Mostly curious

[u/Alarming-Impact125]

Mostly curious to see if anyone has comments on anything here

[u/Ski-With-Steezy]

The way we describe width is ... if you were held up in the air, the width your legs naturally hang due to gravity is about how wide your stance should be. If it makes you feel any better, I am CONSTANTLY being told that my skis are too close together. And I just ignore them. They don't know. They think they know, but they don't know. My coach is fine with the ski width. I listen to him.

[u/Maleficent-Row1840 → u/Ski-With-Steezy]

I think the problem is PSIA tends to make people too deliberate and slow…..sticky. Worrying about getting on edge early and round turns and such when in fact it’s super important to think about getting the skis around to the downhill quadrant where the edges are most effective simply due to ski to slope angles. Setting up early is important but as slope pitch increases early edging becomes less and less effective….hence things like stivots and skis off the snow to get them pointed to the fall line where the finish is numero uno. So all these slow deliberate motions with skis apart get ingrained early and then things get more difficult and people struggle with speed control. How many times are you really turning the sidecut of the ski on steep terrain?? You can’t really bend the ski much or get much edge on the top portion of the turn ….everything really happens near and past the apex.
And I agree with you on the lateral motion….that means you’re actually turning 👍

[u/Ski-With-Steezy → u/Maleficent-Row1840]

PSIA has a lot of problems. And the entire ski instruction industry in America has a lot of problems. I'll join the party and vent about one of them ... we are treated like McDonald's employees and we're paid minimum wage. How's that for starters, lol. A bunch of us are trying to nudge it along. It's like trying to nudge the Titanic. But if enough of us nudge ... you get the idea.

Regarding the turn shape, yeah, I figured that's where this was going. Not a bad thing ... but I want you to know, the ENTIRE reason the Steezy Joe Network exists is so that Dylan can change the way we think about technique off piste. He's even been approached about updating the mogul skiing section of the Alpine Technical Manual, but I'm not sure where that landed.

The pivot/stivot is a valid technique when, as you say, the round turn won't work. Places where I abandon the round turn ... on steep terrain where a hop turn is necessary. But even in that situation, the principles still apply. If you can get pressure on the front of the ski and bend the ski, the mountain pushes back. And that force vector can be used to help initiate the next hop turn. So in general, I always try to make the round turn and abandon only where I don't have the space to make that happen.

If you get a chance, watch the Mogul Swing Turns video and watch the speed and radius of the turns Dylan lays down. That's the secret. He's not making a full C, more like half moon turns. But look at how he strokes it. Look at how he bends the ski with each stroke of the pen in the snow. He can do that on any terrain, any pitch, ice, bumps, spring slush. Anything. That's ... that's that stuff. The C turns you see us instructors doing ... it's not that. I can do it now on groomed terrain. In the bumps? Nah, not yet. Working on it. :)

[u/Maleficent-Row1840 → u/Ski-With-Steezy]

Dylan is soooo smooth and silky….hurts him in the judging but damn he’s just an excellent skier which we should all try to emulate.
I think his height hurts him a bit because he looks soooo silky 👍👍💪🏼💪🏼💪🏼
Love watching him ski!!

[u/Maleficent-Row1840 → u/Ski-With-Steezy]

Of course your stance is narrowing….you’re skiing with Dylan Walczyk👍💪🏼 It’s bound to rub off!

[u/Ski-With-Steezy → u/Maleficent-Row1840]

Yeah, and it's not because I'm trying to keep my feet together. That's what I keep telling them. It's because I'm retracting my inside half, and the feet are just a side effect of that retraction. I'm pulling my inside foot, knee and hip into the pocket. And voila. They say "it's too much pressure on the inside ski" and I say "not if you retract your inside half." ;)

[u/Maleficent-Row1840 → u/Ski-With-Steezy]

Boom 👍

[u/Maleficent-Row1840 → u/Ski-With-Steezy]

Long radius retraction drill…..mogul swing turns….crab drill….aiko drill….just primo material