Hip Rotation

[taichiskiing]

I create a new thread, so we don't have to tangle with their bashing.

How about "hip rotation"?

Well, before we continue to search an answer for this question, we need to know what exactly "pivot" is. There are a lot of confusions about this term. The problem is that the western skiing knowledge, so are the XSIA's teaching, is not scientific/physics based (need not be neither,) but experience handed down from earlier experts, who may not speak the same "language," or same language with different meanings, and end up with nowadays' disarray confusions.

"Pivot" only means one thing—changing the skis' orientation physically—that is, twisting the skis so they point to the new direction. This the way skiing in the old days/old-school, as straight skis would take too much space and too fast for common people to carve; pivoting would reduce that long turning radius and as well as braking the speed, a very useful technique. Come with the shaped skis, the new school of thought is talking about carving turn, pivoting/skidding (pivoting causes skidding) have lost their favors and become "dirty words" in skiing. So the new term such as "steering" popped up. "Steering" is just like steering a car's steering-wheel, gradually "pressure" it over. But to the common folks, they all changing direction, what's the difference? Steering is carving, and pivoting is skidding.

Now back to "hip rotation." Once the skier crosses the fall-line, the gravity starts to work against him/her, the skier starts to lose momentum, so if the skier still wish to continue to carve, and extra pressure on the edges must be added to maintain their momentum, and that's "steering." There are two ways to generate pressure at this point: to get the "weight"/CoG down, or "twisting" the body/trunk—"hip rotation." To move the body/CoG down, the skier has to come back up some point of the time, moving up-and-down are very tedious and tiring under the gravity. "Hip rotation" uses twisting to generate/store torque to increase pressure without moving CoG up-and-down. If one is to "twist" the body there must be something to twist against with. "Hip rotation" is twisting the body/hip against the skis, so there's torque generated inside the body, which in turn increases the pressure on the edges.

So, here's the technique: once you pass the fall-line, before you turn the other way, rotate your hip (hip, not upper body) against the skis (skis are not moved with the rotation) while maintaining the traveling of the skis, this rotation would put your body square to fall-line. When ready to turn, move the body into the turn, wait till the skis almost point straight down the fall-line, release the twist and reset the edges, you would have started to turn/carve the other way. Simple, and effective, it/hip rotation is a good technique.

:)
IS

[Vicente]

I create a new thread, so we don't have to tangle with their bashing.



Well, before we continue to search an answer for this question, we need to know what exactly "pivot" is. There are a lot of confusions about this term. The problem is that the western skiing knowledge, so are the XSIA's teaching, is not scientific/physics based (need not be neither,) but experience handed down from earlier experts, who may not speak the same "language," or same language with different meanings, and end up with nowadays' disarray confusions.

"Pivot" only means one thing—changing the skis' orientation physically—that is, twisting the skis so they point to the new direction. This the way skiing in the old days/old-school, as straight skis would take too much space and too fast for common people to carve; pivoting would reduce that long turning radius and as well as braking the speed, a very useful technique. Come with the shaped skis, the new school of thought is talking about carving turn, pivoting/skidding (pivoting causes skidding) have lost their favors and become "dirty words" in skiing. So the new term such as "steering" popped up. "Steering" is just like steering a car's steering-wheel, gradually "pressure" it over. But to the common folks, they all changing direction, what's the difference? Steering is carving, and pivoting is skidding.

Now back to "hip rotation." Once the skier crosses the fall-line, the gravity starts to work against him/her, the skier starts to lose momentum, so if the skier still wish to continue to carve, and extra pressure on the edges must be added to maintain their momentum, and that's "steering." There are two ways to generate pressure at this point: to get the "weight"/CoG down, or "twisting" the body/trunk—"hip rotation." To move the body/CoG down, the skier has to come back up some point of the time, moving up-and-down are very tedious and tiring under the gravity. "Hip rotation" uses twisting to generate/store torque to increase pressure without moving CoG up-and-down. If one is to "twist" the body there must be something to twist against with. "Hip rotation" is twisting the body/hip against the skis, so there's torque generated inside the body, which in turn increases the pressure on the edges.

So, here's the technique: once you pass the fall-line, before you turn the other way, rotate your hip (hip, not upper body) against the skis (skis are not moved with the rotation) while maintaining the traveling of the skis, this rotation would put your body square to fall-line. When ready to turn, move the body into the turn, wait till the skis almost point straight down the fall-line, release the twist and reset the edges, you would have started to turn/carve the other way. Simple, and effective, it/hip rotation is a good technique.

:)
IS

Thank you for your information. It helps me to know more.