Are you afraid to rotate through your offside turn? The the one tip I every slalom skier should try!

[ROBOT]

[DavidN]

One term stuck with me there. It was in one of my coaching sessions I had with Austin Abel a few years ago. - “Closing the door”

Made a huge difference to my skiing.

That’s basically what Rob is promoting in his video.

[lpskier]

Thank you. I cringe when someone says to keep the shoulders open to the boat at the finish of the turn.

[jhughes]

Was that a Wade Williams reference in that photo mosaic? Upper left?

 

Glad this is acceptable practice. I think it's key to highlight that this is different than "turning with the shoulders". Note "the hips are the driving force of slalom" as Rob said so that's the foundation upon which this rests. Don't "turn with" the shoulders if your hip game is not up to par.

[RGilmore]

Cale Burdick made a YouTube video promoting this technique nearly a decade ago, right around the height of the open-shoulders-100%-of-the-time era of conventional skiing wisdom. His point was presented more along the lines of the age old "hide the back shoulder" concept, but the reasoning and end result were the same.

 

For those who don't recognize the name, Burdick is no slouch.

 

[ToddL]

A skier who arrives at a buoy later than desired is more likely to rush the finish of the turn. Many skiers try to rush or pre-initiate the finish with their shoulders while typically also not balanced on the ski or with butt/hips behind them. That type rush to finish causes a broken stack. Those skiers typically found keeping shoulders down course longer resisted the broken stack. However, that action is an attempt to fix a symptom, and not a best practice by itself. I believe that is how this keeping shoulder down-course approach became promoted. It was a crutch.

 

In other words, skiers who are balanced into the turn and who allow the ski to complete the turn will not need to keep the shoulder down course beyond the apex.

 

I was also coached to think about my front knee as a focus for finishing the turn. The ski pretty much goes where the front knee is pointed. The hips can help that knee point to an aggressive line out of the turn. As noted in Rob's video, the hips can be hindered by the shoulders. The point was to have a bottom up focus. I think that is still key. Thus, closing the door is less about forcing the turn using the shoulders and more about not having the shoulders prevent the hips from moving around fully.