I was watching some slalom on OLN a while back and noticed that they use BOTH skis throughout the turn. I have some modern shaped skis (Atomic BetaRace 9.20), but still only apply about 30% of the pressure to the inside ski's edge. It looked like these racers were pressuring both skis almost equally and steering with both legs throughout the turn.

What's the current school of thought on this?

I don't know that much about current race technique, but I do know that one characteristic of more advanced skiing, particularly now with shapes, is active use of the inside foot and ski. Because the outside ski "feels" like the focal point of a new turn, developing skiers focus on use and pressuring of that ski. While a new turn always requires pressuring of the outside ski, you will find that active steering and edging of the inside ski to "lead" you into the new turn makes for much easier turn initiation and better edging on both skis throughout the turn. As far as pressure and pressure movements are concerned, remember that both are constantly changing throughout the turn. The environment will dictate the pressure experienced through the turn and what you want to do will dictate how you manage it. As you go through a turn pressure on the outside ski should be managed to get what you need but should generally be decreased as you end one turn and move to the next. Since the "inside" ski becomes the new "outside" ski and the ski you need to pressure and move from to start the next turn, it should become more "pressured" as you complete your turn. Ideally, it should all be two footed skiing, even on "Eastern packed powder". As far as what percentage of pressue is right, it depends on where you are in the turn. I will have to think about this while making some turns this weekend, but if I were to make a wild a** guess, I would say you might want to have 30 percent of your weight on the inside ski right after the start of the new turn.

Experiment with focusing not so much on weighting the inside ski but actively edging, steering and "riding" it. Get on some flat terrain, and while going slow, take a wider stance than usual and tip the inside ski up aggressively to its little toe side and see what happens. Then go out an ski what you normally do with some of the new "feelings" worked into your skiing.

BTW, when you watch the racers again, focus on three things - what they do with their feet, how wide apart their skis are and where their bellybutton goes as they ski. All this should be interesting.

[This message has been edited by Otto (edited 01-11-2002).]

Otto - Thanks for the response. I'll give your sugestions a try next time I'm on the slopes. I've given turn initiation a lot of though recently (especially the difference from old school technique to "new school" technique). I used to (when I had straighter LONG skis) initiate turns with active steering and an exaggerated up-and-down body motion (to unweight then weight the skis). I've been working on the "tipping" technique you mentioned and find that it helps me get my hips in a more angulated position. This works GREAT for more GS style turns, but when banging out quick slalom style turns, I revert to the active steering and up/down style. I guess I just need to practice more.