If you’ve been trying to crank up your edge angles without much luck, you’re probably making one of three common mistakes that Olympic gold medalist and ski legend Deb Armstrong, working with Carve, broke down in her recent ski tutorial video. The good news is that she’s offerecd several practical drills to fix the issues.
The first frequent mistake is going for inclination at the top of the turn before establishing an edge. The White Pass turn gets blamed here a lot, taught as a recovery move from 1982 when skis were long and straight. Today’s shaped skis can carve the top of the turn on their own, but only with early edge engagement. Armstrong’s fix is a downhill skating drill where you roll the ski onto its edge like a duck walk and let the sidecut do the work.
The second mistake is excessive hip counter, which puts your back hip over your heel and prevents you from driving into the shovel of the ski. Threading your poles around your hips as a reminder to square up fixes this fast. The third common mistake is hip dumping, which can get you to a high edge momentarily but kills your connection to the outside ski. The two drills above address this directly.
Edge angle has to be built from the feet up, not grabbed at by throwing your body sideways. If you use these drills, you should be able to fix that.
