Functional skiing by Niels Craenen

Functional skiing by Niels Craenen

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Functional skiing by Niels Craenen
Functional skiing by Niels Craenen
Why the inside ski should always be more dominant than the outside ski

Why the inside ski should always be more dominant than the outside ski

This is how I recommend the inner leg should move in alpine skiing.

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Niels Craenen
Jan 05, 2022
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Functional skiing by Niels Craenen
Functional skiing by Niels Craenen
Why the inside ski should always be more dominant than the outside ski
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When coaching carving ski techniques, much emphasis is often placed on loading the outside ski. My opinion is that this is mainly done indirectly by balancing against the outside ski, i.e. by unloading the inner ski. In modern carving the inner leg is much more active (and dominant) than the outer leg.

What does the inner leg do then? In addition to bending, the inside leg + the inside foot must tilt to the inside of the turn in order to increase your edge angle. This is done from a rolling movement. The tilting of the inner ski leads to the tilting of the outer ski (and not the other way round!). If you were to try to tip the skis with the outer ski first, you would get an A-frame problem in your silhouette, because the inner leg would not follow the outer leg. Parallel lower legs + optimal timing of this rolling movement guarantee that both skis have the same edge angle. The rolling of the inner ski always leads to the rolling of the outer ski.

This is Functional skiing by Niels Craenen, a newsletter about alpine skiing advice.

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Functional skiing by Niels Craenen
Functional skiing by Niels Craenen
Why the inside ski should always be more dominant than the outside ski
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