Couple of observations! Try to wean yourself from stemming the ski. Simply in parallel, shuffle the skis then sit down into the turn. Also put more weight on your uphill ski. Should have the ball of your foot on the ski, not your tip toes. Think of 60% weight on downhill ski & @least 40% on uphill ski. Good luck this winter. Maybe some of this info will help💪🏻💪🏻🤜🏼🤜🏼🔥🔥
@@merrittwhite4189 Thanks for the tips! I’m at the point now where I still don’t weight my uphill ski enough sometimes, but I can also feel when it’s happening in the moment and address it sooner rather than later. I hear different views from various folks who know way more than I do concerning exactly how much weight to put on the trailing ski, so I think I just need to feel it out and see what works. I suspect my own ideal weight distribution may shift as my overall abilities and style shift accordingly, not to mention differences in snow conditions.
Watching video of yourself is very helpful. A few days at the resort can be worth weeks of "meadow skipping". In addition to being able to make multiple runs, the snow conditions are generally easier. This reduces the number of variables when trying to nail down details in technique. Keep it up!
@@kayakutah Thanks for the encouragement. I’ve spent a couple days at the resort over the last couple years, but it mostly highlighted the issues I was having which I didn’t notice as much in soft backcountry snow. I don’t think I improved much while at the resort, and yet it was beneficial feedback for me. I bet I could actually improve a lot faster now with a day at the resort since I would be practicing some better technique.
@@ecole146 Okay, that’s exciting that it’s getting close. It seems all the storms have been pushed way up north so I kind of assumed it must be snowing up there. I guess I feel better knowing we’re not missing out. We might get snow next weekend, but it’s usually not substantial or widespread in the mountains here until around Thanksgiving.
It’s not something I’ve fully grasped, but I’ll make an effort (I’ve been meaning to anyway): As far as I can tell, people categorize unweighting into two types-up and down. Up unweighting involves first extending your legs (raising upper body) to then retract them, and down unweighting involves lowering your upper body as you retract. Most folks do up unweighting because it’s easier, but racers and experts do down unweighting because it’s faster. In my opinion (I could be wrong), the two categories are helpful, but all unweighting probably exists on a spectrum from a big conspicuous hop to an imperceptible raising of the upper body followed by retracting the legs. If you have the space to carve a turn in a long arc, unweighting is maybe really only needed ever so slightly to change edges. If you need to swing/pivot your skis around in a hurry for tight turns, you’ll need more unweighting to keep the edges from catching on the snow as you pivot. The jump turns telemarkers made in the past and couloir skiers make today are really just vastly exaggerated unweighting to free the skis from contact with the snow so they can come around faster. My best advice from personal experience for people who are having trouble unweighting is to first be balanced: if you’re leaning too much (usually uphill at the end of a turn), it will be hard/impossible to rotate the skis to move in the direction of the next turn. You need to keep the skis under you for that. I found parallel turns and hop/step telemark turns to be helpful for getting both the concept and the feel from two different approaches. This guy explains it pretty well I think: ua-cam.com/video/WKG3V55KPp8/v-deo.htmlsi=88pT94uFQazkvSiR .
Couple of observations! Try to wean yourself from stemming the ski. Simply in parallel, shuffle the skis then sit down into the turn. Also put more weight on your uphill ski. Should have the ball of your foot on the ski, not your tip toes. Think of 60% weight on downhill ski & @least 40% on uphill ski. Good luck this winter. Maybe some of this info will help💪🏻💪🏻🤜🏼🤜🏼🔥🔥
@@merrittwhite4189 Thanks for the tips! I’m at the point now where I still don’t weight my uphill ski enough sometimes, but I can also feel when it’s happening in the moment and address it sooner rather than later. I hear different views from various folks who know way more than I do concerning exactly how much weight to put on the trailing ski, so I think I just need to feel it out and see what works. I suspect my own ideal weight distribution may shift as my overall abilities and style shift accordingly, not to mention differences in snow conditions.
Watching video of yourself is very helpful. A few days at the resort can be worth weeks of "meadow skipping". In addition to being able to make multiple runs, the snow conditions are generally easier. This reduces the number of variables when trying to nail down details in technique.
Keep it up!
@@kayakutah Thanks for the encouragement. I’ve spent a couple days at the resort over the last couple years, but it mostly highlighted the issues I was having which I didn’t notice as much in soft backcountry snow. I don’t think I improved much while at the resort, and yet it was beneficial feedback for me. I bet I could actually improve a lot faster now with a day at the resort since I would be practicing some better technique.
No XC skiing up here in Alaska yet either. But we are SO close! Anchorage got it's first snow of the season yesterday.
@@ecole146 Okay, that’s exciting that it’s getting close. It seems all the storms have been pushed way up north so I kind of assumed it must be snowing up there. I guess I feel better knowing we’re not missing out.
We might get snow next weekend, but it’s usually not substantial or widespread in the mountains here until around Thanksgiving.
You talk abit towards the end about unweighting your skis. Any helpful advice on how to accomplish that?
It’s not something I’ve fully grasped, but I’ll make an effort (I’ve been meaning to anyway):
As far as I can tell, people categorize unweighting into two types-up and down. Up unweighting involves first extending your legs (raising upper body) to then retract them, and down unweighting involves lowering your upper body as you retract. Most folks do up unweighting because it’s easier, but racers and experts do down unweighting because it’s faster. In my opinion (I could be wrong), the two categories are helpful, but all unweighting probably exists on a spectrum from a big conspicuous hop to an imperceptible raising of the upper body followed by retracting the legs.
If you have the space to carve a turn in a long arc, unweighting is maybe really only needed ever so slightly to change edges. If you need to swing/pivot your skis around in a hurry for tight turns, you’ll need more unweighting to keep the edges from catching on the snow as you pivot.
The jump turns telemarkers made in the past and couloir skiers make today are really just vastly exaggerated unweighting to free the skis from contact with the snow so they can come around faster.
My best advice from personal experience for people who are having trouble unweighting is to first be balanced: if you’re leaning too much (usually uphill at the end of a turn), it will be hard/impossible to rotate the skis to move in the direction of the next turn. You need to keep the skis under you for that.
I found parallel turns and hop/step telemark turns to be helpful for getting both the concept and the feel from two different approaches.
This guy explains it pretty well I think: ua-cam.com/video/WKG3V55KPp8/v-deo.htmlsi=88pT94uFQazkvSiR .
❤