Until now, you've learned the plow techniques, including plow with parallel. Hereafter, you'll learn the continuous parallel techniques. For reasons described earlier, Pro(fessional) Ski Instruction (PSI) teaches them in a different way than the Austrian School (AS) does.
PSI first teaches the wedel techniques, on (very) easy slopes. To wedel (the English corruption of the German wedeln) means to make turns in a rather fast rhythm within a rather narrow corridor. Although the turns can be long and short (see About radius, corridor width and short and long turns), the long ones are taught first.
Wedeling can be done through:
- lower leg steering;
- upper leg steering;
- pelvis steering.
The said body parts act as the primary or first movers. Those three elementary techniques are building blocks of the more complex turning arts (see the menu as well):
- Hairpin turns: short turns within a wide corridor, an intermediate technique for (medium) steep slopes.
- Short turns within a narrow corridor, the expert technique for (medium) steep slopes. (When done in a fast rhythm, this is wedeling short turns.)
- High-speed carving.
- Skiing moguls.
- Skiing powder.
The pole planting is taught in between (see The order of the lessons for the reason). Furthermore, there are instructional pages about skiing very steep slopes and icy ones. Those do not require different techniques, but just some emphasis on certain matters and material preparation.
The order of the lessons
The order in which a number of lessons/steps are learned is interchangeable. Obviously, you should master the elementary techniques before proceeding to the more complex turning arts. But furthermore, you can do them in a different order than listed.
However, professional pole planting should be learned after one masters the leg and posture techniques. You should feel absolutely free to do it before that, but professional pole planting is a different story — for that, you need the lower body parts to move properly first, and your posture to be correct, too.
Continue to Parallel Turning, Preparation →
