Carving with Both Skis Weighted

Hi,

I recently got the knack of carving all turns, piste conditions permitting, with skidding only to reduce speed where I could not loose speed by finishing turns up hill. When carving, I have 90% or so of my weight on the outside skI. This is the way I have been taught and which the text books seem to advocate.

I read in one book about initiating turns and keeping both skis equally weighted. I tried this on the last day of my last holiday, and found that everything seemed to click into place and that it felt good. I initiated the turn by rolling my to-be inner foot and then driving my to-be inner leg towards the centre of turn. I didn't seem to have drive my outside leg to the centre of the turn; it seemed to incline naturally as a result of my inside leg being inclined and my hips and shoulders being displaced. Pushing my inside ski forward seemed to allow me stand solidly on both skiis, with equal weight on both, with upper body facing to the outside of the turn. The most interesting thing (for me) was that in this position, I was able to feel forward (or centred - not sure ...) on both skis, with each shin pressed against its boot liner. All of this felt very good. Previous skiing with most weight on the outside ski, made me feel that the inner leg and ski were pretty much redundant whilst carving.

The carving I describe above with both skis weighted, was done at relatively moderate speeds (as I had only just got the hang of it). I wonder if such carving at high speeds is possible, or sensible/recommended?

I write this whilst watching the World Cup Skiing from Schladming (on BBC Red Button 301). The slalom skiers seem to have their inner skis fully engaged and carving. It looks as though their inner skis are quite weighted. I wonder if that is the case?

Any views or opinions appreciated.

That was what we worked on in Italy when i was doing slalom training-only did it for a week myself by i was around racers a lot as i taught the kids maths.
One of the big problems they have is too much weight on the inside ski though which causes them the slide out.

We were told by the local Italians though that allowing the inside ski to dominate the turn-ie stick out too much, leading the turn was a major no no!

You need to wait do trencher to wake up on the other side of the world for a better answer

Sounds like you had a breakthrough, and fun. As you are looking for feed back I'll try to give some based on what I have learned. I hope it makes sense

My understanding of a weighted transition is that the new outside ski is preloaded by increasing the pressure on it while it was the inside ski prior to the transition. In other words, pressure is transferred from the outside ski to the inside ski as the turn progresses. In slalom videos you will often see the old inside leg extending to push the skier's body down hill into the next turn. This works in carving because the skis do not need to be light to pivot at the transition. At other times some slarving (slide/carve) is needed to line up for the gate and so the skis are unweighted at the transition to drift a little.

PaulBryanBill wrote: Pushing my inside ski forward seemed to allow me stand solidly on both skis, with equal weight on both, with upper body facing to the outside of the turn. The most interesting thing (for me) was that in this position, I was able to feel forward (or centred - not sure ...) on both skis, with each shin pressed against its boot liner.

Everything prior to this sounds great. Remember you are trying to move your body forward and inside the turn. If you push the inside ski forward, you are in effect moving your body backwards. As you make the inside ski initiation as you previously described, try actively pulling the inside ski back. Think of almost doing a telemark ski turn. This is going to really engage the inside ski without having to load it as much. As for way you describe the outside ski, a great term for this is that the inside ski recruits the outside ski. Generally at the start of a carved turn, the pressure on the inside ski should be enough to fully engage it, but not too much.

As for the body facing outside the turn, Some counter (rotation away from the turn) at the hips might be needed, especially in the second half of the turn. This counter should be only as much as needed.

Paul Bryan,
Bravo on your "success" and happiness ! One more step up to "skiing heaven" !

May I make one point ?

You have to be very very careful when using World Cup skiers as "models" for correct or desired skiing styles and techniques !

They have one goal- to get to bottom as fast as possible!
They will do anything ( well nearly anything to achieve this ) !

Our goals as recreational skiers is above all to enjoy skiing and become more effective skiers!

World Cup skiers do amazing "techniques" some not very orthodox. Few skiers can ski as World Cup in the SL courses at the speeds and steepness !

Take those World Cup skiers and watch them ski in powder snow and you will note a "different" technique !

Practice "adapting" your technique to the skiing context ! An effective skiers varies his technique based on snow conditions, slope inclination, terrain variation and other parameters!

Yes you have made a "breakthrough"! Keep on trying now other ways to ski on other types of terrain ! That is the beauty of skiing,,,,you never stop learning !