People! People!!! Listen up, this is by far the very best instruction you will ever see, hear, absorb! Debs channel is the very best for improving your skiing! from CB Thomas PSIA instructor-Vail Colorado.
I commented before that I just switched from snowboarding to skiing last year…it’s been a very quick learning curve to be smoothly managing double blacks but for me having grown up as a national level mountain bike racer I can’t believe how similar the feeling is between skiing and mountain biking. The stance, the forward lean, the line selection even turning and pushing into the turns and going from side to side and really leaning it out. It certainly spikes my flow state just as much as riding down single track.
As an amateur slalom racing student I also discovered that I can simulate high angle carve turns on my 20 inch compact road bike. This has been a great learning tool because it allows me to experiment with the physics and feel of carved turns, which I could then apply to my skiing.
What does a teacher do? He transmits what he knows. But only those who do it with passion make themselves understood 100%. They raise analogies and problems with humility and from different points of view. And that's your case Deb. You are a great teacher.
Great stuff Deb. I have been focusing on the importance of the inside leg for decades and it has produced real results. Although now in my 70s, It’s the best skiing of my life, even with knee and hip replacements!
Thanks for another great video! ✨Love the foot to foot analogy between skiing/ walking, such a great way to explain the continuing movement to learners. Walking… allowing our body to fall forward from the one foot and then catching ourself with the other. We are hardly aware of what we do.
Additionally, the ‘catching up’ leg is RELAXED while swinging forward, which is why we can walk (and, yes, ski) all day. We don’t hop because the muscular tension is too much for our human body structure.
Wow, I remember a ski instructional book I read in the 60's or maybe 70's, ' If You Can Walk You Can Ski' saying just this. As a New Zealander watching rugby football, the national sport, the running moves were so well correlated to quiet upper body and lower body separation. Thanks for the refresher. 😊
Love the new content Deb, I’ve been watching some of your older content as I always do with my annual ski trip fast approaching. I personally focus on 3 fundamentals in the first 2 days of skiing having not been on skis for a whole year. 1) Look down the hill, not at your feet or a few yards in front you. 2) body posture, nice centered stance in the front of my boot cuff, with a focus on keeping the ankles flexing. I found the whole leaning forward tips from other instructors to be slightly misleading. And my favorite drill 3) Braquage. Great drill for separating the torso from the hips, knees and ankles, while using the poles to turn around really enforcing good pole plant and balance. I often feel new skiers like myself get caught up in all the technical stuff without keeping it simple and focusing on one aspect at a time. You teach this very well. Anyway great content as always and I hope to maybe get a lesson from you some day, would be a terrific privilege.
Excellent informative instructions Deb! You have a way of articulating instructions that are easy to follow/understand. Thank you! Patrick Baetz has an awesome style of skiing.
@@DebArmstrongSkiStrong There were moments in that excellent brief video that reminded me of being an 18 yr old, getting a copy of "How the Racers Ski", and reading about optimum balance etc resembling running down a hill, on cleats. Witherell tried to make it sensible to an existing athletic experience. Good teachers, and you definitely are a great one, know it's about analogizing to what we already know, have done. Facilitating through already known movement patterns. This was like a chair ride with my old guru Jim Weiss. Wisdom in a short chair ride, now let's go put it to use!
Deb, you are amazing. You are my profesor of skiing. You are the best one who not only can tell what to do on skis, but how to do it and how to use our body to do it. I’m taking a lot from You, in mine daily trainer’s work with young ski racers and kids ! ❤
I love the synchro demos. Detuning the edging skills allows for better speed control making synchro skiing easier to maintain precision. With dynamic turns synchro still works but skiers often neglect speed control in dynamic situations causing synchro to be more difficult when speed gets out of control as turn shapes fail to have completion.
You know I'm a big fan of your race inspired videos but this one has to be my favourite. I think you touch on a very profound concept. Even better, I finally felt it on the hill and suspect this could be transformative to breaking out of the plateau in my own skiing. As a drill to implement this I am thinking of javelin turns. Thx so much for your content, I shall be donating 🙂
The most improvement in my skiing came when I began using flex before carving my turns. That together with lots of lessons, clinics and ski weeks at Taos Ski Valley.
I love it! You have a way of crystalizing ideas that float around murkily in my brain. And these are perfect concepts to be thinking about especially now as we get back on the snow.
Yes, and yes! Deb, I have been teaching this idea for 30 years, especially in the context of recreational skiing. “If you can walk, you can ski”; we have the innate sense of moving from leg to leg (with all the subconscious synchronization). We do need to explain the intense forces that racers undergo, which leads to more exaggerated body positions (a as you demonstrate with Tamara). This one video is a treatise in skiing…thank you!
Deb this video and the prior with Josh Fogg are videos that are important to watch several times, especially before beginning my season, PSIA Pro Jam. I appreciate all that you do to give back tot he ski community.
You'd do skiers out there a huge favor by pointing out that the ideal skiing motion is more or less like walking backwards. What's interesting is that River Radamus who you interviewed actually says that's what he basically does (pulling the outside foot back to balance on before the fall line pressure).
I just got my ski ready for some early December in NH and saw Deb's new post. Great thoughts for the first few runs of the season. Well done Deb as always. Nice sweater.
I couldn’t agree with you more about this content. Pointing out the basics of movements and balance when we walk and run makes clear and effective reference points to understanding skiing. PSIA benefited from your knowledge and experience when you were on the D team. I was lucky enough to ski you twice and you get better and better. Great videos.
love this! and I just absolutely believe that in my 60's I will get that hip right against the snow, just like Ted Ligety, I also believe that the moon is made of cheese and that Santa Claus has a sleigh pulled by unicorns.
Thank you so much for your content. It has helped me immensely and is so plain spoken and clear. I wish I could go to see you in February but can’t do the dates 😢
Yes, sking is one leg-job, just like walking, running, skating, dancing. Even when we just stand and talk to another, we tend to keep the another feet as the one wich has the main weight. So it is kind of interesting when people get skis under, all that is forgotten. Another thing what is kind of strange, is manufacturers idea of making learners and intermediate boots so upright, it is just a evil thing to keep people on their butts and heels. And hard to learn out later on, when all have learned the cosy armchair sittng. Last thing: Funny to see either one of Mahres to ski without pole planting.
Hey Deb…Big Shout Out To All Your Knowledge and Videos…Always Enjoy ….Thank You, every time I Ski with Such Low Stance, They Always Tell me Am On The Back Seat …Any Thoughts
Wow!Wow!Wow I’m a big researcher when it comes to Golf and skiing. This was the best perspective video I can ever remember. You sure get me pumped up. Question, I’m a 69 years old aggressive type male Athlete. Who loves to try to carve turns but because I ski kinda of stiff legged part of the reason I cannot do moguls. I would love to learn. Is it too late for me and if not what do you recommend? Happy Thanksgiving Deb
Not it’s not too late. It sounds like you need to get your shock absorption. When you walk are you stiff, my guess is one of your legs flexes quite well through your gate. Same in skiing. Good luck, have fun!!!’nnm
My big “aha” moment when I was learning to ski was realizing that the long swoops down the groomers were giant steps: step left, step right, step left, step right, ….
For the past couple years I've always had "pedal the bike" in mind when turning. Which I think I got from you?? This is a great build on to that I think.
I totally agree with this concept. I started cycling in 1984 as part of my training for ski season. Got into trail riding mountain bikes in 1990 and still ride 4-5 days a week for 8 months till ski season starts.Not only is pedaling like foot to foot other concepts involve balancing, looking where you want to go, using momentum, body position, etc. When I ride my hands are on the handle bars in front and they never drop back behind me. My shoulders and torso are quiet and face the direction that I am riding. I allow the bike to move underneath me as I ride the trail. You go with the flow and momentum is your friend just like skiing.
I board 80 percent of the time and ski 20. I tell u my biggest problem .. probably as u mentioned .. the gait. I’m not bull legged. But when I put my knees together, I still can’t get my two feet together because of the gap between my calves . Sigh
i think that i need a different ski to get this continuity of motion thru the turn that you describe. on hard snow i am skiing a 180 cm, head wc rebel e race, medium radius 68 mm waist ski. but, it requires that i fight the flex, to pressure the ski into the apex, and then as it rebounds after the apex, in order to maintain my balance and pressure on the shovels. i want to ski a shorter ski with a shorter turn radius, would you recommend, something like a master SL ski, versus a sport slalom carver, like a SC type ski?
@@hayleypbop6997 what kind of turns do you feel it the most in? Are you skiing in a high performance environment or more of a recreational environment?
@@MrSpeedfreak99 it’s shorter turns and I’m definitely not a performance skier. Probably not something to diagnose on here but I do keep coming back to hips. I’m tempted to try to book myself on to one of Debs courses but she’s a bit of a schlep away from The UK.
@@hayleypbop6997 could be a couple things I think. If it feels like it takes longer than you’d like to transition I would say the weight is too far inside causing you to wait until you’re back over top of them to start changing direction. Keeping your shoulders level and your feet hip width apart will be good things to focus on in this case:) If you feel like the skis get stuck I would say that your weight is too far back not allowing you to disengage the tails from the snow. Ankle flexion/forward pressure will be the solution to this problem. A nice feeling to have in transition is trying to slide the skis backwards. This creates tension in the hamstring, a hip movement towards the tips of the skis and puts pressure into the front of the boot allowing you to move the skis more precisely
