Ski skills enhanced

[Gary]

You guys know I'm a huge Harold Harb believer as well as a John Clendenin follower. Now Harold and John may not always see eye to eye but there is much crossover in their teaching techniques. I believe they are both masters....no, I know this.

In your personal bag of ski technique, I'd like to have you consider adding a couple of skills that provide immediate results. These skills are particularly good in powder, broken snow and even on groomed hard pack. I believe working them into your every turn has significant benefits.
Try this next time you're out carving up some blue run. If you are comfortable with using your down hill edge to carve a turn I want to ask you to NOT think about the big toe edge of your down hill ski. Try creating some space with your uphill knee cap pointing in the new direction of the turn. Do this by tipping the uphill ski to the baby toe edge and ever so lightly lifting the tail of that ski. This helps keep your weight forward in the learing stage of this skill.

Although your downhill ski may be carrying anywhere between 60-99% of your weight, don't think about it....think about rolling your right knee cap out, tipping the uphill boot to the outside edge, baby toe edge, and slightly and lightly lifting that uphill tail.

Once you initiate? the turn in this manner, feather that uphill edge in and out pressure wise....almost as if you're slipping a clutch throughout the course of that turn. Apply enough pressure to that uphill edge to help pull you through the turn. This is outstanding on hardpack when a loaded downhill ski wants to slide out and also great in the bumps and a must in powder.

Give it a shot.....remember.. ..it takes tons of trys and retrys to implement a new tool. I'd be interested in hearing back on your results.

Best,
Gary

[johnc]

Gary
Thanks for the compliment!
I'd be interested in hearing your results also.
To make your progression request more powerful eliminate these phrases: 1) "I'd like to have you" 2) "I believe" 3) "I want to ask you to"
Harold taught me this - so you better know what your asking.
I  teach/preach feet. I have not learned to talk to knee caps yet but if this works I will.
Regards
John

[Gary]

Hey John....thanks and you're welcome. Guys....this is John Clendenin...the Ski Doctor....John, yesterday I made some turns with Dave Cardello who is our our local boot fitter and when he mentioned his free style days I mentioned your name and he said he knew you. Small world!

I can say without a doubt your technique...preachi ng da feet is spot on. Thanks for the tips as well. However my polite suggestions here where not so much meant as a lesson but only suggestions for felllow RS to practice and maybe work into to their ski bag.

I do know what has worked for me and you should know how I use your baby toe drills each time on the mountain. I personally found that in creating greater edge angles in High C turns, the tipping of the uphill ski to the baby toe edge results in the uphill knee rolling out creating good separation between the legs. This is awesome in GS,  medium and short turns. In the bumps, those kind of steep angles are not necessary and working both feet as a platform with feathering of the uphill edge ski, drift, center ,touch and tip....words that translate to techniques that make bump skiing most pleasureable.

Alice and I plan on seeing you again for a tune up. Till then, I love each opportunity I have when talking skiing, or on the snow with friends demonstrating how you got me going  from "red light to green light" on bump runs. Still a work in progress for me but there's been huge progress.

THanks for you comments and your great teaching skills....looking forward to another great season.

Gary

[Ron]

John, I am a fute attendee thanks to Gary's prostelizing! I have read your book and viewed the videos on line. Great stuff and your techniques have made a huge difference in my bump skiing. I was hoping to see a DVD release soon?  Hint, hint,.......Welcome! Feel free to join us in Steamboat next week, I'll even buy lunch 

[rlspalding]

Gary,
I just took two private lessons from a PMTS instructor. he had a great excercise to practice this movement you are talking about.  in a stopped position (skis perpendicular to the fall line) and both poles in the uphill hand.  release your skis so you start heading down hill. As you start heading down hill, use your empty down hill hand and apply very firm pressure to your downhill knee, all the way through the turn until you start going back up the hill.  This will "force" the tipping movement that is stressed in PMTS, and what I believe you are referring to in this post?

This exercise of course is only to stress the "tipping" action preached in PMTS. When you do this you look back at your trail and you will have naturally made almost a perfect arc with two thing parallel lines of where your skis were. I was having trouble with "washing" when I made turns, this exercise helped me practice the tipping and the force required to do it properly when I turn now.

[hozel]

RL,

That sounds like an interesting exercise that I will try the next time on the snow. From your description, I am assuming the pressure from your hand is on the outside of the downhill knee thus driving it into the slope and engaging the big toe edge. As I am a veteran of several of the Ski Doc's camps, I thing what Gary is referring to is using the free uphill foot tipping to the little toe edge to cause the stance foot to tip and engage. I like to think of this as passive control in that the free foot dictates what the stance foot will do as it kinetically comes along for the ride.  During the turn our balance is shifted to the little toe edge of the uphill ski thus turning it into the new stance foot. We now have a new downhill free foot that can dictate the next turn with a tip downhill.

Joe

[rlspalding]

Joe,
Im sorry, I realized my description is a little confusing.  My previous post was assuming that you end up facing the opposite direction from when you started. 

The exercise I mention is not for the downhill ski, it is for the uphill ski. After you release which ever direction you want to turn, put the pressure from your uphill hand on the inside of the knee of the uphill skill.  By putting hard pressure on your knee of the uphill ski is the equivalent of "rolling your knee out" that Gary mentions.  I know it sounds a little different than what Gary's technique but that is only because he is lifting the ski tail ever so slightly, but what I believe Gary is getting to is the tipping action of the uphill ski.  The idea that the exercise I mention is trying to reinforce is the tipping of the uphill ski onto its little toe edge. Putting pressure on the inside knee of your uphill ski will cause that ski to go on edge, when you do this you will notice pressure on your hips.  As a reaction to this pressure your downhill ski will automatically go on edge and at the same angle as your uphill ski.  You will notice the result because when you look back at your trail, you will notice that both skis remain parallel, and both ski trails will look very similar in terms of widths because they are on the same edge angle.

The poles should be in the uphill hand, and you can use this hand to "reach" to help you counter balance.

My instructor kept stressing to continue putting pressure on that knee and making the turn all the way until I started heading back uphil and coming to a stop.  Eventually, we got to the point of linking turns with this exercise. Putting both poles in one hand and then swapping it to get a free hand to put pressure on my uphill ski.  It is very interesting and very helpful for you to realize how much tipping helps and how much pressure your uphill knee can take to tip.

as my instructor also kept stressing, exercises are great for focusing on a 1 or 2 things.  Please dont think this exercise is the one do all exercise. It is excellent for practicing tipping.

[hozel]

RL

Thanks for the clarification, we are really talking about the same thing in using the free foot. I'll try the exercise when I get to the Tahoe snow this week. I like the concept of exercises that stress at most one or two things.

Joe