I take you through my personal experience of what a short turn feels like and explain the movements I focus on. The channel can be supported here www.paypal.com...
I feel like I am for watching the video. Deb is an excellent skier but I do have to point out that whoever is doing the camera work is equally as skilled. His or her ability to match Debs speed perfectly and rotate around her is pretty impressive.
She is excellent, and super clear. I am a level 2 instructor and lead a women's coaching clinic.....she refreshes me and my focus for the coming season and really helps. She is on money w her explanations....especially what she is feeling is extremely helpful . !! THANK YOU DEB!!! C. lyons, Pa. Instructor
Deb I am a member of PSIA - Eastern, Level II Alpine. Just posted this to the PSIA group. Have posted several of your videos as well. Listening to you is equal to taking a clinic with an examiner. I benefit from your videos and explanations. Thank you!!!
@@ilonabrandt-tom3293 A primary motivation for making the videos is for the instructor audience so I am very very happy that they have reached you and your peers!! maybe I will see you on the slopes one day. I would like that!
@@DebArmstrongSkiStrong Generally the women I talk to level two and three love your videos if you had a women’s clinic I would attend and so did many of my peers fly from the East to ski with you...
Great video which clearly shows what you are doing. You take the possibility to show us a lot of relevant parts of the technique by doing the same practice over and over again in this video. Thank you!
I have really struggled with short radius turns despite having skied for 10 years now. Hopefully I can use this knowledge during the next season! Awesome videos
Hay Deb , I am from Bosnia , you video and skii tips are amazing , helpful , you make a great job. Btw every weekend i skii in Bjelašnica , you were there about 1984 in olimpic game.
In our local meet-up group, I envied one fellow who was a circuit skier/racer here in Quebec (Canada) and he'd go into the powder on the edge of an icy run and do just that! That pow rim/ribbon couldn't have been more than five feet wide. Boy did I envy him.
After looking at your super videos me and my wife went to the Dolomites for a week, with new stiffer Head Raptor boots, Elan worldcup FIS skis, and your videos in mind, what could go wrong. NOTHING, it was my best ski experience ever so THANK YOU for your help. (btw, where are you in this video)
Happy New Year Deb!!! Its that time of the year to relearn the important "Stuff". I am so glad you post these vids as they help me with proper technique. The best is to hear you in my head while I ski down a steep and get mad at myself because I didn't follow instruction perfectly...back to the top to try again and again. Love it! We are heading to Breckenridge and Keystone in February so I am getting ready and what better way than to enjoy your instructional videos! Thanks Deb...Stay Healthy and hope to see you on the slopes one day! Best, Jeff Greenwell
Deb, thank you so much for showing and explaining the rotary turns! This is exactly what I'm failing to do besides keeping my skis close together; thus, I look like a robot while doing my turns on the blue runs. I will for sure practice this coming Saturday at the Keystone Resort in Colorado. I have subscribed to your channel! :)
If you freeze the video at 4.05 minutes you will see a wedge entry this is the result of twisting the outside ski. This is not a parallel turn entry and not a high level short turn. Additionally the release by extension makes it difficult to release the skis efficiently. Extension movements pressure the skis and disconnect the person from the snow. If instead she flexed the outside leg and tipped the skis on edge starting with the inside skis she would have a parallel turn entry and have rounder short radius turn that lets the sidecut make the turn for her. Tipping the feet at the base of the kinetic chain causes secondary rotation of the femurs which results in improved turn shape.
I love feedback. Of course I have been an athlete my entire life so taking coaching feedback is the key to ones success. I went to the spot on the video you mention, minute 4:05. I am not seeing what you are referring to. sorry. I do not have have slow mo. maybe I could see what you are referring to that way. I smile at the idea that the turns at minute 4:05 are not parallel or high level turns. I am going slow, very little external force to help me out. I am generating all of the action through the active turning of my legs and feet, or put another way, very active rotary action. My foot to foot pressure management allows for early action and engagement at the top of the turn with what is becoming the new outside ski. the outcome I see are fluid turns that are short radius with a full and complete turn shape. In my view that essentially defines a short radius turn in this environment. Trying to see what you see. Do you by any chance have some video of the type of high level short turns that are done correctly in your view? I am very interested. This could lead to a fun conversation. Take care
Deb Armstrong , search Diana Rogers Short turns demonstrations. Her method uses a flexing transition to get out of turn and transfers balance to the uphill little toe edge. Engagement happens by tipping the new free foot to the little toe edge causing the uphill ski to roll over to the big toe edge and stay completely parallel. Notice in her turns she using the rebound energy to get into and out of her turns. When you flex to exit a turn you can use the energy stored in your stretched muscles and tendons to help you move in to the next turn. Extending at the end of the turn drains this energy away. I have been very impressed with your passion and instructional videos.
@@jimfarina7013 While Diana Rogers is a fine skier my emphasis is different. In the short radius clip I watched of her skiing she has a tendency to lose ski snow contact which is a pressure management issue. Pressure management is my number one priority. and there are different ways to go about this. Retraction is one way but not my default approach for teaching. We began this discussion upon a comment made in my short radius turn video emphasizing rotary. Diana is making a completely different type of short radius turn than the type of short radius turn I was emphasizing in my video. In essence You were comparing apples to oranges. Diana is using the sidecut of the ski to dictate the shape of her arc radius. I was not emphasizing this at all. I was making a turn much tighter that the radius of the ski offers. I could go on and on in detail but that gets lost in translation here. No disrespect to Diana but her skiing is not what I personally am after. different accents, flavors, approach.
Debbie, I respect that you have taken the time to reply to me. I hope one day we can ski a run together when I am out West skiing. My wife and I train at Arapahoe Basin and Snowmass in the winter when not are our home mountain in PA. Being a scientist by training I have been taught to learn from multiple sources to obtain knowledge and have used the same approach with skiing.
Nice and smooth. However, it's on a green-blue run so it is quite easy to do it. Would be great if you could have an advanced video of short turns on black or even double black.
Three of the pitches I was on were black. And yes, a lot of the turns were on easy blue and some green. They key is making it all look the same through precise turning actions.
I like this video. But Deb, you are pivoting your skis here, not only steering them. But this is all right. There are good pivot based turns also as you demonstrate here. It makes it easier to get closer to the short turns and I think this is your point. The most important is that you have a good balance with a good steering of the skis.
Awww why did i discover Deb after my week's skiing is already over :( guess i've a few months of viewing before i get to return to the slopes next season :)
Thanks, Coach. When you say ”Right cuff, left cuff” are you referring to the feeling of the right cuff touching your lower leg in a left-hand turn when you press down on the pad of your right foot with the first metatarsal bone, tipping the boot and ski onto the inside (left) edge?
Hi Deb, nice video. I write from Italy. I'm advance skier. This is my favorite turn, short with a little drift at the end. I don't like carving at all costs. What type of ski do you recommend for this type of turn? Better a sl radius 13 or a gs radius 18? Sorry for my english and thank you
Hi Deb! Short question: that rotary-steering-movement (which you are mentioning at 2:00) is it more emphasized at the exit of the turn, right after the apex when you release the edges?
all the skills are blended of course. the way I emphasize in the video is pressure on the new turning foot first, very delicate, when I say pressure, I also mean balance with the ski, then steer through the turning phase, then establish the new turning foot with balance and some delicate pressure and begin steering again. good luck
Deb...really enjoy watching all your videos. As a former collegiate athlete (javelin/volleyball), and as a late-starting skier (2nd season at age 50), I tend to ask a lot of questions. Here is a quick one for you. In rotary/steering, do you still maintain good fore/aft pressure? If so, is it just more of a slight, dynamic (relaxed) pressure vis-a-vis carving? Thank you. Ken
Yes, fore/aft pressure or balance, HUGE. i never think of relaxed when skiing. Purposeful for sure. steering/rotary will generate different pressure under foot compared to carving and bending the ski. but pressure foot to foot in rotary very much exists.
I appreciate your approach of describing what your body is feeling as you ski. I've always contended that feel is what expert skiing is all about. Feel of how the skis interact with the snow. Feel about how your body alignment and muscular motion enables you to control how the skis interact with the ever-changing surface under them. I'm always disappointed when an instructor performs a demonstration or concocts a technical explanation that seems to assume that the skis' edges and sidecut don't exist and that pressure happens within the ski boot instead of along the ski surface. You of all people, with your Olympic racing career, years of teaching, and great communication skills should rise above this. The rotary motion you advocate is one of the major technical flaws that much of ski instruction embeds in the way most people ski. Combine that with a boot alignment A-frame and you have a lifetime skidder. Turning is about engaging the ski's edge with the snow and controlling the edge angle and pressure along the full length of the ski and between the two skis to create the radius and dynamic balance you seek. It's no different for someone with 50 years of skiing under their belt like me or a Marcel Hirscher--- he is just light years better at it! At the risk of being insulting, please take a look at how a polished technical skier like Reilly ( www.reillymcglashan.com/) or even 70 year old Harold Harb execute short turns, and then compare it to your short turn demonstration. They flow between turns instead of linking a series of partly edged heel pushes and up/down motions.
Richard your post is spot on. Herding can effect the thinking of even the most advance of intellect. It is nice to see another skier that can break away from the herd & understands active rotary is not good skiing. Keep up the independent thinking & continuous tipping :)
What is the minimum mph you are traveling in order to do those short radius turns, (10-15 mph) in the upper part of the trail here you were traveling slower yet you were cutting and turning well.
I'm doing this with my foot (1:56) and I can barely go past 45 degrees before my hips start firing like crazy. The max I can go is about 75 degrees without skis.
I love ur video. I am following all ur videos. In this video, you said you were steering not pivoting. What is the difference between Steering and pivoting?
You have nailed the problem with this particular instruction....steering, pivoting, rotary, edging, pressure, they are all very poor descriptors for students to understand. I guess though teaching big toe to big toe is specific and understandable because it is a movement not just a concept, like the others. But teaching big toe to big toe as Deb does here is an awful teaching method. (As is steering, rotary, pivoting) We see the results all over the mountain, late edge sets zig zagging down the slope in an A Frame. To be honest Deb, you end up having the same appearance in this video. With your wider stance and over emphasis of getting on the big toe, you over pressure it and end up A Framing. The reality is it looks much like a golf cart. Now you are an expert skier at your methodology so can get away with it but the average skier doing this is a terminal intermediate unless they spend dozens of days a year on snow. Most who take those methods to the steeps fail miserably.
My understanding is that steering is more about guiding or directing the edges of your skis. In contrast pivoting is more about the rotating on the flat of the ski bottoms. Deb Armstrong's video demonstrates steering. Sometimes it helps me to sit in a swivel office chair with my feet on the floor. In my mind's eye I am holding a steering wheel and turning it to steer my feet, boots, and skis.
Another great lesson. I have a question regarding something you mention in the video. "My rotary action, my turning action, coming from my knee down" There are three leg joints. Hip, knee and ankle. The hip and ankle can rotate but the knee only moves in one plane. The knee doesn't allow the lower leg to rotate horizontally relative to the upper leg. I think... Therefore all rotary action in the lower leg is coming from the ankle. Is this correct?
I will express personal opinion, using diff terms. So called "short turns", are more "stop turns" or "speed control cut turns"', done by "unfinised hockey stops", because the real purpose is not "to turn" but "speed control". There is short "drifting" to "cut" the speed. The trace of turning is narrow - for ex. "in the trails" of the ratrack mashine. I.e., - "unfinised hockey stops" - sharp, cut and drifted turn - narrow "street line" - narrow angle between skies\infront\ and shoulder line\perpendicular of the mov stright line\ are nor 'real turns", but are "stop turns" or "speed control cuts"'. I,ve changhed the terms, because if you tell your pupil to make turns, he instictively makes wider and wider turns, despite what you tell\yell\ him. It will take two or three days of exersices to learn to make corect "short turns'............ It will take four hours, if he makes 30 "full stops" as such - 50 feet "downhill" - fast full stop, count "one two three", another downhill, another fast full stop, "one two three"...... Next 30 "full stops", but count "one two" - fast stop, "one two", another downhill, another fast stop, "one two"...... Next 30 "full stops", but count "one" - "stop one start", "stop one start", "stop one start". In two hours you will see that he, totally instinctivelly, will start missing "one" but before full stop will turn immidiatelly on the opsite side, and will do it almost effortless. Thus, he will learn two most important thing. FIRST, to seek and feel "stable ground" under his boots, and SEC, he will feel that in a moment, this "stable ground" will effortless push him up, instead of using feet muscles to bend down and\or stright up. He will stop "pumping" up and down and will start using the "ground"\flat or bumpy\ to flex feet for making turn..
At 4:00 you mention that most people don't do a deep, complete turn shape in a short radius turn. Can you explain what that looks like vs what most people do? Is it just following the turn slightly uphill?
Deb, Nice turns. I am an advanced rec skier..............on Rossi 9's 205CM. (1995 vintage) I have pretty well mastered the "old style". I recently spent a whole day trying different pairs of shaped skis and felt like the intermediate skier i was yrs ago. Frustrated, any suggestions?
Yes, take a lesson from a ski pro at a ski school. They will show you the proper method to ski the newer equipment and if they are a good instructor will also suggest the proper size ski you should be skiing on. A 205CM is way too long for a modern shaped ski.
I am an athletic 55 year old who understands carving and steering and has the skill to pick and choose. The times I choose to carve is when I can maintain a carve with my current strength. The only times I carve is on moderate blue runs. I dont have the strength to carve on steeps any longer so I choose to steer. I bend the ski just fine when I choose to do so. I do not like to make compromised turns which is why I pick and choose my moments. I am a different skier than when I was racing on the world cup.
@@DebArmstrongSkiStrong Your right a strong set up is more dangerous. (soft set up knees closer together feet further apart, strong set up knees further apart skis closer together)
Should have said above your set up is less dangerous on the soft side then saying your right a strong set up is more dangerous as you never made mention of a strong set up being dangerous.
Sometimes the backside of my outer ski breaks/slides out when turning. What causes this or what am I doing wrong? Too much weight on the backside of the ski?
the rotary does not come from the hip. Not sure what you are referring to with the leg shaft. rotary comes out of the legs. and I showed more rotary action out of the lower leg and into ankle joint.
I would say neither. Steering a turn as the ski tip and ski tail do now follow the same path, the ski tail travels outside of where the ski tip traveled.....
