Glossary
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All Mountain Skiing
Venturing to ski all the terrain and snow conditions a ski resort has to offer. This would include groomed runs of all steepness, non-groomed terrain, moguls and tree skiing.
Athletic Stance
The most comfortable and energy efficient stance to ski in. In this center balanced stance, the hips are positioned above the feet, and the shoulders and head above the hips. The hands are held comfortably in front, and the feet are apart such that keeping the skis flat on the snow requires no contortion of the legs. It's a structurally aligned stance, also called stacked, that allows the muscles to relax, and the bones to resist the strong external forces that act on the body as we ski. While not a static stance that a skier never waivers from, it's a home base stance that a skier moves in and out of thorough different cycles of a turn, but always returns to when possible. This stance is only possible if the a skier's boots are properly set up to their feet and body structure.
While still potentially a center balanced stance, the hunched stance you see here employs extra flexion in the ankles, knees, and waist. When this stance is a skiers default stance, it places heavy strain on the thigh muscles.
AFT Balance
A fore/aft balance state in which all base of the foot pressure is concentrated under the heels of the feet. Aft balance directs more load to the back of the ski, which unloads the tip of the ski, causing the skis to shoot forward, ahead of the skier. It can be a useful balance state to employ at the end of the turn, to release the skis and allow them to flow freely into the new turn. It's also a good balance state to become familiar and comfortable with, for recovery skill purposes. In subtle states of aft balance, the calf will be in contact with the back of the boot, but not overly pressuring it. The more you move aft and pressure the back of the boots with your calfs, the more strongly you load and bend the back of your skis, and the more powerfully they will crank the finish of the turn and rebound through the transition.
Arc to arc
This is linking carved turns together with absolutely no pivoting, pushing, steering or twisting of the skis downhill during the transition between turns. To end one turn and begin the next, the skis are simply tipped off their uphill edges, then onto their downhill edges. When done properly, two cleanly carved sets of tracks are left behind, joined together by a moment when the skis were flat on the snow.
A means of powering a push or pivot initiation. During the transition, the upper body is kept facing down the falline, while the skis and legs are still turning across the falline. This creates a torque at the waist that can be used to rotate the skis downhill once they're unweighted and/or disengaged from the snow. This is the most energy and movement efficient way to power a downhill redirection of the skis during a transition.
Anticipation
Apex
It's the point at which you've completed half of the direction change you'll be making over the course of an entire turn. It can be at the same point at which your skis are pointing straight down the falline, as in the drawing below, but it doesn't have to be. it just depends on your orientation to the falline when the turn starts and ends. And it doesn't necessarily mean the halfway point as measured by time spent turning, as you can see in the drawing below. It only refers to the point at which half the turns direction change has been completed, regardless of the shape or placement of that turn on the slope.
