When And Why Would I Ski Rotated?

Rotation Is Usually A No No So When Do I Use It?

 

 Why would I ever want to ski rotated?

Valerie

Usually, you wouldn't.  But it does have some usefulness.  


Skiing rotated imposes a force on the skis that acts to twist them into the turn.  It's the same force applied in leg steering, the only difference being in how the force is generated.  In leg steering it's of course generated by the leg muscles.  When skiing rotated the twisting force is generated by the rotated pelvis, and the legs are just the conduit that transfers the force to the feet.   In either instance, this rotary force serves to turn the skis into a sharper turn without necessarily having to increase the edge angle. It's a handy tool to have, in addition to leg steering, for skiing a smaller shaped turn while in a taller stance.  


The other reason we need to learn to ski rotated is to prepare ourselves for higher level forms of skiing.  In higher speed, dynamic carving, we do something called skiing into counter.  When doing that we don't manually counter our hip right at the beginning of the turn.  Rather, we maintain the counter from the previous turn, which orientates our pelvis more down the falline.  We then simply wait for the turning skis to redirect under our body, thereby creating the counter needed in the new turn.  By doing that, we actually begin and ski through the first portion of the new turn rotated.  Learning to ski rotated early on in the learning curve prepares a skier to perform at that higher level later.  


And of course, there's always the whoops factor for learning to do these various skills.  We don't alway execute a turn exactly how we desire.  Sometimes we get ejected from the state of balance we were shooting for.  Sometimes our upper body gets twisted about on us.  If we develop the ability to function comfortably in any state of balance or rotation in a controlled setting, we're better equipped to perform comfortably in those various states when during regular skiing they spring upon us unexpectedly.