CARVING TRANSITION | Understanding this will improve performance 

many years ago during my level 3 exam when questioned on the chair lift riding with the examiner about what I felt was the biggest milestone to become a more dynamic skier from simply open parallel I described the moving diagonally across the skis taking the CM into the inside of the new turn. when pressed how to accomplish that bio-mechanically I was at a bit of a loss since for me it was more cerebral. then I went back to the idea of long leg short leg concept with either extending the short or leg or in some cases just relaxing the long leg. it served me well I passed and eventually ending my career after 26 years of a rewarding experience of helping many many students to enjoy the sport at a higher level.

Paul, I concluded from your explanation that I’m not always actively applying pressure to the inside ski during transition. Thank you.

Possibly the best explanation I’ve heard. The light bulb came on and this made sense. That’s what really matters in teaching or conveying something. Nice job!

Best video I have watched on turn transition out of 1000s I have watched over the span of 2 years. A big shout out to you.

Frame-by-frame demo is brilliant!

Высший пилотаж!!! Замечательный трек с достойным показом карвинговых поворотов в замедленной сьемке!!!!!!👍👍👍👍👍

Your videos are always excellent. They are simple and clear presentations. The same for text like your article on Angulation & Inclination that is a great read.

Paul, This could be your BEST VIDEO EVER !!! Love the frame by frame photo montage visual and commentary. THANK YOU. JAB.

Finally a video that teaches how to properly bend instead of standing like a pole while carving

“cen-TRIPI-tul” force. Awesome skiing!

Beautiful. Thanks

Excellent explanation and excellent demonstration. Great!!

Yeah, this is an incredibly useful video, thanks!!

Super sharp explanation, video and skiing ! Wow !

Super detailed explanations, especially love how you first show frame by frame and than all frames simultaneously, great approach! I have a question though. What is the intention of pressing on inside ski? Should this press be just enough to balance on it while relaxing old stance leg or it should be hard enough to make your hips move up stand on it, i.e. extend.

this is brilliant explanation!

Awesome!! Well visualized mechanics!!

Nice video. I believe this can help me from holding on to the turn too long.

Great and very helpful video. I had a huge carving revelation lately, after lots of analysis and practice. I was concentrating WAY too much on rolling my feet (edges) and bottom-of-foot pressures, including increased pressure on front of foot. I learned in another video to think a lot more about rolling your lower leg (tib/fib) and instead feeling the pressures on the SIDES of your boots against your leg, and just keeping bottom-of-foot pressure pretty much even front to back. Made an immediate and very noticeable difference in my shorter turns.

i like to move both hands towards the new outside ski, that helps me get balanced on the new ski really early, with a low centre of mass, and from there i can move inside the new turn quicker while staying balanced on that new outside ski

Paul - great videos and detailed explanations. If you want to take things slightly closer to perfect, replace the idea of Centrifugal Force from the discussion with Inertial Mass. Centrifugal Forces do not exist, they are misinterpretations of Inertia in motion. From a Physics standpoint, there is not a force pushing an object to the outside of a flat turn, it is the absence of a force and thereby the Inertial Mass continues to move in the direction is was moving until the unbalanced Center Seeking (Centripetal Force) acts to accelerate the skier in an arc. That's why when the skier loses the Edge and the Normal Force with the snow disappears, the skier will travel in a completely straight line until they crash into fencing or some other object to change the skier's direction.

Nice explanation and great visuals. Awesome stuff Paul 😀

bellissimo video, molto interessante. grazie.

Super deep edge angles and a super smooth transition!! Love it!!

Awesome graphics

Yup !

Ottimo! Grazie!!

Great explanation, but centripetal and centrifugal force (pseudo) may not be used in the same frame of reference to explain this motion, the latter being experienced in the skier's frame of reference (a moving/accelerated frame). So this could be replaced with 'inertia' which would try to "unbalance" the skier in an outside frame of observation. The centripetal force would maintain a rotational equilibrium as well, against gravity though the COM.

✨Love the emphasis on the super-early gradual shift from foot to foot. So tempting to ride out that centripetal platform at the apex of the turn but when skiing this low we need to keep it moving. (How many daily squats do you recommend when training in summer? ;-))

Great video. Would you mind telling me who did the music?

Great! Real early edging

At 2:50, did the new inside leg extend a bit, from photo 3 and photo 4?

Very nice demo ;) Well well, in physics: CP = - CF But I think you are right, if you press inside ski (when full pressure) you will turn shorter, I mean you decrease your radius an by doing so you increase CF (=mv2/r) so that your CoM will go easier in the center of new turn. This is how you balance repartition of pressure on the skis at full pressure (pic1). 70-30%, 60-40% who knows? But there is something misleading here (my point of view). I don't like "press" on inside ski; you don't press your ski like pressing a switch... Because here all is about weight transfer: from external (pic1) to internal (pic2,). And you do this in a "forward" way too. So the "press on inside ski" should be put in pic2 instead, since in pic1 your intent is to stand against your external foot. Same for "relax outside leg": intent of the skier is going from foot to foot. LO SKI BUM says:"it is not a failure of force it is a load transfer. "Relax" is just a result here.

Love the video. The up transition helps get both the pelvis and COM forward? Without the up, the former is not accomplished. Is there a movement that accomplishes the latter?

Don't u think its the extension of the outside leg and the following inclination that puts the ski on edge and not on this 'foot/ankle roll'? Can also be obtained by a rotation of the femur to move the knees and lower leg. The 'hips move inside' looks just like inclination to me by extension of the outside leg. It's just that You give the impression that you actually move the hips in relation to the rest of the body yet you look stacked

I Got a question is Carving the same as slalom?

In order to understand, you must deliver correct pictures. The centripetal and the centrifugal forces on the center of mass must be the same, only the directions are opposite. In your drawing they have different directions. This is a smaller mistake. But there is a big mistake in this video. It is just not true, that you should or even can increase your inside ski-pressure at the apex point in order to start the transition. I am convinced, that if you really try to do this, you will lose balance or fall over. The only way to get into the transition phase is to unload your both skis at the apex point. By decreasing the ski-pressures on both skis, you let the centrifugal force "win" over the centripetal force and your CM will be lifted up from the snow surface by this centrifugal force. Even if it looks like that there is a leg extension in the inside leg, at the apex point, it is not the case! Think logically. An extension of the inside leg at the apex point would move the CM in a perpendicular direction from the skis surface, starting at the middle point of the ski. This direction is not at all what you would need to lift up the CM from the snow surface, it is further inside the turn. Why don´t you try this first before you recommend it! So before apex you extend your both legs but different much and at apex you start to flex your legs, but different much and this goes on until the start of the next turn.

Amazing skiing, but the physics analysis is flawed. Centrifugal force is fictitious force (does not exist) and therefore does not belong on a freebody diagram or in the force analysis. There are two forces on the skier, The normal force of snow against ski (what you are calling the centripetal force) and the gravitational (weight) force (which you left out) of the earth against the skier. A true centripetal force must point directly at the center of the turn radius (horizontally in this case), thus the normal force is not truly centripetal. The vector sum of the normal force and the weight force would be inward (centripetal). Also keep in mind that this is not an equilibrium situation because skier is accelerating.

engage inside ski early

During your turns don't change space between your ski.

“up… that’s ok. As an intermediate, we’re not using as much edge angle.” I don’t understand why the “up” would prevent anyone from ultimately getting to high edge angle. By not going up, doesn’t that simply allow one to get to higher edge angle more quickly? In fact, wouldn’t it be easier to teach an intermediate to get to high edge angle with the up, and slow down all the movements to high edge angle?

I see world cup skiers come up doing turn transitions.

Centrifugal force and centripetal force are not at different angles. They are equal and opposite by definition. This is basic physics.

01:01 That's a bit much. Almost a 90 degree edge angle. Relax man.

That is the key! 👍

This idea of moving across the skis may work from an instructional standpoint, but it is not correct. Your legs, your feet, the skis, they move under and away from you. It is not your body being further inside...it is the skis being further out. When you listen to FIS level skiers, they always talk about putting the skis farther out, not about the body being further in. This is all frame of reference, and maybe either perspective will work from a coaching/instruction perspective. But I just never hear top skiers talking about moving across the skis, they talk about the skis passing under them. They never talk about toppling either.

Rubbish physics are incorrect.

what does hips crossing the skis mean?