Power Your Steering: Improve Your NASTAR Times

Rolling off one carve straight into another is not always your best approach. If your new carve starts too early, your line into the next gate will be too tight, or “pinched.
INCORRECT (right): Throwing your body at the next gate doesn’t make you go faster. In fact, it renders your most valuable steering mechanisms — your legs — ineffective and hands the controls over to your shoulders.

It’s far better to delay your new carve — making your line adjustments before you reach the next gate, not after. Using only your legs, redirect your skis and let them drift momentarily, while your upper body remains in its aggressive carving mode.
INCORRECT (right): When you rotate your torso and lean in, your weight falls to your inside ski. Controlling, let alone carving, your outside ski will be impossible. Let your legs — not your upper body — tip to engage your carving edges.

When you make adjustments well before you reach each gate, your skis can run straight and fast down the fall line. You avoid having to throw your skis abruptly across the hill at or below the gate. You can direct your momentum — and your attention — into the next turn.
INCORRECT (right): As you tilt your upper body and concentrate weight over your inside ski, you’ll drop your inside hand. As a result, you’ll have to raise your outside hand, throwing your body out of alignment and balance. There is no way your skis can recover a carve.

If you never take your upper body out of carve mode, it will remain in a strong, driving position. Once you’ve made your steering adjustments, it’s easy to reengage your edges and re-establish your fast carve.
INCORRECT (right): As you pass the gate, you’ll skid downhill and off your fast line. Because you can’t ski uphill to get back on track, you’ll be forced to travel on a slower line. You’ve lost precious time, and your twisting upper body is the culprit.