SKI DRILLS
Skating
Skating promotes the transfer of weight from one ski to the other and the development of a non-skidding inside edge of your skis. Start your skating exercise on flat terrain like in the Plaza on the way to the quad. Push off from an angled, edged ski with plenty of ankle, knee and hip flexion. Glide onto the other ski and bring the new raised ski parallel to the gliding ski before your next skating step. This skating movement should move your body across the edged ski in the direction of the new gliding ski. This is a movement of your center of mass that will be present in a normal ski turn.
Now practice skating down a slight incline such as along "Sky Edge" from the quad towards the Ridge Run. As the incline steepens, allow the gliding ski to begin to carve to help control speed. Then continue the skating moves without lifting your skis off of the snow. Feel the dynamic flexion and extension with movement of your body across and away from your newly edged ski.
Here are two articles about skating which are of interest:
Skating - Part one Part two
Traverse with Flexion/Extension
Traverse on both skis while maintaining a carved edge. While in the traverse, flex your legs sufficiently to touch your boots with your hands and then extend completely. Repeat this while keeping your upper body nearly vertical so that the flexion happens in your ankles, knees and hips intead of bending over at the waist. Find an area with some uneven terrain so that the flexion/extension can correspond with the terrain changes, i.e. absorb any bumps by flexing your legs and extend them into the troughs while keeping your upper body on a level horizontal plane.
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