CARVING is a piece of CAKE
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- čas přidán 6. 06. 2024
- Carving is a piece of cake. Not only is it sweet and delicious but the secret hides in the shape! The shape of the cake! Confused, keep watching and I will explain.
Hi, I’m Tom from TDK Skiracing combining ski instruction with race coaching here to help you become a better skier.
INTRO
The secret to carving can be found in the shape of a peace of cake. Or a pizza slice. Or more precisely in a WEDGE as WEDGING serves as the underlying technique used for all skiing, most significantly CARVING! Let’s take a closer look.
When carving, the only thing we need to do is tip our skis on edge and we are turning. The secret lies in the shape of the skis. They are wider at the tip and the tail while narrow at the waist. When tipped on edge they naturally bend into an arc, along which the skis turn. Tipping the skis on edge is done by leaning into the turn. The more you lean, the more the skis tip, the more they bend, the tighter they turn.
When wedging, the only thing we need to do is lean out over the outside ski and we are turning. The secret lies in the friction between the ski edges and the snow. By increasing friction on one ski by leaning out over it, we turn in the opposite direction. The shape of the skis has little impact on the outcome of the turn and can easily be done with any type of skis.
Combining these two can at first seem contradictive, most notably since we in carving lean into the turn while we in wedging lean away from the turn. However, leaning into the turn when carving is not as simple as just leaning into the turn like a “statue or a candle.” When leaning into the turn we need to ANGULATE at the hip at the same time to maintain a STRONG BALANCED POSITION. You ANGULATE by bending sideways at the hip which brings the following benefits:
- it brings your hips into the turn
- it shifts your weight out over the outside ski
- it increases your edge angles
- it lowers your overall position
- it improves your balance
In other words, CARVING is all about putting the skis on edge by leaning into the turn while ANGULATING at the same time. Now, lets look at WEDGING. See how the outside ski is edged just from standing in a WEDGED POSITION. Also, see how leaning out over our outside ski creates ANGULATION at the hip. The exact same movement we use in CARVING for a strong balanced position. In fact wedging checks all the same boxes:
- ANGULATION
- OUTSIDE SKI PRESSURE
- INCREASED EDGE ANGLES
- LOWER POSITION
- IMPROVED BALANCE
So, in order to CARVE like a PRO you first need to eat CAKE like a KID! And that is exactly how kids learn to CARVE. They progress straight from WEDGING to CARVING. They will over time ski faster and loose the WEDGE and ski PARALLEL.
That’s all folks, hope you have enjoyed the lesson.
Please subscribe, hit that notification bell and share and give it thumbs up if you found this video worth watching. Also, please leave comment in the commentary section here below. Stay tune for more videos in the future, ski safely and see you out on the slopes. - Sport
Kris skiing is absolutely outstanding. Thank you for great video
Thank you and thank you for watching. Cheers, Tom
Just got back from an April trip to Deer Valley, UT. No new snow was in the forecast so I brought my Head e-Race Pro skis that make carving so infinitely easier than those huge 80-100mm skis most everyone else on the mountain was using. Would love a video showing how much narrower width skis can help in the process (and how about a music video, too?). Thanks, Tom!
Thank you for watching and thank you for sharing. I actually did a video years ago where I compared a wider all mountain ski with rocker to my usual FIS SL skis. Here: czcams.com/video/FAaLbTScW5I/video.html
My experience was that I had absolutely no gain from the wider ski in these kind of conditions. So if I ski on groomers 90% of the time and I get away in conditions like this with my regular slalom skis then I dont need wider skis. On the other hand if I never ski on a groomer but in off piste conditions and in powder then a wider ski makes sense. But a new video with similar testing would be very interesting for the majority of skiers here on my channel as most still think they need the wider skis as skiing on groomers is done as well with wider skis. NOT. We have tested up and to because ski reps keep telling us how good the wider skis are but the truth needs to get out there. On the other hand, if I come to an other conclusion I will of course change my mind. Cheers, T
Best description of carving I've seen.
Thanks!
Great video and finally one that joins the dots between the wedge and carving witout going through all those other steps. My knees wish I had learnt this years ago.
Right on! Better late than never. Thank you for the nice feedback and for sharing your thoughts. Tom
Good boy who understood the 'pizza/pommes' deserves the 'cake' after:)
Thanks, Tom!
Hahaaa..... looks like you deserve a slice of cake as well, Cheers
Good stuff as always. Best on the net.
Much appreciated!
Another good one Tom. Thanks.
Very welcome, T
Season is over. Thanks will use this for the next one😁
In no time you will be skiing again and the summer brake will do us all good. We still got 2-3 more weeks of skiing here in the north of Scandinavia. This will be my skiing holiday :)
@@Triggerboy62been to Levi. Great skiing late in the year.
Sweet! Easy as pie… I mean cake! Well done TB
Thank you 😋
Great video. I know how hard is to do that closeup footage from distance and even harder to talk about that without using technical terms. Good job!
Thanks, Tom
Excellent descriptions of the techniques. I like how you always emphasize the importance and continuation of the basics. One simple addition, and it's one I constantly use for myself and others I help is the sensation of the "hip pinch". It's an obvious sensation and is helpful in acquiring good hip angulation.
Thanks, can you help me describe the HIP PINCH? I would love to make a video of it. Thanks, T
“doing oblique crunches on your downhill ski”
@@Triggerboy62 Ya. I think of it most in carving and encouraging a parallel skier towards carving. It occurs in the "C" shape our torso forms to the downhill, or that we hope to form particularly in carving. Depending on the skier's flexibility, at some point there tends to be a "hip pinch" sensation the more you achieve that "C" shape to get the weight or keep weight over the downhill ski. I'm not taking credit for originating it as a coaching technique. I know I heard it from a coach years ago and it was something that was useful to me and that I have passed along.
I liked it because it was a sensation In my body I could obviously feel and I knew I had achieved it both in how my hip felt as well as how it affected how my ski tracked. I find it works well giving an alternative to the skier who is trying to carve by physically pressing down on their ski for grip, rather than angulating and allowing the ski to make it's own grip. Hope that made sense.
@@RetroRocketeer yes reverse down hill hip turning to angulate not counter advansing insite ski advancing outsite ski counter skis tips due to waider stance squre hips finishing turn flexing up hill hip down back to recenter to flat skis narrow stance exilarating down fall laine.
Excellent description. I do this but not as well as you. I think my 56 year old legs need more fitness and ability work this summer for next season.
Thanks, hang in there. Cheers, Tom
Tom, I thought you were shutting down the channel? Didn't you post that earlier this winter? Hope it's not true as I really enjoy your material and vids!
I wish you could do a bit on countersteering the inside ski since your skier is clearly doing so.
No, not shutting down the channel. Just being extremely busy coaching and teaching. I have loads of good material unreleased.
What exactly do you mean by "countersteering"?
T
Tom I’m 6’1”” I presently ski a 175-76-105 ski, What ski size would you recommend me for carving I’m 70 years old
@@Triggerboy62 If you look at the inside ski typically past the apex of the turn, it shows the tips of the skis converging a tiny bit. That appears to only be possible where the femur is turning into the hill and the lower leg via ankle action is turn the opposite way. That is what I means when I say countersteering. That action has a tendency to cement the uphill ski into the turn and creates stability. Look at the 3.31 mark of the video and 3.42 shows it as well. It does not last for long admittedly.
Excellent, Tom, one of your best! Exactly what we tried explaining to the "angulating in a wedge is a negative move" crowd all those years ago on Epicski. It's is not, it's a positive move, it's building skills for the future.
Thanks Rick, appreciate it. Funny thing is that I did not see who the comment was by so when I started reading I was going whaaaaaat, are there 3 of us but no, to my disappointment it was you. Still just the two of us. Just kidding, you know what I mean. But yeah, I was thinking of talking a bit more about the topic but wanted to keep it simple. But I have a new one in script. Its about the inside ski release. The true story. Not the BS we hear from time to time.
Chris skied backwards in GS today but did not stop. Check out the videos I uploaded. He is Bib 84. Cheers, Tom
angulating is evrything skiing down hill counter up hill
I love using that in/out-rigger exercise @ 4:47 today, particularly to start my day when my balance is shaky.
However (from my significantly shallower experience) new skiers who are explicitly taught a snowplow from Day 1 - lean back, push heels out - have a much higher chance of always turning with a stem/wedge christie than those who discover snowplows independently after being taught to turn by tilting their skis on edge.
I'm not sure whether that observation holds true into the general population, but speaking for myself the snowplow taught me the safety of crunching the boot tongues and sitting on my heels and made it dreadfully harder to learn how to execute a forward, athletic stance.
Watching my kids be taught various methods seem to indicate that those who are taught to be parallel from the start end up learning to control their fore-aft balance much more readily than those who start with a snowplow.
Good points here. Thanks. From my experience what is holding people back is lacking the confidence to turn. Thats the root cause of everything. As soon as people learn how to turn in a wedge by letting the skis do the work for them, forward stance is easy to accomplish as so many other skills. Its because being backwards or standing on the inside ski is a defensive mindset. Many say that wedging is defensive. I think that is absolutely not true. Turning into the fall line and beyond is being brave. At any level.
I am not a huge fan of teaching direct to parallel. I usually do not have the time to do it and I dont see the point. Just as I mentioned in the video, we teach kids wedging and in a few seasons they are carving. Just imagine teaching a 4y old how to make a parallel turn? Or lets say 10 at the same time? in minus 10 deg C? But its not all about convenience. I actually think that teaching direct to parallel has a huge disadvantage as you need lots of time and you need to learn how to wedge anyway. Like biking, why spend an endless amount of time trying to teach a kid how to ride a bike just to later put the support wheels on (yes I know it does not make any sense) instead of letting the kid find his own balance by wedging first? I usually have any student riding the magic carpet up the bunny hill and skiing/wedging down in one hour. That gets them moving. Exploring the mountain. Isnt that what skiing is all about? Not learning how to ski but to move on skis. Picking up the parallel technique later on.
Also, if you want to learn how to ski you need to learn how to balance. You also need to learn how your skis interact with the slope. The snow, the pitch, bumps, ice. You also need to learn how your speed affects your skiing. By wedging you learn all this. Even riding the poma is difficult if you cannot wedge or make wedge turns as you need to balance by leaning in the direction you are falling. To put your hips in the opposite direction.
No, I see no point in not teaching wedging from day one. However, it needs to be taught like I do in this and all of my other videos. Same goes for carving.
Forward stance is not being afraid.
Cheers, Tom
I bet there is no teacher who says plow weight on your back. On the contrary, speed is increasing if leaning back, leaning towards tongues you stop. But many times I've wondered why a) they make so upward boots b) why the back of boots is so stiff a firstimer can lean on that boots rear. Learner does not need that rear suport to anything, it just spoils the learning...
@@Triggerboy62 Thank you so much for the detailed thoughts. I'm always so appreciative that you actually read comments!
While thinking about how well you succeed at getting students (of any age) down the bunny slopes inside of an hour, I realize I missed a fundamental difference between professional instructors and (amateur) parents like myself: time.
For example, it took me an entire season to get my 4-6 year-olds skiing independently (parallel) down a green slope. In the meantime, I skied holding their hands or onto a ski pole, etc. When they started skiing between my legs I only touched them at the hips and directed weight down the outside leg to help them develop carving sensibilities. They were never allowed to hang onto me (hands in front!).
But ... instructors don't have that luxury of time.
So this is probably a "balance bike vs training wheels" discussion. Whatever works not just for the student but for the teacher as well.
P.S. As an aside, neither of my youngest could execute a snowplow no matter how hard they tried. We even tried Edie Wedgies! That's actually why I gave up teaching them a wedge: they seemed to achieve it much faster *after* experiencing speeds with me by their side and learning to balance while doing parallel turns.
@@OKuusava I 100% agree with you that boot stiffness largely does not help teach balance. I've taken to skiing with my top buckles unbuckled, for example. Of course, beginner boots are very soft, so boot manufacturers have long understood the assignment.
However, many skiers are so tentative with their skiing that they grasp for psychological safety even if it ends up teaching them the wrong movements.
For example, you're right that no instructor ever teaches to snowplow by leaning back! However, what they teach is to lean forward ... and many people (like myself) took that to mean lean on the boot tongue - while sticking out our butts.
This unhelpfully sends our balance back to the heels, to the point that I spent almost all my skiing life with the ability to lift my forefoot off the bottom of my boot at will, at any point in the turn. Talk about poor athletic stances!
In contrast, I seem to observe that those who are taught to turn by changing their edges are better able to move their balance forwards and aft because they didn't start out with the safety of leaning on their boot tongues in a snowplow.
But ... Tom is wildly more experienced than I am, so I'll cut off my musings here! 🤣
Hei Tom, i think people get excited about "wedge" turns, possibly equating it to kids and adults charging down the hill in a wedge, in the backseat, completely out of control at high speed. The emphasis should be on turning, which u certainly make. I feel body angulation n counter-rotation is really important for effective carving, which u also stress. However I've spent the season spotting skiers from the chairlift, and the number who have good body positions is tiny compared to those leaning or rotating their shoulders into the hill. Every ski instructor I see is still stressing good body position with wedge turns, so why do so many just throw that teaching out of the window?
I accept that the wedge has its place in learning, but i feel it can get learners into the habit of over-weighting their inside ski, which may hamper developing good carving. I still feel that getting learners (once they've reached the age of reason) into parallel as soon as possible with good body position may be an easier route to carving?
Hi, thanks for watching and leaving a comment. There is a strong urge to straight line down in the fall line and feel the speed and the wind and the danger.... because nothing bad can happen.... right? WRONG!!! Bad things will happen and not only to the person going straight but foremostly to others. And its not because of the wedge. Its just a mindset that these people have. Sure, the wedge will get them going and get them in trouble but its important to be on the lookout for these missiles because there is nothing you can do about it.
The reason so many are bad skiers is because they never took any lessons. One thing for sure, its darn expensive.
Cheers, Tom
Carving is easy with new skis. Yes, but as I bought my first piste carvers this year I noticed no diffrence to my -89 year Dynastars. Both were as easy. But, after skiing a month with my new Heads, when changing back to my old 203 trusties, it was hard! I had really think my knee was pushing enought the tip of the outer ski, and not releasing that too early! So the nowadays "early weight transfer to new outside ski" was not working at all, if doing that the outer ski would jump to route of tangent! BTW, nearby hill just shut the doors on this winter, and there is good snowing outside! Darn!
Yes, also here at Levi they will close Levi Black on the 15th. so that they can store snow there. Kind of a pity as here is full blown winter and just last week we had -35 during the night. Lots of snow everywhere.
Interesting observation you had with your new vs old skis. Thanks for sharing.
Tom
Hi Tom thanks for your videos. I've been practicing by always leaning opposite to the direction of the turn. But from this video I should be leaning INTO the turn, same direction as the turn?
What Im trying to convey in the video is that even though you lean into the turn when you carve you should always accompany that leaning by ANGULATING at the same time. Not mentioned in the video as I did not want it to become too long, not so much at the start of the turn if you are a racer or a very good skier as you do that a bit later on in the turn, lets say apex and onwards as you want to go as low as "hips on the ground". Basically you want to build angles first. Angulation again helps build a strong position and that prevents big angles to be done if there is too much of it early on. So for the regular guy or gal or ski instructor out there carving for fun, always start out with angulation. What you can experiment with is that you add angulation gradually. By the way, angulation should be a continous movement. Not a static position. That is maybe the most important thing. Cheers, Tom
Hi Tom, great video as always. How do you manipulate the fis sl skis to make larger arcs? (Close to gs - or is it even possible?)
The more you tip the ski the sharper it turns. If you tip the SL ski a lot it will turn sharply. If you dont, it will make a wider turn. It is really a matter of speed. Sharper turn needs more speed and better edge hold. For example when you ski a very icy GS track with a SL ski you need to have your skis tipped half of what you need a GS ski. Ruffly anyways. That means a lot slower as well. In the last clip Chris is using a FIS R30m GS ski and it turns really well. We have been very surprised at how sharp turns he makes.
I can make GS turns on my SL skis but with slower speed and standing more upright. Thats why I dont like to ski on regular pists with GS skis, going too fast. Too dangerous. We usually train GS and SG on closed training slopes.
Tom
Thank you very much Tom.
do you have any way for securing the ski so it doesn´t "run" away when u fall. and would skis like that also be nice for narmal skiing or only skiracing ?
also nice video :)
Thank you for your comment. If you are referring to the outside ski running away, that is because you have not put enough weight on it. Thats what this video is all about. Practicing the wedge turn with the weight shift is a good drill.
I think that our SL race skis are perfect for carving on the piste. In fact, we use these skis for almost everything we do except GS and SG. In the Alps I usually ski with a FIS SL ski. Also bumps and powder.
Tom
Tom, I’ve noticed that some of my colleagues teach the first turn by turning the skis and others by pressuring the edge of the outside ski, as you demonstrate in this video. Do you personally teach both these methods to beginners or just using the outside ski edge? Thanks. //Marshall
Never by turning the skis. Always just by shifting my weight. Turning is more difficult than people think. You need great up-unweighting / pressure skills. Can take a lifetime to perfect. And it works against carving. And that is something we do not want. We want carving. But on the other hand, Im all for ALL MOUNTAIN SKIING. Like this channel. I teach everything. Or try anyways. Cheers, Tom
Thank you for the video. Looks clear, but to me it is not easy to do it well😂
Of course not, but do our best. Even a grain of correct movements is good enough. Tom
Thanks, Tom. I am a intermediate skier at most and 62 years old, I think I can ski on my edges, and dreaming about carve with hips and or hand can touch the snow. However, a good friend of mine of similar age, he is level 2 instructor and he has 2-3 times snow time in a season than me saying he is too older for carve with hips and or hand touch snow, does this means that at this age it is untrainable and it is impossible for me to achieve my dream? Thanks.
Hi, I turn 62 in September so we are in the same boat. Although age is just a number, for hips-on-the-snow we may be too old but not fist in snow. It all depends on your physical fitness and range of movements. I would suggest you start with fist-in-snow. I should actually make a video on how to do it. Basically you start with a medium steep slope and try to brush the uphill hand in the snow after apex. Not before as that will kill your inclination. As the slope swings around all of a sudden your inside hand will brush the snow. Cheers, T
@@Triggerboy62 Thank you so much for your reply and I am looking forward to see your video on how to fist-in-snow, cheers. Teddy
so as with children, if I keep skiing wedge but with more speed and confidence, it’ll naturally evolve to parallel carving?
Yes. This is what we are doing with our kids at club level. As a race coach I have no other criteria from kids skiing 3 years in skiing in our ski school other that that they can wedge using angulation or active weight transfer as it is also called. Any kid that can do this we have carving during the first year in jr coaching. However, guess how many kids wedge like that? Cero! Thats why people like you matter. Thanks for watching and engaging in such a great discussion.
Dont like to talk bad about anybody or brag myself but I think many could do much better. At all levels. Me included. Cheers, T
great, thanks for all you do!
It is not a pice of cake. I train a lot (60 days per year) and in order to make a full carving turn is really difficult.
My body do not move as I try to tell it....
Thanks for your honesty. Yes, carving is darn difficult. But thats why you need a pathway and this video is just that. Without angulation no carving. Cheers, T
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harb dumping counter insaide hip upper body uphill his hips are not squre frame 3.09 squre hips anguladet stable upper body 3.38 transsition to flat skis flexed down to accelerate .
Hey Tom, do you still accept people into your coaching program?
And if so, where can I get in touch with you?
I sent you a DM on Instagram :)
Email me at tdk.skiracing(a)gmail.com