Moguls: Ok Yoss, Barak, Hardcore, Only White and the rest who are interested. I will give my two cents about making powerful efficient turns on any type of slope. If you ski mostly red terrain (blue in North America) you have little trouble make a sharp carved turn using your edges. However, when trying to use the same technique on a steep black run you find yourself skidding down the run. Feeling out of control and exerting a lot of energy. With all the recent changes with the shape ski revolution there has been changes in how you shift your weight from ski to ski. The old method was to shift your weight almost entirely from one ski to another when making a turn. However, with modern shaped skis, you will ski better with your weight over both skis than you can by riding on one. Shaped skis need very little force applied to turn. With only enough pressure to get the middle of the ski on the snow, the ski will carve. First, find the widest stance in which you can comfortably ride flat skis. It should be wide enough that it is difficult to pick up a foot without losing your balance. Slowly shift pressure from side to side while you keep your upper body relaxed and level.
Next, as an exercise, choose a leg to stand on and shift all your pressure to that ski. Keep the other ski on the ground to keep you balanced and stable. Remember, we are not skiing on one ski, but we are keeping all the PRESSURE on one foot.
First try a straight run, then some traverses with the pressure on the uphill foot. Finally, make some easy, turns keeping the pressure constantly over the same foot - it might seem odd at first, but is very easy as long as you keep the other ski lightly on the snow and working. Don't shift your weight from foot to foot, just ski down the hill! Try it over the other ski, and in a variety of turns. Notice that you use less up-and-down movements and that your turns are very smooth. Finally, make turns while standing evenly pressured on both skis throughout the turns. Resist the urge to force your weight to the outside ski, instead, let both legs carry the load. Higher speeds and steep terrain will increase the pressure on the outside ski, but always strive to keep noticeable pressure on the inside ski no matter how sharp your turns becomes.
With both skis carving, you will be stable in crud snow, have better balance (and grip) on ice, more control in the bumps, and use up less energy with both legs sharing the work. Even on steep slopes.
If you have any question please do not hesitate to ask me.
Moguls
רק לבן: That's valuable tip and I'm going to try it out in a little while (well actually perhaps sooner).
Please excuse me for the English message, it is likely to be fairly long and I'm single finger typer in Hebrew.
As I'm a dark red skier myself (Level 7-8 in the US), my tips may not be applicable to better skiers, however the lesson learned might be.
The skiing learning curve is actually a step function, which basically suggests that one will not get to the next level without proper learning, for the sake of the discussion it does not matter if you learn to jump, attack vs. navigate moguls (not our friend here, but the white ones) or just how to move out from wedge into parallel skiing, without the instructor one will not get there.
Two of these steps for me were:
a. Face downward, keep your shoulders towards the slope, I recall (although it was some many years ago) that my ski improved dramatically once I started to keep my shoulder toward the slope. No pain no gain, when I learned that I kept myself focus all day long on that simple thing, face downward that I haven't noticed what's going on around me and ended up losing my group and having to deal with a double diamond slope which I wasn't ready for, but I was pretty lucky to crash only twice (one from the top of the double diamond to about halfway and another one from about there to the end of the slope), I think it was at Stowe (Vermont) and when you look around you, you have the feeling that the trees are growing horizontally that's how steep it was.
b. Hands forward, another step jump for me, all of a sudden everything become much easier and my ski became faster and faster.
The most import tip though is (and it is very applicable to the alps) is private instructor (or semi private), I remember some few seasons ago, with club med, we were about 10 people in the group, of them 7 or 8 spoke French and 2 or 3 didn't (including myself my French is very limited), the instructor asked at the beginning who speaks what and told us that he would repeat everything in both languages (French and English). As it turned out he was lecturing for 2-3 minutes in French and a single sentence in English. At this point I've decided that I want to pay for the instructor myself, so I do have a say.
The best approach is to get semi private instructor for half day with other friends or family that are about the same level (at least can ski about the same slopes and at about the same pace). That will allow each to improve their style and capabilities and to become much better skier on one hand while enjoying the company on the other hand.
My best ski ever the first time that I took my older son to ski more than anything else it was a father-son thing (I guess it was like fishing for Americans).
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