Carving Tuition - Has to be seen!!!

Hasn't anyone else got any good advice for this poor guy? He did go to the trouble of putting up his video for us.

Ally

AllyG wrote:Hasn't anyone else got any good advice for this poor guy? He did go to the trouble of putting up his video for us.

Ally

Lessons, Lessons and lessons :-)

Ian,
That's very true, but I don't suppose he wants to hear that, and we could all do with some more lessons. Suppose you see it as an exercise in learning to teach. What would you say to him if you were his ski instructor?

What I have noticed is that he's not going up and down at all - because I got taught how to do that in my last Feb ski holiday. His head is quite level all the way down. And I don't think he's carving either (if that was what he was supposed to be doing). I think he's making his parallel turns by moving his shoulders around, which as far as I understand it, we're not supposed to do.

If I was teaching him, (and I'm glad I'm not because I think he's probably better than me), I'd say forget about pole planting altogether for a moment, and try and keep the shoulders steady and hands in the steering wheel position, and try moving up and down to unweight the skis on the turn so that you can do a parallel turn without moving your shoulders.

Once his shoulders are fixed he should be able to pole plant no problem.

And do wide smooth loopy turns and try to finish the turns (what I got told to do in Tignes). And ski more aggressively, especially on the turns (what my daughter was told in Tignes).

As far as carving is concerned - I can do it if I'm going fast enough and I imagine I'm on my bicycle free-wheeling down hill with no hands and steering with my knees. The only thing is, of course, it means I don't go up and down unless I concentrate very hard, because I can't do that on my bicycle without using my hands.

I will be taking lots more lessons myself in Feb.

Ally

I am hardly in a position to comment as I know my stance is far from perfect. But all I can add if it helps and doesnt offend is to say that the skier in the video (Scarlet Fez) looked like he was skiing particularly upright which may be why he finds pole turns more of an issue?

Please feel free to shoot me down in flames.

Instead of trying to say 'keep your shoulders from moving' and give an exercise to address that initially, I would maybe say, what is causing the shoulders to start the turn....

Thanks Tony,
That's what I thought as well. I think Scarlet Fez wants constructive criticism/help - that's why he put the video up.

Ally

Thanks Pablo,
You mean, you reckon he's using his shoulders to start the turn, as well?

Ally

AllyG wrote:Thanks Pablo,
You mean, you reckon he's using his shoulders to start the turn, as well?

Ally

I used to be very guilty of that. Skidaddle pointed it out to me a couple of years ago and I made a massive conscious effort to correct it, and not only have I done so, but my skiing has come on massively since then.