Need some carving training tips for an intermediate softbooter

[Guest]

I'm coaching my fiance how to "carve like I do" - her heelside is excellent, I honestly couldn't do it better in softboots. She is goofy (both in stance and in nature). She has no issue exiting toeside, going perpendicular to the fall line, and then "flipping" edges onto heelside and riding the arc around in a nice "Norm II" carve.

The problem emerges when she goes from exiting heelside, perpendicular to the fall line, into toeside. I noticed that she doesn't engage the toe edge until she's pointed down the fall line. If there's any edging before that it's sliding (kind of like a racer's drift turn into a carve). Once she is pointed down the mountain she's fine on toeside.

I want to help her get comfortable with "flipping" the edge from heelside to toeside, then riding the toeside arc all the way around in a nice "C". I would like to eliminate the drifting she's doing.

From what I've observed, I think 80% of this is fear - she's simply afraid that she'll eat it if she puts the toe edge down. I explained to her she's doing the same thing on heel and the edge doesn't catch so long as your speed across the trail is greater than the speed down the trail, but each time I see her go for the toeside I can see the hesitation and the fear, and by that time she's pointed down the fall line and it engages.

I've explained to her The Norm, and she knows what to do conceptually...but she is having a lot of trouble beating the fear. I would greatly appreciate any tips, insight, analogies, metaphores, or really anything I could use to help her get over that fear of "flipping edges"?

We're working on a blue slope, nothing crazy.

Thanks in advance!

[teach]

I had the same thing. For me the fear factor depends on the board. What that probably means is the particular setup. I think it has to do with how I rode in softboots. I think going from a heelside into a toeside, I relied on twisting the board to get the nose to engage early. I am not sure why I would do this, but I think I still tried to do it on an alpine board and the very torsionally stiff ones just won't play nicely -- a few cartwheels get the BACK OFF message through, and then toesides become veeery gentle, so you pick up lots of speed and burn up lots of trail, then have to really have a great toe-to-heel transition to get back around before you are in the rocks.

I am mostly over that, I think, and what helped was a tip JBS gave me, to the effect of initiating with your back foot and (the part to keep in mind when riding) bring the back knee down to the snow.

I also encountered some setup issues that affect this. But I have weird joint alignment so not sure much of that would be relevant. Possibly more heel lift, to make the initiation start from a better position (so it's quicker), or less inward canting in the back.

Finally, narrow trails, crowds, and bad conditions cause me to revert to bad soft-boot "defensive riding" habits, like the straight back leg braced for an emergency skid. Just got back from all three at Stratton Sat-Sun-Mon and it took quite a few runs on Raceway yesterday (nearly empty, great snow, pretty good grooming, comparatively speaking at least) to work that out of the system.

[Guest]

I hear ya - She's been having the issue for a while, which is why I'm finally asking around on here. I've eliminated crowds, narrow trails and bad conditions as factors over the course of the last few weeks (deserted wide blue trail with plenty of "crash padding" powder). Even in the powder with little risk of injury she was having problems. I almost want to tell her to reach for the snow on toeside, because I feel like that's a safety blanket we use when we first start learning, so that if we fall we're already...on the ground... but then of course you have to "unlearn" the reaching for the snow.

I didn't think that maybe her equipment/setup is preventing a quick transition. During the heel to toe transfer I definitely see hesitation and some "fighting," I've taken it for fear, but maybe she can't engage toe fast enough?

[teach]

The fear can take a while to overcome. Have her imagine cranking her back knee down every time, and try to exaggerate this more and more so she sees the effect it has. I still have to remind myself of this whenever I've reverted to bad habits. One more thing is to start the run so the first turn (a throwaway since there's not really enough speed and it starts pointing down the fall line) is toeside, then her good heelside will take her into the situation she wants to work on with the right speed. Turn all the way back uphill on toeside, then repeat from a stop. Once she's gained confidence here (takes a while for me), then start linking them up. As soon as speed is too much, turn all the way uphill and start from a stop.

[J0hn]

I dealt with this exact same issue for 2-3 years. I caught my toeside edge in some bumps and got catapulted forward. After that the fear was always in the back of my mind even though I KNEW the edge would hold me. I did everything I could think of to MAKE myself dive into the toeside turn, but I just couldn't get myself to commit. What finally worked for me was doing laps on an empty green slope. I wasn't even thinking about my turns, just riding. At one point I realized that I was staying low in my transition from heel to toe and there was no hesitation at all. Previously I had been over thinking it and tensed up whenever I got to a toeside transition. But the green slope was so gradual, I naturally fell into proper technique without the fear because I wasn't thinking about it. Good luck.

[Beckmann AG]

Most 'time delay' toe side initiation problems have their origin within the means by which a rider engages and maintains their excellent heel side edge.

I.E., While there is more than one way to skin a cat, if you use a chainsaw, you'll be left with more pulp than pelt.

More often than not;

1. There is too much weight on the lead heel, so the tail wants to drift.

2. The rider has created, and/or is maintaining edge grip by sitting to the inside of the turn. Kinda hard to get to the toe side quickly when so much is invested in the opposite direction.

Until the instability inherent to ( 1) has passed, or until the board approaches the fall line as in (2), the rider will show hesitancy in moving to the toe side edge without 'drift'.

As well they should.

(Particularly in a case where you are teaching a loved one, fear, or the illusion thereof, is something that should be respected; not brushed aside.)

Advise that heel side edge contact should be found at toe side exit with the feet prior to 'sitting in', and with a slight bias toward the rear heel rather than the front. That should lead to a more centered relationship throughout the arc, and solid footing from which to depart.

Also suggest that any 'sit' be gradually 'undone' in advance of turn exit. As an e.g., stand evenly over both feet while stationary on the flats, and make note of the vertical relationship of the hips to shoulders and feet. Odds are they will be stacked one atop the other. Find that relationship as a means of heelside edge release and all should be shiny.

If the rear binding is set negative, tend to that asap. Also ensure that the bindings are not offset to the heel side.

[OhD]

Steer the board to where you want it to be with respect to the body, rather than thinking about positioning your body over the board. You can vary the angulation of the board WRT the snow without having to move your whole carcass in a rotary movement about the longitudinal axis of the inch or two of board width you are perched upon. (think about it - how often are you making a turn from even the wide platform of a flat base?). Get comfortable steering the board with little ankle/knee movements. Start with little wedel turns (squiggles) on easy slopes, then progress to big arcs with little squiggles superimposed at will, then gradually pick up the pace and intensity of the turns while always having the board make the quick moves and do the hard work. Try to just let the body sail smoothly along in nice arcs while the board fidgets and scurries along below like a waiter carrying a big tray of dishes. As you get the hang of it and get up to reasonable speed, it takes less fidgeting and adjustment mid-turn and pretty soon you are finishing one turn nearly weightless as the board crosses beneath your body to engage the new edge right where it needs to be to gently catch your hurtling meat and divert it toward the next turn. (The gentle catches and weightless transitions are averaged out to fairly hard work by the stiff radial force you have to apply to keep your carcass from becoming one with the deck mid-turn).