From: martel@marvin.mr.sintef.no (Paulo Martel)
Newsgroups: rec.skiing
Subject: Re: Wedge turning to parallel turning: Ideas?
Date: 7 Apr 92 16:47:42 GMT
Organization: University of Trondheim, Norway

I've been recently through the pains of moving into parallel skiing, so 
I thought I should tell my experience. I started skiing 2 years ago, when
I came to Norway (yes, I'm here). First a few days of cross country skiing
(the norwegian national sport...), which I found great. It was a good way
to get used to having skis on your feet. And then my friends decided that I
was good enough to try skiing on the downhill slopes with my cross country
skis on. What a disaster... but I eventually mastered the plowing turn (and
got all black and blue...).And then I decided I wanted to try downhill with
downhill skis. This cross country skis were no good: I could slowly plow my
way down the slopes, but feeling always very insecure...  One week later I 
was on the downhill place again, and this time renting downhill skis for the
weekend. After 2 days I  could steer and race down the blue/red
slopes without falling (too much...). And I was definitely addicted to downhill
skiing...
As I was getting better, I was starting to notice more the way other people
skied. Some skiing with skis wide apart and half-crouched (probably the way
I looked...), and doing some sort of "softer" plowing turn. But then, there
were others skiing with skis close together, and flashing down in elegant
zig-zags. Those were good. When they turned it looked like they had a single
ski carving a perfect arc in the snow.  I wanted to be like them !...But alas,
I couldn't do it. No matter how hard I tried, my skis wouldn't carve a perfect
line in the snow, and then wouldn't go parallel. Always that inner ski would
make a defensive movement, get out off the parallel, and scratch a broad trian-
gular area on the snow. I tried hard, TOO hard. For tree days in a row I kept
looking at my skis while turning, watching the inner ski stubbornly wedging my
turns. I could now ski with my skis closer together, no THAT close, but anyway 
I didn't look like a turkey any more. But still no parallels... I was going 
right agains Zen, clenching my teeth and pushing and forcing with success. And
then the winter was over and still no parallels. Yet I had improved a lot in
general terms. I could down very steep slopes, even double blacks, slowly but
without falling. I could ski with my eyes closed on red/blue slopes and 
backwards on the green ones. But still my turns were hard and I would get tired
after a few linked turns... and no parallels.
And then I waited a year and my second season finally arrived (and it's closing
now..sigh!). In my first day I needed half an hour to recover my former level.
When I was back to my best turns I asked a friend that was skiing with me that 
day to watch me and tell what was going wrong. He said: your UPPER body is 
moving too much, it shouldn't follow your hips on each turn - your chest must
face downhill. And then I started to concentrate on my legs, trying to
disconnect them from my upper body. The turns got a little better, but there
was still problems with the inner ski. Not only would it be out of parallel 
when crossing the fall line, it would also tend to "float" after each turn, 
sometimes getting stuck in the snow, sometimes crossing the outer ski, both
cases leading to unpleasant situations. Most often I would get to much speed
out of each turn, straining my legs too much and losing control out of 
exhaustion. Now SOMETIMES I can make a parallel turn, but mostly when I
am not thinking about turning. And my inner sky doesn't want to be quiet when
come out of the turn. Still floating too much... My endurance and courage keep
increasing, and so I try harder and harder slopes, and off-pist skiing and 
deep snow. But I feel that my technical skills are simply not following.
I finally got tired and decided to pay a skiing lesson. Two hours with an
excellent teacher did SOMETHING. When we started he asked me: "So what do 
you want to learn ?" "Good parallel turns !, I said". The he asked me to make
some plowing turns.He watched and said "We are going to work on it..." . And
what about the parallel turns ? Dam it ! Plowing ???...Ok, he was the teacher, 
here we go. Watching him plowing I could see that there was something to learn
there....even my plow turns were not good !!??... Then we started to work on
the upper body attitude, facing the fall line, then the poles. Plowing and
plowing... After a while the teacher said "Ok, let's ski bit faster. Just
follow my trail, and remember your upper body and poles." So I did... He was
skiing fast, so I had to make faster and faster plowing turns... did I say
plowing ?! I was not plowing any more, I was doing smooth and nice parallels.
And my skis were leaving each turn in perfect alignment, no more floating of 
the inner ski.

The lesson I learned was, your skis really want to make nice turns... If you'd
only let them. And for that you need to correct your body position, allowing
for a good weight transfer. Going back to simple plowing turns helps, it's
easier to feel when you have a good weight transfer. Spend an half hour doing
slow plowing turns, and then go back to your parallel attempts. You will feel
the difference. Don't think too much about the skis - place your body right and
they will turn for you. Don't try to ski too fast - learn the correct weight 
transfer in slow turns, and increase speed as you gain confidence. Trying to 
impress people with your fast turns is pointless, if you don't do them well -
it's not as nice to look at as you think, and you will soon lie flat on the
snow :-). And DON'T try to force the skis to make the turn - rather let them 
do it.

Happy (parallel) skiing !

Paulo


 
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Paulo Martel             |  e-mail: martel@marvin.mr.sintef.no |               
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