"foot2foot" wrote in message ...
OK, Britt wants to know the difference, (he claims, maybe he
just wants more argument for argument's sake) and it actually
comes up all the time, you try to explain magic turns and sooner
or later somebody pipes up and says "yeahhh that's just the old
stem christy". But it's not.

People have for all modern skiing time learned to ski in a
wedge for the most part. The question then arose and still does,
how do you get the student to move from wedge turns into
making parallel turns, often called "matching the skis"?

Actually, I use the terms differently, though they may reflect the
same predicament. The "Wedge" remains the same old Wedge as you
described, however, the "Stem" takes on a different meaning.

Imo, the wedge turns are the fundamental/foundation of downhill
skiing. Some may claim that they learn how to skiing begin with
parallel skiing, and that "seems" to be very cool; however, as for the
"all terrains" capability goes, a good knowledge on how the wedge
works is indispensable, as the wedge stance and wedge turn maybe the
only techniques to get one out of a tight spot such as in the high
sierra boulders and glades.

Figure that we all know how the wedge turn works; let's now take a
look the problems that hold back the beginners, the "Stem."

The "Stem" happens mostly at the half way through a wedge turn when
the downhill/outside ski exhausts its turning power and yet the
uphill/inside ski refuses to take over the responsibility of
supporting the skier's weight (due to fear, maybe?), which causes the
downhill/outside ski heavy and traveling faster than the uphill/inside
ski, which distorts the V into asymmetric shape and causes the
uphill/inside ski gets caught on the inside edge--the skier is
"stemmed." The "stemmed" edge wedges vertically as well, thus prevents
turning, and with the straightened inside knee pushes the ski
downward, the skier only ends up crash.

The "stem" is the worst offender to prevent the beginners to progress
into parallel turn, methinks. The solution? Un-stem it, that is,
flatten the stemmed edge so the edge would slide outward and downward,
which is actually the proper curved path of a downhill/outside ski.
How? By bending the uphill/inside knee slightly while still
maintaining the proper V, let the whole "platform" slides and turn to
where the V point points. If the balance were maintained, the skier
would have turned it.


Today, use magic turns.

One more tip, when "matching the skis," always bring the uphill/inside
ski back on the uphill/outside edge, which would prevent you from
getting caught on the downhill/inside edge, or get "stemmed."

fwiw, have funs,
IS

......