Latest posts for the topic "Using the Feet"

Using the Feet

Wed, 10 Mar 2010 15:15:15 GMT

On my most recent trip, an instructor advised a pal to ski on the balls of his feet, essentially to lift his foot and use the ball of his foot behind the big toe to initiate and apply pressure on the turns. He also was pretty dismissive of the shins on the front of the boot advice that I have been striving to maintain for years

I should perhaps mention that my pal is somewhat inclined to crouch down, especially when under pressure, as am I. This sometimes leaves us in the backseat. Having tried the technique a little bit, it did seem to improve our posture so perhaps it was more a drill to get us more upright that a technique in its own right

We have all been skiing for a good few years and this is the first time that any instructor has given this particular piece of advice. Does this make sense to the more experienced skiers out there

Re:Using the Feet

Wed, 10 Mar 2010 21:07:41 GMT

Wanderer,
I tend to crouch down as well, when I'm feeling nervous, but so far none of my instructors have told me to ski on the balls of my feet. They usually tell me to stand up straighter, keep my weight forwards, and lean downhill. Plus, they all seem to think that ski-ing with my shins against the front of my boots is a good idea.

I find the best way to fix this problem in myself, is to start telling, and listening to jokes, because when doing this I find myself leaning forwards to hear the next joke and I totally forget about the steepness of the slope and relax and ski much better. A really good joke will keep me ski-ing relaxed for several hours

Ally

Re:Using the Feet

Wed, 10 Mar 2010 21:10:35 GMT

Feeling the front of your boots with your shins only works if you are doing the right thing everywhere else.

Re:Using the Feet

Wed, 10 Mar 2010 21:22:42 GMT

Pablo,
Have you ever heard of being told to ski on the balls of your feet?

Re:Using the Feet

Wed, 10 Mar 2010 21:26:20 GMT

Yep. Stand up and try to balance on the balls of your feet... you need to be pretty centered to do it.

Re:Using the Feet

Wed, 10 Mar 2010 21:29:45 GMT

Pablo Escobar wrote:Yep. Stand up and try to balance on the balls of your feet... you need to be pretty centered to do it.

Thanks Pablo,
Oh well, then, that would explain it. Maybe Wanderer had an English speaking instructor. I don't think any of my French ones knew how to say 'the balls of your feet'. I've been told endlessly about keeping a correct 'mid position' and staying centred etc.

Ally

Re:Using the Feet

Wed, 10 Mar 2010 21:34:08 GMT

If it works to keep you centered it is a good way to think about it. Really easy to feel the balls of your feet although in poorly fitted boots I would imagine your control over the skis may be limited

I have been told to imagine, whilst turning, that you are rolling a can (of beer) from underneath your toes to under the arch of your foot. Different things work for different people.

Re:Using the Feet

Wed, 10 Mar 2010 21:41:54 GMT

Pablo Escobar wrote:If it works to keep you centered it is a good way to think about it. Really easy to feel the balls of your feet although in poorly fitted boots I would imagine your control over the skis may be limited

I have been told to imagine, whilst turning, that you are rolling a can (of beer) from underneath your toes to under the arch of your foot. Different things work for different people.

I'm not sure I can stand on a can of beer, even when I'm not wearing ski boots. I used to be quite good at walking on a barrel though, if it's anything the same as that.

It's okay Pablo, you can stop nagging me about my boots now

I'm off to Profeet in London to buy myself some new boots as soon as my broken, infected toe has healed. I am hoping they will still have some boots left in my size.

Re:Using the Feet

Wed, 10 Mar 2010 21:50:00 GMT

Not actually standing on a tin of beer just the same kind of balance movement. I was using it as an obscure example.

Good luck with the boot fitting, remember and trim your toenails.

Re:Using the Feet

Wed, 10 Mar 2010 22:38:14 GMT

I had a lesson when I was skiing in January, and my instructor told me to use the balls of my feet and turn almost by rolling on them, using my big toe - worked a bloody treat! I stopped thinking about my turns, and my husband said he could see the improvement in my skiing straight away. It did a lot for my confidence anyway!

Re:Using the Feet

Wed, 10 Mar 2010 22:46:20 GMT

kateshaw wrote:I had a lesson when I was skiing in January, and my instructor told me to use the balls of my feet and turn almost by rolling on them, using my big toe - worked a bloody treat! I stopped thinking about my turns, and my husband said he could see the improvement in my skiing straight away. It did a lot for my confidence anyway!

Kate, that's great. I wish I could turn like that, on the balls of my feet. Were you doing the pivotty sort of turns, or the skiddy ones, or carving turns (if you know what I mean?).

Pablo, thanks, but I don't think I'll be needing to trim my big toe nail on my right foot for my new boots - it's only just hanging in there and I think the whole nail will fall off shortly

Ally

Re:Using the Feet

Wed, 10 Mar 2010 22:52:37 GMT

I like to think I was pivoting and carving in a graceful manner....I fear there was some skiddy stuff going on though!

Trust me, it's remarkably easy to do - if I can do it, anybody can

Re:Using the Feet

Wed, 10 Mar 2010 23:01:06 GMT

Pablo Escobar wrote: Different things work for different people.

That's it in a nut shell.

Some reasons I've noticed for people getting too crouched when skiing. Boot cuff too loose, allowing ankle to flex forward before shin touches tounge. Boot flex too soft, or forward lean on boot cuff set too far forward (if adjustable).

If you are not able to experiment with boots, to figure out what flex works for you, or how much forward lean you need, then it's a shot in the dark, unless you find a good bootfitter.

Even the skis you use might affect the boot flex you need. Cem mentioned this in the race ski question today. I had the opposite problem with my new skis recently. My race boots overpowered the new skis, which don't need to be pressured aggressively. Another pair of boots, which I normally feel are too soft, matched perfectly with the input the skis needed.

Trencher

Re:Using the Feet

Wed, 10 Mar 2010 23:02:29 GMT

Thanks Kate, I will have a go next time I'm on some snow (in the summer in a snow dome probably).

That's the problem with turns, they do get rather mixed up. I mean, my most recent instructor showed us how to carve and then went on about doing very tight carving turns - which I reckon is impossible unless you have skis with a tiny radius, or you introduce a skid or a foot turning pivot somewhere in the turn.

Re:Using the Feet

Sun, 14 Mar 2010 14:13:14 GMT

AllyG wrote: A really good joke will keep me ski-ing relaxed for several hours

Started a thread just for you!

Re:Using the Feet

Sun, 14 Mar 2010 14:21:33 GMT

AllyG wrote:

That's the problem with turns, they do get rather mixed up. I mean, my most recent instructor showed us how to carve and then went on about doing very tight carving turns - which I reckon is impossible unless you have skis with a tiny radius, or you introduce a skid or a foot turning pivot somewhere in the turn.

All skis can turn tight or long turns to varying degrees, when you introduce pressure to the edges. A ski's radius is a measure of how long the ski takes to turn if it's simply put on edge. A skilled skier can vary the edge pressure at different points during a turn.

Re:Using the Feet

Sun, 14 Mar 2010 14:35:37 GMT

I tell clients to roll from the big toe to the small toe, its the same for rolling the ball of your toe and the same with the other ski apply pressure on the corresponding turn. Theres lots of task and drills you can use for different people. As pablo said, Different things work for different people and trust me you can have a very radical learning abilities in class. It depends on how you learn better, do you learn by looking or doing or being explained in great detail how to do it. Although i have been finding a lot of challenges, such as one fella i have couldt use the edges of his skis no matter what i did or my collegues. The best drill for toe to toe are

Aeroplane turns
Pedalling
Fall line skating
Railling

They would be the best ones to do, Pedaling and Railing would be the best to do. I might try and post up a thread in ski Technigue to show you how you do each of these tasks.

p.s. won a free cyrstal holiday, going to austria this satuday. Staying five star hotel and everything is paid for. Yay

Re:Using the Feet

Sun, 14 Mar 2010 15:59:18 GMT

bandit wrote:

AllyG wrote:

That's the problem with turns, they do get rather mixed up. I mean, my most recent instructor showed us how to carve and then went on about doing very tight carving turns - which I reckon is impossible unless you have skis with a tiny radius, or you introduce a skid or a foot turning pivot somewhere in the turn.

All skis can turn tight or long turns to varying degrees, when you introduce pressure to the edges. A ski's radius is a measure of how long the ski takes to turn if it's simply put on edge. A skilled skier can vary the edge pressure at different points during a turn.

Thanks Bandit,
I didn't know that. I thought that the tightest turn you could do with a pair of skis while carving was the same as the skis radius. I hadn't thought about the effect of pressure. In fact I didn't know you could do that without skidding the carve. I guess that's what the instructor was on about. He had us doing turns down an imaginary track about 3 metres wide and there's no way, at my skill level, I can carve that tightly. So I cheated and put some skids in. If I'm purely carving I need an imaginary track at least 8 metres wide. I still have an awful lot to learn.

Snapzz,
Thanks very much for the joke thread, I'll have a look at it in a moment

Theobane,
Thanks also. I'm going to have to think about all that rather hard

I find visualisations and copying the instructor works best for me. If I think too much about which way I'm supposed to lean etc. I just get all muddled up and do it all wrong. As I said before, I can carve okay as long as I imagine I'm on my bicycle going down hill without any hands and weaving from side to side. I can do that no problem. But applying pressure as well is going to be a bit confusing.

Ally

Re:Using the Feet

Sun, 14 Mar 2010 17:10:45 GMT

I find it amazing how much people think about the way they ski, and what technically they do in terms of body shape, applying pressure, leaning forwards etc.
For me, I simply make sure my boots are done up correctly so they are comfortable and allow a little bit of give when I push forwards into the shins, and remember to lean down the mountain keeping my body facing downhill as much as possible.
I also try to adapt to the differing conditions on different slopes, and always try to work much harder on hard packed icy pistes than I do on soft snow on or off piste.
I find that trying too hard puts me off, and that if I simply relax and try to enjoy the hill and not fight it, it works perfectly for me.
The past few times I have been, I have only had 1 fall each trip, and thats been in really deep off piste snow when I have been going too fast and not been able to pull a turn in quick enough, and usually ended up in a panting giggling mess!
I do know what those have said about using the balls of your feet though, that definitely works for me when I think about it on reflection.
I know I am probably quite an "untidy" skier and I love to see people come down the snow with feet perfectly together, but I am really pleased that I am now able to get down any slope in any condition without any problems, and I think much of that is down to experience and just being prepared to try things.

Re:Using the Feet

Sun, 14 Mar 2010 17:26:46 GMT

Little hard on yourself there Tony, i doubt that your untidy skier

All G: Also you can imagine your on a motor bike, thats another way of thinking about it. I use that on teenagers, they find it quite amusing. There are so many technigues. You just have to keep doing them over and over again until its drilled into your head.

Re:Using the Feet

Mon, 15 Mar 2010 20:05:33 GMT

Turning tighter than the radius proscibed by the ski requires the followingeasier said than done but it works, I am still learning but i feel the difference now)
1. turn your feet, i.e. steer the skis
2. if turning on edge, i.e. carve/scarve, then flex ANKLES even harder, i.e. jam that shin into the front of the boot, upper body really should remain pretty static, facing downhill pretty much, rear end of course crossed over into the inside of the turn, AND push knees even farther inside the turn(Klaus Mair showed me this technique first, of course it took a year to feel it for self!), this will pressure and bend the skis more and tighten the radius of the arc. Depending on speed, slope incline and snow cover, this can lead to over-edging, and sliding/chatter, just kind of learning by doing sort of thing.
3. The tightest turns are done by lifting off and turning in mid-air, or steering the skis at the point of release across from old turn, past fall-line in the process of initiating/transitioning into new one.

just my humble experience

Re:Using the Feet

Mon, 15 Mar 2010 20:37:28 GMT

Tony_H wrote:
I find that trying too hard puts me off, and that if I simply relax and try to enjoy the hill and not fight it, it works perfectly for me.

I'm with you there Tony - sometimes I do try and follow a line either of my own personal ski instructor (my son) or one on the slope but I find if I think too much about my technique I usually make mistakes. I can get down virtually everything at reasonable speed without falling over very often. It all adds to the enjoyment of being there and having the freedom to roam those hills. I will be checking whether I use the balls of my feet in three weeks time

Re:Using the Feet

Mon, 15 Mar 2010 22:02:48 GMT

dustyfog wrote:Turning tighter than the radius proscibed by the ski requires the followingeasier said than done but it works, I am still learning but i feel the difference now)
1. turn your feet, i.e. steer the skis
2. if turning on edge, i.e. carve/scarve, then flex ANKLES even harder, i.e. jam that shin into the front of the boot, upper body really should remain pretty static, facing downhill pretty much, rear end of course crossed over into the inside of the turn, AND push knees even farther inside the turn(Klaus Mair showed me this technique first, of course it took a year to feel it for self!), this will pressure and bend the skis more and tighten the radius of the arc. Depending on speed, slope incline and snow cover, this can lead to over-edging, and sliding/chatter, just kind of learning by doing sort of thing.
3. The tightest turns are done by lifting off and turning in mid-air, or steering the skis at the point of release across from old turn, past fall-line in the process of initiating/transitioning into new one.

just my humble experience

Thanks Dustyfog,
I was watching the slalom in the Olympics on telly, and they seemed to be doing a combination of true carving, foot turning on the snow, and turning their skis in the air. I am quite sure it is all way beyond my level at the moment anyway. Next holiday I think I will just concentrate on trying to make my carving turns gradually tighter.

Ally