Alpine skiing shares a number of tactics with other “turning” sports such as motorcycle track riding and windsurfing.
To improve you performance establishing an early grip on your surface is critical to being able to control the shape, size and exit (high) speed of your turns.
Think of the goal of your turn initiation as establishing your balance against the new edge(s) – to get a grip on the surface.
On the water, on the pavement and on the snow moving across the (upright) center line into the new arc – inclining your mass inside before the directional change occurs – is critical to getting your grip
On the bike we counter steer in order to use the tires’ profile to allow us to drop the mass inside – we use the rounded sidewall of the rotating tire to make this happen.
On the windsurfer we move our weight across the board’s center line to weight the inside edge and start the board carving all the while keeping the ankles and knees flexing to move the mass with the board.
On snow we move our mass downhill across the bindings to create edge grip. Think of moving everything from your boot soles up from above the bindings to below bindings.
Once we have our grip (platform) we can then using steering and pressure (throttle on the bike – wind in the sail) to control the shape and speed of the turn.
Get a grip!
Ken Ellis, CSCF Level IV
Head Coach, Mansfield Ski Club
