An often misunderstood technical understanding about skiing.

 I often hear this from coaches or instructors about how skiers should acquire a certain position and look. Let's investigate and explore this common myth about skiing. The myth is:

                    Keep your hips level!

     While the concept has some merit it's never achieved. The hips are never level. Have a look at the diagram below. The meaning has merit, however, the way it is implemented needs to be cleared up. 

                                    Follow as I explain what the colored lines indicate. 

                                           Thank You Alfonso Lázaro for the graphic!

The pink or magenta line is level. 

The red line that intersects the pink line is the angle of the hips. 

The yellow line indicates the upper body's attempt to stay verticle or Counterbalanced. 

The black curved line is the articulation of the torso to remain in balance and also to keep the torso aligned to the forces so the skis can hold an edge and not go flat, or skid away.

When you analyze what movements are required to achieve this body configuration or alignment you need to understand the forces, the movements, and which "Essentials" are applied.

Nowhere in my literature from "Anyone Can Be an Expert Skier to the "Essentials of Skiing" book or in the "PMTS Instructor Manual" is there a reference to lifting, tilting, or pivoting the hips to keep them level as a focus in transition. 

The premise is correct however the methods describing how to apply hip positions are questionable. It is clear from this diagram that the hips aren't level. If you look at World Cup skiers frame by frame you will see the same hip angles as in the diagram above. 

Anna Fenninger Veith

The yellow lines show the relationship between the upper and lower body that are functional in skiing.

Hip tilting rarely accomplishes this relationship. The reason is that there are far more effective ways and methods to focus on to achieve this relationship. There are far more important movements in transition that need to be initiated and applied. The proper hip relation will develop as a result of these other correct movements as long as relaxation and secondary movement if the hip is allowed.

Hip control is such a foreign and difficult movement to create and activate while skiing. The way it is best achieved is not through muscle contraction or forcing a movement. The way to achieve proper hip engagement is through relaxation. If too much active hip tiling is your approach other parts of the body's natural alignment will be compromised. In essence, trying to physically manage the hip angle with a conscious approach will block the natural alignment of the hip to the body and the forces. Also, if this becomes your focus more essential movements will not govern your turn.

Where should you focus your efforts?

It all starts with the release and transition. While retracting and tipping the feet and legs toward the new angles, relax the midbody and focus on keeping the shoulders and torso moving toward the new outside ski. This involves relaxing the lateral torso controlling muscles on the inside half of the torso and contracting the outside torso muscles (the "External Obliques" and Quadratus Lamborium". This action is called counterbalance; which keeps the torso vertical as in the diagram with the yellow line. Engaging counterbalance at the transition activates the quadratus lumorium and the external obliques.

With this skier in the red jacket, there is no relaxation with the hips or balance lined up from the CG to the forces from the outside ski. This type of skiing is limiting and causes a plateau in progress. The basic mistake here is that the skier is extending the outside leg and leaning the whole body. When a skier is taught outside leg dominance this is often the result. 

From the beginning of my career, I've coached inside leg movements, unweighting, and foot tipping. The whole idea of foot, leg tipping, bending, and angles are developed from this. The one crucial component that few skiers use is how to engage and properly use the hips further up the kinetic chain. That missing component is relaxation and letting the hip counteract while the upper body counterbalances. Those two actions combine to create and optimize the hip range of movement and self-leveling. Forcing leveling and pushing on the outside ski reverses and prevents these actions from happening.

Two other counterproductive actions that prevent angle development are holding our breath and driving the outside hand and arm toward the tip of the ski.

The Expert Skiing "Power Transition!"

   Learn short turns with an upside-down phase.

                                                            Long legs to short legs!

Getting from here to the next frame is about retracting the outside leg without reducing the ski angles.

Un-tipping requires a forceful retraction of both legs.

The sign of an Expert skier is having both legs bent the same while both skis are flat to the snow.

Tipping the new inside ski at the initiation (before the skis point downhill) is an expert skier movement.

This is the no-pressure phase. It's the phase where the lower body does the tipping without a hip angle.

Pressure should come to you by increasing both lower body tipping and hip relaxation and dropping the hip to the inside.

Hip angles should only be used or created after the lower body feet and ankles have started to create the new tipping angles under the hips.
 

Three different types of releasing by a World Cup skier in one 20 turn section.

Dominik Raschner shows 3 different releases.

This is a weighted release when the stance leg is bent, and retracted without a transfer to the new stance ski. Von Gruenigen was the master at the in GS.

The Classic PMTS "phantom Move" release is the most common release used by top skiers.

The "Phantom Move" release first introduced in 1997 in my book, "Anyone can be an Expert Skier 1".

The two footed release is the most sophisticated movement and requires a coordinated lift while the hips are settling and bot legs are bending equally.

 

Strasser gives us a tipping clinic at the Adelboden Slalom.

This is a perfect demonstration for all skiers to apply and use in their skiing. 

The first fame shows equal foot, ankle, and hip angles developed from inside leg bending and hip relaxation. These actions allow the body to drop into angles with good control.

To tighten the radius Strasser eases up slightly on the outside leg (bending it) and brings his upper body into counterbalance over the outside ski.

This phase of the turn shows more leg bending but he also adds more tipping of the inside leg. As the lower body increases angles the upper body moves closer toward the and over the outside ski.

Strasser now adds more tipping still, with added leg bending to begin the releasing phase. Notice how his upper body keeps moving toward the outside ski and the falline. 

In this turn, his upper body compliments the lower body perfectly by increasing and holding  Counteracting, and Counterbalance to prepare for the lower body release. The inside ski is also held back with almost no lead. Keeping the inside foot back allows for ease of inside leg bending and lateral movement.
 

Learn the PMTS "Phantom Move" from Marcel Hirscher!

The brilliance of Marcel Hirscher has never been in question!

In this sequence of photos, I'll explain one of the many technical movement patterns that served Hirscher well during his racing dominance.

This is a typical Hirscher turn with lower body tipping angles.

Hirscher's release of the turn began with his bending and retracting of the stance leg. This is the exact movement I describe in my first book as the "Phantom Move". I wrote my book well before, Hirscher appeared on the scene. before I knew Hirscher existed or saw him ski. He is the perfect PMTS skier. My book was a best-seller, but highly criticized by PSIA and instructors, for this radical approach and description of how you could learn to ski. My book gave regular skiers access to learning World Cup skier movements. These movements are totally contrary to what is taught in traditional ski instruction.

Here he lifts the tip of the stance ski and the transfer to the new ski is completed. Notice how the old stance leg knee (the new inside knee) is lifted higher than the new stance leg knee. When recreational skiers achieve this movement, it creates a huge breakthrough in their skiing.

The lifted ski then becomes the ski that is aggressively tipping first toward the little toe edge side of the ski. This is pure PMTS, from the "Anyone Can Be an Expert Skier", book.

Tipping the new inside ski continues to lead the angle development for the new turn. He has completed the float phase of the transition.

The knees show which foot and ankle Hirscher is focused on tipping to prepare for the forces and load coming up to the outside ski in this turn.

 

The World Cup Season is in Full swing. What is big and what isn't, misconceptions already abound!

Misconceptions I've already read and heard from analysts in the 2023 season. 

"Odermatt extends in his GS skiing." This is one of the biggest misconceptions out there in ski technique. He never pushes off to extend, and just using that wrong terminology can set back a development skier for years.

If you look at this release and think it's an extension you better go back and change your instructor manual.

                                                

                                                  This is just before he releases. 

                      Here again, Odermatt uses the classic retraction, bend, flex, release. 

Sure there is an extension in skiing and one leg gets longer than the other, but not by pushing into the snow, against the snow, therefore lengthening the leg. The most important thing people should have learned from Hirscher is to transition without pressuring the skis (the float). That is why we call the transition a float across and a change of edges with no pressure on the skis. A retraction release is the GOLD Standard in performance skiing. Odermatt accomplishes this by using a strong retraction of the legs using the energy he created from the forces of the turn and the bend of the ski.

Skiing dynamically means limit folding at the waist even for expert skiers.

Hip Collapsing robs angles, ski bend, and tip engagement!

Even expert skiers can be seen collapsing their hips to reduce pressure. When the timing and correct movements of leg retraction and counteracting aren't coordinated or are miss-timed that's the result.

This is an expert skier, however, this skier is giving up fore-aft balance and power because the timing of collapsing the hips is too early. This reduces tip pressure and also moves the hips back on the skis. 

 

If you look at the outside right hip it is open and there is no folding or lowering from the hip. The hip is driving forward to keep the tip leading the arc.

Here you can see the change in hips more extended to hips more collapsed. This results from a lack of counteracting of the hips or staying too square to the skis.

The comparison shows the obvious benefits of keeping the hip and torso up and driving forward. The result is more power in the ski, more tips leading the turn, and higher angles.

Again notice the left hip Counteracted, this gives you more control of the turn and more versatility for a change of angle and turn size without skidding.

Short turn demonstration during 2023 Coach's training.