Perpendicularity – What’s up?

Don Meyer  May 2006

Perpendicularity - The act of being upright.  Why stand upright?  What does upright mean?  Upright relative to What?  Upright when? How does this apply to sliding?
Perpendicularity is one of nature’s cruelest natural laws for skiers and snowboarders.  All our lives, we have been taught to stand upright relative to a flat surface like a floor and even upright on a sloping surface.  We have many joints in our feet and also have ankles, knees, hips and spinal joints to help us maintain our perpendicularity (using angularity) on any surface.  We know through many experiences that leaning (tilting) will generally lead to falling if we have no momentum, centrifugal force or some other natural force helping us, therefore upright is just right most of the time and is therefore the “normal” automatic (autonomic) reaction.
Nature is just weird and contrary to “normal” logic at times.  The world is round and yet everything stands upright in different directions - what’s the deal with that.  OK, natural law – Gravity.  Gravity holds us on the surface, pulling us toward its center of mass.  Masses attract – this seems to be true for people and other people and also people and trees on the slopes at times as well!  So no matter where we are on the globe, our center of mass is attracted to the earth’s center of mass.  Why do we get pulled downhill?  Simple, it is closer to the earth’s center of mass.
So what does the perpendicularity response to gravity do that is so bad for snow sliders? When we are going downhill then being perpendicular to the earth’s center means that we are not perpendicular to the slope and therefore our weight is back and we are putting more pressure on the tail of our board(s).  That, of course, means that we have little or no steering potential which will cause the board(s) to seek the fall line and begin picking up speed.  This can be fun but in the end generally leads to results that are generally not so much fun.
So in most of our experience, we must be perpendicular to the earth except when snow sliding then we must be perpendicular to the slope instead.  We must align our center of mass over the center of our feet relative to the slope.  If we don’t, our turns will be inefficient and out of control.
To further confuse our senses and normal responses, at different phases of the turn, we are in and out of alignment with earth’s center.  We need to be perpendicular to our board(s) and the board(s) parallel to the snow.  So going across the hill, we are perpendicular to earth center but when going down hill, we need to be perpendicular to the angle of the slope.  Again, if we are not perpendicular to our board(s) then there will be a pressure distribution issue (pressure on tail(s)) leading to a control issue (unable to edge effectively) leading to a poor turning experience.  Poor turning performance will again re-enforce the normal perpendicular and inefficient response.  Good turning experiences will re-enforce proper alignment to the slope.
What to do?  We know that we need to be perpendicular to our board(s) but when fear happens due to bad snow, steepness, someone cutting in front of us, etcetera then our body responds in it’s normal fashion with “normal” often being perpendicularity.  We also know that fear causes us to not think well and therefore not to be able to quickly override our autonomic motor responses.  We understand the action that works and the one that doesn’t but it is not simply a matter of knowing, of understanding, or even having been successful once or twice.  Coaches and experts tell us that for something to become an automatic response, we must do something successfully many times, perhaps 70 or more.  One unsuccessful attempt can nullify many successful attempts so until you have enough successful attempts that you understand it, believe it, remember it and automatically do it, each downhill sliding experience should be considered new and will require a different response than your heretofore “normal” response.
So to help your students change their response, you must: Understand yourself and help them understand that downhill sliding requires a response that is counter to what they understand and feel to be “right”.  Provide exercises that help them see, hear, and feel what works well and what doesn’t work as well. Provide instruction that continually re-enforces (teaching for transfer) efficient movement patterns (actions) that cause the appropriate response (reactions) in the board-snow interface. Remind them that they can change their response patterns but also that each new situation in sliding (steeper, trees, bumps, powder, ice, etc.) will cause them to respond in the old “normal” ways and the new situation will require knowledge, focus, and successful repetition to build new “normal” response patterns. And finally, remind your students that the journey itself must be part of the fun – new experiences, challenging themselves, mind over automatic response, building another new “normal’ response.  Fun is required for learning to take place and learning these new response patterns will allow them to have even more fun

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