Swing (ski)

The swing is the basic movement pattern in skiing and snowboarding , also limited in cross-country skiing , and describes the change of arches that snow sports enthusiasts use their sports equipment.

Driving across or diagonally to the slope is called a diagonal drive. The incline is basically an arc to the slope with a very large radius. From this point of view, the mountain ski is the inner ski of this elongated arch. The trip in the fall line to the valley called schuss. This is arc-neutral. Turning from the incline or from the weft to the slope is therefore not a change of arc, so no swing, but just a hold. Only the change of arc from an incline (i.e. from an arc to the slope) to the fall line and beyond that to the opposite incline is a swing.

The actual swing of skiing is therefore called the valley swing (change of direction into the fall line of the slope and beyond), the mountain swing is simply the swinging down to a standing position (against the slope to stand still). On flat terrain, one generally speaks of swinging down for a stop while skiing.

Basics

The change of direction while skiing enables both speed control and control of the ride. The speed of the skier is determined, among other things, by the slope. An alpine snow sports enthusiast moves towards the valley according to the downhill force. The influence of this acting force can be influenced by the skier by steering his drive from the fall line . The ride in the fall line is called a shot ride. Here the skis are used on the surface and not on the edges. Every ride on the edges is a curve because of the sidecut of the skis. So the ride across or at an angle to the fall line, the diagonal ride, is in principle an arc to the slope with a very large radius. The ride in the fall line, on the other hand, the shot ride is arc-neutral. The change of direction from the fall line to a ride across or at an angle to the fall line is not yet a swing. The momentum only arises when the bow is changed. For the swing, the athlete must first bring the sports equipment into the fall line from the incline and then bring it out of the fall line again. For the division of the turns it is important to note that the incline is basically an arc and that the mountain ski is the inner ski of this arc.

The goal of getting around on skis and snowboards is to cope with situations. Snow, terrain, the chosen track and the speed are just a few factors to which the skier reacts when driving.

Swing techniques in skiing

There are the following basic swing techniques in skiing:

Telemark turn

The telemark bow , which is actually not a swing, but just an arc from the fall line, was the first technique in history. The Norwegians used this bow in two forms. Both forms have in common that the ski on the outside of the curve is placed in front as a stem ski, while the ski on the inside of the curve runs straight and is adjusted. The knee of the inside leg is strongly bent. In the Nordic template telemark, the stem ski in front is loaded, while in the Nordic Kauer telemark the next inner ski is the loaded downhill ski. Today telemark turns are also lined up for telemark turns, whereby both forms of telemark are combined with each other in this telemark turn. Driving telemark is made easier by open-heel bindings, i.e. telemarking , cross-country skiing and the tie after the telemark landing during ski jumping.

Snake swing

The snake turn was the first alpine ski turn. Mathias Zdarsky from Lower Austria developed it in the 1890s after designing a ski binding that was stable on the side .

The snake swing is based on three central discoveries by Zdarsky, which contradicted Norwegian technology:

• Firstly, that when initiating the turn (the change of arc) the loaded skiing ski must be placed flat with a template so that it can be pulled into the valley by gravity.
• Secondly, in order to achieve this flat spot, you have to push yourself off the edge of the ski so that you can boldly tip your upper body forward onto the other side of the skis (downhill), which also causes flat spots.
• Thirdly, that in untracked snow the unloaded stem ski has the function of pushing the ski even more into the curve. If the unloaded downhill ski is chiseled out, then the driving ski (the mountain ski), which due to its sidecut already turns an arc uphill, is pushed even more uphill, which reduces the arc radius.

Mathias Zdarsky called this skiing with loaded mountain skis in the down position (with unloaded downhill skiing). On the other hand, he described skiing with parallel skis and loaded downhill skis as inclined skiing.

If you now lift the unloaded mountain ski uphill backwards in an incline and lay the downhill ski (the downhill ski) flat with your body forward, then the loaded downhill ski will be pulled down the front by gravity and pushed even more into the curve by the mountain ski that has been pushed uphill. The downhill ski drifts downhill on the edge of the big toe over the fall line and then becomes the loaded inner ski (mountain ski) of the new arch in a new caulking position. This arc change is later also found in the reuel swing (with rolling of the body) and in the royal swing (king swing), which, like the arc change in Zdarsky, was driven with twisting in the hip joint of the leg.

Mathias Zdarsky called his snake swing a "rapid change of stemming position while driving". Zdarsky already has two types of bow changes: on the one hand, away from the mountain ski and, on the other hand, away from the valley ski. If you - on a groomed slope, skiing on only one ski - lined up one arch after the other and swung your free leg forward when changing from the arch on the edge of the little toe to an arch on the edge of the big toe of the same ski, with the next one Change from the arch on the big toe to an arch on the little toe when the free leg in front swings back again, then one can clearly see the two edge changes that are essential for the snake's swing.

The change in strength in the foot requires more courage from the skier to implement the necessary forward lean downhill: while in telemarking you fall sideways on the outer shoulder, in leaning you risk falling forward onto your face (the "cardboard star"). This prompted Mathias Zdarsky to simplify the problem in his methodical teaching path of semicircular turns (the change of arc from a horizontal incline to the opposite, also horizontal incline):
In the incline (the downhill ski is a simulated driving ski), one first switches to the mountain ski and takes a cambered position. Then the mountain leg is stretched in the prying position and the body leans downwards with forward lean, which flattens the skis and brings the tips together. Both flattened skis now drift in an angular position down the valley into the forced tack position, in which the body faces the valley head-on. In this position, the mountain ski has already crossed the fall line while drifting downhill and, as a new outer ski, is already pointing in the new direction of travel. The other ski (the former downhill ski) has not yet crossed the fall line and is still in the old direction of travel across the fall line. It is therefore now switched to the ski, which is still perpendicular to the fall line and flattened, and the ski on the outside of the curve is now unloaded. The change of the caulking position is now complete. Now the ski on the inside of the curve drifts down the front of the slope over the fall line. The skier has already reached the caulking position from which he could join the new semicircle turn away from the loaded mountain ski. If he does not want this, then he lets the skis come together and switches to the downhill ski for inclined skiing.
In this way, the snake swing is created by constantly changing the stalking position while driving. This driving in the template was the fundamental basis of all swing techniques until the late 1970s, then the pivot point was increasingly shifted to the rear foot, which is only possible with plastic shell ski boots (until then the much softer leather ski boot was used), and also the modern one Requires security binding.

Today the caulking has lost its function of supporting the arch. The snake swing is therefore only realized as a show effect. When realized in a crouch, it looks like a rhythmic Cossack dance and has been given various new names, e.g. B. Bracket swing. The Zdarsky technique can also be implemented with parallel ski guidance (without chiseling out) and today's carving skis:
If you switch to the new inner ski before the fall line and after a short drift, turn around before the fall line, you will initially get into a vertical carving in a wide arc away from the fall line. If, on the other hand, you drift on the predominantly or fully loaded inner ski to the fall line, then pick up speed in this (in one shot) and only then cant, then it comes to horizontal carving, which (depending on the speed, waist of the skis, inner position of the body and generating a friction factor by reaching into the snow at the center of the curve) can be expanded to a curve uphill, up to a full circle of 360 degrees.

Plow swing

The plow is a simple technique in which the skis are permanently held in a V-shape (" snow plow " driving; recently also called "pizza slices" or "pizza slices" for children). When the load changes from valley to mountain ski, its edges grip, the skier makes a curve, the loaded mountain ski becomes an outdoor ski and then a valley ski.

As plow momentum can be described quickly lining up plow arches. This is also called plow wagging, which can be expanded for angle jumping with high relief. Plowing leads to unfavorable stresses on the joints and can only be used at low speeds in flat terrain. Today the plow is only used for basic courses to get to know the game of loading and unloading the outer and inner skis. In addition, by changing the plow angle, the ski student gains a feeling for the connection between edge use and speed as well as for the rhythm of skiing.

Stem turn (Stemmbogen, Kristianiaschwung)

The stem arc is an arc in which the following stem ski is loaded, which means that the bow is driven in the stem position on the outer ski. The stem ski is also the driving ski here. This stem arc is therefore to be distinguished from the above-mentioned stem skiing by Mathias Zdarsky, in which the following stem ski is unloaded in the stem position and the presented inner ski, in inclined skiing the mountain ski, is the loaded ski.

The stem turn is the change of curve from the diagonal travel (from the curve to the slope) to the fall line in the opposite stem curve. The athlete lifts the unloaded ski on the inside of the curve (the mountain ski) to initiate the turn (mountain lift). After the load change on the chiselled mountain ski (now the driving ski), the now unloaded valley ski (now the ski on the inside of the curve) is pulled up again (chiseled in). This swing is also only used in the ski school for didactics.

The Kristiania bow is a sharp tie with an inner layer. The unloaded inner ski is pulled in from the caulking position on the following stem ski (as a driving ski), placed in front and then also or even fully loaded, which leads to sharp braking or stopping.

Parallel swing

In parallel turns , also known as speed turns, the athlete glides around the curves with almost parallel skis. First of all, the skis are bent during the run (reduction of the angle between the ski and the slope) and, as a result, the tips of the ski drift inwardly down the valley. An edge change is then initiated by tilting the body inwards, while pressure is exerted on the ski via the binding. As a result, the rear part of the ski drifts outwards and completes the cornering. The central element of the parallel turn is the simultaneous turning of the parallel skis and the change of load on the outer ski in the fall line. The use of poles occurs at the beginning of Skidrehung. In the course of time, variants with extreme and those with low pole use have been developed. The parallel turn can be preceded by high or low relief, but this is not necessary on a groomed slope, as the actual turn is triggered by bending and tilting the body or a torque reaction ("hip bend").

The parallel swing was invented by Anton Seelos from Seefeld , who triumphed at world championships with this innovative technique from the early 1930s. As a coach for the German and French national teams, he laid the foundation for their Olympic and world championship titles from 1936.

Even today, the parallel turn is the basic technique for steep slopes, mogul slopes and deep snow as well as for immediate stopping. In the 1980s, the monoski was briefly popular as an early trend sport , in which the parallel technique was fundamental, because you can only ski with a game of drifting and changing edges.

Transfer swing

The Umsteigeschwung is in the plow method , the precursor of the parallel turns. The athlete supports the stringing of parallel turns to short turns by changing the load on the respective outer ski (transfer). Strict changes are made by lifting the unloaded ski, which means that direction control and balance are only possible using the outer ski. From a didactic point of view, a transfer turn is the preparation for the parallel turn, in which the ski is reloaded without loosening it from the ground. In the 1950s, Stefan Kruckenhauser developed the aesthetic wagging with leg play on this path on the Arlberg from the stringing together of plow arches (with imprint-accentuated changes and angle jumping).

In the 1970s, a transfer technique based on parallel turns replaced waving in slalom sport , because it allows you to ski much more aggressively and the change in load on the outer ski is much faster by simply lifting the inner ski than by moving the torso. This transfer no longer takes place from the plow technique, but from the parallel technique and requires precise repositioning, precise use of the edges and, due to the load only on the outer leg, a lot of force - in the execution the swing makes a kink in the transfer, from the radius of the inner ski to the new one Outdoor skis. Until the switch to carving , the switch was the status of racing technology.

When carving , the change in load can also be initiated or accelerated by lifting the inner ski, i.e. by changing.

Switch

A different principle is followed by the scissor transfer, where you first switch to the mountain ski in a curve and then, as in Zdarsky's snake turn, away from the mountain ski with a one-legged turn. When switching skis, which is driven according to the principle of Mathias Zdarsky and not according to the plow principle, it is therefore not a switch turn, but an inner ski turn that is driven in a very similar way to how it dominates today in modern ski racing with the carving technique.

Fronds

The fronds was considered high art of skiing in the 1970s until the advent of carving. With the rhythmic stringing together of the Stemmkristiania developed by Hannes Schneider , attempts were made in the 1920s on the Arlberg to approach the snake swing to Zdarsky. This developed rhythmic swing was called in Tyrolean waving . In his illustrated and rhymed ski primer published by Rowohlt Verlag in Berlin in 1933 , Hubert Mumelter wrote : “The Arlbergers still refine the Stemmkristiania in 'Wedeln'. Above all, it is used for slalom, as it is called in the ski idiom. "

Parallel wagging, i.e. directly juxtaposed short turns with a calm upper body based on the parallel turn invented by Toni Seelos , was already used by ski racers at the beginning of the 1950s when the course setting required it. This can be seen as a stylistic forerunner of what was later referred to as the "high school of fronding".

In the 1950s, the ski esthete Stefan Kruckenhauser , who is active on the Arlberg and is often cited as the inventor of wedging, had already developed wingling from plowing in the ski instructor training he led . The plow change is initially converted into an angle jump, from one outer ski to the other outer ski, by a particularly strong impression from the respective outer ski . In the next phase, attention is paid to the fact that during the high relief the coming landing leg - in a kind of step change - is guided backwards in the air, which then causes a twisting in the hip joint of the landing leg during landing - because the arched shoulder is in the arch. Change is always turned forward, so that the upper body always looks head-on into the valley. The skis change from one side to the other like a windshield wiper - under an upper body that appears to be motionless. In the arch itself, the inner ski, the inner hip and the inner shoulder are in front. The heels, on the other hand, are pressed in an arch to the outside of the arch, while the hips on the outside of the arch press backwards in the arch towards the slope. Counter-twisting out of a twisted hip joint was then referred to as leg play .

The step to the actual weaving (in a parallel turn) is then completed by always holding both skis together, and then only changing a small step (with: "half shoe forward!") In the high relief. The sticks only swing loosely and mark the pivot point more than they serve to support. Overall, despite the high swing frequency, the result is an extremely calm and elegant, power-free and relaxed driving pattern that gains its turning energy and control of the driving speed from swinging back and forth. In addition to free driving, the style has also developed the alpine racing slalom enormously.

The Swiss Josef Dahinden then further developed the Arlberger Wedeln with his torso-twisting Mambo , since a faster frequency could be achieved with the Mambo style than with the leg game.

Jump over

Jumping is a technique for difficult terrain, both skis are freely implemented in parallel in the jump and must immediately be loaded correctly when landing. Support through double-decker use , so jumping is also possible from a standing start. The technology is used, regardless of the material, in open terrain, i.e. touring skiing , variant skiing and extreme skiing .

Jet swing (hot dogging)

The jet swing is a swing technique of the mogul slope skiing of the 70s, extreme stress on the ski end by lying back in an almost sitting position. The skier no longer turns over the ski center in the area of ​​the binding, but only the ends of the ski. There is no change of load or edge in the turn, the power for the turn comes from being catapulted upwards from the ski before turning. The rhythm comes from the waving technique, but takes on an enormous pace due to the mogul slope. In addition, you get away from driving in the template for the first time. In the days when this swing technique was modern, the shafts of the ski boots with the jet support on the calves reached a height of just under the knee. Extreme double-deck use was common, so that sometimes people only jump around.

From the fact that jumping figures in the swing were also possible, trick skiing developed first on the slopes in the 80s , then ski ballet and skiing in the halfpipe , where the power is gained from the pipe flanks. That is why the name hotdogging ('[driving like a] hot (wild) dog'), which originally meant extremely artistic mogul skiing, is now being applied to all modern freestyle skiing in general.

carving

The carving turn is a technique of cornering (mainly used in racing) that is cut on the edge, with parallel ski guidance, in which the skis are positioned crosswise to the driving line (drifting) by cutting on the Edge is prevented. This means that the braking effect of drifting is eliminated even with short turns. The prerequisite for this is a sidecut of the ski (tapering in the middle part), models specially designed for this technique are called carving skis . In popular sports, the carving technique is only suitable for smoothly groomed slopes with a moderate gradient, as high speeds can be reached quickly even on a moderate slope.

External characteristics of carving are that the ski is at least shoulder width wide, the skis are edged upwards (tilted) and, especially with long radii, the center of gravity is shifted towards the center of the curve (leaning inwards), similar to riding a motorcycle. In the turn, the inner and outer skis are loaded about equally and both skis are in constant contact with the ground. In principle, poles are not used: The poles can be used, but the rhythm is largely determined by the control pressure on the skis. With this swinging of the legs under the upper body, carving is similar in terms of movement to waving, but is completely different in terms of skiing. Load errors in the parallel technique lead to a fall downhill out of the curve, while carving uphill into the curve.

While in the first generation of carvers, the ski cut determined the curve radius and each skiing style had to have its own ski, modern carvers, which have much more elasticity and tension, react to the use of force and lateral position with a different edge radius. As a result, extreme inner layers have developed in racing over the past few years and increasingly, as in the early years of skiing, you only ski on the inner ski, while the outer ski is particularly stressed when entering and exiting corners. When carving short turns, the rebound (relief of the ski at the end of the turn due to the strong sidecut) is used to initiate the next turn. This force-dependent exploitation of the ski tension has led to the spectacular "catapult falls", of which Hermann Maier at the 1998 Winter Olympics became famous.

Reuel swing (one-leg swing from the outer ski curve to the inner ski curve)

The repentance swing differs from the aforementioned swings. It was invented by the ice skater Fritz Reuel, who wanted to transfer the principles of ice skating to skiing. It is a swing from the oblique travel (from an arc to the slope). The repentance swing is not a change swing , but a one- leg swing . In principle, it is driven away from the loaded outer ski (from the valley ski). The unloaded mountain ski on the inside of the curve is swung forward down the valley, so that the whole body rolls down into the new curve. This new arch is then an indoor ski arch. The Reuelschwung is therefore a single leg sweep a change from one outer ski-sheet on a sheet-inner ski of the same ski. This turn was later skied in America (by Austrian ski instructors) instead of rolling with twisting, based on the principle of the snake turn by Mathias Zdarsky. In doing so, the unloaded mountain ski (the ski on the inside of the curve) was moved back to the level scales. This aesthetic swing was called Royal swing in America , which was then, perhaps because of the similarity of sound between the two words, incorrectly referred to as the Reuel swing in Europe and then confused with it. But it may also be that the Austrian ski instructors in the USA mistakenly thought they were doing a repentance swing and the Americans understood the Royal swing . This turn, which is relatively difficult to ski, only plays a playful role in terms of skiing , but is a central element in trick skiing and ski ballet . With carving, it is experiencing a renaissance, because the carvers are much better suited for inner ski arcs than the classic, untapered ski of the 20th century. Othmar Schneider from Arlberg is named as the inventor of the reuels in the sense of royal swing .

Charleston swing

While in Reuel, in the sense of a royal turn, you cross the unloaded ski at an angle behind your body, in the Charleston turn, the outer ski is spread outwards when the ski tips are closed. With a fast, frond-like sequence with highly relieving jumping, this swing resembles the movement in the Charleston , a dance.

Swing technique when snowboarding

The snowboard turns follow the principle of parallel turns and carving, the inside-outside ski change is reduced to inside-outside edge change. Because of the posture at right angles to the direction of travel, there is a front turn and a back turn, depending on the posture (Regular / Goofy) , i.e. all left or right turns .

See also

• Hairpin turn (ski technique) , no turn in the sense of the term

literature

• Erhard Gattermann, Walter Kuchler: Wedeln - change - universal skiing. Contribution to the development of ski technique and ski lessons. 1st edition. CD-Verlags-Gesellschaft, Böblingen 1984, ISBN 3-921432-10-3 , ( skiing, skiing 1).
• Walter Kuchler: Ski circus. 125 unusual turns and jumps. 1st edition. CD-Verlags-Gesellschaft, Böblingen 1985, ISBN 3-921432-33-2 , ( skiing, skiing 2), (on skiing in general and playing swings).
• Hubert Mumelter : Ski Primer. Rowohlt Verlag, Berlin 1933.
• Josef Dahinden: Ski-Mambo, the simple and natural skiing. Immenstadt 1958.
• Horst Tiwald: From snake turns to ski curves. Hamburg 1996, ISBN 3-9804972-1-6 .
• Horst Tiwald: In the footsteps of Mathias Zdarsky - encounter with the alpine (Lilienfelder) skiing technique. Hamburg 2004, ISBN 3-936212-13-9 .
• Werner Wörndle (Hrsg.): Austrian ski curriculum: training program for ski instructors training. Verlag Bundes Ski Akademie, St. Christoph 2003; fundamentally published: 529th Ordinance: Curricula for schools for the training of physical educators and sports teachers; Announce the curricula for religious education in these schools. 24. Teaching practice and personal skills in alpine skiing. BGBl. No. 529/1992 , August 28, 1992, pp. 2262–2270 (pp. 60 ff. Of the piece); older edition: Stefan Kruckenhauser with colleagues: Austrian ski curriculum 1956.

Individual evidence

1. ↑ DVS - German Association for Ski Instruction (Ed.): Skilehrplan praxis. Munich 2006. p. 9 ff.
2. ↑ Lukas Wieselberg: From "pamping" to "driving pizza slices". Interview with Herbert Fussy . In: science.ORF.at. March 19, 2015, accessed March 19, 2015 . 
3. ↑ Pizza slices instead of a plow. Interview with ski instructor Illy Bernhart. In: clubwien.at. Archived from the original on April 2, 2015 ; Retrieved March 19, 2015 : “For example, it is important to use words that children understand. They can't do anything with 'plow'. Instead, when I explain this foot position to you, I'm talking about a slice of pizza. At the lift, I don't say that you should keep your skis parallel, I say 'French fries position'. " 
4. ↑ Animation of the parallel swing.
5. ↑ George Kassat: appearance and reality parallel skiing. Münster 1985.
6. ↑ Nick Howe: The Blitz Form Kitz. In: Skiing Heritage. 1/1997 p. 17 (English).
7. ↑ While Francisco Fernández Ochoa in Sapporo in 1972 only for individual swings towards the end of the barrel umsteigt ( YouTube video - no longer available, blocked for copyright reasons ), uses Ingemar Stenmark , unlike Gustav Thöni , 1975 at the first parallel slalom of the World Cup history , the Umsteigetechnik continuously ( YouTube video ).
8. ^ Ted Ligety : Ted Ligety Soelden training slow motion. YouTube video dated October 22, 2012, accessed April 30, 2014.
9. ↑ So z. B. Othmar Schreiner in Oslo 1952 ( YouTube video, no longer available) .