PSIA-AASI

I just passed my Alpine Level 1 last month and i’m working on the tasks for Level 2 part 1 skiing. I’m having trouble doing railroad tracks at a slow speed. When i’m going moderate speeds I seem to have no problem but when I’m going slow down a gentle slope i’m catching my inside ski edge and getting thrown off balance. Any tips on how to do slow railroad tracks?
thank you

Jonathan,
Congratulations of your Level I. I am interested in your question about slower RR Track turns. I am not sure which ski’s inside edge is catching, I am assuming the outside ski?  If you seem to be satisfied with them at higher speeds on more of a slope, I would be curious about your stance/alignment in your equipment. What analysis have you done lately regarding the cuff canting of your boots, and the possibility of needing a few degrees of lateral canting to obtain a neutral stance on each foot?

RR tracks are a blend of primarily edge control movements, as you know from your level one study. There is a significant emphasis on directionality of the movements. For a super slow mild slope RR Track you will need to be very subtle with you directional tipping of the legs, the slower you go the more you will probably have to less lateral and more forward in the tipping movements. If you get too lateral, you will be recruiting some femur rotaion as the knees tip left or right and we don’t need the rotary force to have a nice RR Track in slow speed. Also don’t forget to focus your balance to the outside ski in all skiing. Sometimes slow speeds make us get less accurate and stand too much on the inside ski.

Let me know what you think.

Greg Luce

thanks for your reply, I just got new Nordica boots and had custom floorboards made for them and the canting checked so I know my stance in the boots are fine. The edge I catch at slow speed is the inside edge of the outside ski. For example if I’m turning left my inside right ski edge I’m catching and throwing me off balance. I have noticed that i’m tilting to the side at slow speeds instead of forward and diagnally left for a left turn. I’ll your suggestions tonight when I go to work at the mountain. thanks again

I hope that working in the tipping Direction helps.
Nice job on the boot work, sounds like you got them dialed for sure.
G

Hey Jonathan,
Remember that a slower speeds we can not get away with the quicker edge change movements that we could at a fast speed. Maybe think of being more gentle and delayed with the rolling from ski to ski. What it sounds like to me is that the inside ski will be turning through rotation while the outside ski stays more in the fall line and the two begin to diverge. Is that correct or am I reading this wrong?

For sure, what Nathan said about DIRT. I have been pointing out the direction of the movements, Nathan is pointing out the intensity and rate. Keep the movements at a lower intensity and slower rate if you are going slow on shallow terrain.

Sounds like you guys got it figured out.  Here is my two cents…Anything at slower speeds tests the quality of your movements.  The slower you go, the lower in your body you need to focus on.  Tip your feet first just a little.  It should get better.
Good luck
Michael Rogan

Thanks for the input Michael,
nice simple thought, the slower you go the lower you go…
Greg Luce

Jonathan,
Here’s how I learned to do it.  On a nearly flat track, put
your hands together behind your back and glide forward
gently on flat skis.  Tip your ankles to the left inside your
boots just a little.  Do nothing else, just tip those ankles. 
This should be a slow and barely-there movement.  Your
skis will head left.  Then roll just your ankles right, and your
skis will track right.  Lean forward just at the ankles, not
at the waist.  Feel the rhythm ... nice.  Maintaining your
balance may be hard to achieve.  I kept tipping over at first.
Keep trying!  You will be able to look behind you and see
clean RR tracks, when done right.

You will gain speed fairly fast, so when you have too much
speed to keep those hands behind you, move them forward
and continue to roll those ankles.  You’re doing it!

You will gain speed.  This is a clean and fast way to ski.
You’ll need to figure out how to maintain a constant speed,
rather than continuously go faster and faster.  This involves
several things.

First, you’ll need to complete your turns more, to slow yourself
down by turn shape.  By that I mean hang onto each turn till
the skis are pointing almost uphill.  A good drill for getting
comfortable completing your RR track carved turns is to do just
one at a time across an empty slope.  Stand on one side of the
slope, head straight downhill to get some speed, then gently
begin to roll ankles to the side, and ride those skis around in a
turn as far as you can.  This is a PASSIVE turn.  You are riding
the skis, finding out how tight they will turn.  You should
end up riding the edges uphill.  Repeat.  See how far you can
go uphill.  This will be a purely carved J-turn. 

Different skis will turn at different rates.  However, you can
tighten the turn by increasing the edge angle progressively
during the turn.  See if you can get higher and higher and
HIGHER angles as the turn progresses.  As you figure out
how to do this, your skis will turn uphill sooner and sooner.

Second, keeping your balance while doing this requires doing
some lateral angulation at the hips.  Feel yourself allowing your
hip to drop inside the turn, while your torso bends forward and
downhill diagonally over the skis.  This position requires some
flexibility at the hips.  Look at the bodies of racers as they pass
around gates.  That’s an exaggerated version of what you are going
for.  Hands should be forward.  This progressive dropping of the
hip and reaching diagonally forward with the torso and hands
is the balancing act that increases edge angle and keeps you
over the skis and ready to transition into a new turn.

Third, initiating that next turn after coming across the hill
involves some serious cross-over (or cross-under).  I don’t know
a drill that can help you work up to this one.  Maybe someone else
will chip in here.

Best of luck!

Hi Jonathan,

Heres my take on your question.

To leave railroad tracks in the snow you will need a minimum speed as well as edge angle.
Most skis will not carve at slow speeds. And you need sufficient speed to create more edge angle.
A softer ski and greater sidecut will carve more easily at slower speeds. Also the weight of the skier makes a difference.

My tip: Try skiing with a wide stance and stay close to the fall line.

Hope this helps.

There is a reactionary response to the initial deflection that causes the body to move excessively towards the inside of the turn. The ski pushes against the foot and the body needs to balance over that sensation of pressure. Gravity however pulls on us differently and we are more habituated to balance with gravity. At slow speeds there is a moment during the transition where balancing with gravity and balancing over the deflecting ski are at odds. My solution is to be deliberate as the skis decrease edge angle becoming flat on the snow, keep the motion of your center of mass moving forward towards the ski tips so you don’t rush to engage the new edges before your mass is centered over the new deflecting ski.

One of the difficulties of RR tracks is thinking of turning movements.  You need to develop a feel for ALLOWING the skis to do the direction change.  It’s a combination of subtle ankle adjustment and patience.

There’s an old question that still has some validity…do you turn the skis or do the skis turn you?  In the case of RR track turns it’s definitely that the skis turn you.  The purpose of the exercise is to isolate pressure and edging skills and eliminate any rotary skills.  If you can learn to ski with zero rotary then you can do RR track turns.

If you use any rotary at all then you will fail the RR tracks demo.

Bob

Ok, old question but my take on a couple of items.

1. Forget the outside ski and tip the inside ski and watch the outside ski edge and follow.

2. Chances are you ar “static” which means stiff. Yes, it happens at snow level/feet but yes, legs bend and unbend.

3. Start with “larger” tracks to allow a “feel” in your feet and slowly drop back until it is fall-line.

Great job on L=1 it is a journey and the journey is getting steeper.

Michael - 17 February 2009 11:42 PM

Sounds like you guys got it figured out.  Here is my two cents…Anything at slower speeds tests the quality of your movements.  The slower you go, the lower in your body you need to focus on.  Tip your feet first just a little.  It should get better.
Good luck
Michael Rogan

Read this again! Think like mike.
BUmPs RuLE.

One other thing to remember is that railroad turns are made with very small movements.  If, at slow speed, you are using your too much hip or knee movement to make the skis turn, you will defeat the purpose of the railroad turn.  This drill really focuses on the movement of the feet/ankles to initiate the turn.  When working on this drill, try to immobilize your hips by either placing you hands on your hips to feel the movement or moving down to the knees to keep them quiet.  I am a trainer at my ski school and I always have to back everyone down when doing railroad turns.  These turns should be right in the fall line, and should not be too rounded at the bottom of the “turn”, or you will not be able to roll the feet/ankles to the new turn without the skis catching.  Once you master the turns in the fall line, take them into the initiation phase of the turn (remember to have a slight counter to help the skis start turning).