|
|
Use of this page means you accept the SkiMyBest Site Use
Agreement or
EXIT NOW.
CONVENTIONAL SKIING WISDOMS (CSW's) CSW #3: "To turn, shift your weight." Imagine a little stick figure made of heavy rods. 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 to shift the weight to cause this; it happened automatically because of the geometry. Instead, you supplied the turning force when you moved the figure. The same can happen in skiing. Too often, however, we resist this natural shifting of the weight, and if so 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 move a different direction than the one where the body had been going, a compression force occurs on the body. This causes more pressure to go to the outside of the turn and therefore because the outside leg can anatomically handle that pressure better, to 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 the available options to adjust the turn. main CSW contents
|
|
SkiMybest.com:
"Learn to Ski/Ski Better" 
You are in
Skiing Web Manual "Skiing is a Sliding Sport"