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Low edge drill

This December I skied with the wonderful Mermer Blakeslee and a group of really fun people. The lovely Jane skied with me and I'm putting our notes together to create a series of posts.

We experimented with different radii turns at different speeds and on different types of terrain. Then we moved on to skiing with little or no edge angle.

Mermer coached us to must resist the temptation to slip into a wedge by working the inside ski. If you work the outside ski only, the wedge will appear.

Why?
This drill helps you center yourself over your skis and gives you immediate feedback if you start getting back. If you can lean on an edge, you probably will. Taking the edges away means you have to center yourself. It’s a particularly a good drill to get things back in shape in early season.

You can take this drill in a couple of different directions.
Rotary - Add focus of turning the legs and shaping the turn
Edging - Add progressive edging to shape turns
Pressure - Add flexion and extention movement to release and slide
Tactical  - Take these low edge, slippy turns into the bumps

We did this drill on steeps and bumps. Jane writes: "sideslip pivot, initiate with new inside ski ... which i didn’t, and as a result traveled down the steepest part on my belly, why? Because my feet had a mutiny against my brain and initiated with the outside ski."

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