6 Key Skiing Drills for CARVING, Part 1

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00:00 Intro
00:37 What this video is about
02:06 Key Ski Fundamentals
02:31 Drill #1 - Patience at the top of the turn
06:40 Allow the skis to accelerate, control speed by turn shape
07:19 Drill #2 - Lift inside ski at the top of the turn
09:09 Understanding the Progression 1
09:36 Keep the inside ski light, also at higher speed
10:20 Don't sit down to the back and inside
11:38 Understanding the Progression 2

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[piotrfic]

This is so a great video, thanks a lot! This and last season I worked on increasing edge angles and it seems that I found too many tips (eg. toppling, lowering hip, flex/extend...) that took my attention from the basics and trusting my feelings. As result, I realized that I ski worse, over flexed, leaning with my hips and upper body on the inside leg... I'm looking forward to my end-season ski trip to have more time to practise and return to solid foundations. Servus!

[Michaeljhrobinson]

Level 2 CSIA instructor here. This is the best carving video on the internet. It's the one I tell my students to watch before the lesson I teach them to carve.

[gogglebro]

Kraus, I appreciate how you bundle the skills, drills, and then the movement analysis based upon basic ski fundamentals in such a clear and concise fashion. Best for me was the analysis of the visual cues of skiers having too much pressure on the inside, instead of the outside, ski and how it impacts turn shape.

[MrDHCuthill]

Klaus. This is really good. Especially "patience at the top of the turn", and "lifting the inside ski" drill.
Plus, you dismissed the current fashion by some instructors for "toppling", which is nothing more than teaching people to fall inside.

[vincenzorossi]

Yes, the basics give me the confidence to gradually perform the drills to achieve my goals. Once again Klaus, you lead by example and instruct clearly to all levels.

[markgent]

Great Video Klaus, reinforces the basics and fundamentals of your Sofa classes. Thanks for solving my Disco arms turn initiation. Pretty sure I still mentally check off Quiet, patient, finish on every turn... Face the Danger also a favourite!

Would love to see another video with some ghosting/shadowing which I found really helpful in comparing body positioning between a 10 day a year skier and 200 days a year instructor (thanks Andy) and helps temper expectations too.

[philipcarson]

Thanks for this tutorial!! Perfect description of how to ensure your turns are calm and clean. I began to feel this patience last week in val d when I realised a bit of fear caused me to rush the start. Once I implemented your suggestions and let the ski engage and wait for it to do its work it’s incredible how much more secure you feel all thru the turn. Fantastic.

[cammckechnie]

Fantastic Klaus….great skiing, great info and great drills, will set me up well for some skiing in Feb/March 2022 👍🙏

[paulwhetstone]

Thanks for the very clear explanation of making cleaner medium radius carving turns on steep and less steep fall lines by feeling the the outside edge.

[colleenhull]

This was awesome! Thank you so much for explaining so clearly.

[robbjornson]

Super video - breaking the turn down into clear phases and explaining how to get things set up correctly. Also love that you are pointing out how to correct common mistakes!! Thank you!!

[kikocan]

This is great video which clears out lots of things, you explained everything very well and in a way that each skier from different levels can easily understand. Thank you Klaus

[dwishere]

Best explanation on the motivation of the 'lift inside ski' drill I've seen!

[liujwable]

Great tutorial. At 5:30 you mentioned to lean forward from a bit backward. That took me so long to realized. Can't wait to see your part 2 of this.

[Skur]

Awesome!
Can’t wait to take these exercises to the next slope runs!

[sandorvermes]

When I heard "if you have the feeling of getting stuck on the edge or being afraid of carving on steeper slopes this video is for you" I knew already that it certainly is! Yes, I'm cheating quite often on less steep slopes with the centrifugal force, while I'm being back (more pressure on heels than soles), and falling back on the inside ski because of too much "sporty looking", in fact in these cases just forced inclination. Instead of 1 ->2 ->3... Of course, then I'm being afraid on steeper slopes: falling back onto the inside ski can easily lead to a diverse motion of both skis, which is: uhhh... not good... This - lack of confidence - leads then often to forced, shortened turns... This is again a lesson at your usual level: comprehensive, still kept simple, to the point, duly illustrated. Many thanks, I'm heading already to the second part: it is already available for members on your homepage, isn't it? ;)

[justinrfogarty]

What I really like about this is that too many people try and power the top of the turn by committing the hip too early as you said. The hip gets reversed .This limits the range of movement .This results in a static position that works on easy groomers but not on steeper terrain. With this hip dumping technique when the the slope starts to get steep the skier has to default to the inside ski. The feeling they get is a chattering outside ski and the turn shape is not round but is cut off. Z turns. There is no flow from turn to turn. So the idea of being patient is super because the edges engage early by using the feet to engage the edge and waiting patiently and then use the movement of the hips forward over the the base to first establish the correct balance. Then you have a chance to play with progressive edge angles by rolling the stacked and balance hips to the inside through turn the apex. What I like is your use of picking up the inside ski tail. This shortens the inside leg. This move causes the skier to have better balance over the outside ski and because the leg is longer allows the skier to move inside at the apex because the shortened leg has created the space to move inside. The leg getting longer is a cause of good balance not trying to artificially create it too early by the hip dumping approach. One last point is that as you move that inside ski tail up and over you also create ANKLE TENSION. By showing the hips moving forward and over the feet. This is super because this keeps you in balance at the beginning of the turn and the balance and ankle tension allows the ski tips to bight early. In the video of your amateur, someone dumping the hip too early, this early hip dumping puts them on their heels at the beginning of the turn and thus they cannot establish proper balance at the Initiation to make the progressive patient edge angles you show. I also want to thank you for your comment on diffusing the idea of toppling which is being promoted by some of our friends in the Southern Hemisphere. As you said this does not work on steep slopes and only results on falling to the inside ski. It results in moving the mass away from the outside ski which is the very ski that we are trying to balance on. Thank you so much for all of your hard work on this.

[tckh]

Great video, and very accurate description about the psychology, thanks!

[andyliu]

Hi nice video. Where is the part 2 ? I could not find it in your channel. Thanks

[Capo]

Danke sehr👍. Very thorough, tested presentation. ✌️. Even skiers with experience on carving will learn from your advice. Thank you for sharing!