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Most intermediate skiers initiate their turns on the flat by steering their skis strongly. Most also become used to relying on unweighting to facilitate this strong steering action. But once your skis break into a skid, it is almost impossible to arrest them. For a strong, carved turn, you need a different type of initiation, to reduce the amount of torque you put on your skis at the start of the turn.
Early Pressure Transfer
Transferring pressure to the outside ski very early in the turn makes it almost
impossible for you to over-steer your skis. Try this experiment on a very shallow
slope. As you finish your turn across the fall line, plant your pole and lift
your downhill ski off the snow. Don't do anything else. Let your body drop down
the fall line without the support of your downhill ski, crossing over from above
to below your skis. Your weight moves to the inside edge of your uphill ski, causing
it to turn into the fall line and then back under you, preventing disaster.
Don't use any up- or down-motion at this point: stay flexed throughout the initiation of the turn so that you don't interfere with the ski's natural tendency to turn. It is very important to try this on a shallow slope, one you can normally ski without any difficulty. It requires a lot of faith to believe that your skis will respond and turn under you. If you are worried by the steepness of the slope, most likely you will retreat into your normal unweight-and-swivel initiation.
Dynamic Carved Initiation
You have seen how to prevent yourself from over-steering the beginning of your
turns by transferring your weight early off your downhill ski. But if you try
this on steeper slopes, you end up accelerating down the fall line while you wait
for your skis to come round. You need to add some power to your turn initiations
in order to speed up the turn.
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If your weight is too far back at the initiation of the turn, you may
find your ski unwilling to cooperate.
[Photo: ifyouski.com]
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Now instead of staying flexed throughout the turn initiation, try extending your uphill leg as your weight comes onto it. At the same time, project your body forward and down the fall line. This achieves two things. Firstly, you speed up the crossover of your body from above to below your skis, rolling them quickly onto their new edges. Secondly, by pushing down powerfully on your uphill ski you add to its reverse camber (the opposite of unweighting). The combination of these two effects results in a quicker initiation to your turn.
Tips
- Make sure that you are not extending until your weight is on your uphill ski. Otherwise you are probably still unweighting and over-steering.
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