Teaching Tips for All Age Guests

BY ED KANE

This is the third in a series of short articles devoted to providing information that may be useful to you in your classes, regardless of their age. It is my intention to make this column open to contributions from our membership. If you have some valued tip that you have found to be very effective, please send it to me at the PSIA-NW office so that it can be included in future publications of this series.

Edging . The second element for efficient turns.  

The complimentary key ingredient to efficient turns is to control the degree of edge engagement with the snow of the outside turning ski during the performance of the turn. If that ski is loaded (weighted) it will track along the engaged edge creating an arc dictated by the ski design and the distribution of weight along it. (More on varying turn radius in the next installment.) To keep the ski tracking along this arc, the degree or amount of edge engagement must change. Early in the turn, the ski is lightly loaded so that the degree of edging does not need to be very high, just enough to control the early part of the arc. As the turn develops and the fall line is crossed the amount must increase in order to keep the ski from moving laterally (skidding) out of the intended track. This will require some movement of body parts to vary the edge angle. To understand the effectiveness of these movements the instructor should keep in mind that hip movement is used to achieve major angle changes while knee/ankle movements are used to refine the edge angle to develop and control the desired line. Keeping this in mind, the hips will move in relation to the feet and as the required angle increases the hips move toward the center of the turn while the feet move toward the outside of the arc.

This relationship results in the classic stills that are featured in most of the racing pictures we see in the magazines. Hence to adequately control the arc of the turns we need to rely on coordinated movement of both the hips and the knees/ankles. This is especially evident when we are skiing on hard pack or ice. Following are some exercises that can help your students accomplish efficient control of the edge angle from turn to turn. Regardless of the skill level these should be practiced on relatively gentle terrain the first time. As these are mastered and confidence is acquired, they can be done on more demanding terrain and conditions to continue to provide a challenge and build on the previously developed skill sets. In addition, they should be practiced in areas where the conditions are reasonably consistent so that the student can make multiple attempts and learn through trial and error through the feedback that they gain with each attempt. Of course your guidance in term of verbal input is also very helpful especially if given while they are in the process of trying. (It might be noted that some of these are very similar to those recommended to improve balance and lateral weighting in the previous installments.)

· Traverse while making several steps up the hill and then following with several steps down the hill noting the movements required to hold the traverse line. (These movements will be especially obvious when stepping downhill where the tendency will be to move the hips too far downhill with the lower ski.)

· Linked 1000 step turns noting the movement of the hips toward the new turn as the direction is changed from one turn to the next.

· Skating up, across and downhill noting the location of the hips relative to the skis.

· Linked traverse side slips noting the degree of movement of the knees and ankles to start and stop the slip.

· Linked turns skidding and carving by varying the movement of the knees and ankles throughout the arc of the turn.

· Slow speed linked turns on the flat with emphasis on moving the hips in the direction of the new turn at the initiation.

· Linked turns with a focus on movement of the hips and upper thighs in the direction of the new turn to accomplish the edge change.