whatever and however I'm skiing, slow, fast, small turns, big turns, carving, on piste, off piste.
Here, I was concentrating on not inclining too much, keeping my upper body facing down the slope, separating my upper body from my lower body, angulating a little, and trying to ski more with my legs and feet, which are all things I took away from the last thread. It felt OK, but I'm sure there's lots I can improve.
One of the things I constantly struggle with is keeping my weight forward to maintain consistent pressure on my skis. I've tried many things over the years, including focusing on pressing my shins onto the boots, flexing my ankles, bending my knees, shifting my hips forward, pulling my skis back, keeping my arms up, and so on. The most effective so far seems to be focusing on shifting my hips forward and/or pulling my skis back under me at the top of each run, but it's hard to keep this consistently, and whenever I get a little off balance/out of control I find myself in the backseat. In one portion of the video that I trimmed, I could clearly see myself in the backseat: lower legs coming up off the skis at 90 degrees, knees bent and femurs pointing up and back, upper body aligned vertically over my hips, most of my weight on the tails of the skis. Like I said, it's something I constantly struggle with, although there might be points in the videos where I'm in a better place.
In any case, I hope this is an interesting comparison to the off-piste videos.
(For those who might wonder, I'm from the US, but I had the great luck to marry a Spanish/Swiss woman, so we live in Switzerland. These videos were all shot in Grindelwald, in the Bernese Oberland, where we go skiing often. This probably doesn't make any difference, but I'm not a doctor, dentist, lawyer, or finance guy with lots of disposable income...far from it...I'm a high school science teacher. My 11 year old daughter just passed the "Black league" in the Swiss ski school, so she's a really good skier. Much better than my wife and I--I'm really proud of her! Below is a shot of my daughter taking a small jump--that's what it's all about!!! . If anybody is considering a trip to Switzerland or France to ski, let me know, and I might be able to help with planning).
Thanks in advance for any thoughts or ideas--I really appreciate it.
My daughter after completing the black league!
Last week I posted some videos of my wife and I skiing off-piste in a few inches of powder. I asked for some feedback about our technique, and the comments were really interesting and helpful (link to older thread: https://www.skitalk.com/threads/videos-off-piste-skiing-to-critique.22690/). In those video, I was skiing with touring boots, touring bindings, and 95 mm touring skis, not super-light, but touring gear. I thought it might be fun to compare those videos to some videos on piste.
Here are some videos of me making short (for me!) turns on piste, with slightly different radius and speed. I'm using downhill boots, bindings, and skis (Stockli Laser SLs...great skis!). These are sort of "slaved" turns. I can't carve turns at such short radius, but I am curious about how a slarved short turn of this kind could become a short carved turn with more skill.
What are my goals? One of the things I took from the last thread was the importance of fundamentals, so that's what I'd like to focus on. Basic things like fore-aft balance, upper and lower body movements, arm position, pole use (or misuse!). I don't have a specific goal in mind, for example, skiing bumps, or anything like that. I just want to get the basics in place, so that I can apply them whatever and however I'm skiing, slow, fast, small turns, big turns, carving, on piste, off piste.
Here, I was concentrating on not inclining too much, keeping my upper body facing down the slope, separating my upper body from my lower body, angulating a little, and trying to ski more with my legs and feet, which are all things I took away from the last thread. It felt OK, but I'm sure there's lots I can improve.
One of the things I constantly struggle with is keeping my weight forward to maintain consistent pressure on my skis. I've tried many things over the years, including focusing on pressing my shins onto the boots, flexing my ankles, bending my knees, shifting my hips forward, pulling my skis back, keeping my arms up, and so on. The most effective so far seems to be focusing on shifting my hips forward and/or pulling my skis back under me at the top of each run, but it's hard to keep this consistently, and whenever I get a little off balance/out of control I find myself in the backseat. In one portion of the video that I trimmed, I could clearly see myself in the backseat: lower legs coming up off the skis at 90 degrees, knees bent and femurs pointing up and back, upper body aligned vertically over my hips, most of my weight on the tails of the skis. Like I said, it's something I constantly struggle with, although there might be points in the videos where I'm in a better place.
In any case, I hope this is an interesting comparison to the off-piste videos.
(For those who might wonder, I'm from the US, but I had the great luck to marry a Spanish/Swiss woman, so we live in Switzerland. These videos were all shot in Grindelwald, in the Bernese Oberland, where we go skiing often. This probably doesn't make any difference, but I'm not a doctor, dentist, lawyer, or finance guy with lots of disposable income...far from it...I'm a high school science teacher. My 11 year old daughter just passed the "Black league" in the Swiss ski school, so she's a really good skier. Much better than my wife and I--I'm really proud of her! Below is a shot of my daughter taking a small jump--that's what it's all about!!! . If anybody is considering a trip to Switzerland or France to ski, let me know, and I might be able to help with planning).
Thanks in advance for any thoughts or ideas--I really appreciate it.
My daughter after completing the black league!