SWITZERLAND Swiss Technical Progression

By James Crompton

One of my favourite teams in Levi was the delegation from Swiss Snowsports - and they presented one of my favourite workshops. The title was, The Swiss Technical Progression, which focussed on explaining how they teach a similar movement sequence from beginner to expert, simplifying movement sequences for the guest.

I was really fortunate to spend a morning with Thomas Wyssmüller delivering the workshop in a very clear, engaging and simple way. The Swiss presentation/lecture, “From Snow Plough to Carving - Same Movements but Different Form and Speed” backed up their on-snow content.

 

 

 

The focuses in the snowplough turn progression moved through the following stages:

Independent bending and stretching movement of the legs (long leg / short leg)

• The Swiss lead their teaching of a snowplough with this independent extension of the outside leg and flexion of the inside leg. It moves the outside ski onto an edge and flattens the inside ski. The movements are much finer in a snowplough turn than in a carved (Aussie Pure-Carved) turn.
• They try not to put pressure on one ski or another, but try to work with the forces coming back from the snow. When the inside ski flattens, there are less forces created below, less pressure that we feel. With the ski that’s on the edge there are greater forces. This combined with the subtle turning of the feet will lead us through the turn.

 

Body centre of gravity - displacement (hips and CoM move laterally)

• The centre of mass constantly moves across the skis as a result of independent leg extension/flexion. There is never one point in the turn where we want to stay still. Instead, they promote a progressive building of the ski edge angle. Therefore the centre of mass is always moving. This is very similar to the way we encourage progressive edging in Australia.
• There is a focus on feeling the displacement at the beginning of the turn - the centre of mass moving up, forwards and down the hill. A diagonal displacement. The Swiss highlight how initiation is very important to setting up the rest of the turn.

 

    

 

Upper body - orientation (upper body faces more down the slope than the upper body after the fall line)

• The Swiss have moved away from leading with a rotation of the upper body. They are now keeping the upper body facing more downhill.
• It’s a little more difficult for children to learn. If they lead with upper body rotation, that’s fine, but we don’t teach it - because they will have to unlearn it later on. Swiss are leading with more of a lateral movement of the centre of mass caused by independent leg extension/flexion. Pedalling on a bicycle would be an analogy they could use to teach that movement to children.

 

I really enjoyed this workshop because the Swiss goal of simplicity very much resonates with our goals in the APSI, yet the focus on edging and lateral movements (rather than rotary) in order to achieve this simplicity, is very much left-field and at odds with our methodology in Australia.

 

 

External Resource

Web: Swiss Snowsports: Academy 40 - Special Edition Interski 2023 Levi