by leopold_bloom » Tue Mar 02, 2010 1:23 pm
Hello trtaylor,
I'm a big advocate of practising on very gentle terrain, but the run you chose is almost too flat to reveal much about your skiing. The first part where you approach the camera looks a little steeper and it would be better to have a longer clip on terrain like that.
Here's something to try on gentle slopes. Start every run by stepping out of your standing position and take a few skating strides directly down the fall line. If you're not comfortable with skating on your skis, start out on the flats. With each skating stride focus on transferring your weight completely onto the stance ski. Think about moving your body over the centre of the ski both laterally and fore-and-aft. Visualize accelerating down the length of the ski as you step onto it. This will help you get a little more speed to work with on these gentle slopes and help address what I think is your major issue: weight distribution through the turn.
It appears that as soon as you begin to tip into your turns, you move onto your inside ski. Look for when your tips diverge slightly. This is the sidecut of your inside ski in action. On these gentle slopes you can get by on sidecut alone but to progress, you will need to get your stance ski working.
The stance foot and the free foot have entirely different roles. The actions of the free foot should make for a successful stance foot. Your free foot action sabotages your stance foot by taking the weight and pressure of this ski when it is most required.
Try initiating your turn by lifting and tipping the free foot. Hold the free foot off the snow throughout the turn. Try executing a series of turns where there is only one foot on the snow at a time. Tip the free foot even though it is not in contact with the snow.
Forcing one-footedness will compel you to make some adjustments in your balance which is the ultimate goal.
The next step in the progression is to refine your one-footed skiing by incorporating all of the elements of the the phantom move into your turns.
Leo