Uphill arm lift: good drill or bad habit?

[SkiBam]

You can also try dragging the outside pole on the snow - and you can also try keeping both pole tips on the snow, more or less straight out from your feet. This can help keep your arms in a good position and helps the upper body stay nice and quiet.

 

[Fluffy Kitty]

The Schlopy drill is one of my favorites.

Thank you for your feedback! Sounds like I don't look too awful. I have been trying to do the Schlopy drill (and the modified version from @Skisailor) when conditions allow; someone mentioned that it's easy to do it wrong, so who knows, but I think it has been helpful.

You can also try dragging the outside pole on the snow - and you can also try keeping both pole tips on the snow, more or less straight out from your feet.

This was in one of the videos I had above, and it's been very helpful. This one is also easier to do when snow condition or crowd level is less than ideal.

Thanks!

 

[Skisailor]

Great new video Fluffy Kitty!

I feel more confident after watching the new video that my earlier analysis about your weight shift being opposite from what it should be - was correct. When making a left turn, you appear to push on/pressure and edge your right ski, which moves your weight to the left leg. And then you pressure/edge the left ski which moves your weight to the right leg for right turns. It should be just the opposite. Stand on your right leg when turning left (the left ski is "light"). Stand on your left leg when turning right (the right ski is "light").

On easy green terrain, slow down and make turns where you can lift your heel and the tail of the inside ski throughout the turn (ski tip stays on the snow) - i.e. lift/tap the tail of the left ski during a left turn. Lift/tap the tail of the right ski during a right turn.

@liquidfeet is correct. The Schlopy drill is a really good drill. I'm just concerned that it is one that refines an essentially correct gross movement pattern, while you need to start with something more basic first.

 

[Bluestsky]

Following the thread with interest. Watched the vid again. Wouldn’t a narrower stance help with this, i.e. moving a weight over to the outside ski as opposed to just pressuring it?

 

[Skisailor]

Following the thread with interest. Watched the vid again. Wouldn’t a narrower stance help with this, i.e. moving a weight over to the outside ski as opposed to just pressuring it?

Yup. If our feet are too far apart it's almost impossible to get "over there" and balance over one ski and then the other. I like to think of skiing like a slow walk down the mountain. We shift our weight from leg to leg - just like we do when walking. The only exception is deep powder and crud where we need to be more two footed.

 

[Bluestsky]

Hope it’ll help @Fluffy Kitty not only with weight shifting, but also with minimizing the static position.

 

[Fluffy Kitty]

When making a left turn, you appear to push on/pressure and edge your right ski, which moves your weight to the left leg.

Yeah, I can see that happening. In this sequence, from 0:20, I actually noticed it when it was happening, which will help me snuff it out. Yay!



Interestingly, it is happening after the peak of the left turn as I am shifting the weight back to the left, so I'm not sure that I do that to initiate turns. At least I seem to be angulated, rather than inclined, at the peak of the turn.

The wedge at the end of the turn happens here, too, from 0:25:

Wouldn’t a narrower stance help with this, i.e. moving a weight over to the outside ski as opposed to just pressuring it?

The only exception is deep powder and crud where we need to be more two footed.

The snow was pretty rough, so my stance is wider than usual, and I'm weighing the feet more evenly. I'm not sure that I can bring them much closer in snow like this, especially at 25-30 mph, because I get so easily thrown off the snow, like here, from 0:29, where both feet are thrown off the snow and I start to seriously skid.



Now, I'm not sure that the right foot would have been thrown up so high--or that I would have survived this at all--if I had much weight on the inside ski. Or, do I lose the outside edge because I had too much weight on the inside? (One thing I know, the left ski in right turn loses the edge more easily than right ski in left turn, probably because of a hip joint pain I've had for a few seasons now.) I do look angulated to me.

Here are some frame grabs where the inside skis' camber is actually off the ground, suggesting that my weight is on the outside, at least sometimes.



And in the 0:25 sequence above, you can see the daylight below the inside ski. All the snow plume is coming from the outside ski. (The inside ski is wobbling a lot, and I have actually been advised that this was because I don't have enough weight on the inside ski...)

Another thing I noticed is that I'm A-framing at times (toward ends of turns?), like in the profile photo (I'm still using it because I look cooler than I thought I did. ) and in the 0:20 sequence above. Overedging the outside for sure.

I was hoping to have another day on the snow, but it's looking very unlikely now. Even if I go, there probably won't be a video. I'll keep working on this next season, and try to get a lesson.

Again, thanks!

 

[Skisailor]

In the first still shot from the 00:20 sequence, your stance width looks fine! It would be great if you could maintain that width throughout the turn. The reason it gets wider is because you are pushing that outside (right) ski away from your body instead of simply moving your body (and weight) over onto the right leg/ski. By stepping onto that right ski you could keep your legs comfortably the same distance apart as they are in that first frame.

In the 00:29 sequence, yes - I think you lose the outside ski (left one) because you have too much weight on the inside ski and also, because your weight is too far back in the fore/aft direction, which is confirmed by the fact that the tip of the right ski can come off the snow. All of the frame grabs in the last sequence confirm that your center of mass is way too far back - even behind your heels at times. UNbend your knees a bit and flex your ankles more to bring that weight forward. Think shoulders over toes. Wobbling skis are another clue that your fore-aft weight is too far back. Also - you can still get a snow plume off an outside ski that is "pressured" even when it doesn't have the predominance of your weight on it.

Here's to next season!!

 

[Fluffy Kitty]

Here's to next season!!

 

[liquidfeet]

Exactly what skisailor said, you have too much weight on the inside ski, so the outside ski's tail washes out at the end of the turn. (I used to have this issue in my skiing.)

There's an indirect way to fix this. Try lifting the inside ski's tail just a little, at different times in your turns. Use trial and error to let your body figure out how to do this. It will be difficult at first. When you can do that, you'll be verifying that you are balancing on the outside ski. That outside ski tail will stop washing out. And the lifted tail will verify that you aren't aft. Has someone already suggested that little trick?

By the way, bravo on those stills. Stills are waaay better at figuring out what's going on than moving video. I know it takes time to make those kind of images. They certainly isolate what you're doing.

 

[Fluffy Kitty]

Has someone already suggested that little trick?

@Skisailor did suggest it, and I have tried it. It's a bit scary on anything but pristine groomers, because my skis like to tip-catch, and pristine groomers are hard to come by around here; outright impossible on greens. Hopefully, next season, I will be able to go on weekdays again.

 

[volklgirl]

I also agree that you're bacing on the inside ski and pushing the outside ski away. One thing you may want to work on is starting the turn with the inside knee, really rolling that knee and ski into the inside of the turn, and keeping the shins parallel. As I look at the first series, I see the inside knee continues to point directly down the hill, rather than into the turn, so it catches and wants to go straight while the outside skis is trying to turn. The failure to engage the inside edge of the inside ski may be the cause of the outside ski heel push. It's also causing a wicked A-frame and the lack of control and need for the arm lift. Looking at the second and third series tells me the inside ski hang is happening in both directions.

You can work on this movement pattern in your house in a narrow hallway or door frame. Standing in the middle of the hallway, point your right knee at the right wall, roll both feet onto their right edges, then drop your left hip to the other wall. Work on making that movement pattern to both directions, then link them in alternating directions. This is the order in which your turns on snow should start.

 

[Fluffy Kitty]

As I look at the first series, I see the inside knee continues to point directly down the hill, rather than into the turn, so it catches and wants to go straight while the outside skis is trying to turn. The failure to engage the inside edge of the inside ski may be the cause of the outside ski heel push.

Your observations are right on point there and jive with my experience completely... But now I'm getting confused, in the context of the comments so far: how is one to "engage the inside edge of the inside ski" without putting some "weight" and/or "pressure" on it?

In the 0:25 sequence, for instance, the inside ski is completely off the snow as the turn begins; is this the solution or the problem? Before I started this thread, I had been told before that it was the problem; in fact, my internal perception is that I skid more (and fall more) when all the weight is on the outside—when the snow is uneven. This thread has convinced me that it is the solution, that I have it backwards, that my outside ski is skidding because there is not enough weight on it.

Now I'm confused; am I back to trying to engage the inside ski more? But without any weight on it?

So, if we reinterpret the sequences from the "I have too much edge on the outside, and not enough edge on the inside, given the condition" theory: You can see at 0:25 and 0:29 that I am skidding quite a bit to the left, and the right foot is off the snow pretty much the whole time. At 0:20, by contrast, I'm clearly losing the edge on the right ski, but, because I already had—or was able to quickly put—more weight on the left ski, I do not skid out. The A-frame is a result of the outside ski skidding out and the inside ski trying to keep me on course. The two turns before 0:20 and one turn afterward do not show the "pushing out" movement pattern, because both skis stay engaged.

 

[volklgirl]

I think the answer to that is to lighten the inside ski, point the knee, roll the edge and engage, THEN put some weight on it. Currently, your inside ski has a majority of the weight, without the edge engagement, and your outside ski has almost no weight, so it's skidding and drifting. The biggest issue, however, is that the inside ski isn't turning at all, it's trying to go straight down the hill.

On super flat terrain, practice rolling both knees and ankles in the same direction - just very small directional changes. Really work with that inside knee, and try to get a 40% inside, 60% outside weight distribution. Tilting your upper body toward the outside ski will help even out your weight issue. Lifting the inside ski is not the answer.

 

[Fluffy Kitty]

I think the answer to that is to lighten the inside ski, point the knee, roll the edge and engage, THEN put some weight on it.

Ah! OK. Now your drill suggestion makes more sense. Can't wait for the season to be back!