Adjusting technique to match course set

Just how often is the course set to match you particular style of turn shape?  And the technique you use to make it?   Maybe if you are a FIS racer you see more consistency with regards to how courses are set, however most of us are exposed to different styles of courses and sometimes they vary a lot from course setter to course setter.  In order to understand how to modify your technique from a tactical perspective, we need to look at some terms for describing course sets first.  The corridor is the space between the red and blue gates as you look up the course.  The width of the corridor can also be called the "horizontal offset"

 

The width of the corridor above  seems to be very cosistant all the way down, however it is important to note that sometimes the width of the corridor changes as you go down the course, especially if the pitch starts to  flatten out as you descend.  A popular way to deal with this terrain change is to decrease the width of the corridor as the slope starts to flatten out.  This makes it a little easier for racers to carry their speed as they come down onto the flats.  Another term which is also important to understand is a term called vertical offset or sometimes simplified to "offset."  This means how far apart the red and blue gates are as you go down the hill.  The vertical offset can be estimated by using your ski as a measing tool, and sliding down the hill from one gate to the next.  Horizontal offset is usually estimated by "eye,"  from looking up the hill at the width of the corridor. 

The vertical offset can also change as you down the hill.  Now that we have discussed the terms that describe how a course can be set.  We can look at what changes you might have to make to your technique in order to adapt to different course sets.  Here are some examples of ways you can adjust your technique to allow for changes in the width of the corridor. 

Wide corridor              Narrow corridor 

-more inclination          -less inclination

-more pivoting.            -less pivoting.

If your course set has a wide corridor you will have to somehow get your center of mass or body to travel across the hill more in order to be able to turn around the gates.  By either increasing the amount of inclination you use in your turn, or pivoting your feet more in your turn, you will be able to get your body to move across the hill more.  This will allow you to be able to turn around the gates in a wide corridor.  You might even find that you need a combination of both more pivoting and more inclination, depending on how the course is set.  See how both of these changes will affect your turn shape below.

That was really difficult to draw with a computer mouse, however I am trying to show the different between what the turn shapes look like.  Increasing your inclination makes more of a "zig zag" turn, where your body spends less time traveling across the hill.  Increasing the amount of inclination, will make your run faster for this reason.  With pivoting the turns have more of an "S" shape.  In this case your turns will take longer because your body spends more time traveling across the hill, resulting in a slower run.  You might even use a combination of these skills, it depends on how fast you want to travel as you descend the course.  Let's now take a look at how to adjust your technique for changes in vertical offset.  With changes in vertical offset you would adjust as follows.

Longer vertical distance (offset)                                    Shorter vertical distance (offset)

-less pivoting in the early part of the turn                           -more pivoting in the early part of the turn

-less angulation in the early part of the turn.                         -more angulation in the early part of the turn.

These changes are more difficult to explain because changing your technique based on vertical offset has more to do with the time spent in the turn as opposed to the direction which the center of mass is traveling.  I will try to explain it as best as I can.  If you have a longer vertical distance between gates you can spend much more time making your turn.  For example if you are skiing on a 19m radius ski and your gates are set 19m apart you are lucky because you have the option of just riding the arc of your ski.  However if your vertical offset decreases to 15m you aren't going to have enough time to fully ride out the arc of your ski, so you will have to shorten one of the phases of your turn in order to make the gate in time.  The easiest phase to shorten without sacrificing line or speed is phase 1 of the turn.  Instead of carving through phase one of the turn which takes time, you can make a quick pivot to set up for the next phase, or the bottom half of the turn.  The other modification you most likely will have to make is to set up for early angulation.  This is because if you pivot early in your turn, you will enter the angulation phase of the turn right away.  For this reason  you need to be set up for it as soon as possible. 

The next step is figuring out how to modify your technique based on a combination of different horizontal and vertical offsets.  I will use a couple of examples to help describe what you would do in each case.  Let's look at an example.  Let's look at what we would do if we had a narrow corridor with a short vertical offset.  Your approach in this case would be probably to look at using very little inclination with early angulation.  This will feel like your movement will be more vertical than horizontal and your hip will come down right away after you extend off your platform.  Depending on how short the vertical offset is you might even have to shorten the time you spend in your turn and add a very slight pivot at the beginning, in order to make the gate in time.  Another example would be skiing with a wide corridor and a long vertical offset.  In this case you would probably use more inclination and less angulation in the early part of the turn.  If the speed becomes an issue you could using pivoting, however it would have to progress very gradually through all parts of the turn, because you would be spending a lot more time in your turns because of the longer vertical offset.  

 Modifying your technique, to adapt to different course sets is one of the most challenging tasks an alpine ski racer faces.  For this reason they must practice variation in how they make their turn shapes when they are out free skiing.  What to use, and how much of it to use takes experience.  The key is to practice when you are out freeskiing, so it is much easier once you get in course.