JR's MA Thread

[Bolter]

I will fix the right boot alignment. I do not know by how much and which is the best way to do it temporarily until the fix is made permanent. Thank you for your help.

JR

[h.harb]

We use cut up alignment shims for temporary alignment. The shims are about two inches long and we stuff them under the heels of the boots, where the heel hits the binding.

I would start with 1.5 degrees.

[leopold bloom]

Hello Bolter,

I took a look at your JR_new_green.flv video. You have made some great progress in your transition. You look much more committed to crossing your skis and developing early edge angles. Your body flows more smoothly into the next turn. I'm sure you can feel a significant difference.

One thing you might want to experiment with is the relationship between releasing your edges and letting go of your counter. To my eye, and I could be wrong, you are unwinding your counter before releasing your edges. If you hold onto your counter and release out of it you will have more energy to work with at the end of the turn which will make for a more effortless transition into the next turn.

Your pole action may be sabotaging your counter a bit. It looks like you are reaching forward with your outside hand to plant your pole. This will cause you to rotate out of your countered position before edge release. if you focus on planting the pole down the fall line rather than down the ski I think you will get a better result.

I also took a look at your JR_Today.flv video. Very smooth and rhythmical.

One thing you might want to experiment with in your short radius turns is hooking up the skis more at the end of the turn. In other words, turn across the fall line more by tipping to a higher angle. At the point where you are currently releasing, instead, flex the inside leg while maintaining pressure on the outside leg and let your hips drop into the inside of the turn more. You gain a lot more energy from this movement which will encourage a more vigorous flex-to-release movement.

- Leo

[Bolter]

Hello Bolter,

I took a look at your JR_new_green.flv video. You have made some great progress in your transition. You look much more committed to crossing your skis and developing early edge angles. Your body flows more smoothly into the next turn. I'm sure you can feel a significant difference.

One thing you might want to experiment with is the relationship between releasing your edges and letting go of your counter. To my eye, and I could be wrong, you are unwinding your counter before releasing your edges. If you hold onto your counter and release out of it you will have more energy to work with at the end of the turn which will make for a more effortless transition into the next turn.

Your pole action may be sabotaging your counter a bit. It looks like you are reaching forward with your outside hand to plant your pole. This will cause you to rotate out of your countered position before edge release. if you focus on planting the pole down the fall line rather than down the ski I think you will get a better result.

I also took a look at your JR_Today.flv video. Very smooth and rhythmical.

One thing you might want to experiment with in your short radius turns is hooking up the skis more at the end of the turn. In other words, turn across the fall line more by tipping to a higher angle. At the point where you are currently releasing, instead, flex the inside leg while maintaining pressure on the outside leg and let your hips drop into the inside of the turn more. You gain a lot more energy from this movement which will encourage a more vigorous flex-to-release movement.

- Leo

Thank you, the changes were made as a result of the drills and focus on movements.

Holding counter longer (until release) will help and my turn to the right will really benefit from it. A Pole plant down the hill will help maintain the counter action longer, that is a good point.

I can make those changes to my short radius turns.

Thank you for your time and MA.I look forward to skiing and using these points as a focus for improvement.

JR

[jclayton]

I remember touching on this counter topic that Leopold mentions with Harald and in my case found it helpful feeling the release of the stance leg/knee into the opposite shoulder ( like the old warm up for Martial arts of swinging the knee up into the opposite shoulder diagonally and touching it ). it feels quite powerful and also seems to help controlling rebound effects on the upper body .

[Bolter]

Hello Bolter,

I took a look at your JR_new_green.flv video. You have made some great progress in your transition. You look much more committed to crossing your skis and developing early edge angles. Your body flows more smoothly into the next turn. I'm sure you can feel a significant difference.

One thing you might want to experiment with is the relationship between releasing your edges and letting go of your counter. To my eye, and I could be wrong, you are unwinding your counter before releasing your edges. If you hold onto your counter and release out of it you will have more energy to work with at the end of the turn which will make for a more effortless transition into the next turn.

Your pole action may be sabotaging your counter a bit. It looks like you are reaching forward with your outside hand to plant your pole. This will cause you to rotate out of your countered position before edge release. if you focus on planting the pole down the fall line rather than down the ski I think you will get a better result.

I also took a look at your JR_Today.flv video. Very smooth and rhythmical.

One thing you might want to experiment with in your short radius turns is hooking up the skis more at the end of the turn. In other words, turn across the fall line more by tipping to a higher angle. At the point where you are currently releasing, instead, flex the inside leg while maintaining pressure on the outside leg and let your hips drop into the inside of the turn more. You gain a lot more energy from this movement which will encourage a more vigorous flex-to-release movement.

- Leo

Here is video showing early results of my efforts through drills to hold counter longer in short radius carves. MA please.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V_YS0qz_KG0

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ajMBJCswzz4

[Bolter]

I have worked on brushed short and medium carves. MA please.

JR

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VKGiAqFrJXM


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_qyg6WqjgUY

On this next one please ignore the first turns, I was not on task.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-R_fPVqG3rk

[leopold bloom]

Hello Bolter,

I looked at JR255.flv and saw this...

Some really nice turns with so many improvements worked into them. I'm really impressed with how quickly and thoroughly you made these changes!

You have improved your release-out-of-counter tremendously. Your transition into the next turn is much more dynamic as a result. You can see a considerable float after transition and this is evidenced by your tracks as well. With this more energetic transition, you have improved the rhythm of your turns overall. I see you setting yourself up nicely to swoop out of the fall line with some really nice angles and arc more across than hill than before.

How does this feel to you? I'd be interested in hearing you describe the differences.

I noticed a certain asymmetry in your turns. You counter better into the turn to the left, but it looks like the hill is sloping off to the right which would explain it. I wouldn't fault you for inclining against a bank but a purer fall line might be a better choice for MA footage.

Just a couple of suggestions...

To my eye, there is still a little bit of edge riding in the transition. You need to throw your stance edge away a little earlier still. I would try flexing the stance leg suddenly such that your feet and your stance foot in particular is really light for a moment right at the start of your transition. In this state you will be able to tip more easily. Try focusing on leading the tipping with the old stance foot. You could look at your tracks and see what effect this has.

Your poling has improved and this is evidenced by the way you hold your counter better. Still, I would try holding the hands wider and opening the wrist to the bottom of the hill more. Right now it looks like your motion is a little trapped by the narrowness of your pole positions.

Looking forward to your next installment!

- Leo

[Bolter]

Leo,

Once again you do not disappoint with your MA. Thankx for noting my improvements.

Anyone who posts video for MA has preconceived notions regarding their skiing. From my first video post, I have agreed with every point of your MA of my skiing. You have gone beyond my own MA with very well worded observations and fixes. Your skill at MA is IMO first rate and I thank you for taking the time to work with me. I really like having you (and everyone involved) as a coach. I take everything you say very seriously.

Leo wrote:
"I noticed a certain asymmetry in your turns. You counter better into the turn to the left, but it looks like the hill is sloping off to the right which would explain it. I wouldn't fault you for inclining against a bank but a purer fall line might be a better choice for MA footage."

I am asymmetrical and the off camber adds to my counter balancing problem. I need to CB in transition, so my torso is angled to the legs above the fall line. This hill (White Lightning) slopes to the skiers right quite a bit and all of my videos have been shot there. I will move to a better slope to eliminate the off camber and shoot more video.

I will focus on bending to release for a float in transition to tip more easily. No edge riding, throw stance edge away, stance foot sudden flex, really light transition for easy tipping. Check tracks.

Open wrists are a very important help. I had this going well early in the season and focus on it in bumps and short brushed fall line but I need to incorporate the open wrist in all turns.

Not to take away anything from Leo but PMTS makes MA so much easier than the Skills Concept of PSIA that there is no comparison! Thank you Harald for the work you have done and the skiers you help.

JR Nolan

[Bolter]

Hello Bolter,


To my eye, there is still a little bit of edge riding in the transition. You need to throw your stance edge away a little earlier still. I would try flexing the stance leg suddenly such that your feet and your stance foot in particular is really light for a moment right at the start of your transition. In this state you will be able to tip more easily. Try focusing on leading the tipping with the old stance foot. You could look at your tracks and see what effect this has.

Your poling has improved and this is evidenced by the way you hold your counter better. Still, I would try holding the hands wider and opening the wrist to the bottom of the hill more. Right now it looks like your motion is a little trapped by the narrowness of your pole positions.

Looking forward to your next installment!

- Leo

This video was shot on the same hill, sorry. The asymetry is still there. My focus was movements of transition. MA please, and thank you.

JR

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RPIkq8KcXpo

[jclayton]

hi Bolter ,
looking at Haralds vids and your latest ,I think I can see Harald starting the release at the point of maximum tipping at the end of the turn . This appears to me to result in an initial diagonal release ( as the legs are still laid over ) before they move to 90º to the slope .

In your video I think I see the legs move to a more upright position earlier in or during the release , resulting in a bit of a standing up move .

To get a dynamic flexing release I think the lower legs need to be also dynamically "flopped " over as the body moves over to the other side .

[leopold_bloom]

Hello Bolter,

Welcome back.

As a general comment on your run, I think you start to get it really going toward the end of your run. Unfortunately you are very far away from the camera.

I believe jclayton and I are seeing the same thing, however, I might express it a little differently. Don't get me wrong, you got some really good things happening. A little change to your timing and some refinement of your moves will take you to another level.

From a critical perspective, what I see on most of the early turns is that you develop edge angles by pushing your feet out away from your body. This, I believe, is what jclayton is referring to with the "stand up move". I think what you will find in this video is that you are extending both legs before you have established edge angles. This is not what I would call an up move transition since you are flexing to release. It is more a matter of timing and refining what is already there.

As you well know, you want to establish early edge angles. Let me suggest some mental images or cues that may help you get bigger angles earlier. These descriptions are really just different ways of approaching what is roughly the same problem.

One way to get early edge angles is to let your body cross your skis aggressively. If you release by abruptly flexing your stance leg, momentum will move you across your skis. An aggressive release is a bit like pulling the rug out from under yourself--you run the risk of falling. The potential face plant is a great motivator for countering early in the turn. Right now you are showing a lot of inclination early in the turn. Your leg extension is really a recovery mechanism for inclination. However, I think toward the end of your run you were getting better counter and earlier edge as far as I could tell from the small images.

Another approach. Think about tipping to the new edge angles while your feet are under your body and your legs are flexed. This addresses the timing issue. Angles first, then extension as required.

Another idea. Tip your feet and counter tip your hips. I think you'll find that if you focus on tipping from the bottom (i.e. with the ankles and feet) your hip counter will be a matter of necessity. On a turn to the right you will tip your left edges up and your right hip up.

One more idea. The time between the release and the fall line is all about lightness and tipping. How much can you tip while maintaining a light, floating feeling? I think this focus will help change the way you extend. If you look at the racers, they develop big angles by flexing the inside leg and extending the outside leg. They extend against a well tipped ski, not a flat one. Once again the tipping comes first.

I hope some of these ideas help.

- Leo

[MonsterMan]

Leo,

those different ways of thinking about the transition are very useful. There is a new carpark near me that gets little use on weekends and I hope to get out on the carvers again and try some of these thoughts.

I do have a question though, if you get to high angles so early, is there room left to tip more and more through the continuum of movements through the rest of the turn? Is there a need to hold off a bit before the forces build? Is this simply a thought process to maximise the angles early and increased free leg flexion through the turn will allow greater tipping angles? and then stance leg flexion late in the turn allowing even greater angles?

Thanks

Geoff

[jclayton]

I guess it`s relative , early high angles are not going to be as high as later ones .

Normally the early angles are flat or just a few degrees , so early angles could be 10 or 15 and be considered high . It's not possible to develop really high edge angles until there is a lengthening of the legs .

If yoù ski with Harald he just balances on the initial angles and they develop with pressure build up , alway progressive .

The final highest angles are often subjective , just a little extra pressure on the ankles .

[leopold_bloom]

Hello Monsterman,

That's an interesting question...

I'm not claiming that my tips are accurate biomechanical descriptions, just mental images that may help someone break an entrenched movement pattern. The emphasis is on early tipping because the movement pattern is late tipping.

Could you over do early tipping and tip too much, too early? Sometimes too much of a good thing is not so good. You could over counter, as well, but in reality most skiers do too little too late in the tip and counter departments. I think the right answer to how much tippng and countering is: "As little as possible which is a lot".

You tip as required by your intentions. If you want to execute a carved short radius turn you would tip more than a relaxed brushed turn. How you tip in the top half of the turn is really a function of your trajectory out of the last turn. If you want a real short turn, you would time your release to make your body cross your skis at a sharp angle or more directly down the fall line. In this case, you would tip quickly. If you look at a slalom racer, they get to max edge angle around the fall line. This is a lot of tipping in a short space.

I hope that helps.

- Leo