IMPROVE
BALANCE OVER THE
OUTSIDE SKI
-JF Beaulieu
To get your day on the right track, you may need to return to basics. An important focus is balancing over your outside ski. The result of this will give you more control to slow down, maintain or increase your speed.
Creating this balance over your outside ski is not an outcome of pressing down or simply standing on top of the ski. It is a result of turning.
Here is an example to demonstrate this point: Imagine you are driving a car at 50 kph on an oval race track. When you turn the steering wheel to turn the wheels of the car, the frame of the car will tend to move towards the outside of the turn. As a result, the pressure on the outside wheels of the car will increase.
In skiing, the wheels of the car are the skis and the frame is your body. If the effort to turn the skis comes from the legs, the weight of your body will tend to move to the
outside ski.
Now imagine the car making a tight, hairpin turn on a road track. The driver must take more action to turn the steering wheel and this time the pressure on the outside wheels will increase even more! The pressure on the inside wheels in the turn will be reduced as the driver tightens his turn.
The same thing happens in your skiing. The more you tighten the arc, the more you will feel pressure move to your outside ski. When this movement is performed with your lower body, the pressure on the inside ski lightens and allows you to
balance your body mass over your outside ski.
Balancing over your outside ski is a result of turning your skis under your upper body. To increase your balance over your outside ski you must tighten your turn.
How to tighten your turn?
» Use a little more edge angle
» Use your full leg to change direction of your skis by guiding your outside foot under you
Place your hand on the inside of your outside leg and apply pressure towards your hand with your outer leg laterally instead of towards the ground. If the turning effort comes from your foot only, you will skid. If you use the entire leg, you will change direction and tighten your arc. The next time you are out working on improving your overall control of speed, try to change your turn shape to a tighter, rounder one. Start the first half of your turn with a smooth arc and tighten the last half using the full leg so that your balance naturally moves over your outside ski. |