Improve Pressure and Balance | Escape the intermediate plateau

Are you looking to take your parallel skiing up a level. Kim Mann, PSIA instructor shows us how to start your carving journey by focussing on gradual pressure change and getting your balance point just right. These exercises will give you the platform to start arcing your ski on gentle terrain.

If you're on Carv, we've aimed this video at skiers who are hitting 100-115 Ski:IQ scores. We shared our data from this type of skier with Kim and asked her how she'd get you to the next level (115+).

More often than not we think we're balanced and over the outside ski. But what should that really feel like? Kim helps us with 3 drills that can be done with or without Carv.

If you have Carv, try doing these exercises on a moderate slope, and then watching your balance metrics, pressure, and pressure smoothness to see the effect.

So check out Kim's drills - and if you have Carv, combine them with the outside pressure monitor and you'll improve your parallel turns in no time.

What is Carv?
Carv is an ultra-thin sensor that fits in any ski boot. It coaches you with an app that analyzes your technique - we've pulled out app screens, shown in the video.

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Timecodes:
0:00 - Introduction to levelling up
0:40 - Carv metrics to target
1:10 - Introduction to the drills
1:40 - Drill 1: Counting your turns
4:29 - Drill 2: Toppling
9:48 - Drill 3: Fore:aft balance
13:01 - Putting it all together

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Skiers:
Kim Mann, PSIA Level 3 instructor
Resort: Aspen, Co, USA
Music Licensed: MB01KDCK4QDJKMN

[jackjmaheriii]

I’m blessed with a lot of power, and when I was young water skiing taught me that all a high power frame gets you is the ability to mask bad habits longer. Now I’m in my middle years, I’m raising a snow skiing family, and I’m really thankful for this channel. I ski greens and blues all day, I try to smart using the techniques taught here, and save the horsepower for when the wife and kids need lifted out of deep powder. And sometimes sneak in a few diamonds at the end of the day. This channel is definitely worth a follow!

[billgraham]

OK Kim, I'm skiing solo tomorrow, and I'm dedicating a good 2-3 hours to these drills and then free skiing the rest of the day. Looking forward to trying this out.

[robinwhitelaw]

I think this was a good effort to help intermediate skiers learn how to carve. That said, as a fellow instructor, I understood the skills that each drill was trying to work on but found it hard to understand how these skills should be applied to an actual turn. The best example was the w turns to teach fore and aft pressure control. I wasn't able to understand what feelings I should be experiencing and where in a carve turn they should show up. Also toppling was mentioned (which can be referred to as inclination) but done so in combination with rolling ankles and knees to engage and disengage edges. For me this was confusing.

Carving is an experiment of how to blend toppling (inclination) with angles (created by rolling ankles and tipping knees towards the center of the turn along with hip angulation) to keep our weight balanced on the outside ski. Carving is about how much you can topple/incline (that creates the most edge angle for carving) and still stay balanced on the outside ski (using ankles, knees and hips to create a banana shape in your body that moves your center of mass, which is close to your belly button, back towards the outside ski ... so you don't have to prop yourself up on your inside leg/ski). There are lots of videos out there that go into this in some detail ... and ... explain the design of the ski and why it MUST be tipped up on a fairly high edge angle before it will carve ... unless you just want to carve very long radius turns on a very gentle slope (doing "railway tracks") ... which can't be done on steeper runs because you end up going too fast.

Anyway, lots of great videos out there to watch and carving is a huge amount of fun ... and worth learning!

[hgvbabe]

Enjoy watching your video. It is helping me a lot for turning. ❤thank you very much

[bradmorden]

Excellent. Love Ferrari Porsche analogy and love language for teaching intermediate skiers with simple and effective language “ tip boot cuff into hill””

[joesalemi]

Great instruction. This is the first time I saw a number associated with skier IQ. This instruction was to bring a skier to the 115 level. It would be helpful to see an actual 115 skier at the end of this video or even at the beginning.

[lesliearwin]

Clear demos, I like the demos of doing it wrong too.

[carlsmith]

Great video… I’d like to see when I’m teaching railroad tracks. I start with them concentrating more on the outside skis or I have them have their skis, separated a little bit more like shoulder width… I love the gum thing!!!

[Steph-iwhr]

Hi Kim, nice video very interesting will think about it for next season
I am in alps Les Arcs resort

[Cameron-uelu]

Thank you! This is the first time I am hearing the term "extension", referring to the uphill ski. I've been looking everywhere for this. In other videos the focus is weight on the downhill ski to edge the carve. Yet, I've still not understood whether the extension is just a natural result of the reduced weight of the uphill ski or there is a conscious effort to extend the uphill ski. Help! :)

[jajam]

Congratulations great video thank you, nice lesson.

[jfd]

Can anyone help me to identify the exact mountain / resort for these videos?

[maksimgelmud]

0:43 Directions not clear… haven’t stopped edging.

[get_it]

when we re carving in a good quality snow track and suddenly hit a patch of ice in the snow, i few i get destabilized, is there a way to counter that and deal with sudden patches of icy snow? sorry if my comment doesnt make a lot of sense, im from brazil and am only an average skier, but this is a feeling i get when im doing these kind of turns

[gamesmusic]

If I have a custom insole, what should I do in regards to using Carv? Remove the insole and use the thin one which came with the boot or not use any insole at all?

[otitan]

As a long-time expert skier, I still cringe and second guess my abilities when I look down a double black diamond+ run.

[martigarcia]

How do you get that info? Is that an app?

[Rodolfowei]

i'm still unsure, how good the tracking is, I'm getting consistent 135-140 IQ runs with peaks now of 148. But on the videos i don't look that good, have to try the video coach funktion.

[justinrfogarty]

I wonder if you are a bit too much in the back seat and your ankles do not have enough tension at the initiation because of your posture. The skis are not hooking up early.

[forensic]

Try doing those lessons on puny ice covered east coast slopes, lol.