Harald Harb, President of Harb Ski Systems, posts his thoughts on skiing, ski racing, technique and more.
Tuesday, March 2, 2021
Saturday, February 27, 2021
Skiing traditions: Debunked and Explained! 1st in a Series, by Harald Harb
Just a short history:
The transition in skiing has been misrepresented or not described correctly in ski literature since the beginning of time. In fact, in Warren Witherell's two books, it is never addressed at all. George Joubert, the French coach, in the late 60s and early 70s, wrote two books. In them he does address the transition, however his descriptions are incorrectly focused. I can make that statements because skiing at the highest levels has evolved differently from the way Joubert described it. Many so called ski technicians even today reference these books as the "gospel" never looking to evolve or properly analyze skiing after Joubert. Therefore ski teaching has stagnated since.
In this series I will explain and break down how 21st Century skiing works at the highest levels and how recreational, intermediate and advanced skiers can add significant improvements to their skiing enjoyment and performance. With these methods and approaches you will ski with more efficiency, control and ease, rather than fighting gravity. You will learn to enjoy relaxation and the ease of acquiring ski performance with less effort. Let's get into it!
The Transition
The Transition is the most complex part of ski turns and requires the biggest change in the body. In the transition, your lower body, from below the hips, moves downhill, and the upper body stays the same until the lower body engages the skis to the new edge angles. Once this is done, the upper body needs to move from one side to the other over you skis. Ideally, this is accomplished without a pivot or and effort to create direction change. Once in the arc or a turn, the movements are relatively simple and consistent with how you stand on the ski. The transition is the point at which, everything happens, all this
changes and you move from one ski to the other and from one turn to the other. The best free skiers and racers can get this done before they reach the fallen. Let's have a look at the basics.
For the first session of body movements in this series; I focus on lower the body.
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Through the bottom of the turn continue building your angles to load the outside ski. Many skiers give up the turn too early and therefore are rushed, therefore never getting the lower body released. |
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The red arrow is the movement to retract. The blue arrow is getting that ski released. The black arrow is where your balance and pressure goes when you create these movements. |
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Now the tip of the ski is lifted, both knees are equally bent and the angles from the previous turn are gone. |
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The red arrow is for continued action of bending and flexing. The yellow arrows are to indicate increased tipping. Never push against the outside leg, common error taught to skiers. |
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In the turn, all is good. Keep a look out for the second article in the series where I address the upper body responsibilities in transition. |
Friday, February 12, 2021
Air turns are fun!
Powder days, small bumps for turns, or edge changes, in the air.
Saturday, February 6, 2021
Tip lift and Retraction begin the transition, next is "Pullback!"
Connect the "Retraction Tip Lift" to the transition with a new inside ski "Pull Back" movement.
(below) The tip is still lifted and the lifted ski and boot are pulled back and toward the stance boot.

Saturday, January 16, 2021
Without Hirscher, why are Austrian Slalom skiers so consistent this season?
Autrian Slalom Sucess 2020-21
Someone really smart in the Austrian organization picked new coaches. It has been stated that the slalom team has Hirscher's former coach. I would not doubt this given the improvement is dramatic. The consistency of runs and better technique is also obvious. Let's look at some of the changes and improvements anyone can benefit from doing this in their skiing.
In addition to Manny Feller and Marco Schwartz, Matt, Gstrein, and Pertl have knocked on the door of the top 10.
The red arrows demonstrate Manny's strong use of Counteracting, which blocks his outside shoulder and hip rotation. This is giving him stronger edge hold, better rebound energy, and a higher entry point to the next gate. Manny often used to dive into the turn (leaning) with his upper body and head first. Here this season, notice his head has reclaimed a position over the outside ski, indicated by the yellow arrow. His torso and chest, therefore, are more verticle and counterbalanced shown by the blue arrows. In this photo I am counterbalanced, notice even we mere mortals can keep our head over the outside ski indicated by my helmet being to the right side of my jacket hood. |
Sunday, January 10, 2021
One of the 5 "Essentials of Skiing" Counteracting!
The Yellow line curve is the arc of the turn. The two blue arcs are movements you make while in the arc, starting at the top of the arc and moving the arm and hand forward toward the tip of the ski until the end of the turn.
Notice the ski pole tip is also moving downhill and in a circle as much or in advance of the skis coming through the arc.
When you begin to learn how to use counteracting it may not work its way down to your hips where you see the red arrows, at first. (photo above)
This is difficult for many skiers to create hip CA due to either lack of awareness or flexibility. With practice, you can increase your hip support for your turns.
The forces in a carved turn want to rotate your torso, which decreases ski angles and edge hold. This is the reason to develop CA movements. Just trying to hold a countered hip isn't enough. Counteracting, or CA is a movement, not a position.
Begin by using the pole tip, arm, and hand on the inside of the arc, to develop your CA movements through turns. Slow down, and pick a relatively flat slope to practice this. Make the movements from the top of the arc all the way to the end. This requires effort and patience, it won't happen immediately but it will pay off with great skiing if you stick with it.