I have my classroom teacher hat on this morning. Here are some important concepts that need to be a part of your (
@EdithP) progress in skiing.
Closing the ankles
See how this expert skier is standing? He is "closing his ankles" by contracting the anterior tibialis on each lower leg. Skiers need to learn to do this. It takes practice over a long time to get the body to do this habitually, without conscious attention, when on skis. You (everybody) can't work on it unless you are in boots clicked into skis. If you try to do this in your regular shoes, without the fronts of the skis there to support your weight when the ankles are closed, you will fall on your face. When you're on skis, the fronts of the skis hold you up when you close the ankles. Closing your ankles moves your weight forward over the fronts of the skis. Making this a habit when you are on skis will propel your skills to the next level. Many things will improve immediately when the fronts of the skis are weighted.
**Be sure you do NOT allow your heels to get "light" as you do this with your ankles. You need weight on the backs of the skis too, so the whole ski is pressed downward onto the snow. This will maximize the ski's grip, and your control over where your skis take you.
All of these terms mean the same thing:
--close the ankles
--bend forward at the ankles
--dorsiflex
--flex your ankles
--press into the cuffs, flex into the cuffs, flex the cuffs, bend the cuffs
--shin-tongue
Inside ski - Outside ski
The diagram below shows two connected turns. The movement is down the page. The turns are parallel, but what it shows works for wedge turns (snow plow turns) as well. Both of these turns have a C shape, because they are "completed." Even though most of your (everybody's) turns are not completed, each turn has a top half anyway. It's important to have this diagram burnt into your memory as you ski.
All of these mean the same thing:
--Keep your weight on the outside ski.
--Ski from outside ski to outside ski.
--Ski outside ski dominant.
Finding and feeling the top half of each new turn
The image below on the left shows the end of the old turn (its bottom half), and the start of the new turn (its top half). The image on the right just isolates the top half of the new turn. It's short.
These images show completed turns, with a full C shape to each of them. When a turn is not completed, the top half of the new turn is very, very, very short, even shorter than the image on the right. But a top half is always present in every turn, no matter how the turn is shaped.
@EdithP, see if you can identify when the top of each of your turns is happening as you ski. It's important to know when it's happening, to actually feel it with every turn, because eventually you'll want to lift the tail of the
new inside ski (the yellow ski in this image) at this point. If you complete your turns more, it will be easier to find and feel the top of the new turn. Work on feeling the top half of every turn at some point in every lesson.
Expert tail lifting
See the yellow ski changing from right ski to left ski right in the middle of the image on the left? That's when you eventually want to switch which tail is lifted. It's your final goal. It takes some people years to get themselves to do this. It will feel scary at first to lift the tail of the new inside ski at this point, because this is when the new inside ski is the downhill ski. When you can lift the tail of that downhill ski, your new turn will start and your weight will be fully on the new outside ski at the very beginning of that turn. You will have succeeded in transferring weight
fully from outside ski to outside ski, with no weight ever being on the inside ski, no matter which foot that is. Look at that full image above, and imagine yourself skiing with all your weight always on the red ski. The yellow ski will always have its tail lifted. That's your eventual goal. It's like walking, from foot to foot. Same as in skiing. It's hard to do so be patient with yourself. You are like a baby learning to take first steps. The baby needs to lift a foot to go forward. You need to lift the downhill foot to go forward too. To attain this level of mastery of the tail-lift, you'll need to be keeping your ankles firmly closed.
Two new movements at the same time
So you'll need to do two things at the same time, keep the ankles closed and lift the tail of the new inside ski when it's the downhill ski. Doing two new things at the same time, with conscious attention to both, is nearly impossible. You'll need the ankle-closing to work unconsciously when you focus your mind on lifting the tail of the downhill ski. This is your eventual goal -- skiing from outside ski to outside ski without weight on the inside ski. Look at the other skiers who lift the tails when you take your lesson next time. Do they lift the downhill ski's tail? Probably not. It's probably the uphill ski when they lift the tail. Do not get discouraged. You are on your way, as are they.