I heart Weems and think every instructor should get over to edgechange.com and get his book.
Changing edges is the critical move at the critical moment that determines whether you will make, and connect, smooth, fluid turns—or whether you’ll be taken over by alien beings bent on destroying your dignity (and your body).
What follows are several ways of thinking about edge change. Each serves as a different cue to evoke a different awareness in the body, and all are effective. You choose.
Change both edges at once. The body wants to “walk”—using one foot, then the other. Resist the bipedal urge! Instead, tip both edges from one side to the other at the same time. This is, after all, the definition of “parallel” skiing.
Tip first, then turn. Your boots are naturally tipped uphill at the end of a turn. Before you try to change direction, tip both of them downhill. Tip them downhill before you try any other move. Very scary! It can feel like you’re falling off the mountain; but it’s also one of the best feelings in skiing. Tip your boots progressively—like you’re dialing up the volume—so you don’t over-tip and tip over!
Don’t hang out. The actual change from uphill edge to downhill edge should happen quickly, minimizing the time your skis are parked in neutral, where nothing happens. This does not mean you should change edges suddenly, or with high pressure or a high angle. It just means you shouldn’t loiter in the “dead zone.” Only when the ski edges are working the snow can you make effective turns.
Tip the downhill ski first. Feel the tip from the toes, foot, ankle, knee, and/or hip. It doesn’t matter which one, only that it feels right. This clears the way for the uphill ski to follow suit. The uphill ski won’t tip unless the downhill one goes with it or before it.
Let the hips float across the skis. They kind of want to anyway, as gravity and centrifugal force pull the center of mass (the hips) to the outside of the turn. Only your resistance keeps it from happening. So let your hips move from the old turn into the center of the new one.
“Charge” the turn with the downhill knee. Aggressively pointing that knee down the hill will change the edge of the ski and bend that knee relative to the other one. Both pointing and bending the inside knee are prerequisites to a good edge change. The idea of charging acts as a trigger to create the new angles.
Pedal. Shorten the downhill leg relative to the uphill one by pulling it upward toward your torso. (It’s the same idea as the previous tip, just a different take). This brings the body from the inside of the old turn (uphill) to the inside of the new turn (downhill) and makes you change the edges. (While you pedal, keep both skis in contact with the snow.) Just as in pedaling a bicycle, in good skiing, with few exceptions, there is only one short moment when both legs are equally flexed. Spend some time with this pedaling idea on slightly steeper terrain. It is incredibly powerful and really challenges the paradigm of the old “up-and-down” method of skiing.
Changing edges is the critical move at the critical moment that determines whether you will make, and connect, smooth, fluid turns—or whether you’ll be taken over by alien beings bent on destroying your dignity (and your body).
What follows are several ways of thinking about edge change. Each serves as a different cue to evoke a different awareness in the body, and all are effective. You choose.
Change both edges at once. The body wants to “walk”—using one foot, then the other. Resist the bipedal urge! Instead, tip both edges from one side to the other at the same time. This is, after all, the definition of “parallel” skiing.
Tip first, then turn. Your boots are naturally tipped uphill at the end of a turn. Before you try to change direction, tip both of them downhill. Tip them downhill before you try any other move. Very scary! It can feel like you’re falling off the mountain; but it’s also one of the best feelings in skiing. Tip your boots progressively—like you’re dialing up the volume—so you don’t over-tip and tip over!
Don’t hang out. The actual change from uphill edge to downhill edge should happen quickly, minimizing the time your skis are parked in neutral, where nothing happens. This does not mean you should change edges suddenly, or with high pressure or a high angle. It just means you shouldn’t loiter in the “dead zone.” Only when the ski edges are working the snow can you make effective turns.
Tip the downhill ski first. Feel the tip from the toes, foot, ankle, knee, and/or hip. It doesn’t matter which one, only that it feels right. This clears the way for the uphill ski to follow suit. The uphill ski won’t tip unless the downhill one goes with it or before it.
Let the hips float across the skis. They kind of want to anyway, as gravity and centrifugal force pull the center of mass (the hips) to the outside of the turn. Only your resistance keeps it from happening. So let your hips move from the old turn into the center of the new one.
“Charge” the turn with the downhill knee. Aggressively pointing that knee down the hill will change the edge of the ski and bend that knee relative to the other one. Both pointing and bending the inside knee are prerequisites to a good edge change. The idea of charging acts as a trigger to create the new angles.
Pedal. Shorten the downhill leg relative to the uphill one by pulling it upward toward your torso. (It’s the same idea as the previous tip, just a different take). This brings the body from the inside of the old turn (uphill) to the inside of the new turn (downhill) and makes you change the edges. (While you pedal, keep both skis in contact with the snow.) Just as in pedaling a bicycle, in good skiing, with few exceptions, there is only one short moment when both legs are equally flexed. Spend some time with this pedaling idea on slightly steeper terrain. It is incredibly powerful and really challenges the paradigm of the old “up-and-down” method of skiing.
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