....progressing from smearing turns to truly getting up on edge and learning to carve.
....I’m always wary of picking up too much speed, so I end up doing a lot of short, sharp smearing turns
....should I be trying to drill with speed on the greens?
....I want to be able to carve to get more comfortable and control with speed....
....I only own very smeary twin tip skis.
@ilovepugs, you clearly know that carving will get you going fast. But what you might not know yet is that skis that are carving are gripping the snow very well. That absolute grip is like nothing you've felt before. Smeared turns offer nothing close. So carving offers a sense of security that can become quite addictive -- it makes speed feel GREAT! You are going to love this.
Speed control while carving comes from turning across the hill, and even uphill, at carving speed. In other words, to avoid gaining speed while carving, you'll need to learn to complete your turns, then to initiate the new turn while heading across the fall line.
You'll need to learn on very low pitch terrain. Learn to feel the carve first heading downhill. Then learn to fully complete your turns to an uphill stop. Then learn how to initiate the new turn while heading a little bit uphill. These things can take some time to figure out how to do. Most people don't ever learn to complete their carved turns because it's hard to start a new turn from an across the hill trajectory. And because they don't learn to complete their turns, they gain too much speed and give up the carve. Make turn completion a goal for your journey.
The shorter the radius of your carved turns, the narrower the "lane" you take up as you head downhill. Skiing a narrow lane means slower downhill travel speed. That's good!
So the skis you choose to carve with might need to be short radius skis if you want to keep your speed down. They will also need torsional rigidity, meaning the tips and tails shouldn't twist under the forces they feel from the snow. If they are torsionally soft and twist, the tips and tails won't hold the carve even though you are doing things right. You say upthread you are on smeary twin tips. You may need to rent short radius carving skis if you are learning to carve on hard snow. It's worth it! If you are out west and learning on soft stuff that fell from the sky, your twin tips might work, as long as they have some camber and are built to generate short radius turns.
Ankle-tipping while heading straight down the fall line on beginner terrain is the way to start learning. You'll have to purge the habitual ski pivoting you may already have embedded in your muscle memory, and this drill is a good one for doing that. You won't be completing your turns with this kind of turn, but the pitch won't allow you to get going too too fast. Just hockey stop when you gain too much speed.
If you have trouble purging the pivot, cowboy turns because of the very wide stance won't allow the pivot to happen. So that drill allows you to get a feeling for how carving skis feel.
Have fun with this. You're going to have so much fun!
