cheesehead wrote:The more I work on tipping the more I have trouble wrapping my brain/movements around the concept that the tipping/free-ski-LTE leg has only 10% of the total weight applied to it while in the turn, yet in the transition you are then "expected" to support your full weight on that LTE and at the same time not push off on it. Then when you switch to the downhill ski being the new free ski, you are expected to not dump your hips inside the turn -- how do you do that and only put 10% of your weight on that inside ski (and not push off on the outside ski)?
And another question -- in that Super Phantom turn you lift the tail of the free ski, but for how long and if you do put the tail back down, when do you do it?
Last question related to part of the first question: one of the ACBAES I drills is to traverse on the LTE. When I lift my downhill ski I can't get up on that uphill LTE without falling back down on the downhill ski. What should I try in order to correct that?
Cheesehead-
I've been working on this, and here are my thoughts:
You can't really get the weight distribution right for the two footed release until you can do it for the one footed release. Once you can essentials working right to get the zero weight on the free foot solution, you will be able to control the situation where you have light weight on the free foot.
Alignment is critical, as Max501's question implies.
Practice on narrow skis (e.g., SuperShape)
Practice BTE traverses before the LTE traverses (after all, BTE traverse is like the end of the turn).
Practice LTE traverse on shallow enough slope that you can traverse as long as you want, in control, and then decide to turn. If you can't do that, you don't "own" the LTE, and you need to keep practicing. Do some warmups by skiing balanced on one ski on the flats.
Stay forward. To help stay forward, try just lifting the heel of the ski and keep the shovel touching the snow. I have to really focus on pulling the free foot back immediately when I start to lift it to stay forward. Another thought I use when doing one footed balance is to think about bringing the lifted foot to my center. That automatically brings it close to my center of gravity.
Your upper foot must be in the right place fore/aft and close to the stance foot. If you do one phantom turn properly, and finish it, your inside/lifted foot will be automatically in the right place to set it down and transfer the weight without any effort.
If you are losing your weight to the inside of the turn, you will probably plant the inside foot too far away from the stance foot. To keep from bailing out to the inside, CA and CB (as Big E said). If you concentrate on keeping your weight on the stance ski, once it starts to point further down hill you will feel like you are diving down hill on one ski and it is very tempting to panic and bail out to the inside of the turn by pushing off. Just learn to be patient and not let the ski run out in front of you because of getting in the back seat.
Here are two videos from me practicing super phantom turns at the Super Blue Camp #1. I'm not making any claims to have mastered the Super Phantoms, but I found a lot of things to apply that day which helped make them better. The video may help focus the comments on what works or not. Notice that on the better turns, there is no adjustment from where I put down one foot and transfer the weight to the other. In the first video, there is a bit of traffic which is breaking the continuity, and my poles are twitching around as I am making some upper body adjustments to maintain balance. It takes a few turns to get a rhythm going, and it also helps when the slope flattens a bit.
Video 1
Notice in video 1 in most of the earlier turns at the top that I am losing the turn to the inside at the end of the turn, and I am having to work to reestablish balance for the new traverse. This should not happen; it should be smoother, as it gets in the later turns on the shallower pitch where I can go from one turn to the next without running through the entire 20-point mental checklist.
After Video 1, I worked with Diana on the following items:
Trying to even out the left and right sides.
Focusing on counteracting to keep from losing the turn to the inside.
Focusing on the plane of counteracting. When I am forward and trying to counteract, it is easy for me to think of counteracting in the vertical plane (yaw). When I do that, I tend to stand up, and lose my forward position. If I focus on counteracting in the plane that is tilted forward, I maintain fore/aft balance better.
Video 2
In video 2, I was less focused on the LTE traverses between turns, and trying to link the turns more directly. Still some challenges establishing balance every time, but the turns felt much more controlled with the added CA. Notice how in the successful turns, the free foot is close to the stance foot from the moment it is lifted until it is put down to transfer weight. With the improved CA, it just felt like my foot was exactly in the right place as I ended the turns to be able to set up for the next turns. It still needs a lot more work to make it bulletproof.