Question: How do people get over the fear of going fast?

[Tra262007]

Ill make him film me next time out. Our first time out the year he didn't want to deal with it so he just wanted to ski. I'm glad too, the first hour or so was not the best skiing either of us had ever done. Hopefully next time out will be a more well rounded day. ha ha

Id be out sooner, but he wants to finish up his hunting season before skiing ever weekend. Cant say I blame him he only has a few weekends left of the season.

 

[vanhoskier]

The biggest thing that I think is slowing you down is your lack of edging. It appears that you are skiing on mainly a flat ski and steering (rotation) heavily through the turn, which over the length of Bonanza, could be quite tiring, hence your shaking legs. Tip those skis on edge from the ankles up to your knees and let the ski do the work. It seems like you are working hard and not letting the ski do the work! Carving (edging) is what gives you speed.....one needs only to watch ski racers and their high edge angles to see how they maintain tremendous speed.

 

[litterbug]

I'd suggest playing with tipping those skis to get your edges into the snow on some nice low-angle flat area where you won't pick up too much speed too fast. Those flat skis are why you have such great speed control; it's just the large surface area slowing you down. The bigger the angle between the ski and the snow, the less surface area there is to create friction, and the faster you can go. Once you're really carving, there's little friction and you can go quite fast.

One way to get familiar with edging is simply side-slipping on a hill. Stand solidly on the skis with your skis across the hill, and then slowly tip them downward by bending your knees (don't lean your body into the hill for this one, just stand upright with slightly bent knees). Notice when you start to slide; that means your edges have "released." Then stop sliding by tipping them back toward horizontal so the edges dig into the hill again. When you edge while going forward, your skis will turn you.

I'll leave next steps to someone else, but I don't think you need to really push this. Once you're comfortable with everything the instructor taught you, take another lesson! One a year may be fine for some, but you're on a learning curve.

I agree you should ski at your own speed. With more lessons and practice, I guarantee you're going to find yourself going faster. With more skill comes more confidence. That doesn't mean you're going to go screaming down extremely steep slopes, though, because not everyone loves speed. But you never know; you just might once you experience it!

 

[Tammy]

I think your skiing looks pretty solid! Nice, round turns and no fear of letting the skis run in the fall line.....those are some fantastic building blocks to work with!! It doesn't look like you're skiing particularly slowly, either... A lesson on really carving and working on railroad tracks may be in order. There's lots of tail skidding in the last half of your turns, but again, not enough to have any real effect on your speed. Learning to really edge your skis and use that edge- set to generate speed will take your skiing well into the next level.

​

Does your local area have NASTAR racing or any type of race training or clinics? Besides lots of private lessons, recreational racing and training is THE FASTEST way to learn skiing "a line", learning to ride an edge, and generally learning to generate and control speed. It's a cheap and fun way to vault your skiing to the next level in a big hurry.

I second Volklgirl's recommendations. This is only my 7th season skiing and I started to do some racing last year. Just finished up a holiday camp for Master's level racing and I learned a TON! I think for the first time in the last seven years, some things are finally starting to click for me in terms of feeling those edges carve into darned near anything and release properly, pressuring the shins of my boots throughout my turns, pole planting to time my turns, and looking out and ahead rather than down. If your local hill has race training for adults, I'd recommend it highly since you will learn how to carve. If not, a lesson that focuses on carving will definitely help you to feel more comfortable with speed.

Good luck and have fun.

 

[snow addict]

The biggest thing that I think is slowing you down is your lack of edging. It appears that you are skiing on mainly a flat ski and steering (rotation) heavily through the turn, which over the length of Bonanza, could be quite tiring, hence your shaking legs. Tip those skis on edge from the ankles up to your knees and let the ski do the work. It seems like you are working hard and not letting the ski do the work! Carving (edging) is what gives you speed.....one needs only to watch ski racers and their high edge angles to see how they maintain tremendous speed.

I am not sure I can agree that edging provides speed. The fastest travel is always along the straight line, not the bent one. Edge angles are for control, not for maintaining speed.

 

[SkiGAP]

I have never skied with another Diva

I want to make a Diva Week one of these years...hey someone once threw out an idea of a European Diva week, no?

Note: I didin't quote the message but someone mentioned skiing with Divas in this thread, I swear...

 

[Skisailor]

I am not sure I can agree that edging provides speed. The fastest travel is always along the straight line, not the bent one. Edge angles are for control, not for maintaining speed.

Edging definitely does provide control, but the only speed control while carving comes through turn shape. Turning by staying on your edges is always faster than turning on the flats of the skis. Turning on the flats provides more friction and friction is slow. Since most of us are not Ted Ligety or Julia Mancuso, we are typically not using those super high edge angles. More of the flats of our skis are in contact with the snow. When we skid or smear a turn, it might feel like we are using the edges to slow down. But another way to think of that is we are using a lower edge angle (hence the reason why the skis will break away or skid). And a lower edge angle means more of the flats of the skis are engaged. And that provides greater speed control than staying on a pure clean edge. Pure carving is very fast!!!

One of my breakthroughs in bump skiing came when I learned how to reliably get OFF my edges so I could slow things down!

 

[MaineSkiLady]

Interesting discussion, but I think it has evolved into “calculus-level” answers to an arithmetic question. Not that this is a bad thing, but OP may be reading and thinking, “OMG, WHAT are they talking about, edge angles, etc etc etc??!”

How skiers ski faster comes with time and experience, all of which will vary in terms of time-line based on the individual. It comes in stages, with the acquisition of the skills that are necessary for the skier to have complete confidence in being able to control the skis every second: for acceleration, deceleration, stopping “on a dime,” etc.

With increased skill levels and confidence, faster speeds are more comfortable, when/if appropriate.

 

[Skisailor]

Interesting discussion, but I think it has evolved into “calculus-level” answers to an arithmetic question. Not that this is a bad thing, but OP may be reading and thinking, “OMG, WHAT are they talking about, edge angles, etc etc etc??!”

How skiers ski faster comes with time and experience, all of which will vary in terms of time-line based on the individual. It comes in stages, with the acquisition of the skills that are necessary for the skier to have complete confidence in being able to control the skis every second: for acceleration, deceleration, stopping “on a dime,” etc.

With increased skill levels and confidence, faster speeds are more comfortable, when/if appropriate.

Totally love this and agree!

But also a really important concept in skiing to understand that edges are fast and flats are slow - when turning. Pretty simple . . . no calculus needed.

 

[MaineSkiLady]

It still doesn't sound logical to a learning skier, therefore, yes, it IS calculus.
"If I have to use my edges to turn my skis, and turning my skis with these edges is what controls my speed, or brings it down, then HOW can my edges make me go fast?" Look again at OP's posted videos and that she is in the early stages of using edges to turn...or, in the long-ancient ski instructor terminology, a "skidded christie."

 

[Skisailor]

It still doesn't sound logical to a learning skier, therefore, yes, it IS calculus.
"If I have to use my edges to turn my skis, and turning my skis with these edges is what controls my speed, or brings it down, then HOW can my edges make me go fast?" "

Agreed that it's very hard to describe. Did my best above in my earlier post to answer precisely the question you pose here. Maybe didn't do it well enough . . .

All of this stuff is better demonstrated than talked about.

But we are on a ski forum . . . .

 

[snow addict]

Edging definitely does provide control, but the only speed control while carving comes through turn shape. Turning by staying on your edges is always faster than turning on the flats of the skis. Turning on the flats provides more friction and friction is slow. Since most of us are not Ted Ligety or Julia Mancuso, we are typically not using those super high edge angles. More of the flats of our skis are in contact with the snow. When we skid or smear a turn, it might feel like we are using the edges to slow down. But another way to think of that is we are using a lower edge angle (hence the reason why the skis will break away or skid). And a lower edge angle means more of the flats of the skis are engaged. And that provides greater speed control than staying on a pure clean edge. Pure carving is very fast!!!

One of my breakthroughs in bump skiing came when I learned how to reliably get OFF my edges so I could slow things down!

But skis have to get flat for edges to change, usually this happens along the fall line, and this is the stage when speed starts to build up again until edges are fully engaged and skis are turning away from fall line. Regardless the edge angles a skier who remains in this stage for longer will travel faster. Hence downhill always involves higher speeds. This is the stage when skiers not comfortable with speed do not wait for edges to engage again and complete the turn using the shape of a ski but start edging prematurely. It's more tiring and inefficient. Skidding often results from legs not working simultaneously, and different angles on left and right skis. Getting off edges in bumps to slow down is a little bit different as we compare a flat ski across the fall line and flat ski along the fall line.

 

[snow addict]

Interesting discussion, but I think it has evolved into “calculus-level” answers to an arithmetic question. Not that this is a bad thing, but OP may be reading and thinking, “OMG, WHAT are they talking about, edge angles, etc etc etc??!”

How skiers ski faster comes with time and experience, all of which will vary in terms of time-line based on the individual. It comes in stages, with the acquisition of the skills that are necessary for the skier to have complete confidence in being able to control the skis every second: for acceleration, deceleration, stopping “on a dime,” etc.

With increased skill levels and confidence, faster speeds are more comfortable, when/if appropriate.

No need for calculus as it's a very basic physics. The fastest line downhill is the fall line, straight. Once on edge skis are turning away from it. The more you stay in the fall line the faster you will go. You can easily verify this. Higher angles provide better control as in this case your CM is closer to the ski. At competition speeds it's essential.

 

[SkiBam]

My comment won't help the OP much but thought I'd add it to the "calculus" discussion. If two people are on a fairly flat trail and one is going straight (on flat skis, no edging) while the other is making carving or roller blade turns (and using only edging, no skidding) this second person can often go faster than the first. I've shown this by being able to pass a friend on one of Tremblant's fairly flat run outs - and I weigh much less than the friend. When I get my skis on edge and really carve, I can feel the acceleration.

 

[snow addict]

My comment won't help the OP much but thought I'd add it to the "calculus" discussion. If two people are on a fairly flat trail and one is going straight (on flat skis, no edging) while the other is making carving or roller blade turns (and using only edging, no skidding) this second person can often go faster than the first. I've shown this by being able to pass a friend on one of Tremblant's fairly flat run outs - and I weigh much less than the friend. When I get my skis on edge and really carve, I can feel the acceleration.

Just because you "feel acceleration" doesn't mean you are actually travelling faster. The fastest line from A to B is the straight line. Always. For any given skier on the same surface with the same angle - and it holds not only for skiing, skiing is just a particular example. thus when this same skier gets his skis on edges and moves away from the straight line there is no possible way for him to get from A to B faster than if he travelled straight. Accelerating away will not get him to the final point faster. There is a very interesting book called "The Physics of Skiing" which covers this among other things, but you don't need to read it to know that the fastest route from a to b is a straight one. Downhill is faster than slalom or even giant slalom and not because there are higher edge angles involved - this is simply not true. What is true is that edging makes turning easier since the skier doesn't have to apply any rotation. Shorter ski of the same width will change edges faster, "skinnier" ski of the same length will also change edges faster. But even if you can complete the turn very quickly it won't get you from a to b faster than if travelling straight, and you will be always faster on longer skis since they will stay in the straight line longer. For OP knowing this might actually be helpful, as edging = more efficient turns = better control of speed, and once this control can be fully felt and appreciated it's much easier to overcome the fear of speed and actually let go. But edging doesn't provide speed - it provides the means to utilize the shape of the ski to efficiently control the speed.

 

[Serafina]

er, that's not true. The shortest distance between A and B is the straight line. But the ant will always get there more slowly than the bicycle. If person A is traveling in a straight line at 5 mph, and person B is traveling on a curving trajectory at 35 mph, person B will get there first, despite the curves.

It may be that Person A is able to travel at 25 mph on the straight line, and person B may be traveling at 15 mph on the curve, but the simple existence of the straight line is not a sufficient condition to reach a conclusion about which person will arrive at the destination first. You need to make some additional assumptions in order to reach that conclusion. I suspect that this area of "additional assumptions" is where the confusion is arising in this discussion.

 

[Tra262007]

So going faster and a fear of going faster are two different things. I think the discussions are good above my post here, but they are not about the "Fear of going faster" They are about how to go faster. I again think the information above is great info so I am not saying to stop the conversation.

Anyway my BF and I went skiing yesterday and it was the second time on the BPs. I found that the skis have given me more confidence with going faster! Also I am using some of the other tricks talked about in the earlier posts.

Things that are helping me:
1) Black Pearls (bigger ski, wider, more stable!)
2) Looking out 50 yards instead of 5 yards. Makes me feel like I'm going slower and am more prepared for what is coming.
3) The confidence that if I do get out of my speed comfort zone I can slow down.
4) Trying to ski faster on runs I find easy and am more comfortable on.
5) Link turns together more, still have speed control but less traversing of hill side to side

Here is a video of me on an easy blue in Wisconsin from this weekend. I am doing the first 4 things above on this video. The 5th I didn't really need to do on this run as it is not really a steep one or challenging one for me. My BF said he didn't really have to slow down on this run as I was really just cruising down the run.

Good times yesterday!

 

[SkiBam]

Lookin' good on those BPs - very relaxed and totally in control!

 

[Serafina]

Looking good, Tracy! Your turns look a lot better to me, and you're moving along but you still look like you're in control, and relaxed.

Having a pair of skis that feel stable makes a huge difference! And I'm working on your point 2 with Mr. S. - he has a tendency to look about 5 feet ahead of him instead of sizing up the slope and planning his line as he goes. When you look down the hill, you can plan where you want to turn based on what you're seeing - and just that is super helpful because if you aren't able to plan your turns, you spend 100% of your time reacting to whatever is under your skis right now, and there's no way anyone can ski fluidly or with speed under those circumstances.

I find it's helpful, when I'm going along at a good-enough clip that I think EEK! SPEED! to just plan a stop and execute it (on the side of the trail, of course, and being sure that I'm not doing this in front of someone directly behind me). This is a good reminder that yes, I can stop when I want to or need to, and so it's OK.

 

[altagirl]

Totally love this and agree!

But also a really important concept in skiing to understand that edges are fast and flats are slow - when turning. Pretty simple . . . no calculus needed.

I agree with this. Railroad track style edging is fastest. My understanding is that this has to do with the friction of the ski - if it's on edge, you have much less resistance than you do if you're on a flat ski, so it goes faster. Of course there are a lot of "it depends" things thrown in there - if you have a lot of sidecut on your skis, being on edge is going to make you turn more across the hill and take a significantly less direct line to the point where it might be faster to stay on a flat ski. And the width of the ski and how good or bad your ski wax is in relation to conditions would be factors too. So this phenomenon is probably a lot more noticeable on powder skis that don't have a ton of sidecut.