MA Request (video)

PMTS Forum

Postby dewdman42 » Mon Mar 20, 2006 10:34 am

One more suggestion for making images like that... After you get all the individual frames exported with VirtualDub or whatever you want to use, it can be interesting to paste them together into one panorama image, espcially if the camcorder was not mounted on a tripod and held still. I did something like this once with some automatic panorama software (unfortunately not free) and it worked really well. Actually I stumbled upon this trick by accident:

http://www.panoramafactory.com


http://public.dewdman42.fastmail.fm/steve_jump_panarama.jpg

http://public.dewdman42.fastmail.fm/steve_jump_panorama3.jpg

It was a 3 click effort to assemble them into one wide shot with my image overlaid on it since I was moving through each image. The program did give me a lot of options for transparency levels between frames, amount of overlap, etc. But it was remarkably easy.

As you can see from the second one..it even became interesting for the software to line up the images because there was a wide angle lense on the camara and the guy was actually panning to follow me through the air.. the software does some intelligent stuff to make it even possible. Anyway, if you shoot with a tripod and no panning its a moot point and might be just as easy to paste them together somehow, but I never tried that.
Last edited by dewdman42 on Mon Mar 20, 2006 3:42 pm, edited 2 times in total.
dewdman42
 
Posts: 513
Joined: Thu Jan 19, 2006 11:52 pm

Postby violao » Mon Mar 20, 2006 11:01 am

DD, that's you in the air? 8)

As a matter of fact I was just about to advise Harald about making these image progressions. It would be extremely helpful if you could shoot those clips with the background of uniform color (such as snow) and wearing nothing of a similar color (white patches on the jacket). Then it would be straightforward to mask the background out of the progression leaving only the moving object in the resulting image. In that case there would be no transparency in the object and it would not dissapear partially like you do in your nice montage. Unfortunately, regardless of all the intelligence and computer power, even with the most sophisticated motion vector algorithms there is simply no way at present to reconstruct the motion reliably without masking.
violao
 
Posts: 89
Joined: Tue Dec 20, 2005 6:08 am
Location: Croatia

Postby dewdman42 » Mon Mar 20, 2006 11:12 am

No, that's Dewdman in the air 8) Don't get the wrong idea though, I very very rarely take this 40 year old body anywhere near a terrain park. In fact, this is just the beginners terrain park. I spent a few days toodling around with a class of snowboarders in a clinic. I was the only skier and to some to degree I felt it was my honor and privilege to make sure I did everything better than they did.. :lol:

Anyway, they wanted to go into this terrain park and shoot video of everyone taking these jumps. Suffice it to say, that I swallowed my fear and let the skis run way fast...and I was actually way scared.

Actually...the next jump down the hill was the one that really scared me. Both times I did this run I took this jump in the photo semi-conservatively, absorbing a lot of the upward kick...but then the landing was so smooth that I floored it to the next one and actually lifted a bit more..plus the slope fell away below it... It was fun. Very rare occurrence for Dewdman though.. :-)
dewdman42
 
Posts: 513
Joined: Thu Jan 19, 2006 11:52 pm

Postby violao » Mon Mar 20, 2006 11:31 am

Sorry Dewd, sometimes I read too fast. :oops: But that's my problem, anyway.

I see you flex in the air, probably extend just prior to hitting the ground. Have you seen Janica Kostelic jumps in Olympic combined downhill? She had legs totally flexed, hands down and spread a little and completely calm.
violao
 
Posts: 89
Joined: Tue Dec 20, 2005 6:08 am
Location: Croatia

Postby dewdman42 » Mon Mar 20, 2006 2:37 pm

I guess we're getting off topic now... sorry DD...

Anyway, back on point....I think these kinds of pics of HH above are extremely valuable. I hope that he and other PMTS experts will provide more of these because I find them more valuable then any other imagery, including motion video. I can look at the video frame by frame, but seeing all the frames laid out at once gives my brain in instant visual image of the motion involved, yet still frozen in time for my brain to jump around and inspect.. Its very helpful..

Regarding my jump above.. :oops:

Bear in ming this jump also has a kicker...... Downhill racers float off rollers..that's a different thing altogether. They also try as hard as they can to keep their skis on the snow.

Here is another panorama shot that shows the last frame before landing. It turned out to be too difficult to get a nice rectangle cropped pic out of it...

http://public.dewdman42.fastmail.fm/steve_jump_autopan.jpg

Here is a frame from a different run to show a bit of the kick coming off the lip. its not exactly freestyle kick...like I said..beginners park...but definitely different than a typical race course roller.

http://public.dewdman42.fastmail.fm/steve_jump20.jpg

(and yes I know my left arm was going back un-stylistically... ha ha.. Oh well).

Anyway, whatever..I am by no means any kind of jump expert. This shot was two years ago and I haven't done a single jump of any merit since..just to give you an idea how infrequently I mess around with it. I have found in my old age of wisdom that there are very few ideal jumping situations with nice landings except for perhaps in terrain parks. Landings aren't right, other people might get hurt, etc..plus while its really fun to float through the air off a perfectly setup jump like that one..most of the time I find them to just be silly and a waste of time and vertical..I'd rather be practicing my arcing.. B-)
Last edited by dewdman42 on Mon Mar 20, 2006 3:42 pm, edited 1 time in total.
dewdman42
 
Posts: 513
Joined: Thu Jan 19, 2006 11:52 pm

Postby Joseph » Mon Mar 20, 2006 3:21 pm

Double D. Sorry I have not had a chance to look at any of your video as my download speed is even slower than Harald's. I'm sure he pretty much covered the real issues, as I've never known Harald to be anything but spot on with MA. I did take a look at the footbed pics and saw the same things that Harald mentioned. The picture of your feet in the footbeds is very telling as your heel angles still tip inward and like Harald said before, I strongly suspect that you have forefoot varus, which is a twist in the bone structure that causes the foot to overpronate. You can definitely improve your racing with a setup that will better allow you to fine tune your edging capabilities. If you would like to pursue that, feel free to contact me or Glen at http://www.neskisystems.com We'd love to ski with you and help sort out any movement questions that may have been raised here as well. Despite having had fewer inches of snow than rain this winter, we still have at least another two weeks of good skiing left. Take care, Joseph
User avatar
Joseph
 
Posts: 46
Joined: Thu Oct 27, 2005 9:43 pm
Location: East

Postby violao » Mon Mar 20, 2006 3:39 pm

Just one suggestion regarding posting of the pics. They are quite useful in smaller resolutions as long as you have the skier in say a 200x200 pixels frame or even less. Those XL images makes harder to read the text even for those with extreme resolution displays, so I would suggest something like 640 or 800 pixels width maximum.
violao
 
Posts: 89
Joined: Tue Dec 20, 2005 6:08 am
Location: Croatia

Postby dewdman42 » Mon Mar 20, 2006 3:41 pm

LOL. Yep. I am thinking about just changing them to links anyway...no need for everyone to see em so easily... I don't have time to reduce them now so I will just change to links.. maybe someday I can reduce them. Or not. Whatever. Hey at least the horizon is level in mine. ;-)

Anyway, that's an important point for future reference. Thanks again..

I just hope we see more like those from HH. Very useful!!
dewdman42
 
Posts: 513
Joined: Thu Jan 19, 2006 11:52 pm

Postby doublediamond223 » Thu Apr 06, 2006 12:19 pm

? My suspicion about your footbed is bearing out. With your post of the footbed images, I was able to see a number of things that could be altered for better results. There is no accommodation for your foot in your present footbed construction. Your calcaneus (heel bone) is everted and there is no hind foot support built into the footbed. You possibly have forefoot support needs, judging by the navicular eversion and the difference shown in ski and knee angles at different parts of the turn.
? Ski boot: The Doberman is a very good race boot, but very stiff and the medial wall of the boot intrudes into the arch area. It is a common problem with many racers, as their ankles (at the medial ankle side) are wider then the boot space. We began the process of punching out the medial wall of the boot years ago, with great results.

? In your case DD, with your foot, the medial wall is blocking the articulation of the ankle, which then causes the knee to become the dominant ski angle driver. The knee should not be the point at which the ski angle adjustments are made. Internal knee movements (often confused with edging) originate from and are controlled by the adductor muscles, which have poor fine tuning ability.


Can you elaborate on the footbed description? Perhaps a diagram could help me to better understand what you mean. You and others have also described it as a "forefoot varus." Again, all Greek to me.

I had Greg do substantial grinding in the dobes around the navicular area, as the medial wall did come in too far. We didn't explicitly touch the arch area though. No lateral punching was done, other than at the 5th met head.

Thanks again.






PS: What is the deal with your quote syntax? When I tried to do [quote=Harald]...[/quote] , it wouldn't work. I had to take out the =Harald. Violao was able to do it with one of mine a page or so ago, so I don't get it. Perhaps it works differently than it does in a v-bulletin-based forum.
doublediamond223
 

Postby Harald » Thu Apr 06, 2006 1:44 pm

DD if you read the posts and the thread, on knee angulation it will help you with some background about what I mean by skiing with knee drive rather than ankle and foot tipping. I know Greg makes rigid footbeds. I have seen and replaced many footbeds made by Greg that racers bring into my Alignment Shop, (Skunk Works).

Greg and I are competitors, so I?m sure he has nothing good to say about what we do, so you will have to decide for yourself. Look at the systems and try to evaluate the science and measuring differences between our approaches to footbeds and alignment. I am very happy to present our methodology and biomechanical understanding to any skier. After presenting my methodology to the International Congress on Skiing and Science, I?m very relaxed about comparing systems. The Congress is a body of sports scientists from all the skiing nations of the world. My alignment system is the only one ever to be documented and scrutinized by the International Community of doctors, PhD?s, biomechanists and physiologists.

Your skiing demonstrates movements typical of a knee drive type skier. What causes knee drive? First a deliberate technique, which is learned through coaching, can result in knee drive. This could be part of the cause, in other words coaching and movement.

Second, if you have a rigid footbed, your foot tipping is compromised and therefore you have to use femur rotation rather than ankle everson and hip counter to develop angles or grip for a turn. Leg steering is a result and similar to knee drive; any leg steering technique requires the leg to be bend or go into a bending position at the very time skeletal stacking should occur. Bending without a strong counter to control hip rotation, causes pressure loss. Hip rotation does not have to be violent or fast, for it to be detrimental, slow progressive following of the hip causes pressure to be avoided or lost. So when this action or movement happens, you miss the loading and pressuring phase of the turn. If you miss this part of the turn, you don?t achieve ski bending and therefore you don?t have rebound at the exit or release.

Wow, all this because of a footbed? No, I see some underlying hip following in your skiing. I also see (I think I pointed some of this out last time around) your hip squaring up, which reduces hip angulation. In your avatar you begin with hip counter, but you have to check, if it is maintained in the critical phase of the turn.

Ok now, footbed and forefoot varus. There are few ski shop footbeds that measure or address the need for forefoot varus support. We are confident that we have the measuring for this condition down cold. Forefoot varus is a lifted 1st metatarsal, under the big toe knuckle; it can also be a longitudinal twist in the length of the foot that produces a lifted first met. The twist is not necessarily a loose foot condition. Rigid feet also demonstrate forefoot varus.

Diana my partner has extreme pronation and forefoot varus. Many coaches who see her feet comment that a foot like that can?t ski. I can assure you Diana is a great skier and with proper training and opportunity could be a 50 point FIS racer. Many of the changes she has been able to make in her skiing, her technical development, is due to the changes in her boots, footbeds and alignment. I am also amazed that she skis as well as she does given her feet, even on ice.

So what do we do with this condition? We build a footbed that allows the foot to evert, but we control the eversion and we help the foot to stay laterally balanced. For the forefoot condition, we add support under the first met and sometimes up to the first ray. This is determined by a sighting from under the back of the foot to the front. We measure with a goniometer, fancy protractor, how many degrees the forefoot is out of level with the flat part under the heel. The accommodation is built into the front part of the footbed.

The outcome is immediate, for the first time these skiers contact and pressure under a part of the foot that used to drag the knee into rotation. You see, when you have to push hard on the big toe to get pressure and the big toe never contacts the ground, the reaction up the kinetic chain, results in the knee driving over the big toe to get pressure. If you have to do this in every turn, you can imagine how much extra work is involved. It does exaggerate knee drive. Unfortunately the extra work or movement to apply big toe edge pressure doesn?t help ski technique or ski performance.

About fifteen to thirty percent of the population has some degree of forefoot varus. At times it seems higher then three out of ten, but skiers with this condition come to us is spurts.

Just like foot sizes. On a different note, what?s with that? One year coming to our shop we have fat, wide feet that range from size ten to thirteen, the next year we have skiers with narrow, tiny, little feet sized three to eight?

I hope this helps.
"Maximum Skiing information, Minimum BS
Harald
 
Posts: 1181
Joined: Sun Nov 28, 2004 10:36 pm
Location: Dumont

Postby dewdman42 » Thu Apr 06, 2006 2:00 pm

I just decided I'll be coming to your shop next fall to get my next boots. great post. Thanks.
dewdman42
 
Posts: 513
Joined: Thu Jan 19, 2006 11:52 pm

Postby violao » Fri Apr 07, 2006 10:42 am

doublediamond223 wrote:PS: What is the deal with your quote syntax? When I tried to do [quote=Harald].... , it wouldn't work. I had to take out the =Harald. Violao was able to do it with one of mine a page or so ago, so I don't get it. Perhaps it works differently than it does in a v-bulletin-based forum.


Code: Select all
[quote="doublediamond223"] ... text ... [/quote]


...so I think it's quotation marks.
violao
 
Posts: 89
Joined: Tue Dec 20, 2005 6:08 am
Location: Croatia

Postby Harald » Sun Jan 28, 2007 2:51 pm

http://www.realskiers.com/pmtsforum/vie ... highlight=

This should have gone here.

Can anyone tell me what the skiing after ivica Kostelic's run, in the following video link has to do with the title. "Tightening slalom carve turns?"

http://nnskiing.org/
Last edited by Harald on Sun Jan 28, 2007 4:23 pm, edited 1 time in total.
"Maximum Skiing information, Minimum BS
Harald
 
Posts: 1181
Joined: Sun Nov 28, 2004 10:36 pm
Location: Dumont

Postby jbotti » Sun Jan 28, 2007 4:17 pm

I was quite intrigued by the title since this is what I have been working on in my skiing. I guess the answer from the video is to ski 140cm skis with a turn radius of 8.5m!!!

Watching Piero skid through every turn whille the coach tells us that he is skiing with excellent results was comedy!!!

I guess this is the guy that Doublediamond223 decided was a superior coach to Harald. To each his own!!

I do find it somehwat disturbing that this guy can come over here last year and rave about the MA that he got from Harald and then trash Harald and the whole PMTS forum on TGR and Epic a few days ago.

He is either a liar, or a coward. I beleived him when he said "First of all, a huge thanks to HH for that MA, it was unbelievable. I've read it 4 times and am still trying to digest it, since you gave me so much information"
Balance: Essential in skiing and in life!
User avatar
jbotti
 
Posts: 2184
Joined: Fri Nov 28, 2003 10:05 am

Postby greg » Mon Jan 29, 2007 3:28 pm

jbotti wrote:I was quite intrigued by the title since this is what I have been working on in my skiing. I guess the answer from the video is to ski 140cm skis with a turn radius of 8.5m!!!

Watching Piero skid through every turn whille the coach tells us that he is skiing with excellent results was comedy!!!

I guess this is the guy that Doublediamond223 decided was a superior coach to Harald. To each his own!!

I do find it somehwat disturbing that this guy can come over here last year and rave about the MA that he got from Harald and then trash Harald and the whole PMTS forum on TGR and Epic a few days ago.

He is either a liar, or a coward. I beleived him when he said "First of all, a huge thanks to HH for that MA, it was unbelievable. I've read it 4 times and am still trying to digest it, since you gave me so much information"


Those videos are crap, to be sure. I no longer control that website, as I've said before. The videos were put up there in the first place at the behest of my former coach.

I guess this is the guy that Doublediamond223 decided was a superior coach to Harald. To each his own!!

Post hoc ergo propter hoc fallacy. Try again dude.

Anyway, I appreciate the comments that were made, yet I really don't accept that alignment is my problem. Could I be wrong? Sure. The inductive evidence does not suggest, to me at least, that Harald is the only person who understands proper boot alignment. This decision, along with my thread mocking Paul's ridiculous thread, has gotten me booted from this forum. This is unfortunate, but I suppose inevitable given my thread.

All I really have to say is to encourage you guys to have fun, and take all of this a little less seriously and intensely. Skiing is supposed to be FUN. Yes, technique is important, but it really should be about enjoying the mountains and the outdoors while having fun with friends. I used to be as intense in my opinions as many on here and on epic, but I've moderated my views somewhat. Perhaps I'll meet some of you at some point.

Best regards,

Greg/ dd223
greg
 
Posts: 5
Joined: Mon Jan 29, 2007 3:17 pm

PreviousNext

Return to Primary Movements Teaching System

Who is online

Users browsing this forum: No registered users and 33 guests

cron