(Before diving in, let’s define the scope: the carving turns mentioned in this article mainly refer to medium or small turns, or when making large turns, using carve skiing at the high C phase and then switching to tail-controlled skiing during the low C phase.)
Previously, we discussed “carving” techniques (http://sns.lvye.cn/home.php?mod=space&uid=78655&do=blog&id=13076), and today we’ll talk about “carving turns.” When using carving skis (also known as big-head skis), there are basically four ways to turn: carving turns, carve-then-carve turns, carve-then-carve turns in reverse, and pure carve turns. In terms of technical difficulty, pure carve turns are the hardest, while carving turns are the easiest. In actual skiing, both of these turning techniques are essential and must be learned. Most ski instructors at resorts teach beginners how to make carving turns.
Carving turn techniques are the most widely used, and when skiing down the slopes, we need to control both our speed and the radius of our turns—this is generally achieved using carving methods. Many people can make carving turns, but accurately executing them just as you intend is not something everyone can easily do. Below, we’ll use a typical carving turn to illustrate the mechanics of carving movement and the sensation of making carving turns in real skiing.
A typical carving turn begins by engaging the edges of the skis in the first half of the C-turn, then maintaining that carved edge through the second half of the turn before shifting your weight. During the turn, skiers typically use the ski’s three axes (vertical, front-to-back, and left-to-right—see my previous post) to drive the skis. For carving turns, it’s important to fully utilize the vertical axis, giving you the sensation of rotating your feet—and this rotational movement is crucial. To facilitate foot rotation, during the weight shift, you should extend your body, meaning your center of gravity moves upward to help release pressure on the skis, making it easier for your feet to drive them (this action occurs in the neutral position, also called the transition zone). Once the transition is complete and you enter the next turn, your center of gravity moves downward—that is, you apply downward pressure, which increases pressure on the skis while you continue to rotate your feet to drive the skis, pushing snow aside as you rotate. When the skis push snow outward from the turn, it’s mainly the tails doing the pushing—that’s the tail-controlled movement.
At the moment of entering a carving turn, you should feel your thumbs hooking inward, that is, pulling toward the inside of the turn, while the heels of your feet push outward, toward the outside of the turn. The movement of the skis is as follows: the tips follow the curve of the turn, while the tails push outward, away from the curve. How do you execute this properly? After the transition, you should apply downward pressure, and at the same time, push the tails of the skis outward, away from the curve—the two actions should occur smoothly and consecutively. As you enter the turn, the outward push of the tails requires your body to adopt an outward-leaning posture (i.e., a counter-acting stance), so that once you’re in the turn, the skis can sense the resistance of the snow and maintain that resistance as you exit the carved turn.
It’s very important to note that you should not lean too far inward into the turn. From the skiing posture, it may appear that you have a certain inward angle, but this is because the skis need a certain degree of edge angle to push against the snow. The greater the edge angle, the less snow is pushed sideways during the turn (i.e., the amount of lateral snow displacement is reduced), and the more your body leans inward. In actual skiing, we control the turn radius and speed by adjusting the edge angle and the amount of snow pushed by the tails. The difference between experts and novices is that the former can skillfully control the edge angle and the amount of tail push, whereas the latter either edge too aggressively without knowing the limits or push their tails excessively regardless of the situation. To become an expert, start here: practice controlling your edge angle and the amount of tail push.
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