The skiing was fantastic. I did not end up getting anywhere with the pivot slips though, maybe next weekend! There's a specific, quite short and steep run which I like doing them down the side of, but it was kinda intimidatingly icy when I was trying them on my own. My body just seems to go automatically for
the wedge now when I try them (plus
a lot of hip movement... agh) so maybe I'll give it another week, and keep trying the off-snow exercises more (they feel very easy in my kitchen but not on snow!!). I need to override the "wedge and rotate the hips around" part of my brain
....
(will accept any tips, critique etc, always!)
The hip rotation in pivot slips is the biggie for most people. That's often why they are doing pivot slips. It's to replace that rotating hip with legs that rotate by themselves without the hip involvement. Being able to do this moves you into more versatile and secure skiing immediately. So keep trying, on blueish terrain, with fairly hard groomed snow. The wedge entry is important too, so I'll discuss this as well.
Practice session overview:
--Start your practice session with sideslips until the intimidation from the pitch is gone.
--Let's assume your skis are pointing to your right as you start your session.
--Then pivot to pointing them downhill, or close to downhill, then back to pointing right.
--Repeat, over and over. This is a half-pivot-slip.
--This backie-forthie movement involves a pivot to your left followed by a pivot to your right.
--Keep sideslipping the whole time.
--Once you've got this, try a half-pivot-slip from the other direction.
--Remember, you don't have to rotate them all the way to pointing downhill with either of these.
--Then put these two together to do full pivot slips, pointing skis all the way to the right then all the way to the left, sideslipping the whole time.
--Later, when you've got this, you can work on doing these pivot slips heading down the hill in a straight line with no left-right travel at all (difficult!). I can describe what to do to eliminate that left-right travel at that point.
Goals:
You have two important goals now. Both of these are important for your regular skiing. I'd isolate them and work on only one at a time. Your choice which to tackle first.
1. Try to do these half-pivot-slips without the hip rotation. Hips should stay pointing downhill as much as possible as legs rotate by themselves. Perfectly pointing downhill is anatomically impossible.
2. Try to do this without the wedge; parallel skis is totally possible. Yes you can!
3. Eliminating the left-right travel and heading straight down the fall line in the narrowest possible corridor can become a goal later.
Hip rotation:
Figure out how to do them without the hip rotation in one direction first, then work on the other, then put them together. Don't expect this to just happen one day. It takes time and persistence. Replacing the hip rotation with leg rotation independent of the hips is a very important thing for your skiing. Getting that dialed in will open up the whole world of upper level skiing for you. Practicing in socks in the kitchen is very helpful for feeling this movement.
Wedge entry:
The wedge comes from your focus on rotating the new outside ski/foot/leg. This focus effectively rotates that ski first because thre's no attention to the new inside ski/foot/leg so it lags behind. This causes the wedge.
--Solution: IGNORE the new outside ski/foot/leg. Shifting this engrained mental focus from the outside ski to the inside ski is hard to do, but amazingly it causes parallel pivoting skis. Once you do this in pivot slips, take it to all your skiing. Yes, shift your focus to the new inside ski/foot/leg for all your turns.
--Let's say you start working on a half-pivot-slip as described above, starting off pointing skis to your right. Your first pivot is to your left, to point skis more-or-less downhill momentarily.
--Focus your mind only on the new inside ski/foot/leg. Focus on rotating the left foot left to pivot left. Rotate it in place; avoid moving that foot out from your body.
--Then you'll need to point skis back to your right. Focus on rotating the right foot right to point right. Rotate it in place, not out from your body. Think of this rotation as like using a screwdriver. Rotate. Rotate only. No pushing the foot out or away.
--Do those half-pivot-slips over and over, until your mind can let go of paying any attention to the new outside foot. That's your big goal.
--Hold that left foot back up under you as you rotate it, avoiding moving it outward. Imagine it's a screwriver and just rotate it. Your right foot is so eager to rotate, it will do so without any help from your mind, so keep ignoring it.
--Then rotate the right foot to the right to get back to having skis pointed across the hill. Screwdriver!
That's about it. Try these every day you ski, whenever you're on terrain that seems tempting. Eventually they will kick in. I learned to do these one morning after two years of failure. I spent three unbroken hours just working on them, and by the end had a half-way decent pivot slip that didn't travel left-right much. Everyone is different. You are a determined skier. If your boots fit (mine didn't), you'll get it faster than I did.
