Pivot Slips...summer training

[Stowski]

I remember watching "Family Affair" (Buffy and Jody) in my neighbor's basement in full ski gear. I must have been 7? We spent all Fall like that!

 

[beckylh84]

I do laundry and yoga in them

I folded a load of towels with my boots on last night...had them on for 30 mins. Gotta get the new liners broken in.

Back to pivot slips. An instructor I had at Killington last year had me working on them. I felt really uncomfortable doing them. I felt like I was going to fall head-first. I really struggled a lot with them. I hope I'll have better luck this year. If I get comfortable with pivot slips, I think that should correct some bad habits.

 

[litterbug]

Ah, Labor Day is past, and this morning I made french toast in an "athletic stance," bending and straightening my knees, shoulders relaxed as I flipped the cinnamon bread, then standing on one foot with the other foot hooked behind the bent ankle. I'm working toward being balanced on one leg keeping my torso still with the other leg propped sideways against my thigh or moving around. I just downloaded a set of standing balance poses. At some point I should be able to balance on one foot for at least a few seconds on the balance board!

Still no cleats or long rides or hikes or spin classes, but at least my SI joints have healed from the abuse I took while moving and my hips are feeling better, so I'm back to my pilates mat workout and yoga DVD and riding the bike to work. I'm going back to 8 hour days next week to give me more sunlight in the evening, too.

 

[tinymoose]

I'm a ski training slacker. I've only put my boots on once since last season... to see how they looked/fit with my new ski pants. Because that is so important, after all.

 

[liquidfeet]

I just started a yoga program, trying to get more flexible and balanced during the summer to help with my skiing next winter. I have been going to class and have been using a DVD called Yoga for Skiing. Wanted to know if anyone has some exercises that they do over the summer to help with pivot slips...

I folded a load of towels with my boots on last night...had them on for 30 mins. Gotta get the new liners broken in.

Back to pivot slips. An instructor I had at Killington last year had me working on them. I felt really uncomfortable doing them. I felt like I was going to fall head-first. I really struggled a lot with them. I hope I'll have better luck this year. If I get comfortable with pivot slips, I think that should correct some bad habits.

I learned to do pivot slips well last season after falling all the time trying them in the past. It doesn't take strength. You do need to be able to rotate your femurs/legs/skis left and right while keeping your hips and shoulders facing downhill, but you can cheat and rotate at the waist some if your legs won't turn that far and still pivot-slip downwards within a narrow corridor.

Pivot slipping is sliding straight downhill with no left-right movement, while turning your skis all the way left and right as you slide. It takes moving your feet in the right place beneath your hips, keeping your skis flat as you rotate them, and keeping the upper body facing downhill. I can't think of anything to do in the summer that can help with that.

The way I learned was I just went out and did nothing but try pivot slips over and over for 3 hours one morning. I did this alone so I could concentrate without any comments from anyone else messing me up. (Lots of instructors had offered suggestions in the past, and I had followed others who could do it and tried to copy them, all to no avail.) Working by myself for those three hours did the trick, and believe me I had sore muscles the next day. I just kept trying different things until something started working, then built on that. Persistence and trail-and-error paid off.

I don't know what might be holding others back from success, but my biggest problem was that I was keeping my feet out in front of my hips and didn't realize it (aka back seat). When I began pulling my feet backwards up the hill under me, sorta like pulling them up-back-behind my hips, that worked. It's also necessary to be able to keep the skis flat. A firm snow surface is best; doing pivot slips on ice is easier than on soft snow.

In the instructor world, pivot slips are an upper-level skill. Learning to do them can be torture, but the resulting body/ski awareness is well worth it. Best of luck to all those working on them.

 

[volklgirl]

You can mimic the rotational component of pivot slips during the summer using 2 cafeteria trays on linoleum flooring (one foot on each tray, pivot both legs simultaneously from the hip joint without moving the feet). It really helps establish the feeling of simultaneous rotation and the equal weighting (foot-to-foot and fore/aft) necessary to effectively do pivot slips.

 

[litterbug]

Pivot slipping is sliding straight downhill with no left-right movement, while turning your skis all the way left and right as you slide. It takes moving your feet in the right place beneath your hips, keeping your skis flat as you rotate them, and keeping the upper body facing downhill.

Finally, a simple explanation of what pivot slips are! Thanks; at least now I know what people are talking about. It sounds subtle enough that maybe it just takes quiet time to get the feel of it.

 

[MaineSkiLady]

With the revival of this thread, I remembered that I attempted last February or March to take some video of DH doing this - one of his more polished skills. Well, my video-taking skills really fell flat on that attempt: they came out lousy and quite unworthy of video compilation. :( Apologies. Will try again this year. It's difficult to describe it and so much easier to see it in action -- if not necessarily to do - I can do it okay in one direction, not so well in the other...but I'm not the instructor, and it was a key skill for certification exam.

 

[liquidfeet]

cafeteria trays - what a good idea!

check this youtube video out for a good visual:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iUuCWQ_2WOo&feature=related