skijim13 wrote:Sounds like the snow was great, send some here. Doug, what is your SMIM?
Wish I could! Once we hit Dillon, all we got was snow-over-black-ice all the way to Denver. Four hours of driving hell.
One's SMIM is ever developing (we hope), especially in the intense coaching environment at camp. On Wed afternoon, Walter told me it was, "Find some easy terrain and practice LTE traverses to improve LTE balance". Well... by Fri afternoon, LTE balance and even tipping had improved so that I could link one-ski turns through tracked out powder and small bumps. Not exactly like Harald, but way better than early in the week.
On Thurs-Fri I drove poor Diana nuts. At one point she decided I had a THRIM (THREE MOST IMPORTANT MOVEMENTS).
A. hand/arm position (hands too low and/or tending to swing forward and undo CA)
B. flexing to release (residual extension and BTE dominance)
C. heels closer together (which is the first comment YOU made to me last year at Killington - good eye, Jim)
Three tasks were too much for my little brain. Even when she reduced it to two and asked me to alternate (four turns on one focus, four turns on the other focus), I'd lose one the instant I shifted to another. In particular, any actual pole plant would awaken old movements (arm swing, extension, BTE dominance, often a stem).
Soooo... I'm not allowed to pole plant until A, B and C are all under control. In the meantime, I'm to ski using the Pole Drag drill (arms wide, hands chest high, both pole tips always on the snow and pushing forward). Once things seem under control, I can alternate series of turns with pole tips on the snow, then raised a couple inches above, then on the snow again. No actual pole plants until I'm reliably flexing to release, keeping heels together and using proper CA.
I started immediately post-camp, Fri afternoon, while skiing in a pack led by Walter. We pounded the powder for three hours and I never once planted a pole. Among other games, Walter introduced "Midget Turns". Grasp your poles about halfway down the shafts. Now make normal Pole Drag Turns, ie, the tips MUST maintain contact with the snow. If you can do that, you're really flexing! It looked and felt goofy but we all did it successfully, demonstrating either our flexibility or our gullibility!
Seriously, they forced very deep flexing through the transition... learning new movements by exaggeration. It was on the next run that Walter commented that my feet/legs were much more relaxed.