Zig-Zags and Curves
I stumbled across a very informative blog written by, Ian Huyton, called ‘Winter Wonderings’ . Ian works on the Andorra ski fields during winter and is a very experienced ski instructor.
For those who don’t know, Andorra is located in the Eastern Pyranees bordered by France and Spain.
A thing I’ve noticed that is rare on other blogs is that the art and technique of skiing is neglected, which is sad because some people are interested in the art and technique of skiing. Not just going ‘Bonsai’ down black and blue runs.
It’s great to see a blog that centres on providing informative ski instructions for the everyday person, and gives us a view of the the life of a ski instructor.
This particular article is in relation to turns and how to get the ‘Zig-Zag’ into a beautiful ‘Curve’………….
The diagram on the right shows a curved path where speed is controlled all the way through the turn apart from the short transition which is circled. Although the curve is ‘officially’ called the control phase, we often call it the ‘Oh ****’ phase as this is what the skier is thinking as they begin to point down the hill and gain speed. The key is not to panic at this point; let the skis point down the hill for a split second and then finish the turn smoothly. I am not going to go into how to finish the turn - that is another lesson altogether, and at this level you should already have a pretty good idea.
So, just to recap - zig-zags are bad, curves are good, take your time with the turn, let the skis point downhill and don’t panic“
I saw a video on turning and they related it in terms of using the edge of your skis to do the turns, as that is what the ski edges are designed for: carving through the snow. They had a phrase “2,4,2″, which meant 2 edges of the skis are used whilst turning, then all 4 edges of the skis very briefly, and back to 2 edges of the skis again. It made a lot of sense to me rather than thinking about transfering weight.
What do you think?
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