Blade Time!
Report From The 2000 PSIA-C Mini-Academy at Afton Alps
With Shawn Smith, Coach of the PSIA Demonstration Team

Reported by Dave Cook, PSIA-C Education/Certification Staff Member

Since the first PSIA-C Mini-Academy was held at Afton Alps, MN, in 1995, it has been my charge to participate with one of the groups and report back to our membership in the Central Division Newsletter or website. Much of what I have learned about better skiing has come from these events. Two solid skiing days with the same talented D-Team coach is a rare privilege. We often can accomplish in two days, what it would take a week out in the mountains. In the Midwest, we are not distracted by tram rides, powder runs, and steep chutes or out of the way finds of great snow. Plus we have the added benefit that our mountain coaches are adapting to our lower Midwest altitude, giving us the advantage for once.

It’s the July fourth weekend and I finally have some time to look over my notes and start writing about Shawn Smith’s presentation to a group of very advanced skiers back in February at Afton Alps. Shawn is Copper Mountain’s Ski School director and is the Demonstration Team’s Coach. Shawn is one of my personal favorites when he visits our area, but all of the coaches are great teachers. My usual disclaimers about writing these articles necessitate a reminder of a few items. There is some editorial embellishment on my part. What I report is filtered through my experiences and may differ from what others understood in the same group. It is difficult to describe in writing, what was viewed, skied and felt. But it is also July, so writing and reading is my closest link to actual skiing.

Day One

Our group received a very high-level ski board (blade) clinic. It helped us learn the activity we need to be better skiers. We spent both days going from ski boards to our own skis, one-by-one, two-by-two—you will see what I mean as you read on. It was a great two days!

Hopefully most of you would have had some significant time on these 80-110 cm carving wonders. The fun, the thrills and the learning that you can gain from these mountain tools is underestimated and under experienced by many of today’s better skiers. They force us to move and be active in ways we rarely do on our lengthy alpine cousins. About one third of my teaching and skiing time was spent on ski boards last season. I have found no better tool to help advanced skiers get better faster. The D-Team must agree, because all of the groups had significant blade time.

Shawn asked us to drop our ski poles and started the introduction to the ski boards (blades) at a higher level than usual. Although we had a group of strong, experienced skiers, the blades were foreign to a few participants.

Eliminate the Outside Ski Wobble—Outrigger turns
Our initial goal was to get rid of the outside ski wobble. When you first get on these carving wonders, they do everything but carve. For most of us, both skis wobble back and forth as if they were on caffeine overload. To help, Shawn recalled the outrigger turn from the 70’s—you know, the outside leg of the turn is fully extended away from the body and almost parallel to the slope, while the upper body with extreme inside ankle, knee and hip bend, is squatted directly over the inside foot.

We performed a revised outrigger turn by putting both hands and the center of our chest directly over the inside knee as we turned. The extended outside leg carved through the snow on a very high edge angle, stopping the wobble! This extended leg carved around in a circle, eventually crossed in front of our upper body, standing us upright at the end of the turn. We were standing directly over, on top of both skis. This was a crossing under movement of the outside leg at the transition between turns.

Since a few were still in the wobble mode, Shawn said, “If what you are doing isn’t working, don’t do more of it! Do something different.” He reminded us to lean our chest directly over the inside knee (short leg), keeping the outside leg long, feeling it carve and hold in the snow. We skied a few runs with more encouragement and the outside ski wobble was mostly gone. We were asked to not lean as far to the inside over the inside knee, but still keep both hands over that bent knee. We were to keep the increased edging going and no outside ski wobble.

Eliminate the Inside Ski Wobble—Pressing the Inside Knee
Our next goal was to get the wobble eliminated from the inside ski. Instead of just leaning over the inside knee with our chests, we placed both hands on the inside knee as we did above, but added a little pressure with our hands to move the inside knee to it’s little toe side edge. The upper body, hand position on the knee and leg position were the same, we just pressed the inside knee laterally to the inside of the turn. WOW! Suddenly both skis formed awesome arcs and the wobble had disappeared.

We did several runs of these modified outriggers, standing a bit taller, but still with both hands pressing our inside knee towards its little toe side. Because some in the group had a big tip lead, Shawn asked us to not let our inside ski get too far ahead. He asked us to reduce the tip lead and bring it back under the hip. He pointed out that the better carvers with both feet had a very small tip lead. It is hard to edge the inside ski at the same angle as the downhill ski if the inside ski is too far ahead. The ahead position tends to flatten the inside ski, so pulling it back was needed for many in the group to keep it edged, carving and not wobbling. Having similar activity of both feet was a constant request from Shawn during the academy.

We skied the next few runs in a more natural upright stance, without placing our hands over the inside leg. This helped us maintain the activity of both feet and legs in our edging action. Many discovered that they had to increase the edging activity at the foot and ankle level to keep the wobble from returning to either ski.

Weight Redistribution—A Forward and Lateral Movement
Next we gathered our ski poles and began to use them with the blades. After we became more comfortable using our poles with the blades, Shawn asked us to consider how we transferred or distributed our weight from turn to turn. We went from weight dominance of the outside ski of one turn, to equal weighting between turns, to dominance of the other ski in the next turn—letting it develop as we went from turn to turn. This was a more subtle weight redistribution to the dominant foot versus a sudden weight transfer. The weight redistribution was a forward lateral distribution of our weight to the outside blade. Shawn explained that when you transfer weight laterally, you often loose the ability to stand on both feet and react with both feet. This sequence would have more physical and tactile meaning after the next several steps in Shawn’s presentation.

Mixing Blades and Long Skis—Activity
For this activity, Shawn had us place our traditional long ski only on our left foot, keep the shorter blade on our right foot and use our poles for timing. The only change we made is one long ski on our left leg. He asked us to take a few runs and give the group our impressions. One group member mentioned that he had to move forward more at the transition between turns. Another mentioned that they could feel the entire inside edge of the long ski. A few commented that they had to stand up and move forward to keep the inside short ski from wobbling.

Shawn next asked us all to make short radius turns with the mixed skis underfoot. When done well, the edging and weight redistribution activity is the same with both feet, but the intensity varies. This got everyone up on top of both feet. A few carved with both skis equally, but most started to skid the long ski. For a few, the wobble returned to the blade.

Shawn reviewed what he saw earlier in our skiing with both blades under foot. He noted that we were all much more active with both feet in our edging and weight redistribution when we had the blades on. The blades prevented us from sitting back or settling down. We had a higher active edge angle (from the feet and legs) and were more forward over our feet. Moreover, we could not edge the inside ski if the hip was back or if there was too much of an inside tip lead. Now with the long ski on our left leg and the blade on our right, we needed to retain this activity with both feet, but we had to turn up the intensity. It took a more intense forward and lateral movement to release the long old outside/downhill ski and a more intense forward lateral movement to engage the new long outside ski verses the blade.

After a few runs with our long ski on our left leg and the blade on our right, the short radius turns started to arc equally with both feet. The activity with the feet and legs was the same, but we had to definitely increase the intensity of our movements to release the long ski and to engage it with a more powerful forward and lateral weight redistribution. Now the long ski started to arc like the blade, which was a significant change in our skiing.

Blades on Both Feet—Knee Point
After lunch, we put the blades on both feet. Shawn’s goal was to have us make the movements to arc both feet. While linking medium to short radius turns, he noted that he was not seeing a lot of upward movement between turns, yet he observed our legs gaining length in the middle of the arc. He spoke of having good “knee point”. Good skiers, he observed, point both knees forward with the shins against the tongue of the boots at the transition between turns. They are active with both feet and knees equally and simultaneously. You can see this in their knee point.

This was very consistent with some of Shawn’s past teachings. He tries to develop our ability to release and engage our edges of both skis with one simultaneous movement. While observing from below, both skis tips released and engaged as a simultaneous pair. The forward knee point was part of this activity.

Blades and Bumps
Next, we spent some time in the hard bumps with the blades. Shawn encouraged us to turn out and around, and against the sides of the bumps. Skiing the outside of the trough and carving was not easy because the unforgiving bumps made us gain speed, causing most of us cut off the turn and skid the middle of the trough for speed control. Oh well, maybe on another day we can master this task.

Releasing the Skis to the New Turn or the Upper Body to the Old Turn
Our next task involved focusing on how we released our skis or upper body into the new turn. Making medium to long radius carving turns, Shawn asked us to let the counter of our upper body develop as our legs turned against our upper body to finish the arc. At the finish we either released the skis to the slightly countered upper body to the new turn or we released our upper body to the skis of the old turn. This allowed the upper body to face across the hill, when moments before it was slightly facing down hill. The goal was to get the skis to realign with our upper body at the cross over after a slight counter finish, which results in being able to better and faster shape the top half of the new turn. From previous times with Shawn, keeping a strong inside half of our body at the end of the turn allows for this movement of the skis realigning with the countered upper body. If we relaxed the inside half of the upper body near the end of the turn, the upper body rotated towards the skis, facing across the hill, opposite the direction of the new turn.

Private Reinforcement and Comments
Shawn had us ski laps around him. He grabbed us one at a time and gave each some private reinforcement. These are some of the comments the group members made to me after the first day as it related to their learning.

“With the long skis on, make the same movements as you did with the blades, just adjust the intensity to compensate for the added ski length, if you want to carve.”

“Stay on top of the inside ski verses dropping the hips back—not squatty.”

“I have a better feel for the whole length of the ski. I know better which direction to move at the turn transition. It is not just a lateral edging move, but a forward lateral weight redistribution from the old and to the new set of edges on both skis.”

“I liked the long ski on the left and the short blade on the right leg. If the body movements are right, it did not make any difference what was on the foot. Carving was crisp.”

“When the blades wobble, get forward and on edge—both edges!”

“If you want your long skis to perform like the blades, you really have to move it, increase the intensity of your activity!”

“I could feel my skis get out from under me and come back (with the blades).”

“ I am working and carving both skis and am in balance with both feet.”

That ended day one with Shawn. Day two would cement what we learned from day one and add a few more challenges to our performance.

Day Two

Cross-Hill Garlands—A Review of Day One
Our second day at the PSIA-C Mini-Academy started like the first with our ski boards (blades) on both feet. Unlike day one, we had our ski poles for the day. After a few warm-up runs, Shawn had us work our blades through some cross-hill garlands. In cross-hill garlands you start at about a 30 degree traverse, initiate a turn down the hill, then as your skis are pointing straight down the fall-line, you turn back up the hill to the same direction you started your traverse, and keep repeating your turning into and out of the fall-line.

Our first review with the cross-hill garlands, we released both blades to the countered upper body. Shawn emphasized “both blades” for in the group he observed an “A-frame” stance at the knees with the turn to the fall-line. He wanted us to release both blades to the fall-line and the countered upper body, to bring the inside blade a little closer, with less tip lead and to increase the knee point to the inside of the turn with the inside knee. He stated that there should be the same amount of space between the feet, knees and thighs, which reflects the same activity of both legs as they enter the arc with good knee point.

Cross-Hill Garlands—Directly to the Fall-Line
To increase the difficulty, Shawn asked us to ski the garlands directly to the fall-line before redirecting the arc out of the fall-line. Arcing to the fall-line and then out of the fall-line gave us more commitment with both feet and skis to the arc. Shawn said that when we made little garlands and cut off the arcs too quickly, we stopped moving or committing as much, and thus learned very little on how to move and commit. Then some of us even took our entry arcs to the garland past the fall-line, for an even greater commitment and effect. We practiced lots of these garlands, emphasizing the arcing movements with both feet to the fall-line. After this, we made some linked longer turns with the blades, concentrating on carrying the arc through one complete turn with both feet.

Change the Tactics, Not the Movements
Next we went to our long skis on both feet. Shawn emphasized that we did not want to change the movements that we made with the blades, just change the tactics such as the intensity, timing, duration and direction of the movements. With 100 cm blades, we only had to move slightly forward and to the side to engage the tip and the entire edge of both blades. On our longer skis, we had to move forward further, with more power, more slowly and maintain those efforts longer to engage both tips and the entire edge to turn both skis.

Most of us when we put our long skis back on couldn’t turn them. They felt like ten-foot flat boards. When we initially made the blade movement to start the arc, the long skis did not change direction. At this point there were two distinct tactics used. One was to release the old edges by flattening the ski and engaging the new ones by pushing the tails to the side in a little skid—yuck! The other was to direct the lateral movement more forward to release and engage both skis’ edges, increase the power of that movement, slow the timing of it and increase the duration of the lateral and forward edging movement. This directed both skis into a carved arc, just like the blades!

With a few runs, most of the group members were making the same arcs with their long skis as they had with the blades. Shawn observed this in the group:

“Great activity with both knees. Excellent knee point.”

“Our upper body was in balance over some very active ankles. The ankles were flexed and able to adjust the pressure verses seeing us make pressuring moves with our hips.”

“We moved very nicely to the fall-line, releasing the skis to the new arc. The ankles were flexing laterally to increase the edge hold, saving the hips for absorbing.”

We went back to the blades on both feet for a few runs. Shawn made the following observations:

“At the transition between turns, I saw parallel legs. There was an even relation with both blades, the stance was the same over both feet.”

“There was very little vertical movement with great flow connecting the turns. We were not bracing against the downhill ski. We were letting go with both feet into the new turn. Bracing stops the flow of movement—flex at the end of the arc and let the legs get longer as they reach into the new arc at the initiation.”

Mixing Skis and Blades—Garlands
After getting very comfortable with the blades back on both feet, we repeated the garlands. After a few turns on the blades, we then put a long ski on the left foot again, kept a blade on the right, and kept our poles. In the garlands, we changed the tactics, not the movement into the arc. We arced fully to the fall-line, then arced back out in a garland. When the long ski was the downhill ski, we had to move the inside leg actively and more forcefully through the cuff of the downhill boot at the initiation so the long, inside ski can arc. Because the uphill ski was a blade, it was easily engaged into the arc by flexing the ankle. Our activity became more intense with the long ski and softer with the blade.

Next, we did some very rounded short radius turns with the long ski on our left foot and the blade on the right. Shawn wanted us to have the same turn shape as if we had blades on both feet. As noted above, we needed to be more active with the long ski and softer with the blade. We then switched the ski to the right leg and the blade to the left and repeated the garlands as Shawn commented, “Don’t let the long ski get flat to the fall-line! Be more dynamic with the long ski!”

After a few runs we placed our long skis on both feet and repeated the garlands. Shawn said that we all knew how to finish a good arc before we started, and he showed us how to be active and start a new arc with both skis arcing. With the series of garlands we did, we could feel the movements we made and the intensity of them to start the arc to the fall-line. There was a greater edging movement, but not a lateral edging move. Instead, the edging movement was a forward lateral weight redistribution to the edges of both skis as we released the old arc and entered the new one with both feet. We felt and learned to “move to arc”.

With the movement to arc to the fall-line, many felt the intensity of the old outside ankle release the edge along with good knee point as it became the new inside leg. Add this to releasing to its little toe edge, and you had great inside leg activity.

Shuffling and Turning to Refine Balance
For the afternoon of the last day, Shawn gave us a reprieve from the blades. With our traditional alpine gear, he took us through a progression that I have written about during past academies. It is worth repeating for the tasks helped many in the group. On intermediate terrain, Shawn asked us to make linked medium radius turns, shuffling the feet forward and back continually through the entire linked series of turns. After doing this he asked if any of us found a point where we either could not continue to shuffle or stopped turning. He asked us to think about his questions as we did them again, but to slow the shuffle action down a bit and to only shuffle 4-8 inches at most.

We moved to steeper terrain and made some rounded medium radius turns at very slow speed (finishing well across the fall-line) with the continual shuffle. He asked us to pin point if there was a spot where the shuffling or turning stopped. Many found a point when they could no longer shuffle in these slow, rounded turns on the steeper hill. For some it was at the end of their turns and others at the entry to the turn.

Shawn explained that if we were not in balance over both feet, we couldn’t continue to turn and shuffle at the same time. Usually it means we were too far back. He asked us to feel as if we were walking into the new turn with our feet shuffling and not to settle down or back. Doing the same slow, rounded parallel turns on steeper terrain, he asked us to shuffle the tips while moving them forward and down the hill, instead of shuffling the tails up the hill at the initiation. Those who shuffled the tails up the hill, stood straight up at the end of the turn, while those who shuffled the tips down the hill, and into the arc, moved forward at the transition as they got taller.

We then shuffled just to the fall-line and completed the turn without the shuffling, linking the slow rounded parallel turns on the steeper terrain. We worked both tips down the fall-line, trying to not push the tails out at the initiation. “Don’t stand straight up at the end of the turn, move into the turn and engage both tips into the arc,” Shawn mentioned again. These exercises, like the blades tasks, got us moving forward and laterally in the right direction and intensity to engage both ski tips into the new arc. The distance we had to move to leverage and engage the tips of the blades is minimal compared to our longer skis. We finished with parallel turns without any shuffling.

Many in the group found it difficult to move forward into the new turn because they finished their turns leaning back. If they finished their turn slightly back, their first movement at the end of the turn is to move forward to center themselves, but not to start the turn. Their next movement could then be to move further forward to enter the new turn, but most pushed their tails uphill as they stood up to start the turn instead of moving the tips forward like he tried to have us do.

Uphill Christy to Maintain Forward Movement
To correct this, Shawn had us start a straight run standing tall, and do a carved uphill christy. To start the carved uphill christy, the first move we needed to make was a forward and lateral flex of both ankles. We avoided pushing the tails out or moving down and in with the hips, but tried to flex both ankles forward and laterally to start the christy. We took the christy completely around until we faced directly up the hill to a full stop. At the point when we were at a full stop, we either maintained a slightly forward position standing over our feet, or had to move forward to stand up. We repeated it trying to stay forward over our feet to the end of the christy.

To keep moving through the turn and not let their upper body get behind, many had to keep their hips up and forward on top of their feet. In the control phase we moved forward by flexing the ankles forward and not dropping the hips down. If we finished the turn forward, we could direct both skis into the next turn in one movement. If we finished the turn having settled back, our first movement had to be forward just to get centered, followed by another movement into the turn.

Repetition and Changing of Gear to Cement Our Learning
We did lots of garlands during both days, with blades on both feet, blade on one—long ski on another, and long skis on both feet. The repetition, the mixing of equipment and the consistent message was exactly what this group of advanced skiers needed to initiate changes. Many areas on crowded days do not allow the luxury we had to ski across the hill without fear of crashing with another skier. Please keep this in mind.

The tactics of his progression were simple. Do a task (garlands or linked slow turns) with the blades on both feet until it becomes comfortable. Repeat the task with one long ski and one blade until it becomes comfortable. Then change back to the blades until it becomes comfortable, then back to both long skis or one long and one short. The gear changing goes on until you feel comfortable with what your have under your feet as you perform the task. You change the gear to make it uncomfortable so you have to move differently to get the same performance. This is what cements the differences in the intensity of the similar activity in the feet and legs.

After two days like this our group definitely left as better skiers than when we started, having enjoyed the camaraderie and the learning. The annual PSIA-C Mini-Academy is a special event with many of the Midwest’s finest instructors participating as students. It is fun to learn and grow in an environment where you can be the student, surrounded by many other supportive and gifted instructors. Those who regularly attend know to sign up before Christmas to ensure their spot. If the early sign-ups are filling the event, we can easily add another D-Team Member. See you in 2001. Sign up before Christmas!

I want to give special thanks Mark Weinberger for his generous editing suggestions. Thanks Mark!!