Hello, I am back and looking forward to continuing this exchange. What a lot of things to tackle!!! ! I will start from the top with Liquidfeet's first question:
To get those parallel turn entries, have you tried shortening/bending one leg to start a turn, doing nothing else but that?
Yes, that is exactly how I am taught. In fact we spent quite some time on getting me to see that I could as well use one ski only. It is enough to bend the standing leg and lean the core forward. The ski will turn without anything else being done. I am told not to lower the outside shoulder either, just stay upright from the hips up and centred over the weighted ski.
I see the right ski getting stuck in your left turns. You need to transfer weight to the new outside ski, your left ski, earlier in the turn. Then when the right ski is light, bring that foot over closer to the outside foot. If you wait, it will get stuck. That's what's happening.
I have since had two more lessons and am concentrating really hard on this aspect. I think I am seeing results: the "light" foot has become much more manageable. Not quite there yet, but I see my way forward/ THANK YOU.
---------ski flat on the snow, extend new outside leg to flatten that new outside ski
(Once the new outside ski is flat, are you asked to rotate it to point downhill or not? If it's edged to its Big Toe Edge, aka BTE, it will turn on its own, but you may want it to turn faster for shorter turns. That will require some manual rotation.)
See above. I am told to do nothing about rotating that foot. It turns on its own, so most likely I am quite automatically positioning myself over that Big Toe Edge.
----------press that shin into the boot.
(The mantra I teach is to say to self, "Tongue-Shin." On the carpet you are maintaining constant tongue-shin contact.)
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Yes, I am told to maintain the shin/tongue contact at all times (I do have a problem with the right shin, which seems to retract).
I try to get my students to flex the new inside leg first; this makes skiing parallel easier because it helps avoid getting that inside ski stuck way out there in a wedge. But most instructors don't teach this; the inside ski is handled mostly as an afterthought. For some instructors like me it's the major ski to pay attention to.
Same. Inside foot management is for me the hardest part of learning to do it right. When I skied on snow, I simply softened and unweighted that foot, it seemed to "come in" parallel quite automatically. Now, I am told to do different things, will explain below.
(I call this tipping the new inside ski to its little toe edge, aka LTE. This can be done by ankle-tipping the foot inside the boot, or by rolling the knee to the inside of the new turn, or by doing both together. Does any of this sound familiar?)
I am asked to do three things at the same time: 1. roll the inside knee towards the slope, maintaing contact with boot tongue 2. position the inside ski very lightly on its outside edge, and 3. rotate the unweighted foot at the ankle horizontally away from the weighted foot. This should set the inside ski parallel to the outside ski which is turning, but I have trouble making it work. The unweighted foot does glide ( I have finally got ever that hurdle, so hurray!) but does not come parallel. My feet get further and further apart, and everything becomes harder to accomplish.
have a good friend who started skiing when her kids did. Since her son loved skiing and started ski school when he was 6, he learned very quickly. She took lessons too. Progress has been slow but steady. Regardless of snow conditions, my friend loves to enjoy the slopes at her own pace. This winter was her 8th, but she probably only skied 3-4 days the first few years and 10-15 days after that. In addition to lessons, getting over a hump takes "mileage", meaning more time on snow. This season she was able to ski more for assorted reasons, over 20 days during three ski vacations. That made a big difference.
marzNC - I love that story. I wish I could have started skiing when my kids did. It was not on the cards, only now I have both time and money . I am aware of the time that can never be regained and very much hoping I can yet put whatever remains to a good use. And following your exercise suggestion I will start with the one footed balance, the simplest and likely the one I need some action first of all.
Thank you all so much.