A different technique?

I spent most of the season skiing on this schedule.  One third of my mileage in GS gates, one third in SL gates and one third free skiing with a technical coach.  I must admit that although I made amazing gains in my technical and tactical skills in the gates, I spent a lot of time confused by the technical information I was receiving.  It really seemed to be in conflict with mt pre-existing knowledge and my own skills.  I figured out closer to the end of the season that it is because my technical coach skis using a different technique.  I don't know whose technique is right or wrong, or even if there is a right or wrong when it comes to ski technique.  I am starting to believe there isn't.  What this has left me with thinking is if there is a difference between the technique used in free skiing and gate skiing.  Or if there is a difference between race technique and free skiing technique.  The goals of these two seem to be different.  For example in racing the goal seems to be to get to maximum speed as quickly as possible and then accelerate into each turn once maximum speed is reached.  In free skiing it seems as though the goal is to find a reasonable speed to ski at and then maintain this speed with a consistent turn shape as one descends down the hill.  I am wondering if the difference in these goals results in different technique using the same set of skills.  If a difference exists here are some of the differences that seem to stand out in my mind after this season.  With the first skill of stance and balance there seems to be a difference in fore aft position.  In free skiing the weight seems to be balanced over the center of the ski or instep of the foot.  In racing technique the fore aft position seems to shift within one turn.  The weight is balanced over the tails of the skis when the turn begins, then in transfers to the front of the skis at the beginning of the carving phase, and then as the skier progresses through the carving phase the weight shifts back to the tails of the skis again.  It is possible that this difference is because a racer might spend more time "riding the ski" than a free skier.  Riding the ski is faster because the center of mass moves with the ski and doesn't work against the forces created by gravity.  The next difference seems to be found in the amount of steering used.  In many cases when watching a free skier, you find steering (pivoting + edging) through all three phases of the turn.  This seems to be done in order to control speed.  I was able to find one example of free skiing that had minimal steering, but the skier was skiing fast on a moderate slope where there were no other skiers and optimal snow conditions.  In this case the run seemed to be more representative of GS freeskiing.  In racing turns steering seems to be almost completely absent, and if there is a direction change in a racing turn it seems to be more of a pivot (no edging) and it occurs in phase one just before the skier enters the carving phase of the turn.  In this case the skill is used more for an abrupt direction change than it is to control speed.
Another difference that seemed to stand out had to do with the lateral displacement of the center of mass.  This I found much more difficult to understand and I didn't really get a sense of this until i got the opportunity to follow my technical coach down the hill on the tails of his skiis.  Because his turn shape is much different than mine, this exercise ended up really confusing my center of mass.  This caused me to lose the edge pressure on my skiis, making it difficult for me to stay in his tracks.  What I figured out from this experience is in the difference between how the center of mass travels down the hill compared to the path of the skiis. My center of mass tends\to travel almost directly above the skiis, on a pathway just slightly inside the pathway of the skiis.  Where as when my technical coach skiis, his center of mass travels more inside the pathway of the skiis.  I felt this conflict between the two different pathways as I was trying to stay on his path.  I did some research to see if this difference occurs because there is a difference between race technique and freeskiing technique.  What I found was that it seems to be more of a personal style and it depended on a number of different factors:  terrain, course set, traveling speed, turn style etc.  My only reflection on this is that lateral displacement of the CM is personal depending on the situation.  For example i find it easier and faster to ride the ski, keeping the CM less inside the arc.  I find it faster and also easier to generate impulse from the skiis.  I also am fairly light, not very strong and ski on a FIS ski.  When I use more lateral displacement of the CM I tend to "grind the edges" and find that I don't have the core muscles required to bring my CM out of the turn and forward into the new turn.  And this slows me down.  However this is only true of moderate terrain, if I am on steeper terrain, I find that more lateral displacement is necessary to control speed.  I also find it easier to generate impulse on steeper terrain than flat terrain.  Below I have some videos that show some of the differences in technique. 

Short radius turns

Slalom turns

Flush technique

Long radius turns

GS freeskiing

I couldn't find a video to show what I mean by "riding the ski" and "grinding the edges,"  but I did find a video that shows it on a snowboard.  The video below shows what happens when the snowboarder laterally displaces his CM inside the arc, verses when he keeps it on top with less lateral displacement.  Notice the changes in turn shape and speed. 

Carving on a snowboard

I am actually hoping to get some feedback on this post because the ideas from this post came from my own experiences this year and a lot of what I said is based on things that other people have described to me when I asked them specific questions about their technique.  I am only building my technical knowledge at this point, so there are a few things that I don't fully understand about differences in ski technique.  If you have any technical knowledge on this topic, please feel free to leave a comment on this post, thanks.