Really great tips. One thing I would add ... when you understand that being forward lets the tails slide, and being aft sets and anchors the tails, you can use this information to manipulate the skis in the snow. For example, if you are trying to make clean arcs in the snow where the tail follows the tip of the ski through the arc, you might want a little forward pressure at initiation to give the shovel of the ski a little extra purchase and to move the CoM more down the hill ... commit to going downhill. But at the apex and after, you might want a little more tail bite, depending on what your goal is. Racers, for example, like to get stacked front of the heel to get maximum drive out of the turns. So, as they say in the American system, you want to have control of pressure along the length of the ski. How you do that, that's the art of it. ;)
Thank you for confirming that it is a good idea to engage the inside tip of the inside ski! I figured this out by accident, and I found it make the turn initiation super fast. Now I know for sure it is a valid technique!
great tip... I've always heard 'show the base dowhill' in the 2nd half of the turn, but never 'uphill...' this is a super clear explanation for early edging.
Nice explanation, I think I carry a little bit of that from the old days on straight skis. I’m gonna keep that I go this morning and see if it helps. Thanks.
Steering should really be a part of all carving turns until apex. All the drills of this video show excessively extended turns, too late apexes, so that at apex the skis turn too much and they get an angle of 90 degrees to the fall-line. At all advanced carved turns, you should make an earlier apex and start the transition, before the skis get this right angle to the fall-line. Josh Foster does this, when he shows real turns, not drills.
This video is not good. In a carving turn you have to move your body over your skis forwards and backwards over your ski, not only to the sides of your skis. During the transition, after apex, you unload your skis by a knee flex and this moves your COM backwards over your skis and it starts the cross over movement until your skis get flattened. Then you edge your skis and your COM crosses over your skis, so your COM moves forwards over your skis, and gets close to the ski-tips, before the new turn gets started. During the whole turn your COM moves backwards over your skis and it gets the square, the right angle over your skis at apex.
Good Stuff.. When I was racing back in the days that shaped skis just came out, what I found is that I could just flex my toes and the skis would turn.. I used to have to put everything I had into those straight skis to get them to turn... Things have come a long way since then..
Grew up in Westbank (West Kelowna now) and skied Big White once back in 1974. I was 16,Westbank had its own small ski hill and skied there from 68/84, worked there from 77/84, and landscaped in the off-season, hint loved working out doors
PEOPLE, PEOPLE, PEOPLE! When trying to understand skiing, you do NOT focus on the byproducts of doing other things and call it "Teaching!" His ignorance of what skiing really is, is overwhelming! When you position your upper body correctly and change your weight and balance correctly, all the things that happen because of that and the ski design, happen naturally. If something is happening with your feet that you think is incorrect you don't fix it there. The problem originates above because you create turns from your eyes down, not from your feet up. People like Foster, meaning every other ski teacher on the planet Earth, focus on the bits and pieces of skiing because they don't understand what they can actually do and surely can't turn it into a coherent and accurate ski teaching method.
These Josh Foster videos are really meant as ad for the ski resort. Way too short to be helpful and no slow motion with explanation. Further, Josh never talks about flexion vs extension in transitioning from edge to edge, turn to turn. What he has done here to transition from turn to turn is extension -- he's actually jumping to release. That is certainly appropriate (and fun) in these conditions but if you want to ski the steeps with quick, linked short turns you'd better learn all about flexion, aka retraction, to release your edges. And btw, retraction isn't just for carved slalom-type quick turns on the steeps, it can also be combined with pivoting at the start of new turn to induce some degree of skidding in order to obtain more speed control. Better to go elsewhere to learn all about short turns (and remember flexion is fast; extension is slow, in going from edge to edge).
200 " s a year? I don't think that's a strong bragging point. Unless the snow is more amazing than the 500 to 600 inches of powder Alta/Snowbird gets. But your terrain is very impressive for cruising, bumps,. Are the patrollers strict fun Police?
Pretty funny that when Josh was talking about zed shaped turns, the person right above him was doing the same thing! Maybe she was following the ski instructor.
You can see in his skiing that his weight is forward at the beginning of the turn, and backward at the end, which is correct (nor a lot, just a bit). He does this by retracting his feet at the end of last turn/beginning of next turn, which is what you’re supposed to do. So he’s doing it correctly, but not explaining it so well. If you try to be in the middle, you wind up to far forward at the end and too far back at the beginning.
I like Josh’s tips in general, but this is a very strange way to ski bumps. If the bumps are small enough, you could do it, but otherwise it would be very hard on your body, especially with any speed.
If you are trying to create an early edge change.you can not make your skis light in the transition.Because you are loosing the possibility of potential kinetic energy. Good luck.
