Carving Tuition - Has to be seen!!!

Its that time of year when like many I start looking forward to my skiing holiday in January in Soll. Thought I would bump this thread back to the top as I found it a very useful tool for a good intermediate skier.
[u]Request for Advice or a Drill

Last year for the first time I had a friend video as I came down and I was quite impressed with my technique apart from one aspect. Sticks!!
My mates gave up shouting to me about them a couple of years and I thought I had cracked it!! From the filming from behind it was quite apparent that although my stick holding position was correct my delivernce even in easy terrain was wrong.
Hard to decribe but hear goes, when I plant my pole I seem to use the hand and arm in a boxing hook action as opposed to a boxing jab and lean which causes me to use my shoulders far more than I should.
Get around most hazards but as u can imagine my poor pole technique is amplified the harder the terrain.
If anyone has any good drills to encourage me not to look at times as if I am skiing like a bar room brawler I will be very grateful.
From the help I got from Klaus' video I do believe you can teach an old dog new tricks.

You could try to imagine that you have a hoop (hula hoop) around your waist. Imagine that you are holding the hoop at a 10 to 2 position. This where your hands should remain - in relation to your upper body. The pole plant is made mostly by moving your wrist, not your arm. Dont try to stab the snow, a gentle touch is all that is needed in most situations.

Perhaps you need to invest in some lessons .

Can you put the video up for us?

My 16 year old daughter managed to put up a video on here of me ski-ing by putting it up on Youtube first. It is amazing how clearly it shows all my mistakes!

Ally

Scarlet Fez wrote:Its that time of year when like many I start looking forward to my skiing holiday in January in Soll. Thought I would bump this thread back to the top as I found it a very useful tool for a good intermediate skier.
[u]Request for Advice or a Drill

Last year for the first time I had a friend video as I came down and I was quite impressed with my technique apart from one aspect. Sticks!!
My mates gave up shouting to me about them a couple of years and I thought I had cracked it!! From the filming from behind it was quite apparent that although my stick holding position was correct my delivernce even in easy terrain was wrong.
Hard to decribe but hear goes, when I plant my pole I seem to use the hand and arm in a boxing hook action as opposed to a boxing jab and lean which causes me to use my shoulders far more than I should.
Get around most hazards but as u can imagine my poor pole technique is amplified the harder the terrain.
If anyone has any good drills to encourage me not to look at times as if I am skiing like a bar room brawler I will be very grateful.
From the help I got from Klaus' video I do believe you can teach an old dog new tricks.

SF

Although Pole planting technique isn't too important for carving, I'm sure you will have seen and done many exercises with poles. For carving, I think the one you want is where you balance your poles on top of your wrists while skiing a slope. If you top 'n' tail your poles and position your wrists just inboard of the handgrip, it should keep your hands in about the right position, and by having to balance the poles, it encourages an good upper body stance and really concentrates the mind.
Hope this helps, good luck. :thumbup:

AllyG

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3LirlKR45R4

I have taken your hint, and posted an example of my bad technique.
I will wait for all the additional critism about everything else I am doing wrong.

If the link does not work it is entitled 'My poor pole planting'.

Straight away I can see that I hold my poles to far apart!!
Don't ask for help and you won't get it.

Just to be clear on this, the pole planting question is not related to carving ?

Trencher

Hi Scarlet Fez,
Well, you look a lot better than I do in my mini-video! It's very brave of you to put it up for everyone to see.

I did notice your poles moving about a bit oddly, but I wondered if it was because you seem to be swinging your shoulders slightly at the beginning, to make the turns.

I will wait for someone more competent than me to comment.

Ally