I am going out west 2 weeks to ski with friends that are, in some cases, stuck intermediates. I got to pondering what to play around with and started looking back at my own experiences coming up. I then realized that when I first did/felt/experienced the upside down point of a turn was a real defining moment in my skiing.
For me the first time I did it was the last 1/2 hour of a ski lesson with Harald I had been sharing with a client. The client got pooped and skied off leaving the last 1/2 hour for me with Harald. Then we worked on patience in the transition. What HH had me do was railroad turns, very gradually expanding their speed and inclination to real turns in a continuous and gradual way with the instructions 'stay right in my tracks'. At some point after many failed attempts, by staying in the tracks and letting my body come over the skis (this was pretty gentle terrain - easy blue btw - not much flexing needed) I actually didn't 'help' the skis any but was upside down. My body was on the downhill side of the skis while the skis were going completly straight as they had not yet hooked up for the next turn. But then they did hook up, catch me from falling and away we went.
My skiing was really never the same since. Once I had felt that, my skiing changed to a sensation of flying. Efficiency in transitions became a reality. I had something new to aspire to every time I ski. If I hadn't felt it though I wouldn't know what to aspire to.
I have been thinking, obviously, this trusting the skis to turn and catch you is a bit of a catch 22 thing. A lot of things have to come together all at once or you can't do the transition this way.
I thought of the 2 footed release I've taught to beginners which really link J turns and the transition is as simple as relax - let the skis flatten, the old turn stops, the tips seek the fall line, then phantom move and turn the bottom 1/2 of the turn.
Then you can go from this and move the turn higher by working on traverses off the uphill little toe edge, balance on that ski and phantom move from that top into a full carve turn from the top down.
But at some point you go from that to 'floating' over your skis while the skis go straight at transition and they catch you on the other side - you go upside down.
For me that's when skiing became truely fun. It's not that it wasn't fun before, but I went from being a slug to a bird.
Can anyone else share their experiences of how they acquired this Upside down part of skiing into their own and what drills and prerequisites people can use with intermediates to get them there?
Thanks to all ahead of time.