T & T 1 - Your @$$ is Not a Part of Your Lower Body in Skiing
Your @ss is not part of your lower body in modern skiing. Really, it’s not. It may be in golf and tennis, and it definitely is in dancing; but it’s not in skiing. In successful skiing your lower body starts where the top of your femur enters the hip socket. (Femur: you know, that big leg bone that connects the knee to the hip)
Why this is important? Because one of the key differences between good skiers and really good skiers is the ability to separate the upper body from the lower body while skiing. If you want to be faster in the race course, or more comfortable on steep terrain, you must have independent upper and lower body movement.
First let me make this general statement. Successfully skiing on modern shaped skis comes down to nothing more than moving from one set of equally tilted edges to the other…without falling over. Now hopefully those edges are sharp enough to dig into the snow surface and when tilted enough on edge, what results is a nicely carved turn. If the ski is not tilted enough you’ll still get a turn, but just a slow, skidded, inefficient turn. (Which by the way, if you need to scrub speed, may be just what the doctor ordered.)
So how do you get enough edge angle throughout the turn so you carve the whole time and not just in the beginning? You do it by treating your upper and lower body as separate moving parts, in both the vertical and horizontal planes. Lets start with the vertical. Many intermediate skiers start and maintain their turns by tilting their entire body to the inside of the turn,(the technical term for this is inclination…. think, “Leaning Tower of Pisa.”…..or in the below example, “ The Leaning tower of Lisa”)
Although this will work on flatter terrain, as things get steeper Lisa will run out of edge angle and either start to skid or fall over towards the inside of her turn. Racers, (watch KJ or Danielle when they are skiing) and advanced skiers, may start a new turn with inclination, but as the turn progresses they create angles between their upper and lower body. The upper body, (from your rear end north) levels out towards the upright as the lower body, (from your femur down), moves to the outside of the turn. (For those who care, the technical term is angulation…. think of every picture of Bode Miller rounding a gate you’ve ever seen, or for a little less extreme example, see my friend Jane from the Sugarloaf Ski shop below. photo 2. below.) While Lisa’s body was pretty much a straight line from boot to helmet, Jane has about a 40 degree angle at her hip socket between her upper and lower body.
Next lets talk about horizontal plane. Go back and look at Lisa’s photo again. You’ll notice that her skis and upper body are both heading in the same direction. You might say that her torso is very “square “ to her skis. Once again, this is fine on a gentle trail. Once things get a little steeper however, staying square to your skis will cause you to run out of edge angle and you’ll end up with more weight on your inside ski than on your outside ski where it belongs. The result once again is a skidding inefficient turn. The remedy to this problem is to keep your upper body facing more or less down the hill while your skis turn back and forth underneath you. The technical term for this, if you care, is “counter”.
Check out Jane’s picture again. Her skis are pointing to her 1 to 2 o’clock while her upper body is facing “noon”. This allows her to have a long outer leg and a shorter, bent inner leg. The result is two equally edged carving skis.
Here’s a drill you can try to make this angulation/ counter thing happen. With a ski buddy, pick a narrowish Blue groomed trail. Failing that, just pick an imaginary corridor down a wider slope that is about a groomer’s path wide. Start straight down the trail with your friend behind you watching. When you have sufficient speed, begin making linked round turns, keeping your hands level to the horizon and within your field of vision. (Pole touches are optional.) Pick a point straight ahead way down the trail and focus on it throughout the drill. Looking straight ahead will keep you “countered” Try to keep your upper body in the middle third of the trail while allowing your skis to carve a path that stretches from one edge of the trail / corridor to the other. Your ski buddy’s task is to watch your butt, literally, and describe to you what he or she sees. (in polite terms of course). Most of us wear ski jackets these days that conveniently end right about where the femurs begin. Hopefully your pal will see the hem line of your jacket (your upper body) staying more or less parallel to the horizon, (angulation) while your legs and skis (your lower body) cross back and forth underneath you, not unlike the pendulum of a clock (counter).
When you’ve gotten the hang of these linked short radius turns, try a variation of the same drill, but this time pick a fairly wide, shallow pitched “Blue” trail and make medium to long radius turns. Once again, have your partner observe your “behind” from behind. They should see you begin the turn by leaning or inclining in the direction of the new turn, but as the turn progresses, they should notice your upper body “leveling out” and once again the hem of your ski jacket should be more or less parallel to the horizon while your lower body angles away from your upper body. In the linked short radius turns your upper body should stay fairly fixed straight downhill, facing your focal point as your skis turn from left to right. On the longer radius turns, your upper body will turn back and forth as your skis do, just not as much. Your upper body should always face more downhill than your legs.
So start your next turn with a little “inclination” and then add “angles” as it progresses. Keep looking downhill and “face the danger” and you will have conquered the carved turn. And remember, your @ss is not a part of your lower body in skiing!.
