Report From The 2002 PSIA-C Mini-Academy at Afton Alps

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

Day 1

Shuffle Time—Again, Again and Again

What a treat it is to have the D-Team come to Afton Alps each year for PSIA-C’s Annual Mini-Academy. It’s a special pleasure when Shawn Smith returns. He probably doesn’t want you to know how long he’s been doing this, but this seasoned pro always leaves you full, yet hungry for more.

My charge for this paper is to report what Shawn did during the two days, while providing enough depth and commentary, so you might be able to repeat some of these sequences. I try to not let my biases influence what I report, but experiences will flavor my observations. I try to control my editorializing. During the ski season and spring, I am too busy with work, family and skiing to write. So I usually begin late June when the days start getting shorter and I pray I can find those darn notes I stashed away somewhere!

This year’s report will be a bit incomplete. Family medical concerns only allowed me to participate in the morning session of each day. The group stated that the majority of Shawn’s presentation was in the morning; using the afternoon for practice, giving personal feedback and adding a few other tasks as needed. I did not miss too much.

Tactics—With No Apologies to Dr. Seuss
I want to begin with describing the tactics that Shawn used during the two days. Shawn had us shuffle our feet all day long. He had us shuffling both feet; then shuffle only into the turn, then out of the turn; shuffling the outside foot, then the inside foot; shuffling only the left foot, then the right foot or changing the shuffled foot in the fall-line. He would intermix this with no shuffling with right turns and shuffle the left; shuffling both feet or only one foot. Now which foot?

Each shuffling task had a specific purpose relating to our stance, balance and what we did to transition our turns or adjust our turns. Once we became good at any particular shuffling task, it was time to mix it up with something different. Towards the end, you might start talking like Dr Seuss, “ Left foot, right foot, left foot right. Feet in the morning and feet at night…” Let’s begin.

Our First Shuffle
Shawn started by stating that shaped skis will skid or carve all day long. But they won’t carve if you skid them first. He mentioned our stance should to be loose, not wide. With that comment he had us shuffling both feet as we made rounded open parallel turns down an easy slope.

“While turning and shuffling, was there any part of a turn where we could not continue to shuffle or turn?” A few mentioned that they could not shuffle at the transition between turns. He continued by asking us to shuffle slower and longer—shuffle heal to toe, but not too long. “Slow it down and lengthen the shuffle out.” This time the turn transition was easier and smoother. He commented that both legs should be separated a bit. If your weight or stance is back, you cannot shuffle easily.

Shuffle the Outside Foot—Our Body Needs to Lead
We continued to make rounded parallel turns on an easy slope, but this time with shuffling only the outside foot. Yes it looked like we were shuffling both feet, but only the outside foot was to be active in the shuffling. If our stance was too far back, we could only shuffle a little. We had to get and stay forward in order to move the outside leg further back and forth. Our body needs to lead our feet.

When shuffling only the outside foot, it helped to put a little more weight on the inside ski. I noticed more active edging of the inside ski (to its little toe side) helped even more.

Shuffle the Inside Foot—It Won’t Move as Much
Once we got good at outside foot shuffling he changed the mix to only shuffle the inside foot. We found out that it did not move as much, back and forth. “This is a great drill for people who like to hunker down. They have to stay taller with the outside leg to shuffle the inside leg. The outside leg needs to be long, not straight.”

After a lot of practice he concluded that we had to stay over our feet, especially at the transition. It is easy to get lazy and only move laterally, not forward and lateral to stay in better balance.

Shawn talked about “shuffling our feet verses moving our feet.” The outside shuffle was to get us more active with both feet, loosen our stance, more weight and edging of the inside foot and it helped get our hips up and forward. The inside leg shuffle gets our outside leg longer!

Turn Shape—Shuffle Both Feet to the Fall-line
Next we took the looseness of our stance and worked on turn shaping. We shuffled to the fall line with both feet and made a non-shuffled parallel arc out of the fall line. Shawn asked us to slow down and not rush the turn. When doing this, Shawn could see the tips of our skis lead into the turn and our tails followed. We couldn’t do this if our hips were back. This task was great in helping us be tip active with the ski tips leading into the turn verses the tails actively pushing out of the arc.

Once we felt good doing this, he changed everything all over again just to mix us up. We then had to parallel arc into the turn and shuffle out. Shuffling into the arc gets your hips over your feet. Shuffling out of the arc sets you up and forward for the entry in order to work both feet and ski tips into the next arc. We want our hips in front of our feet to balance into the future, where we are going, not where we have been.

We then free skied a lot to see if we could incorporate what we had practiced, concentrating on activity in both feet.

I have had great success this past year with using many of Shawn’s shuffling tactics. They can be presented in a different order. Mixing the shuffling up, as your student’s get proficient, is the key to success as long as you know what you are looking for.

Day 2

Bracquage—Again, Again and Again

“Slip sliding along, slip sliding along,” ala Paul Simon. That song nicely summed up what we were about to do.

Day Two—Linked Bracquage Turns
Bracquage—French for foot steering, these turns were a series of linked sideslips. Our feet were to be apart; turning both skis together, without a stem, step or a pause in the steering. We did these on a steeper slope, and we did a lot of them; again, again and again.

Countering was needed at the sideslipping phase. A few were only countering with their hands and needed some hip counter. To do this we were asked to push the inside (uphill) hip and hand forward at the slipping phase.

Shawn observed that if we settle (back) in the hips and knees, the hips square up. To help prevent this settling, he asked us to settle in the ankles. This helped keep the hips up, forward and slightly countered. We practiced a lot of these.

To help a few stubborn hips, we ditched our poles, placing our hands on our hips, while we repeated the bracquage turns. The uphill hand was to accentuate keeping the uphill hip forward. We were reminded to keep both feet apart, turn both feet together, without a stem, step or pause in the steering.

Shawn concluded, “If you settle only in the ankles, you can release both skis from the ankles. If you settle in the hips and knees, you must first move the hips up and forward before you can release the skis from the ankles.” The uphill hip has to be forward at turn initiation. The new turn does not really start until the ankles release both skis.

Linked Bracquage Turns—Connecting the Pole Swing to the Future
Shawn noted that when we used our poles in the bracquage turns, we tend to settle in the hips and knees as we swung the basket forward. This pole swing was connected with the old turn, during the sideslipping phase. When the pole swing is connected to the old turn, the basket swings up and forward as the skier settles in the sideslip. Then the pole basket is dropped and the hips are raised up and forward.

To connect the pole swing to the future turn, keep the basket back during the sideslip, and swing it forward, keeping the basket low to the snow, with the release.

To help we did the same bracquage turns with a pole swing, but no pole plant. We could also do a double pole swing, swinging both pole baskets forward with the release into the future turn. This really helped us to settle in the ankles and keep our hips up and slightly countered. We could easily release both skis together into the turn without a stem, step or pause in the steering—very smooth!

Linked Bracquage Turns—One Foot!
Same stuff, but linked bracquage turns on only one foot. These cannot be done if we settled in the knees and hips. We had to settle in the ankles. We had to be on top of our feet, not behind. This seemed scary at first, but with a little practice it really cemented the difference between settling in the ankles rather than the hips and knees.

To help these one ski bracquage turns, we were encouraged to get a long drift and make our adjustments in the drift. Shawn concluded that when the support foot was the downhill foot, the uphill hip was up and not settled.

We went back to the bracquage turns on both feet with the poles, practicing to turn both feet together and to settle in the ankles, not the hips. A lot of practice made this easy. A few of us preferred the double pole swing to connect the swing with the release to the future turn.

Settle In and Move Out of the Ankles
Shawn stressed for us to not lose the alignment of our bones over our feet. We went from the bracquage turns and added a little shaping at the end of the turn—a pivot start with an arced finish—stacked. We had to make sure that we swung our pole and turned our tips to the new turn rather than swing the pole and drop our hips to the old turn.

“The strength of the bracquage turns is having the hips over the feet, so you can develop the turn strongly.” We were then to add a little edge and not pivot the start, swing our pole and move forward into the turn.

To further refine our practice, Shawn reminded us to move forward out of our ankles through turn transitions and flex into the ankles through the body of our turns, not the hips. Stated differently, to settle in and move out of the ankles and not to flex up and down from the hips. You only can start the turn from the ankles if you are stacked over them.

For some of us our pole swing got us into our old habits of settling into our hips, so we did these same lightly edged turns without our pole swing. It helped cement our focus on settling in and moving out from our ankles.

Shawn tried a different approach to address the activity through the ankles. We kept only 10 inches of the inside ski tip on the snow, but edged it like the outside ski. This helped us stay stacked through the ankle of the outside foot but active with the inside foot. He insisted that we match the angles of each ski and minimize the inside tip lead.

Shawn mentioned that minimizing the tip lead allows for an earlier edge engagement of the new outside ski. At finish of turn, a minimal tip lead allows for a better two footed stance and engagement of the inside ski.

Settle Forward—Balancing in the Future
When coaching many of his racing athletes, Shawn will encourage them to settle forward (through the ankles). Many of these skiers are working on being centered over their feet, which is a movement in the present. One slight misstep and they are back in the past, for centering often fails to keep you moving forward. Settling forward is a balancing in the future activity, which is where he wants them to be, stacked over their ankles.

I want to emphasize the amount of practice time Shawn gave us. For many of the listed tasks, we practiced these over several runs (375 vertical per run!). There were a considerable number of free skiing runs to practice these activities within our own skiing as well.