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we can see where that A-frame and abstem come from--and more importantly as instructors, we can see the solution!
"Rotation" is a highly intuitive rotary mechanism. It's usually the first instinct of any of us when we try to "force" something we're standing on to turn. Perhaps this explains why so many skiers rely on it as their fundamental turn-initiating movement--especially those who first learned on very long, seemingly "hard to turn" skis. Then there are those who learned from these people--which, I'm sorry to say, includes many of us instructors and a whole lot of patrollers. Regardless, it's a common sight on the slopes today. Let's look at it.
The skier rotates his/her upper body down the hill, then "yanks" the skis into a (skidded) turn. Of course, the first part of this movement--the upper body rotation--requires that the lower body/feet be stabilized by a solid "platform" (that piece of paper in our exercise above had to have some resistance to allow the upper body to rotate). "Rotation" typically takes the form of the "rotary pushoff"--literally a push with a twist from the platform of a solid edge set on the downhill ski, followed by an unweighting to allow the skis to twist more easily.
As the turn progresses, the skier skids through the "control phase," body rotated into the hill, hips consequently pulled out over the skis. To end the turn, and create the platform for the next turn, the skier must set an edge. Hip angulation isn't an option, so the outside knee moves in--creating the a-frame. The rotation in the hip socket (from this knee angulation), combined with the relatively flat ski at first, contributes to a washout of the tail of the downhill ski until it finally attains sufficient edge angle to bite and end the turn. There's the abstem!
We see this package of movements all the time, don't we? I hope I've clearly described the chain of causally linked events that lead to this a-frame and abstem syndrome.
It should also be clear that we can't solve the problem where we see it--at the end of the turn. We can't tell this rotated skier to "create some hip angles" at the end of the turn. We must solve the problem where it starts--at the start of the turn. The problem may manifest itself as an Edge-skill problem, but its cause lies in the Rotary skill! |
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