Carving - Progressive and Dynamic Leg Lean
It’s a wish of many skiers to make the type of dynamic turns that racers make. To improve your dynamics and get those leaning sensations you need to work out how to increase the amount you can lean your legs as you’re going through the turn. You also need to know how to make this leg lean a skilful progressive one with effective steering that allows you to maintain balance and edge grip.
Some skiers are tentative or intimidated about increasing their leg lean. Others rush the movement through in the first part of the turn and end up static for the rest.
As you carve and make arc shapes in the snow, for the skis to work effectively and have good edge hold throughout the whole of the arc, everything must work progressively. i.e. the leaning, steering and pressure control you make with your legs has to be skilful and precise if you want to cut a perfect arc.
If you find it difficult to increase your leg lean, then you need to find a way to gradually feel the sensations in a comfortable, achievable environment.
More speed to lean with
A great way to do this is splitting your turns up into single turns. Try making a turn on a flattish slope and allow your speed to increase. If the slope is quite flat you can go fast and not have to worry about stopping. When you descend with speed progressively allow your hips to move across and your legs to lean. Experiment with this until you can feel you have actually moved your hips further inside the turn.
Early Inner Leg
Once you feel more comfortable with leaning and have built your confidence up practicing the exercise, try becoming more skilful with your legs so as to allow an increase in lean. As you begin to move and project your hips right back at the start of the arc, think at that point about preparing your inside leg to move and begin softening earlier so as to allow the hip to roll across nice and early with no restrictions or block. If you can think about this and become quite skilful with the inside leg of the turn you will allow the leaning to start sooner. If the inside leg can continue through with the softening, flexing and moving across the leaning will progress to a greater degree with no restrictions and leave you in a more dynamic, powerful position.
Counting a progression
To help promote a progressive lean you can count yourself through the leaning process.
Break the turn up into 4 parts and just count through like so, 1, 2, 3 and 4. If you think to count this through as you are leaning and steering you should feel yourself leaning progressively throughout the turn and maintaining a constant pressure under your feet on the skis edges.
Discuss Ski Technique with Warren Smith
If you would like to ask Warren any questions about the ski techniques or exercises described above, or otherwise discuss them, please write in to our Ski Technique Forum.