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Help Needed: How to move to Blue
- Thread starter Natalie Blackburn
- Start date
liquidfeet
Ski Diva Extraordinaire
But the point is, you (any skier) might do better if you can feel comfortable doing what you do on greens at a higher speed than when you started skiing. Speeding up while still on those greens is a good idea, because it helps you feel feel comfortable skiing SLOWLY on blues. Here's why.
Learning to go fast on greens does not mean that you're supposed to go to blues and bomb down those trails fast. Far from it. On your very first blue, you can make one turn, starting with pointing skis in one direction, ending with them pointing in the other direction, and then point them uphill to a stop. You can then make another turn in the other direction and go uphill to a stop. Then you can link these, trying to stall out between turns. That's the best slow-down strategy. There will be an inevitable fast part of each turn, and it's when the skis point downhill. That's because of the steeper pitch. But there's also a slow part for each turn, and that's when the skis point across the hill. If you want the skis to go even slower (to let your heart rate slow down), you point them uphill between turns to either almost stall out, or to stop. Once your head gets used to this fast-slow thing, you can work your way up to more smooth transitions with a simple slow-down. This is the best way to learn blues.
If you are panicked by the fast part of each turn, the self-preservation part of your mind will come up with all kinds of defensive ways to try to subvert going fast during that part of each turn. People do this. When they do, and when they repeat these subverting strategies that shorten the fast part of their turns, it puts them on the "terminal intermediate" plateau.
Learning to do these things is almost unavoidable, because people go to steeper terrain too fast. They want to ski the whole mountain, and they are encouraged to do that by their friends. Or they get their thrills by scaring themselves silly; some do this too. The only way these folks, both types, the thrill seekers, and the panic-stricken ones following friends, can survive the steeper terrain, if they aren't ready for the fast part of the turn, is to do those defensive moves. The "fast" part of the turn is going to freak them out because, well, it's faster.
What are those defensive moves? There are some of them.
--quickly pivot the skis to point across the hill in the new direction, in order to shorten or even eliminate the pointing-down-the-hill part of the turn. This leads to excess skidding through the rest of the turn as the skis have no real grip; they just scrape downhill across the snow. Won't work when skis are embedded in soft deep snow. Works kinda on hard snow, but since the skis are skidding there is little control. Skier can't stop or change direction until the friction slows them down a lot.
--lean the body sideways uphill as the skis come around. Inside shoulder drops low, whole body tilts towards the inside of the turn. Aka "hugging the hill." This produces a secure feeling since the head is back uphill of the skis the whole turn. Leads to less weight on the outside ski, so the outside ski's control of the turn is lost.
--lean back against the back of the boot cuff as the skis start to point downhill, in the "Whoah Nellie" position. If done with high drama the skier ends up sitting themselves down on the snow, aka falling.
--rotate the whole body around in the direction of the new turn; this is a very strong move and sure does work to get the top part of the turn over fast; the part where the skis point downhill is shortened. But but, it's a terrible way to start a turn. The rotating upper body will throw you out of balance when it stops turning. Ski turns need to be motored by the legs, not the upper body. You have so much more control using the legs; turns can be fine tuned if you take the heavy large upper body out of the equation.
Well, that's all I have to say about that. Feeling Forest Grumpy at the moment.
Learning to go fast on greens does not mean that you're supposed to go to blues and bomb down those trails fast. Far from it. On your very first blue, you can make one turn, starting with pointing skis in one direction, ending with them pointing in the other direction, and then point them uphill to a stop. You can then make another turn in the other direction and go uphill to a stop. Then you can link these, trying to stall out between turns. That's the best slow-down strategy. There will be an inevitable fast part of each turn, and it's when the skis point downhill. That's because of the steeper pitch. But there's also a slow part for each turn, and that's when the skis point across the hill. If you want the skis to go even slower (to let your heart rate slow down), you point them uphill between turns to either almost stall out, or to stop. Once your head gets used to this fast-slow thing, you can work your way up to more smooth transitions with a simple slow-down. This is the best way to learn blues.
If you are panicked by the fast part of each turn, the self-preservation part of your mind will come up with all kinds of defensive ways to try to subvert going fast during that part of each turn. People do this. When they do, and when they repeat these subverting strategies that shorten the fast part of their turns, it puts them on the "terminal intermediate" plateau.
Learning to do these things is almost unavoidable, because people go to steeper terrain too fast. They want to ski the whole mountain, and they are encouraged to do that by their friends. Or they get their thrills by scaring themselves silly; some do this too. The only way these folks, both types, the thrill seekers, and the panic-stricken ones following friends, can survive the steeper terrain, if they aren't ready for the fast part of the turn, is to do those defensive moves. The "fast" part of the turn is going to freak them out because, well, it's faster.
What are those defensive moves? There are some of them.
--quickly pivot the skis to point across the hill in the new direction, in order to shorten or even eliminate the pointing-down-the-hill part of the turn. This leads to excess skidding through the rest of the turn as the skis have no real grip; they just scrape downhill across the snow. Won't work when skis are embedded in soft deep snow. Works kinda on hard snow, but since the skis are skidding there is little control. Skier can't stop or change direction until the friction slows them down a lot.
--lean the body sideways uphill as the skis come around. Inside shoulder drops low, whole body tilts towards the inside of the turn. Aka "hugging the hill." This produces a secure feeling since the head is back uphill of the skis the whole turn. Leads to less weight on the outside ski, so the outside ski's control of the turn is lost.
--lean back against the back of the boot cuff as the skis start to point downhill, in the "Whoah Nellie" position. If done with high drama the skier ends up sitting themselves down on the snow, aka falling.
--rotate the whole body around in the direction of the new turn; this is a very strong move and sure does work to get the top part of the turn over fast; the part where the skis point downhill is shortened. But but, it's a terrible way to start a turn. The rotating upper body will throw you out of balance when it stops turning. Ski turns need to be motored by the legs, not the upper body. You have so much more control using the legs; turns can be fine tuned if you take the heavy large upper body out of the equation.
Well, that's all I have to say about that. Feeling Forest Grumpy at the moment.
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newboots
Angel Diva
That was beautifully explained, @liquidfeet !
Well, skiing IS like a box of chocolates ....
marzNC
Angel Diva
Kids are taught hockey stops early on. Sometimes by encouraging them to spray their instructor. That's also a useful survival skill. The idea is to practice hockey stops at increasing speeds on easy terrain. As you gain confidence knowing that it's possible to stop quickly if necessary, going a bit faster can be a bit less intimidating. In particular on a relatively crowded slope where an unexpected stop might be needed to avoid another person.
EeveeCanSki
Certified Ski Diva
^^ The last sentence...exactly why an instructor said he would rather wait to take me on his resort's signature blue run even though I have the skiing [turning] skills to navigate it. We did hockey stop after hockey stop on the greens...got the mechanics down, now just need to add more speed!
