Monday, June 23. 2008
I have just received an email from John Shedden in response to our discussion on parallel skiing and whether or not it is possible. John has had a bit of a problem getting this post to load, so I have simply attached his commens in full to this post.
From John,
Could that be m(wsquared) divided by r ?
We talk about circles for ease of conversation but What if the arcs are not circular but some other conic section? Or even perhaps made up of several different sections of conic sections.
The arcs do have different "centres" if the legs are working independently of each other as each arc relates to each leg..or?
Perhaps so called parallel skiing is vastly overrated as the only thing the skier has (more or less) complete control over is the INITIATION of the change of direction. This is the focus of most peoples attention when learning and the rest of the 'turn' is subject to a variety of forces to which the skier will respond.
Parallel 'starting' might be better named as simultaneous 'edge change' - (or as I might call it, simultaneous tilting. Bob ) - the initiation phase --followed by the reactive / steering phase - until the next initiation phase.
I can't speak for anyone else but when I steer my skis, even when I'm carving, I travel along curving 'pathways' which often change shape during a single 'arc' - if that isn't a contradiction in terms.
I supose what I'm saying is that we TALK about, "arcs" and "radii" etc because it makes conversation possible but theose words are just shorthand for more complex things going on . . we shouldn't believe everything we say!!
Very best regards,
John
