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   "SKIING IS A SLIDING SPORT":
 Conventional Skiing Wisdoms (CSW's) 

by Bill Jones, Ski Instructor
Certified Professional Ski Instructor (Registration #
110478)

 CSW #3: "To turn, shift your weight."

Imagine a little stick figure made of heavy rods outlining a human anatomy. Now put the figure on skis and coming straight down a gentle slope in a snowplow. The rods are stuck together with angles just where a skier has joints. Ideally, the figure would be totally symmetrical, with all its angles the same, the skis displaced evenly with the tips close and the tails apart, just as for a skier. The weight of the figure would therefore be even on the two skis. Now, without changing any of the angles of the heavy rods and keeping the skis in a snowplow, move the figure through a turn on the slope. Will the weight on the two skis stay the same? No, more will move to the ski on the downhill side. There was no need for the stick figure to shift its weight to cause this; it happened automatically because of the geometry of the tilting. The turn did not occur because of the weight shift, the weight shift was the result of the turn. Instead, you supplied the turning force when you moved the figure with its skis. The same can happen if we turn our skis while actually skiing: the weight shifts itself. Too often, however, we resist this natural shifting of the weight, leaning uphill due to our fear of the downhill side, and if we do we must then put the weight where it would have gone in the first place.

In a higher-speed turn an additional mechanic occurs in that as the skis turn to a new direction and become deflected agains the snow, a compression force occurs on the body. This causes more pressure to go to the outside of the turn and therefore the outside ski, again without us doing anything within our bodies to shift the weight. But if we wish we can put more weight on the outside by bending a leg or arcing a back and cause the turn to be different. Or, we can take weight off by doing the opposite. If, however, we had already caused the turn by shifting our weight, we would have limited our available options to adjust the turn while in it.

main CSW contents
prior CSW #2: "Sit back when skiing powder".
next CSW  #4: "Lean".

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This "CSW #3: 'To Turn...'" page last modified 11/18/2009: \SkiMyBest\skiCSW03.htm Copyright © 2010 William R Jones.