Here is my hypothesis on this thread drift. You will still want to be on the ball of your foot when the ski is weighted. The stiff flexor will help during the unweighted transition part of the turn where your heels will come up. This creates tip pressure which keeps your edges more engaged throughout the turn giving you smoother, better carved turns.John_XCD wrote: ↑Sun May 09, 2021 11:45 amAn off topic reply---
There are relatively few video examples of XCD technique out there. And maybe interesting to see if any differences with XPLORE (Johnny's review seems to suggest a change in technique). A few screenshots (which of course don't give the full context of motion).Stephen wrote: ↑Thu May 06, 2021 2:58 pmSo, since you posted that video again, I have to comment.
Top-of-mind for me was the impression that the skiers seemed to be heavy on the back ski and light on the front ski in the DH segments of the video.
The ski weighting was interesting to me.
Many of you have way more time on skies than I do.
As I was working on my DH skills last winter, It seemed there were times when “more weight on rear ski” really seemed to work. It allowed me to more easily use the lead ski as sort of a front rudder in the turn.
Once the turn was initiated, I could more evenly weight both skis.
In the video, it really seemed like the skier stayed weight back during the turn.
It seems like a conservative stance, since it allows some reserve balance, in case of unexpected deceleration.
Maybe I’m just making stuff up...
This seems to show the ball of the foot off the trailing ski. AKA "riding the bumper" on NNNBC. Generally thought to be unstable on NNNBC because the rails are unengaged and unweighted-- but perhaps more powerful on XPLORE with more robust toe connection. And with a rigid bumper may still have significant force engaged on that ski? This looks more like "heavy telemark" technique to me vs NNNBC style XCD. But maybe this type of technique has some functionality on this system.
These are more reflective of the body position that you describe- and what I have found works quite well skiing soft snow on NNNBC. The trailing foot has ball of foot engaged on the ski and is heavily weighted-- maybe even primarily engaging the turn. The rear foot is sort of tucked in under the skiers body as opposed to extended behind. It's hard to get center of gravity really low while doing this (as opposed to above). I find this type of positioning in soft/deep snow give the best control and fore/aft balance. On skinny skis in soft snow, overweighting the front ski in my experience leads to tip dive -> loss of momentum -> more weight on the front ski -> more dip dive -> face plant. This video doesn't really snow short radius turns, but I really need to focus on intentionally weighting the "inside"/"trailing" foot when transitioning between turns (on NNNBC, soft snow).
Firmer snow is totally different where you can aggressively weight the front ski to initiate a turn.
Maybe more important, this tip pressure will help those people who aren't getting enough weight on that trailing ski by getting it to turn where it otherwise wouldn't.