How To Carve: An Intro to carving

Carving can be one of the must fun and exhilarating things to do on a pair of skis.  But only about 10% of skiers on the mountain can actually carve a turn, according to a poll of ski instructors by Ski Magazine.  If you're unfamiliar with carving, it's using the sidecut of the ski to leave two clean arcs in the snow.  Better yet, leave a series of connected arcs in the snow, much like the letter 'S'.  Still unsure?  Next time you're riding the chairlift, look down at the trail and see if you can spot some arcs in the snow, or look up some videos of Giant Slalom racers.

Bump Skiing 101 - An introduction to skiing moguls

I had a 3 hour lesson the other day with a strong intermediate skier who wanted to improve his bump skiing.  By his own self assessment his mogul skiing wasn't very good!  We'd had a few inches of fresh snow at the mountain, so the conditions were perfect for an intro to bumps lesson.  After a quick warm up lap to check he could make a parallel turn on blue terrain, we dove right in.  I'll lead you through my progression, and give some explanation why.  I might have taken a different approach depending on the profile of the student.

Up & Over Ski Drill: Making 'C' turners out of 'Z' turners

The Up & Over drill was probably the biggest 'ah-ha' moment I've had on skis.  I think for most people it is difficult to understand and conceptualize.  Let's think about this in everyday skier terms.  Next time you ride the lift over a steep trail, count the number of skiers you see pushing their heels around at the top of the turn, with a heavy edge-set at the end of the turn to control speed.  This is usually accompanied by bracing against the outside leg/ski.  The stereotypical 'Z' turner (turn shape looks like the letter 'Z').

At this point, if you're not a contemporary ski coach, you're probably saying "what's wrong with that as long as they're having fun?!"  Well, you'd be right, but it is not a smooth or efficient way to slide down the mountain, especially when considering the technology in modern ski equipment.  Modern skis are parabolic in shape, so they naturally want to turn in an arc or the shape of the letter 'C'.  Why are we fighting that?  More so, how do we make 'C' shaped turns instead of 'Z' shaped turns?

Counter-rotation: What is it and when do we need it?

Counter-rotation should be evident in nearly every ski turn to varying degrees.  The only time I would not expect to see counter is in a very basic wedge turn, or in children that have not developed fine motor skills yet.  So what is counter-rotation?  According to the PSIA, "counter-rotation describes the movement when the upper body turns in one direction as the lower body (legs) turn in the opposite direction".  Out on the hill, counter-rotation is observed when you see the legs turn across the hill towards the end of a turn and the upper body stays focused facing more down the hill.  This is also known as turning the feet and legs against a stable upper body.  Counter-rotation is greatest during the transition between turns and smallest in the fall line.

Getting out of the wedge and into parallel (via a wedge christie)

A few weeks ago I wrote about how I teach a wedge turn, the primary fundamental input I focus on, and some reasons why a student might struggle.  You can read that post here.  Following on from that, how do we make wedge turners into parallel skiers?  There's a little step in-between called a wedge christie.  This is when the inside ski of a wedge turn spontaneously matches the outside ski and is parallel.  The key word here is spontaneous.  It is not forced by the skier and can happen at any point during the turn.  It will only happen if the skier is making effective and efficient movements that allow the skis to perform on the snow.