One picture. How would you fix it? - Page 2

I find its the other way around. If you don't have a skill on easy terrain you will have a very difficult time picking it up on steep icy terrain. A lot of juniors who can carve edgelocked on easier terrain loose it on steeps/ice.

I doubt taking her on steeperier icey course will make her balance on her outside ski(not DOWNHILL which make no sense at all in the 2012 when we ski a round turn shape).

 

Practice makes permanent and to keep practicing will only make her better at this. 

Ski into counter.

Narrow stance.

Upper/lower separation.

Flexed transition.

Take her on the bunny hill and work on drills,then race.

 

 

With everything shown, the divergence in her skis definitely looks deliberate. It looks like she is trying to skate into her turn. However, it also may be the result of moving her COM too laterally during the transition, and ending up with too much aft pressure at the start of the new turn. that will often cause the outiside ski to fade out, which would result in that divergence. Make sure she isn't driving her COM at the gate, but past it and through to the next transition.

I would say not to tuck. If she can’t hold the turn don’t tuck. The tuck if she can do it will come with time. That tuck is getting that skier away from making any proper turn that she might make without it. Her shoulders and inside leg and some upper body separation, could all change without it. I tell my athletes never sacrifice the turn for the tuck....

So that was my initial thought.

 

After looking at all the other photos and posts I still think that, and I like almost all the other comments as well. Frame two is great. standing tall, looking at the next gate, then frame three and four that inside ski starts to go inside then comes the tuck twisting her shoulders inside and or steering out of the turn. The tuck could use some help as it's not very aerodynamic, and another reason I would tell her not to. It looks like she is having a great time and I would tell her to keep it up! But as I am not her coach I wouldn't say anything but great job and keep it up. At that age some kids hear so many different things it all gets confusing.

 

 

I said the same thing

I mentioned that possibility before the added photo sequence.  I don't think that is what she is trying to do even if there is a "little" bit of that outcome.  If it is deliberate, it is ineffective and she would ski a better/faster line through the gates by being more accurately balanced over her outside ski.
 

 

Lots of good stuff here...but this is a classic case of a skier skipping "Phase 2".  Skier tipped in, before establishing a platform, as such the skier is caught inside with the outside ski tracking away.  This is slow, with poor lateral balance (disaster on icy or technical courses).

 

To improve, she needs to "establish the platform" after leaving skis flat...or put another way, get balanced on the over the outside ski...then pronate the foot to engage the edge....balance over the outside ski, pronate the foot to engage the edge....balance over the outside ski, pronate the foot to engage the edge...repeat.  

 

If some pivoting is required to make the desired line, this pivoting should also occour in phase 2...same as above thou...establish the platform (which may be at some angle to the direction of travel), pronate the foot to engage the edge.

 

Exercises:

 

Delay turns - perfect for this.  A delay turn just draws out phase 2, so the skier has lots of time to feel it, and get it right, as the skier gets better the phase 2 gets shorter in duration.  Keep the skill, hide the drill.

See Sean Warman's foot tipping video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=dgjxCgZowqI


When Sean was a D-team (now PSIA Alpine Team) member, he talked about this at many of the clinics he conducted. At the time he had a bunch of young racers under his wing and he reported having them spend a good deal of time before practices tipping their feet out of their boots.

^^^^^  That is really interesting.  I have been thinking I might need to "fix" my technique, b/c I've always thought that there was something wrong in that I pronated to drive my ankle into the boot (and inside the turn) in order to get more edge.  I guess I always thought that the ankle should be rigid and this should come from the knee, not the ankle/foot.  But I guess I'm wrong in my thinking -- and right in my doing, yes? 

Someone care to clarify?

Yes you are right to pronate to intiate turns.  Everything starts in the feet, then works up the chain.

Yes, anatomically the muscles around the joint in the foot (subtalar) and the muscles around the hip can both move the knee. From an outside observer it may be difficult to to see the difference. The big difference is that the foot is used much more for balance than the hip, so using the muscles around the foot will provide much more refined balance than driving the knee from the hip.

You should get her some GS poles, those will get stuck on the gate if she attacks the gate.

 

Regarding long term, here is some inspiration for what it can look like in a few years when she turns 12:

(embedding did not work for some reason)

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JBKiExf-Ab8

My personal take on Sean's system is that if I think, "press down on the BTE", I end up with a leg stiffened by its muscles so that I reduce range of femoral turning, while if I think, "roll up the LTE", I get a more relaxed leg with greater range.

Holy crap!  Never heard of her...but in 10yrs time I bet EVERYONE will have heard of her....WC prospect for sure.

 

BTE?  LTE? 

Big Toe Edge, Little Toe Edge

 

Note that in the second run that Epic put up, her outside leg is more flexed and less stiff. She is balanced on it more accurately and has much more range of femoral turning and much better edge control.

 

I do not like "press" or "push."

What boots does she have? Are they a forward boot and Can she easily bend those forward?

The usual progression I see at the early ages is to get them to start moving first, up and down (which is incorrect for racing but easy to fix later), then angulate and mix in some edging/one footed carving drills and they build confidence in that outside ski that way.

(Edit) ok - scrap that, she can move - hadn't seen the second run photos for some reason keep working on the angulation though. She does seem to start the turns a bit with the upper body?

I'm not the expert here, but looks very upright.

There's not a heck of a lot of stuff that I do like about what's going on in those frames. However, what I would do to correct it would sound like a PMTS checklist, so I'm going to pass....

Very quickly... "outside ski to outside ski".  Begin with some crab walks and move on up to railroad track turns.

Epic put the pictures side by side, what a difference from a year ago, I especially like how both skis have a nice bend into an arc in them, compared to last years where the inside ski was flat and pretty much unengaged. Did you do much with her or is it race club coaches or just you skiing her around the mountain trying to keep up with you? You've got quite the little ripper going there.